Back in Janunary I was making entry on a single family dewelling with smoke but no flames showing. It was about 9:00 at night so we were told there were possiby people inside. (later we found out they were out of town) Once the water supply was established the IC gave me the go ahead to go in. I made forceable entry in the front door. The house was cover floor to celin with smoke wth zero visablity. I droped to my knees to go in. My mistake was droping in over the threshold. Next thing I realize I am in the basemet of the house! The floor inside of the front door was completely gone and i fell about 10 or 11 feet in to he basement. There was a hole about 10 feet around in the living room and it started at the front door. What had appered to be a small fire in the beging stages of growth had acatualy been a fire that started in the basement and was in the smolderng stage. Once I hit the basemtfloor stuff was falling on top of me, I got to the wall and took what cover I could. Once the debris stoped falling I started yelling at my backup man not to come in. I yelled as loud as I could at him but he could not hear me. Next thing I know he is in the basement with me. Once we realized we were unhurt we tried to make radio contact with Comand. "FF McCurdy to command" no answer. "FF McCurdy to command we fell thorugh the first floor and we are in the basement inside the front door" BEEEP The radio battery went dead. Finally up top they realized something was wrong. The 2 out team (in our department also considered the RIT team) once some of the smoke cleared saw the hose goning stright down and finally saw the hole for the first time. They did not know if we were ok or not. My Lt later told me that was the most scared he had ever been on the fire ground in his 20 years in the fire service. I yelled up out of the hole and finally got the word out that we were ok and we just needed a ladder to get back out. While they were geting us a ladder there was still some fire left in the basement. Luckely I held on to the hose so I was able to get it out. A ladder was sent down and we were able to climb out. We came out with out a scrach. Later I realize how luckey, not luckey but how blessed we were to come out of this. People were talking about what IF's and any number of things could have gone wrong. I had a helmet cam on but it is too dark to see much but you can hear most of the audio. It was crazy to listen to what happend once we got back to the station. Thinking back I think of things I coud have done diffrent, but most of all I am thinkful for the quick actions of the crew and being blessed to be able to drive myself home the next morning once I got of shift. I still cant believe I did not get hurt.
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