4 air bottles, 1 night

The call came through at about 12:45 AM simply reporting a fire in a home. We had a near-full crew of 8 guys on the engine, and got reports of heavy smoke pushing from the first floor as we made our final turn onto the block. I broke the guys into 2 hose teams, one with a 2 1/2 inch hoseline and the other with a 1 3/4 inch hoseline. We approached the front door which had heavy fire and smoke and started putting on our Scott masks. Finally, after a 2 minute wait, water came and we began crawling our way inside.

There was heavy fire directly in front of us, which we knocked down from the doorway, some fire to the right and very heavy fire directly in front of us, down a hallway into the kitchen. As we started humping the hoseline forward down the hallway, my Captain knocked over a large cat-scratch tower which was completely on fire - right away this told us there were pets. We hit the fire on the right as much as possible before backtracking into the main hallway again. As we made the kitchen, we saw fire everywhere, left, right, above. We hit the fire from across the room before I looked to the right and noticed my Captain was kneeling directly on a patch of fire, which was making his pants begin to smoke. I yelled and grabbed him and we patted it out. I then noticed fire behind a gap in a doorframe to my right. I yelled for one of our guys to back out towards me, since he was directly in front of the wall. When he was safely behind us, I swung once with a halligan and opened up a huge hole where fire blew out of. A few seconds later, our water supply was totally cut off and our hose went limp - time to leave.

We walked outside to the front of the house and my Captain asked if I wanted to go up a nearby ladder to do a quick search of the second floor of this 3 story house. We went up the ladder and he broke the window and cleared the shards of glass and entered it while I cleared and entered another. Visibility was totally zero, and the room was heating up rapidly so we both made our way out the same windows within a minute or two.


- Open gear - cool down - drink water - change air pack -

We went back into the building, this time hanging a left and following a hoseline up the staircase to the second floor. We tried opening up some walls and ceilings but hit a chimney and a lot of furniture. I took a walk around the corner and found yet another staircase, so I ventured up it with one of my guys. Only 10 seconds at the top of that staircase made me realize the temperature had to be around 800 degrees, and we had absolutely no business up there without a charged hoseline. I looked around and saw no visible fire, so we backed down the stairs as we heard manpower was needed for a fire attack around the right side of the house in a second floor apartment.

I brought a few tools with me up the stairs, and immediately went to work helping other guys pull ceilings down as 2 firefighters hit whatever flame was there. At one point, I searched a small room to the right and found a door whose entire frame was glowing with a red outline.

I slowly opened the door and looked directly into what I would assume hell looks like. Heavy orange, red flame was blowing and rolling around violently making a whipping sound. I closed the door and told another FF to hand me a hoseline, one which barely reached around the door to the side that I was about to open. I crouched down and had the other guy open the door about 6 inches, just enough for me to stick the nozzle in and knock down all the fire in wide sweeping motions. Right after this, we closed the door back up and my low-air alarm went off, so I made my way to the exit of the apartment and down the stairs.

- Open gear - cool down - drink water - change air pack -

About 6 guys from my company and I were again waiting at the front door as we knew the crews now fighting the fire in the attic were going to run out of their air packs soon. We were right, and a few minutes later I found myself once again making entry into the 3rd floor up the small staircase. The room was cooler this time due to some broken windows and vent holes cut in the roof, so I had the guy behind me hold the hoseline as I searched the room for fire. I encountered a bunch of pet cages and fish tanks, maybe about 20 total. Later we would find all sorts of dead reptiles and animals, ranging from snakes to lizards, ferrets and hedgehogs.

We found some fire to the rear of the attic, which we could only see once all flashlights were shut off. We hit that with the hose-stream, then started pulling walls and ceilings, knocking down even more fire. Command outside radioed in that just about all smoke was now gone from the eaves of the house - we were making good progress. At one point I was looking for fire up against a sloped wall when I felt high heat by my head and face. I leaned back and hit the wall with my halligan and a bunch of fire blew out from the hole. We finished up this attack when my low-air alarm went off again.

- Open gear - cool down - drink water - change air pack -

We made a few more small fire attacks that night, and a bunch of overhaul (taking down ceilings, clearing glass from windows, opening up walls.) I made sure my crew went to work every time there was a job to do; I did NOT want to be one of those towns who sits back and lets other towns come in and fight their fires. As tired as our guys were, we each went through at least 3 full air bottles, some of us even more. Sore necks, shoulders and backs proved we really worked this fire hard.

The next morning while most of us went to work, a rekindle required 2 more mutual aid towns to come in and assist another 2 hour fire attack.

