Second view of the John Street Fire

While knocking on doors for a fundraiser yesterday, I approached the house that had the May 2007 fire on John Street. The owner seemed very grateful for the good job we did and invited me in to take a look. It took a while for me to get my bearings once in the basement, first because we entered from the rear and he took me this time through the front, and secondly because everything just looks a lot different in broad daylight as compared to a smoke filled hotbox.

He showed me that the fire started behind a boiler that was having problems, and I saw where it worked up the wall and up to the spot where the fireball blew out at me and my current lieutenant. The guy was grateful but said his father was angry that we, the firemen, tore up the walls and broke windows. Civilians sometimes don't understand that 95% of the damage we do is for investigation or fire-stop purposes, or to improve the inferno-like conditions a house can take during a fire for our crews.

Broken windows is our main source of ventilation, which means less heat, more oxygen and better visibility for the guys inside, and these are vital. Taking down walls is an attempt to find hidden fire, or paths the fire might be taking as it travels through the walls and floors of a dwelling. The guy seemed to understand this all but reminded me of how sometimes our actions are misunderstood and house owners think firemen are just bulls in china shops. We made a great, quick stop that day ONLY because we opened up the walls and ceiling and found the fire before it took over completely.

DUI Rollover on Rt. 17

I decided to stay in Saturday night and hang out, and about 2 AM we got a call for a rollover with entrapment in the parking lot of Home Depot and National Wholesale Liquidators, which borders Route 17. I raced to the firehouse and while I was getting geared up I heard them mention on the radio that the victim was out safely.

The truck veered off the highway at a reasonably high speed, slammed into raised train tracks, hit its nose into a ditch and ended up flipping and sliding. All the contents of the truck were smushed out the back and the roof was smashed in everywhere except the drivers cabin. The guy's lucky to be alive.

Burn victim dies

The burn victim I spoke about in the last post, I just found out, has died. I hear the shock, coupled with infections had weakened his heart and it finally gave out about 2 weeks after the incident. I thought we did a great job and got him out quick, but apparently it wasn't enough...

Severe burn victim

Last friday I was working at home and we get called out to St. Joseph's Blvd. for an activated fire alarm. In the past, we've encountered many situations where a typical "fire alarm" or "carbon monoxide alarm" turns into something much more. Sometimes while driving to the false alarm we'll even get paged out to an actual working car or structure fire. This is why I make every attempt to make all alarms, cause you never know.

Anyway, upon arrival I heard a bunch of chatter on the radio but couldn't tell what the Chief was saying. Getting off the truck, something felt odd. I asked John, who was riding in the officer's seat, what was up but he didn't know. Then the Chief says "check upstairs, we might have a burn victim." Walking up the stairs, there was no alarm going off but there was an odd smell of burning, maybe food on the stove.

Walking into the kitchen, an elderly man, maybe around 60 years old, was laying on the floor holding his obviously burned arm. When I looked closer, the back of his head was burned very bad, his right arm was charred with the black skin actually rolling off it already, and his right side and back were burnt up pretty bad. Whatever burnt him also burnt away half his shirt and some of the top of his pants.

I threw my coat, hood, Scott pack and tools to the side and put on latex gloves. Then I helped another crew member prop the victim up onto a chair before cutting the rest of his shirt and pants off. He was very aware and told us his shirt caught fire while cooking. Then his son chimed in and said he heard the alarm going off and when he walked in, his dad was on the floor, non responsive and on fire. The man at this point wasn't feeling pain yet and trying to convince us he didn't need to go to the hospital. My buddy explained that the pain didn't hit yet but will soon, and boy was he right.

As I'm scanning the man's body, I'm noticing his arm won't move, the skin was charred black and rolling off and in some spots, charred so deep that it was pink, almost red with the blood being that close to the surface. Then the man went into shock, something I've never seen before. His eyes became wide, he looked up and became non-responsive. I thought personally that he was having a heart attack and I got very nervous. Someone ran downstairs for the backboard while we yelled, trying to get the guy's attention (unsuccessfully.) When the backboard came, we unwrapped it in lightning speed and put the man on it, when one of our guys and the Chief proceeded to bring him down to the stretcher as fast as they could. All the while, his wife was screaming "he's dying, he's dying."

