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What was your worst fire?
I want to know what your most miserable fire was to work at. Be it due to weather conditions, size of the fire, LODD, really anything that just made it stick in your mind as a fire you would just as soon never work at again.
Mine was a fully involved structure fire--the house/mansion was about 20,000 sq. feet. It was about a twenty mile drive for us and we were running mutual aid. To give you an idea of how big it was, IC called out a 5th alarm and a 4th tanker plan to which the dispatcher replied "command, you dont have a 4th tanker plan." lol
It was in the middle of January during a nasty northwest indiana winter. The air tempature was right around 0 without the windchill. Every hydrant we could find was frozen so we had to run tankers a good distance away from the fire to fill. Pumps froze, hoze froze, ff's were freezing lol, doors froze. After about 5 hours on scene, we were released by command, our 5" hose attached to the pump was literally frozen solid. We wanted to go soooo badly that my captain chopped the hoze in half with an axe (none of the saws would start) and we drove home with about a 2 foot section of frozen 5" still attached to the pump panel.
Mine was a fully involved structure fire--the house/mansion was about 20,000 sq. feet. It was about a twenty mile drive for us and we were running mutual aid. To give you an idea of how big it was, IC called out a 5th alarm and a 4th tanker plan to which the dispatcher replied "command, you dont have a 4th tanker plan." lol
It was in the middle of January during a nasty northwest indiana winter. The air tempature was right around 0 without the windchill. Every hydrant we could find was frozen so we had to run tankers a good distance away from the fire to fill. Pumps froze, hoze froze, ff's were freezing lol, doors froze. After about 5 hours on scene, we were released by command, our 5" hose attached to the pump was literally frozen solid. We wanted to go soooo badly that my captain chopped the hoze in half with an axe (none of the saws would start) and we drove home with about a 2 foot section of frozen 5" still attached to the pump panel.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John L. VanAuken on
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Well for me it would be two of them, one was when the Bio Deisel Plant exploded, killing one. Two being an extrication, the person driving was already dead but still needed to be cut out. Five mins after our chief got on scene the car burst into flames, we arrive shortly after, put car and semi truck out then the task of recovery, seems like I remember the extrication one most. You are right you dont forget the bad ones, and you also learn from them as well.
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Permalink Reply by Smoke Eater on
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Mine was a 2 story fully involved house with a fatality. The call came in around 2 a.m. as a porch fire. On my way to the station I could see it was definately not a porch at all. I was on the first in engine with my little brother and 6 other guys. My Lt. looked at me and said "Grab the hydrant". My brother got to make entry on the initial attack. He and my Lt. crawled right over the guy 10 ft. from the back door. It was my brother's first fatality and it hit him pretty hard. As for me, I had forgotten to put on a pair of socks when I left for the call so after about 9 hrs. of walking around in my gear, I had some really nasty, painful blisters on my feet. Definately learned a lesson that night. This is my worst call because of the not wearing socks and the fact that my little brother had to be the one to find this guy so close to the door.
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Permalink Reply by Chad Furr on
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Not much of a fire but was -20 wind chill and all the trucks froze up.
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Permalink Reply by Justin Allen on
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i have two for two different reasons.
1) the first house fire i ever worked, we roll up and it's about 50% involved. we get out, start laying hose, and the neighbor comes up screaming at the top of her lungs that there's kids and their grandmother in there. so we run to the back door, hoseline in hand and try to force the door. no joy. time for ole mr. halligan. while we're doing this the neighbor tells us she talked to the homeowner who said all the kids were out but the grandma is still there. As the door is falling from being pried open, it falls at an angle, over the grandma, about 3 feet from the door. Being my first fire, i was stuck hauling hose. I was the closest person to the team, so I get handed the woman to carry out of the hot zone. as some of you have said, that is a smell you never forget.
2) I know for some of you guys, 15-20 degrees is fairly warm, but in Mississippi, where the average December temp is around 60, that's pretty freaking cold. So it was, a chilly 18, the night a 4500 sq.ft. house went up in our district. tones went out around 11p. This house happened to be on one of those dreaded mile long pig trail driveways, so we had to call a 3rd due to assist w/ water shuttle. We ended up with our engine w/ all but 100' of supply line pulled, our 2nd due supplying us w/ about 1/2 of theirs pulled, and the 3rd due, hooked up to the dump tank, supplying them with about 100' pulled. I we worked for about 5 hrs. trying to overhaul this formerly 2 story brick, covered with 40 ft. sections of the heaviest tin roofing money could buy. We were finally able to go home after breaking the frozen hose couplings, re-racking the frozen hose, and breaking the 2in. of ice off of the running boards.
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Permalink Reply by Mick Shelley on
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Last night,I burned my steak on the grill, I was pissed
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Permalink Reply by Cassie on
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Worst fire...
-15°F and breezy.
All exterior work
Hoses freezing
Regulators freezing to masks, or freezing open/shut.
Icicles forming on your nose
And it wasn't even much of a fire... someone threw burning material out into the snow and it caught the wooden porch on fire and singed the edge of the house. Wading around in a lot of junk, but only space for a couple people to work at a time. So most of us were standing around loosing sensation in our extremities.... brrrr.....
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Permalink Reply by Robert Stewart on
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Worst RCR: Car vs Tree fatality/incineration
The worst fire i've been too was at a local timber mill in a nearby town on a Saturday morning, whilst driving to town for abit of shopping i spotted black smoke coming from the boiler stacks but on further investigation it turned out to be a pine drying shed well alight on hearing the neighbouring brigade's station siren sounding for more crew
After doing a quick U-Turn i sped home grabbed my turn out gear and headed down the station where on arrival everyone was getting ready with the truck already half out of the shed after getting dressed quickly we rolled priority 1 to the Mill on arrival there were already 4 trucks on scene
After several hours the fire was finally out but we had to remain on scene until fire cause investigators arrived and determined how this fire started
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