Chief's Dinner w/ bagpipers

So the Chief and I engaged my buddy who works at VH1 to put together a video / photo montage with music and voice overs for his chief's dinner. We had the great idea of ending the video with a song the Bergen County Bagpiper's do, and when this song plays to have the actual bagpipers lined up outside, and play along.

When we got to the venue, things started going wrong. First, the video guy was nowhere to be found. Then we realized they set up the video equipment but not the audio equipment. Finally, with 260 people watching, they couldn't get the video to play at all. The bag pipers were lined up outside the door (secretly) and after 10 lonnng minutes, they got the video to play. We choreographed the pipers and they chimed in perfectly on the second measure of the song at the end of the video, surprising everyone.

They came in and played a sick show that everyone enjoyed and is still talking about.

Fish-tank warehouse with partial collapase

Last night we got called out to about 5 firecalls - sleep is overrated. One of them was a sprinkler-main break inside of a warehouse. It was about 19 degrees out, so on the approach we were met with a huge amount of flowing water which was just building upon the already thickening sheet of ice near the warehouse. Through the front glass doors we could all see the water main just dumping water out at a high velocity, and it was already about 3 feet deep behind the glass. Not gonna lie, it looked pretty awesome. The entire brick veneer had already separated from the building and collapsed into a pile.

We did a quick search for utility shut-offs in the second half of the building and shut off the sprinkler feed valve as much as we could before we just had to turn it over to the water company to deal with.

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.

Pulled out of a truck-fire

It was Christmas Eve. and just after appetizers my pager went off reporting a truck "fully involved in fire." We raced down to the scene expecting exactly what was reported, but instead we saw no flames, just a truck and a ton of smoke. The Chief met me in front and told me the police had already put the fire out with their extinguishers, as it had been rolling out of both wheel-wells when they arrived. I had my guys stretch a length of hose and charge it to put out whatever fire was left.

There was still heavy smoke coming out of the front hood and under the rear of the SUV. A few of my guys grabbed some tools and I heard yelling "take the f*ing windows." I yelled back NOT to take any windows yet, before I walked around trying the doors. For some reason I had a weird feeling there might be someone still in the back seat or something. Finally, I tried the driver-side door front door, which happened to be unlocked. To my amazement, a big burly guy was sitting in the midst of the blinding smoke IN the truck. I jumped back and said "What the f*ck???"

Just then the Chief walked around and shared my amazement as we pulled him out, saying "This guy was IN the truck the entire time?!?!" He was still conscious (no idea how) and immediately brought to the hospital for smoke inhalation. Must have been drunk enough that the noise outside didn't wake him from his nap.

As for the fire, it was very stubborn, hiding under the truck and we had to put the curved extension onto the nozzle to access it. The arson squad and a detective came down and spoke to me about what we found before we left the scene.

I pulled the newer members aside later and reviewed what just happened. I mainly highlighted the point that on a fire scene, people should NEVER assume that something is done. What I mean is firefighters should NEVER assume a room has been checked for victims unless they're 100% positive it has been. Similarly, FF's should NEVER assume an area of a structure fire (or in this case, an auto-fire) is clear of all life while a fire is going on. One would think that fire would drive a person out of their home or car... but this proves those kinds of assumptions could very well be the ones that kill civilians or other firefighters.

Small kitchen fire at the drug lady's house

We were at the firehouse about to go out on our Boot Drive fundraiser when we got called out to an "oven fire." Upon arrival, I took 3 guys with me and told the rest to stay on the engine since there wasn't any smoke / flame visible from the outside of the house. On the first floor we were met with pretty heavy smoke, a ton of furniture and what will be referred to as the "drug lady." It was the homeowner, a 60-something little old lady, no teeth, nervous as hell.

She guided us around the corner to the area where she put out the fire, it was an electric stove, melted, with much char to the backsplash, cabinets above, wall adjacent and the cieling. To be honest she did a great job putting out the fire but this was just the start of the fun. As she paced behind us, I asked her to "please go outside and wait by the chief." She walked out of the house but as fast as I could turn around she was back behind me looking through paperwork on her cluttered kitchen table. I asked again "lady can you please leave this house?" She replied "yes, but how long will you guys be?" I laughed, her house was just on fire and she was acting like I'm installing a new cable-package for her TV.

Yet a third time, after she had left again, she reappeared behind me asking once again "so you guys will just be a half hour? Will it take any longer than that?? My husband needs his drugs." I laughed and walked her out of the house. The house was a complete disaster anyway, clothes piled up 5 feet high in every corner, a kitchen with barely enough room to shuffle through and rooms that I couldn't imagine sitting down in, let alone sleeping in. Eventually I had the chief baby sit her outside but she definitely made my day haha. The husband she was referring to was already being looked at by EMS outside but she musta been feelin pretty good because she kept insisting he was in the bedroom and needed drugs.