They treated him on the ambulance and brought him to the burn center, where now I hear his condition worsened and he might not make it. Just goes to show that even "typical" and "standard procedure" alarms can often turn out to be much more.

Shoprite Car fire flying solo

Good thing it was a pretty relaxed weekend with a lot of sleep as last night (sunday) I got paged out to a car fire around 3:30 AM. I got to the firehouse and there was no one there yet. I geared up and only two more guys came. One drove, I took the officer's seat and the third jumped in the back. We could see a tower of smoke in the sky as we got near. It was a parking lot of a Shoprite and the car was cranking with fire blowing out of the engine, both wheel wells and the interior seats were burning pretty good.

I jumped out of the engine and Jay pulled the front hoseline off and stretched it out for me then handed me the nozzle. As I got closer to the car I put my mask on, since the Chiefs are big ball busters about being on air if getting close to a car fire, both for respiration reasons as well as face protection. The water came just as another engine pulled up, and one of their guys ran up to back me up on the line. I started hitting the front wheel well, which had fire blowing out of it at this point, and I shot at the side windows quickly as I wasn't sure if they were still there or if they were broken through yet, but the water reached far so that answered that question.

I shut down the water as someone came with a K12 saw and made a horizontal cut right across the hood of the car to get to the engine compartment. Finally opening that up like a sardine can, I got water on the burning engine before walking to the rear of the car and shooting water up into the rear wheel well in an attempt to keep the gas tank cool. Me and the backup guy musta walked around the car 3 times, putting water on whatever was burning, before the fire finally dimmed down. I then looked to the right and there was another black SUV pretty close with some burning crap down by the tires, so I hosed the truck down just to keep it cool.

Finally someone took the saw to the trunk and we got that open, and the fire was finally out. Looking into the car, I saw that the steering column actually melted away, as well as the rubber on the steering wheel, leaving a bare metal circle sitting on the floor. Looking back, it would have made a great souvenier for the firehouse had I thought about grabbing it.

Magic Touch Carwash Fire

I went to Little Ferry for a standby the night before, which kept me awake from 12 am to 7 am, then I showered and went to work. I came home early and slept for a half hour before we got a call for a fire at National Wholesale Liquidators, which ended up being nothing. I came home and fell asleep when we got another call for a fire at the Magic Touch Carwash on Route 17. This time it was for real.

When I got to the firehouse and started gearing up, we got a re-dispatch confirming that there was a working fire. We rolled out with a full boat, including 3 truckies because the truck didn't yet roll. On the way in everyone was hyper, and this increased as we got closer and saw the heavy smoke. I yelled at Jack that we were going to take the left side reel, and he agreed that I should go with the nozzle and he'll pull the whole reel off. Then someone yelled that we'll need a saw for the roll down gates.

We had just purchased a K12 saw, so I told Jack to NOT pull the hand line and just come with me with the saw. When I looked up I saw a huge amount of heavy fire just swirling and blowing out of the bay of the carwash. It was pretty intense, but the first thing I usually look at in my size-ups is the exposures. There was one exposure, the office part of the carwash, and it had a big roll down security gate with light smoke rolling out from the top of it. I felt it, and the glass door next to it, and everything felt cool.

We decided to cut the gates but had to wait for water. When the lines finally charged, I went to work with the saw, cutting a big upside-down V in the door. I made sure to make it wide enough to fit a fireman and equipment very comfortably. The sparks were raining down on my mask and just covering my whole body, musta looked pretty cool from an outside perspective. My forearms began to burn a little as I had to make multiple passes since the doors were double paned. Finally, I made sure the nozzle-man was ready and one solid kick dropped the panel to the inside. The smoke wasn't as heavy as we expected and a further inspection showed there wasn't any flames or heat inside at all.

