Holy electrical fire, batman!

Early on Saturday we got called for a light-fixture on fire in a church meeting room. It was a ballast, and my heat-gun registered about 300 degrees on it. It was surely burnt up, so we took most of the fixture down and cut the electricity to the ballast. We did not, however, take the ballast down as the Chief felt it was cool enough to ignore since the power was cut.

Well, about 2 hours later, we got called back to the scene where the residents reported the ceiling to be on fire. I got there late and went right to the scene, where I was met by a yelling Chief, an engine that couldn't get into pump, and a hoseline stretched into the building. I threw on a Scott pack and followed the line in.

I looked up once I entered the room and was met with a 15 foot cross-shaped exposed area of the ceiling that our guys took down with their pike poles, with some fire in the middle. I can't express how creepy it was to see this in a church. I said "did it have to be a crucifix?" and everyone laughed once they realized what they'd done.

In any case, the electricity was cut and ceilings were pulled into a pile of smoking debris on the floor. A member of another company ordered the nozzle-man to drench the debris before I cut in and said there's no need to create more of a mess, and that we were better off just carrying the debris outside and wetting it down there. I'm proud of that call as a few mins of manpower saved a lot of face - we had done enough damage already in checking for fire extension.

Late for a car fire - get out of my way, cop!

The pager went off for a car fire on an intersection I usually drive past to get to my firehouse. While driving down it with my blue-light on, I saw the plume of smoke from the car fire and noticed a cop parked across the street perpendicular, to block the road. I assumed he'd move so I, a fireman, can actually get to my firehouse. Wow was I wrong. The cop sat in his car and stared me down. I pulled my car up to his bumper and hit the horn a few times. He got out of the car and stared at me.

This caused me say f*ck this, bang a sharp right and go about 5 minutes out of my way to get to the firehouse. Inevitably this made me late to a fire that a minute ago I was ten feet away from.

Anyhow, now that I had my gear, I pulled up and saw the smoke was now a thick black color, which meant the plastics and rubbers were finally on fire now. I put my gear on about 20 feet from the fire as I watched my guys stretch a hoseline. Before you could blink your eyes, one of my guys had the circular saw on the front hood, and made a cut across the entire thing to gain access to the burning engine.

Later, I walked around and saw that all 4 car doors were open. I spoke with him and said it'd be wise next time to at least try the drivers door, and give the handle a pull - you never know. In 80% of car fires, the hood-release cable will be burnt away, but juuust sometimes it's intact enough to pop the hood open without breaking a sweat. Oh well, he complained the other day that he hasn't used the saw much - now he has.

The final odd thing was a guy from another company said "Did anyone cut the battery yet," and no one had. He then proceeded to cut what he thought was the battery and look around all proud. Looking down, I realized he just cut some loose wires that were coming from somewhere else, and I pointed out the battery was actually on the other side of the car. It was kinda funny to point this out after he was all cocky that he did something no one thought about.

Small kitchen fire in Devries Park apartments

I was working at home on a Friday and dispatch paged us out for reports of heavy smoke coming from a second floor window in the first of 4 garden apartments in a strip. My captain drove and when we pulled up onto the block I couldn't see any smoke but a few of the older guys ran over to the engine telling us it was definitely on fire. One of our younger members went with our captain and pulled both 3 inch supply lines off our giant rear reels on the engine, and wrapped a hydrant.

One of the older members got too excited and drove away fast and one of the supply lines came unwrapped and began to drag behind the engine. While everyone else stared at it, I ran and grabbed it and held it to the ground while the engine pulled away, then dragged it back to the hydrant so we would have both supply lines in operation.

Going back to the apartment, I masked up on the stairs because I could see heavy smoke coming from the second floor window and I assumed that's where the fire was - WRONG. As soon as we crawled into the front door, my captain made a hard right into the kitchen and the fire was right there, coming out of the cabinets. We ripped up some of the counter tops to get to the fire, which seems it started in a drawer (malfunctioned lighter?) We quickly set up a vent to get the smoke out and broke out one 12x12 inch window total, minimizing damage to the apartment.

I can safely say we came in, established our own water supply, put out the fire, checked for extension, vented and took up in a matter of 20 minutes.