Anyway, we pulled the oven hood off the wall, poked a couple of holes in the walls and backsplash looking for residual smoke or heat, and turned the place over to the fire marshall who i'm sure had his share of fun with the amount of fire hazards and lack of detectors in that place.

Friday afternoon extrication

I work at home on Fridays, which sometimes offers me work I'd otherwise miss while at work. This Friday, we got called to the scene of an MVA (motor vehicle accident) with reports of entrapment. My Captain and I jumped on the Rescue truck while our other, less-experienced guys jumped on the Engine. While on the way to the scene, we discussed our job roles and figured that I'd stabilize the car with cribbing and cut the battery while my Captain gets some of the hydraulic tools out. Of course, he got all excited and jumped in front of me grabbing all the cribbing he could before I could even turn around.

Anyhow, the car got whacked by a utility truck, spun around and got t-boned by an SUV then finally pinned between the two. They were able to pull back the utility truck and I realized the driver indeed was pretty badly hurt. There was also a guy in the back seat with a blanket on from the EMT's so he wouldn't get hit by glass or other debris as we worked. Being that both side doors were locked in, I couldn't get through to the hood to cut the battery without cutting the hood, which in my opinion endangered the driver since his steering-wheel airbag was not yet deployed. Looking back now, we should have wrapped the steering wheel to prevent injury but we didn't.

A few guys brought out a spreader and a cutter and we walked to the passenger side to begin popping the doors off to get the backseat guy out. I held the top of the rear door and began bending it down as the Captain from another company inserted the spreaders between the door and the frame in an attempt to pop the pin. We literally bent the whole top half of the door completely down with no pin-breaking success in removing the door. Then my Captain grabbed the spreaders and went to the hinge side, which was more successful. I cut the remaining cables and wires that were holding the door on and we tossed the crumpled piece into the street, and the back-seat guy was free. Although injured, he was able to get out on his own.

Once the SUV was pulled off the driver's door, they were able to pull him out and strap him to a backboard, supporting his head and neck with a brace. He was pretty f'ed up. No blood but my guess is a few broken ribs, maybe a broken back or neck.

Back to Back car fires

On Friday afternoon, about 30 mins before I was supposed to take Kate to the movies, we got paged out to a reported car fire behind a building. While driving down the firehouse, I passed the area and saw a 100ft dark tower of smoke, thick enough that I was skeptical if it was a car or if the building had caught fire. When we got on scene, my captain had me grab the nozzle and walk down the dark alley way as he and the new guy stretched the hoselines. Walking to the back of the building I found a Jeep fully involved in fire, the engine, the cab, the tires, everything.

I told one of our new guys to get on the nozzle as we were masking up and waiting for water. As soon as our lines got charged, I decided to sweep him to the left because another company was about to charge their hoseline on it and we were right in their path. Those guys are new and I just didnt want to take that chance. Anyhow, by the time we started flowing water into the truck, my captain had started the saw and I could hear they were having problems cutting the front hood open. Eventually the gas tank melted and a bunch of gasoline poured under the truck and caught fire as well. I had the new guy open up a few short bursts to finish the truck off as my captain finally got the hood open and water into the engine. The truck was a goner - the license plate completely melted away as well as the steering wheel. The heat was also enough to melt the taillights of a nearby car.

A day later, almost the same time of day, we get called out to a car fire on the other side of town. Another company had already been dispatched there, which made me think that either they weren't doing the right thing or didn't have enough guys. Anyhow, as we were pulling up I saw a car with the engine on fire right in front of a few air pumps at a gas station. I casually got out and told 2 guys to stretch a hoseline as I went to get the saw for the hood. I told Brian to sweep around to the street-side of the car because he was standing on the opposite side as the first hose team, which once again woulda been a nightmare if anyone opened up their hoseline.

As I got the saw started, this ex-chief of ours (who now weighs over 250 pounds) decided that today he wanted to play. He barges in and I watch him grab a hoseline from another one of our guys. I walk around to the front of the car and start the circular saw. As i do that, this ex-chief stumbles back and falls down right next to the saw. Thank god the saw stalled out when i released the throttle because it was damn close to his head. He got up and moved so we could finish cutting the front hood open and getting water on the engine. I then walked around and popped the trunk to make sure there was nothing harmful.

The ex-chief had to get taken away to the hospital where they said he had micro-tears in his heel. He's too big for his own good and I keep highlighting the fact that if he goes down like that in a house fire, it's gonna take about 5 guys to get him out.