What it looks like to see your toys burn.

[Fosgate]

Below is a link to a garage fire we had back in Sept. Original call came in explosions, one person injured and man cannot find his wife. The photographer of these photos lived a street over and was there within about 1 minute of the call just in time to see the first responding engine. We had 6 apparatus vehicles including my Ladder Truck there within 6 minutes of the call. Had 4inch land hose piped from about 3 blocks away within another 2min just as first responding engine knocked down the blaze and ran out of water. This garage was gone before we got there. Lots of toys and dangerous chemicals & propane tanks in there throwing off blues and green flames. 1 4 wheeler, 1 new boat (fiberglass hull) and 2 sleds were lost. Homeowner suffered 2nd degree burns on his arm when he opened the garage door and was grazed by a backblast. The fire was extremely hot and we had one firefighter heat casualty. All that was left of the boat was the trailer and motor.

http://picasaweb.google.com/PierreFireDepartment/20080925PFDNJacksonFire#

 

[sledhead699]

that is crazy. that is a huge loss.

 

[KFD070]

What a drag!! Insurance?
How did the first arriving Engine run out of water before the hydrant was hooked??? Must have hit it with a 2.5 " line right away and depleted your 500 gals (?) of water.
Six minutes is a long time for a fire to burn with that kind of load. Toys can be replaced....good thing the backdraft only grazed the home owner!!!

 

[wickman]

What a drag!! Insurance?
How did the first arriving Engine run out of water before the hydrant was hooked??? Must have hit it with a 2.5 " line right away and depleted your 500 gals (?) of water.
Six minutes is a long time for a fire to burn with that kind of load. Toys can be replaced....good thing the backdraft only grazed the home owner!!!

It doesn't take long to pump off the truck. Even if you are only using a couple of 1 1/2" lines the 500 gallon tank will pump off in less than 2 minutes. 2 minutes to lay a supply line and have water flowing 3 blocks is pretty good.

 

[Rob1334]

It doesn't take long to pump off the truck. Even if you are only using a couple of 1 1/2" lines the 500 gallon tank will pump off in less than 2 minutes. 2 minutes to lay a supply line and have water flowing 3 blocks is pretty good.

X2, 500 gallons seems like a lot but not when you have multiple lines working off of a lot of pressure. Reducers only do so much..

Nice work on the supply line, sounds like you guys were on the ball gettng things going, 2 minutes for that distance AND having flowing water is really good.

 

[Fosgate]

First responding engine laid 2 1 1/2 inch lines. Estimated (if I remember right) 1800ft of 4 inch land line was laid. The homeowner had pretty good insurance and was finishing up the new garage on the old foundation last week. Doubt insurance covered any mods to the sled that he had though. It was hot enough to damage the neighbors garage across the alley near where you see the enclosed trailer he used for hauling goose decoys. Could have been far worse if it had lit any other structures up. The thing was gone when the call came in and it was a surround and drown from the moment the first truck got there. Those first pics show the roof gone etc.

 

[Himark]

So what caused it?

 

[Fosgate]

Dunno, it burned so hot and fast it didn't leave much. But we were able to determine the general area by the debris, that it started in a corner where he had a lot of paint and solvents, refridgerator etc. Not sure what the investigator determined what it was.

 

[milehighassassin]

The fire was extremely hot and we had one firefighter heat casualty.

Casualty: As in he had heat exhaustion or he died from the heat?

 

[KFD070]

Sorry if I sounded as though I was being critical of your efforts. I wasn't at all. That much 4" is a $hit-load to lay. Are you a Volunteer department in a rural area? That would explain why you have so much 4"supply line on a truck. We carry 1500 ft. as we are a city department with hydrants every block or two at the most. Makes it easy to have water supply established as soon as water is shown.
Looks as though you have some pretty decent apparatus too!
Speedy recovery and best wishes to your Firefighter casualty. Hope he's not really a casualty.

 

[Fosgate]

Sorry if I sounded as though I was being critical of your efforts. I wasn't at all. That much 4" is a $hit-load to lay. Are you a Volunteer department in a rural area? That would explain why you have so much 4"supply line on a truck. We carry 1500 ft. as we are a city department with hydrants every block or two at the most. Makes it easy to have water supply established as soon as water is shown.
Looks as though you have some pretty decent apparatus too!
Speedy recovery and best wishes to your Firefighter casualty. Hope he's not really a casualty.

By all means no offense taken. We are a volunteer department. Firefighter in question passed out shortly after I relieved him and was rushed to the hospital for an iv. He showed up for breakfast 3 hours later and was ok though. Scared a couple guys when he went down like a bag of sand. They were quick to get 3 guys to haul him off scene.

We've got pretty decent equipment here. Being the state capital we fair pretty well at getting grants. The one truck not pictured is my truck. Ladder Truck 1 is a 2007 Spartan Chasis, Crimson Fire built truck. It was a demo that we had purchased about a year ago now. As far as training goes we have it all the time. We just had Mike Dugan from NYFD Ladder Co 123 out here for 2 days of awesome structure fire trainng. Pretty fortunate to have a group of Volunteers as we do and have the equipment we do. Although some in law enforcement have made statements we don't need what we have. (I wanna give him a squirt gun in and a hasbro walkie talkie)

http://ci.pierre.sd.us/viewarticle.aspx?id=8&aid=360

 

[Blacktooth]

Many places, nobody thinks you need the equip that you have and why should we spend $400,000 to replace that 22 y/o engine? Thoughts change once it is their stuff going up. Then you should have the best equipment, the most staffing and if you were any good you would have prevented the fire before it started. People who say we do not need it because it never happened here, pizz me off.

Sorry for the rant...I even had a good shift yesterday?

Keep fighten' em and stay safe.

 

[spring snow hero]

my dad's place burnt in 1984. I still have a bag o pics that are stuck together from the water. my shop under construction has a 3" water line going right to it for fire protection. I hope to never need it but its there. the nice thing about my place is that I am only 1/4 mile from the fire station.

 

[NDflatlander]

We've all heard someone complain about paying taxes, assessments, or whatever, but I'd much rather have the Firemen show up quickly and prepared like this case which Fosgate posted than have nothing at all and save a couple hundred a year in taxes. We've had a couple occasions on the farm where someone has thrown some lit cigarettes out their car windows and have started some pretty wicked grass fires, had it not been for the volunteers taking their time to put out the fire with the "overpriced unneeded" equipment we would have been in a world of hurt.