The chief then got the keys to the glass door and a team of 4 of us made our way inside for a search which proved negative for flames or heat - the fire was simply confined to the bay area where they wash and change oil. Coming outside, the fire was blowing more violently than ever, and almost looked like a fire storm just churning inside. After putting a 2 1/2 inch line, a 1 3/4 line and water from a master stream into action, the fire was knocked down within 10 minutes.


Water supply was an issue, but all in all it was a quick knock down considering the fire load. We brought the foam unit in the end to put a layer of AAAF down on the oil inside the oil pits so that wouldn't catch. Some overhaul and a long clean-up process later we were on our way home.

Farnham Ave House Fire - Garfield

Most of my company was at my buddy's girlfriend's surprise party, in the pool actually when we heard our company get paged out to Garfield for a mutual aid request to standby at their firehouse for a working house fire. Our chief soon got a call on his cell stating Garfield wants us to the scene instead of standing by. We all jumped in his SUV and hauled ass to Lodi.

Most of our gear was on the engine so we ran and got geared up and walked up to the staging area in front of the house. I saw some small amounts of smoke coming from the eves, 2 handlines stretched into the front door and a ton of mutual aid towns standing by. A minute after we arrived, Garfield's chief asked for two crews to relieve some of the manpower, one crew to the fire floor and one crew to the roof. My captain and I went up to the fire floor.

I walked up stairs avoiding the 2 charged handlines and the closer i got to the top of the stairs the hotter it got. At the top of the stairs it was really hot and I asked my Cpt if he wanted to tie in on air yet, he said to just get onto the landing and tie in. When we got into the room the heat subsided a bit. The room we first entered looked to be a kitchen, with a living room to the right, and a small hallway to the left which lead to the fire room. The fire was almost completely knocked down, but we took out the remainder of the windows to vent the room.

Operations officer told us to open up the ceiling above the door in which we entered. I took an ax to the walls while my captain took a pike pole to the ceiling. We had a good amount pulled down, with embers and little smoking pieces falling down with every stroke. The roof team began cutting the roof above our heads, a little towards the door. We unmasked after a few minutes when the heat went down enough and most of the smoke cleared. With a few more pounds on the sheetrock we had enough exposed for the Operations officer to put an end to the overhaul.

When I got outside I felt nauseous. I downed a few bottles of water before I heard that while on the roof, one of our guys took the butt-end of a pike pole to the eye. He went to the hospital where they said his cornea was scratched, nothing too serious.

Deli Fire on Main Street

A few of the guys and I were at my Chief's house, and it happened to be a night where he and a few of the other older firefighters in our company were telling stories about the nice fires they had in their past. In the middle of one of his stories, the pagers go off with reports of a "working fire" at a convenience store on Main Street. Driving past, we didnt get excited until we saw thick smoke pissing out of the eaves of the store. Lets just say I drove a little faster after seeing that.

Our engine was the first to arrive on scene, and a lot of smoke was pouring out. Before arrival, Jack and I agreed to take the closest handline and make entry, so I grabbed the nozzle, Jack flaked it out and met me by the front door. I yelled to a Chief to get me bolt cutters to get through the two padlocks that were on the front door, but before he could, the front window was broken out and we swept from the D side to the A side.

Jack slid in the window on his side, and I passed him the nozzle and slid in the same way. The smoke was thick from about head level up, but hadn't banked down past our faces yet, so visibility was still ok if I crouched. I was a little out of breath and, without seeing flame yet and not feeling real heat yet I took my regulator off to get some fresh air. Well I was wrong about the second part, because one breath of the very hott, thick air made me put it back on quick.

Jack and I both felt the fire would have been in the rear corner, so we walked down an aisle and looked for a back room. He opened up a few of the coolers and smoke poured out of them, but they didn't open in the rear to a back room like they would in a supermarket: the coolers had backs on them. Finally I looked up to Jack's left and there was some wood that was glowing.

Jack and I swept around to where the embers were and a guy from Fire Company started pulling cielings as Jack put water on the flames and hot spots. I heard a Truck crew above us starting to cut a vent hole right above where the flames were - pretty accurate. This went quick and soon we switched spots and I took the nozzle for a few mins, then we left as it started to get very crowded with guys from other companies.

