On Sept. 17 2008, my paid department ( E-90) along with two volly houses (20 & 60) were called for a house fire, 90 was the first engine to arrive with a crew of four, (along with a chase car with two guys) the crew chief gave report of a two story split foyer with light smoke showing from the roof myself (hook seat) and my partner (pipeman seat) made entry through side A , as we opened the front door we encountered heavy black smoke only from the second floor, the basement area apperaed clear from where we were. As we started up the steps the you could feel the heat getting worse as we progressed I seareched the room for trapment but rooms were clear,(with an imager) we started back the hallway ( top of steps to the right) the imager showed a small fire area in C/D corner, as we progressed in the hall my partner just fell through the floor, I was unknow to this because it was so thick you could not see your hand on your face mask, as I felt around for him calling his name, I heard him screaming he was on fire! I grabed him by his pack straps and began pulling upward, at this time some fire broke loose and came out of two bedrooms on either side of him and started burning him. I was unable to pull him out the first couple of times because he was stuck between floors, and when I would pull upward the floor just kept going, as I called MAYDAY I had to let go of him and grab the nozzel so I could wet him down and try to knock the fire back long enough to get him out. My crew chief then came crawling back the hall to assist us when I was able to get my partner up out of the floor.

Once he was up we were able to back out of the hall and get outside. Once we were outside I noticed we were still the only ones on scene and the two from the chase car had not even packed up yet, a second engine arrived driver only and then our Air National Guard F.D. arrived with a crew of four to assist. Once we were accounted for, my crew chief and the chase car crew then re entered the house trying to place a stop on the fire, the crew chief encountered burns to his knees from crawling, as he backed up and went to double check the basement he got hung up and fell down the steps hurting his lower back. We then moved to defensive attack mode where I placed a 14ft. through side A/D window and allowed the fire to fully vent and take off showing that it was in three different rooms on the second floor, at this time my partner,crew chief and myself were rushed to the local hospital for lower back pain -( crew chief) burns to arms and hands-( partner) and myself for lower back pain and strained ribs. The burned fireman was placed off work due to 3rd degree burns and is coming back to shift on Dec.1 2008, the crew chief and myseld returned to work two days later.

The reason he fell was because there was a hole in the hallway that extented from side A to side C leaving no floor in the two front bedroom the, rear master bed and bath, and the hallway bath.
The fire was believed to had started in the master bath, some how the fire burned down got between floors and burned this big hole in the floor well before units arrived.

This was the first MAYDAY called in our county. It was just one of things were your doing your job and all everything goes right to shit, our county has been in a fuss over placing paid staff on 24/7 but the county wants to stay fully volunteer but still raise the fire fees. Now I am a strong volunteer in my county which I also work for, but we only work M-F 6a-6p, with a crew of four, the county says we are here to support the volunteers during the daytime, well this works most of the time, except that we were the first on scene from a 10 minute ride, and was still the only engine 14 minutes later.
So we asked, if we are here to support the volly companies who supports us when we are the only ones there? I was then told by our county gov. that this would be looked into, well I guess its one of those things where someone has to die before anything is changed.

This was my close call, and I wish everyony one you a safe fight on your next job,