A Futrell Lane home was heavily damaged in a mid-afternoon fire Wednesday 20-November. At 14:29, neighbors notified 9-1-1 that they could see smoke and flames coming from a single-wide mobile home and the yard was on fire. Colleton County (SC) Engine 5 arrived minutes later to find the mobile home 50% involved. The roof and floor in half of the structure had already collapsed. Bystanders advised they thought a woman who lived there was still inside the residence.
Firefighters deployed multiple handlines and entered the building through a rear door. A quick search of the remaining smoke filled building did not reveal any occupants. Crews stopped the spread of the fire saving half of the structure, but most items inside were heavily damaged by heat, smoke and water. Firefighters spent approximately 1-1/2 hours overhauling the building, while searching the debris for any victims. The resident eventually showed up about two hours into the incident. She had not been at home when the fire occurred.
The cause of the fire is currently under investigation. Sheriff’s deputies found many items indicating illicit activity may have been carried on in the home. Officials from the DEA responded to the scene and were investigating through the night.
Engine 5, Engine 9, Tender 9, Tender 19, Tender 27, Tender 32, Medic 9, Battalion 1, Car 12, Car 111, Car 118 and Car 119 responded. Battalion Chief Ben Heape served as Incident Commander.
Firefighters on Chicago’s far south side battled this 2-11 alarm fire at 115th and Perry as temperatures hovered around zero on the evening of February 3, 2007. It took me some time to respond to this one and all that was left was a shell of this 1-story frame storage warehouse. Tower Ladder 34 was in a spare rig that day and most of it’s rear, along with the two firefighters, were encased in ice.
A vacant residence was moderately damaged after a yard debris fire spread to the building. The yard fire caught the siding of the building on fire in two places, then advanced up the walls into the attic. The fire also spread into the adjacent woods and endangered a mobile home on the property.
Colleton County (SC) Firefighters arrived to find an approximately 1 acre grass fire, smoke coming from the woods, and heavy smoke coming from the wooden single-story building, with flames visible from the roof at the rear of the building. Crews deployed two 1-3/4 handlines, knocked down the yard fire near the mobile home, and the fire on the exterior of the structure. They then advanced the line inside the structure and extinguished the fire in the front room. Firefighters pulled the ceiling in the back bedroom to reach the fire in the attic. It was necessary to remove a portion of the metal roof to access the fire under the tin. No one was living in the home. A SC Forestry Tractor was called to plow a fire line around the woods fire. Fire units were on the scene for two hours.
Engine 1, Engine 6, Tender 1, Tender 2, Tender 6, Tender 25, Tender 27, Medic 6, Battalion 1, Car 12, Car 105 and Car 111 responded. Battalion Chief Brent Dalton served as Incident Commander.
All the regulars were out at this one, Redick, Nord, Olk. I don’t believe that any of their shots appeared on any sites other than their own. My pictures from that day have not been seen before so here they are.
This fire broke out in a 125 x 75 1-story auto body supply store in the late morning hours of September 28, 2009. The building was located on the 2300 block of South Pulaski on the city’s west side and fighting the blaze was made a little more difficult by the presence of elevated railroad tracks in sector 4. Eventually Tower Ladder 5, Tower Ladder 54 and Squad 1A all used elevated streams and companies were placed on the roof of the sector 3 exposure with a line as well.
I’ve included a little info on Chicago’s working fire response with this write up knowing that there are people viewing this who are not from Chicago.
Chicago’s Engine 117 and Tower Ladder 14 were first-due on this fire in an occupied two-flat on May 1, 2010. The building in the 4900 block of west Ohio Street had fire throughout the frame rear porches and rear rooms of the second floor on arrival. This fire was held in check with the usual Chicago working fire response which is two engines, two trucks, one squad (tandem heavy rescue and Snorkel that run together), one battalion chief plus a RIT truck and RIT battalion chief, and an EMS response of a field chief (chief paramedic) and an ambulance.
In the early morning hours of December 3, 2013, Boston Box 711 was struck for a building fire at 327 Summer Street. First to arrive, TL-3 reported smoke showing from the fifth floor of a large commercial building. As companies entered the building, imaging cameras showed very high heat coming from the basement level. Extreme caution was used by interior companies and in short order, companies were withdrawn and eight alarms were struck.
Videos from the fire showed heavy fire blowing out from the first floor of the building. The fire broke out at 4:30 in the morning but I didn’t find out until I got out of bed at 7. I was planning on going to Boston that day anyway, so as I was getting into the city, crews were reporting that they still had moderate smoke conditions and visible fire around the columns of the second and third floor. The building was five stories from the Summer Street side but six stories from the rear alley.
I arrived shortly after 10, 6 hours into operations. There were numerous ladders set up on Summer Street and several engines and a ladder set up in the rear alley. In the last photo, oddly in 20+ years of shooting is one of my favorites, you can see streams being played from the building across the alley into the upper levels of the fire building. These two angles were the only ones that weren’t blocked by fire lines when I arrived. The rest of the photos are on my site, www.northeastfirephotos.smugmug.com