Later, I took an axe to a buzzing alarm inside that was annoying the shit out of everyone, but that about wrapped it up. No one was hurt and it was a pretty quick stop. The only thing questioned was whether the Truckie was right for taking the front window when he had no mask or gloves on, stood right in front of the window and thick smoke was visible behind it. Seemed like good conditions for something to blow out or go terribly wrong, but they didn't and he was lucky.

Basement Fire on Chestnut

Same time as the carfire last nite, around 2 AM, we get called out to reports of an "air conditioner on fire." Fire, being one of the keywords I look for in a dispatch, got me revved up. We had a pretty full boat and every one was throwing elbows to get their shit on in the truck. Captain looked back and said he's taking the first line, and 2 guys yelled they're with him on the first line. I then yelled that me, John and Jack are on the second line.

We pulled up first due, got off and unreeled our backup line off the officer's side perfectly. Unreeling it 100% is one of our deficiencies as a company, because sometimes people get too hyped up at a fire, unreel it half way or 3/4 and just run to the door, but last nite was better.

I saw the first team go in, so my team masked up and followed them in with a smooth boor. Visibility was still pretty good so I didn't go on air right away. I saw an air conditioner unit on fire, and extension up into the wall and some of the cieling above it. I gave a few short bursts over the first team, just enough to hit the fire a bit but not enough to wet them because I know how much this pisses me off when people give me a douching because they're trigger happy.

Our big guy, Jeff, went on a rampage taking walls and cielings with his gloved hands. I guess he couldn't wait for a tool, and he started punching and pulling the sheetrock like it was tissue paper. He's a big guy and real aggressive when he's pumped up, so we sat and watched the show, laughing from time to time. My backup guy was sent into another room to do a search and we got called to bring a line upstairs for extension.

Going upstairs, we found heavy smoke condition but no visible flame. We opened up much of the walls and ceiling, moving the ton of furniture and clothing out of our way in the process. Jeez they had a ton of piles of clothes in the place.

All in all we did a text-book stop with no fuck-ups that I can remember.

Car from Fort Knox

Around 2 AM we get called out to a carfire at a local used car dealership. I know those cars to sit very close to eachother, so I pictured 2 or 3 cars involved by the time we get there. I was wrong, it was only 1. It took our captain a minute or so to cut the fence using bolt cutters to let us in. There were 5 of us, and as I mentioned in the past posts, carfires to firemen are like chum to sharks. JK immediately jumps on the first nozzle, which he's known to do at every single fire we ever get, and I grab the second. It took a few mins to get water, and the fire wasn't too crazy, mostly in the right front wheel well, extending into the engine.

I took a halligan and walked around to the driver side window and took the window down in one swift motion, then reached in and opened the door. I tried the hood release after catching some water in the face from the hose team on the other side, and the hood release was obviously burnt out. I closed the door and the gruelling task of opening a hood without a saw began.

When I was a probie I attended an extrication class behind the local Boys & Girls club using some donated cars. My friend Jack and I, joining at the same time, usually attended all the same training and paired up as often as possible. Since the drill was a free-for-all anyway, Jack and I decided to try to get into the trunk of a car using only a halligan and ax. We pried, pulled, smashed, whacked and bent the shit out of the trunk for 15 minutes before giving up. The pin and catch inside is just too strong for standard tools.

Back to the car fire last nite, we tried the Rabbit tool, which is a handheld spreader that operates like a car-jack, the front release (which was burnt away), halligans, axes...etc. We tried everything before finally I gained access to, what ended up being 3 pins under the front lip of the car with a long set of bolt-cutters.

Annoying as it was, we did a pretty good job at gaining access using nothing but the tools we had to work with.

Car Fire at DMV - and the audience goes wild

I got lucky and stayed home yesterday because the heat went out and I needed a plumber. In staying home, around noontime we got dispatched to a "truck fire" at Motor Vehicles. I pictured in my head a big box truck sailing. We had a pretty small crew, 2 old timers, 1 probie, myself and the Captain's dad Artie, who's as bad-ass as they come. For a car fire, where you'll be operating max of 2 lines, a small crew is preferred, to me anyway - less complication, less cluster-fucking. I had my mask sitting on my head until I could finally see flames. It ended up being a small Honda.

I jumped out, stretched a line off the front, waited for water and started hitting it. There was no water pressure to start with, which annoyed me as water came pissing out the smooth-bore. When pressure finally came, I put out the fire and shut down when a truckie came with his favorite toy and cut the hood open. I called to another truckie to take the back window so I can see if there were any flames in the rear, being that it was a 2-door.

Everything went ultra-smooth, and I got complimented by the officer of Truck company later on a "very smooth, calm and text-book" job. We had a huge audience, a line 3 wide and probably 10 cars deep all waiting to pull in for their car inspections. That was pretty cool, never put out a fire in front of such a large audience. Musta been a pretty cool sight for them as well, even though most of them would prob rather get their inspection done and get back to life as usual.

The funniest part of the fire came when the owner of the car walked back to the remains, stuck his upper body into the back seat and pulled out his charred / melted basketball. I guess to some, priorities are obvious. "Fuck the car, get the ball!!!!"

2 car fires in 3 days - nice.

Car Fire at the Little League Field

I had just walked in from Pub 46 and taken the dog out when the tones came in. Immediately I looked at the clock and grabbed my coat, being that anything coming in at 2:15 AM was definitely a firecall. The dispatch seemed anxious and claimed there were multiple calls of a car "fully engulfed." My captain had just said earlier that he feels there's gonna be a fire tonight. He has the best record of any of us as far as predicting these things so I made sure to get to HQ fast.

We pushed out quickly and got masked up in the cab. Usually I don't like putting on a mask until I know I'll need it, but car fires are like a feeding frenzy - if you don't get off the engine and grab a hoseline immediately, someone else will beat you to it. They aren't dangerous and job openings are limited - usually to just 2 hose teams of 2 and maybe someone with a saw or tool.

Brian, one of our newest rookies, jumped on the nozzle and I backed him up. We got water pretty slow and the second line went into operation by the time water started pumping to ours. Our handline was pretty kinked up so I stepped back to unkink it, caught my foot on a curb and went right down on my ass. I was embarrassed for all of 1 second before getting up, flaking the line out and getting back to my backup position before someone else could.

I helped steer Brian closer to the other hoseteam so we didn't oppose lines, being that at this time a second car had already caught fire. The first truck was sailing pretty good and a lot of flame was licking out from the engine, prompting a truckie to come with the circular saw and cut the hood open. I had Brian put water on the hood before swinging around to get the nozzle inside some windows to put out the rest of the interior. At this point, a mixture of smoke and steam was so great that visibility neared zero for a few mins. My mask for some reason was pissing out air on the side, so I quickly removed a glove and pulled the right strap to tighten it, which solved the problem.

I feel bad for the owner of the second car because it caught on fire from the first car and had just enough damage to probably total it. Even the windshield was melted to the dashboard, which looked pretty cool actually.In the end, the first truck was burnt up bad, had the interior completely burned away and even the steering wheel was completely gone, nothing left. All we saw was a mess of wires where one's knees would be in the front, and the metal inserts of the seat headrests.

Word is a neighbor heard a pop and when they looked out the window they saw the first truck catching on fire and someone in a black sweatshirt running away. Who knows.

6:00 AM Freeze-a-thon

At 6:00 AM we get toned out for a "fire in the trailer court." Usually I don't respond to firecalls after 5:00 AM unless it's an actual fire, since I have to wake up at 7:30 for work, it's not worth the lack of sleep to put batteries in some old lady's Carbon Monoxide detector. I was sleeping in shorts and a tshirt, and in a mad rush I ran out of the house wearing that, plus shoes and a jacket. Little did I know it was only 11 degrees out. I'm shaking and speeding my way down to the firehouse. Of course, it ended up being nothing. The caller smelt smoke, which was diesel smoke from a truck next door. I want to smack people like that in the face so hard. It's early in the AM, we're flying like maniacs in our cars, there could be anything from drunks to business men on the roads or walking to cars. One day someone's gonna get killed on the way to a bullshit call because the caller said "fire" when in reality it was burnt popcorn.

Bottom line - I feel fire prevention should advise people how to call in a fire when we do fire prevention week every year. It's always geared towards the children, but it seems the adults need some counceling as well.

DUI MVA

I was sound asleep when we got paged out for an accident involving a possible "ejection." I've never heard them say that word over the pager before so I knew it would be something good. We had a decent small crew and got to Route 80 pretty quick. Hackensack was already finishing up their extrication which indicated they had been on seen already before we got toned out.

Upon closer inspection it was a silver Jeep Commander and the windshield was forced out to a point, indicating someone definitely slammed their head or body up against it with enough force for it to separate from the dashboard at the base where they meet. We stood around waiting for some work but I mentioned we should step back and give Hackensack some space.

The only time I did anything was when the Hackensack guys pulled out the hydrollic spreaders just to pop the hood, when I stepped up and got my hand under it and was able to feel and release the hatch. Sometimes people are quick to pull out the destructive tools without trying easier, obvious methods first - something Lance taught me a long time ago, god rest his soul. He was good at taking young guys under his wing and showing them how to keep their cool and not overlook obvoius things on the fire scene.

The rear of the truck had blood on it and a pool of blood on the ground and the side rear door had been removed or extrication purposes. As far as I know, there was only one victim who was dead, and I watched as they carried his limp body away on a board. That's the second fatality I've seen in an MVA in a year.

I was published in Firehouse Magazine!

There has been an ongoing issue in Firehouse Magazine when it comes to seatbelts in the cabs of fire engines and trucks. It's so damn hard to put seatbelts on when you already have the thick bunker gear and airpack on, nevermind the excitement which makes it easy to forget even the best intentioned.

I wrote Firehouse an article about my idea. All Scott Pak's, and other SCBA, are held in the jumpseat by a round bracket that makes it easy for firemen to lean forward and pop the pack out once it's strapped on their arms and waste. Yes, I say the pack is already strapped on. So why, might one ask, are we looking towards yet a 4th belt to pass over a firefighter's body, to act as restraint?


What if the SCBA's harness was actually held to that bracket? Then yes, the firefighter too would be held in restraint to the seat. Problem is, we need to get up and out, and we need to do this fast. So the easy suggestion I had was to position a quick-release button or lever right between your legs on the seat. When activated, just like a seatbelt, the SCBA's bracket would release from the seat and the Firefighter could stand up and fight another day.

Thanks to firehouse for posting this idea of mine and I hope I've inspired someone to maybe take it a step further and get it into production.

Glad I could amuse

It's been slow lately, so when we got paged out to a fire alarm at Felician college, I decided to have a little fun. We arrived and walked downstairs and followed the sound of flowing water and horrible sound until we found the source - a broken sprinkler head deep in a utility room. We had to crawl under ducts and through vertical beams until we could reach the area where the water was just pissing out. My captain immediately joked that one of us should go and try to chock it (technique used to wedge a doorstop or two in the open area to block the sprinkler's orifice.)

As I mentioned, times are slow so I volunteered. I stripped my gear of anything I didn't want to get wet, including my mask and pack, but kept my jacket on in a futile attempt to protect my clothing. So minutes later, there I was standing under a sieve of water flowing probably like 40 gallons a minute onto my head, face and hands, while I tried to jam a chock in something I couldn't even see, and barely felt with my frozen finger tips. The water was damn cold and at this point just shooting me square in the face, causing me to drop my shield down.

We stood back after I got it semi-chocked and saw there was a red wire gate covering the sprinkler head which was why I couldn't get the chock in there. All in all, the attempt was pointless but at least everyone got a good laugh about it all, even me. I stopped laughing when I walked outside into the 30 degree weather though haha.