Tuesday, May 1, 2012  One firefighter barely escaped a house fire he was fighting to try and save one man's life.

The fire in Paintsville killed 46-year-old John Meade, who was living in the home.

"It was just my turn for it to happen to," said Timothy Goble, the firefighter who survived.

The scene was what the fire chief considers intense as firefighters fought flames for one man's life and one of them for his own.

"My head was being torn between finding this guy but also trying to get out before I become another casualty before I become part of the problem rather a part of the solution," said Goble.

Unlike the man who lived in the burning home on Short Street, 24-year-old Goble made it out alive even after his mask and helmet fell off as he struggled to breathe.

"My eyes do have scratches. That's the reason I have to wear the glasses because without the glasses I can't open my eyes," said Goble.

His voice sounds a bit different and scratches and chemical burns impaired his vision leaving his left eye at only 40 percent and his right at about 60 percent.

"I know that anything can happen at any time. It's part of the job. It's a hazardous job," said Goble.

But Goble is not dwelling on his health rather the man who was not as lucky as he was.

"I do have some bad feelings like feelings against myself wishing that if we could have found him sooner and that he could have gotten himself outside that maybe we would have found him sooner, then maybe he would be alive today," said Goble.

The state fire marshal has determined the fire started in the utility room inside the home but is still investigating what started the blaze

Sunday, April 8, 2012  Thanks to Dave Statter www.Statter911.com for sharing this Close Call.

FDNY had a close call with a Propane Tank that exploded on the roof of a building during fire operations yesterday.

Check out the attached video.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012 
A Fire Fighter was injured yesterday at a townhouse fire in the City of Port Coquitlam, British Columbia. During the course of establishing a secondary egress, placing a ladder to second floor balcony as part of RIT duties, a 18" x 36" double glazed window and frame fell out of a third floor window on to the Fire Fighter's head and upper body. The Fire Fighter was transported to hospital with soft tissue neck injuries and a significant concussion.
He was later release and is now recovering at home.
All Fire Fighter PPE was worn by the Fire Fighter at the time of the accident.
His helmet prevented more serious injuries from occurring.

It should also be noted that he was operating on the non-fire side of the structure.
Upon checking for overhead hazards prior to raising ladder there were no signs of any hazard.
The window failed and fell out without warning.

Causal factors -
1. Building materials - poorly designed vinyl framed windows which failed due to interior heat.
2. Building Construction practices - window was poorly secured onto building.
3. Pressurization of fire floor due to fire control (steam)

Tuesday, March 27, 2012  On 20 May 2012, companies responded to a report of fire in a small single family dwelling. Upon arrival, it was determined that the fire was in a storage room on the rear of the 1000 square foot house. A primary search revealed light smoke conditions on the interior, but an inspection of the attic revealed extension into that space. The attack line was relocated to the interior as soon as the bulk of the fire was knocked down. One firefighter accessed the attic by the pull-down stairs and opened the nozzle to finish off the fire. When he did, the firefighter either lost his balance or a step broke under his weight. When he lost his balance, he lost his helmet, the line, (which became entangled in the neck strap of his face piece) and his face piece. There was still a large amount of heat in the attic and the firefighter tried to climb down, only to discover he was entangled in A/C duct reinforcement wire. High heat and smoke continued to push down out of the attic access hole. There were several firefighters already next to the entangled firefighter and rescue efforts commenced immediately. When it was discovered that the entangled firefighter's face piece was entangled, one of the firefighter's attempting the rescue took off his own mask and passed it up. After two or three minutes, the trapped firefighter was disentangled and taken out of the building. Both the trapped firefighter and the firefighter who surrendered his face piece were treated on the scene by EMS personnel already on standby. Neither firefighter had significant effects from the smoke exposure.


LESSONS LEARNED:
When accessing an attic space, do not rely on pull down stairs. Reinforce them with attic or folding ladders. When accessing an attic, do not enter it unless it has been ventilated. All firefighters should have tools in their pockets to use for disentanglement of themselves or fellow firefighters. Firefighters should resist the temptation of surrendering their own air supply for the benefit of a firefighter in distress. Crews should practice emergency air replacement and resupply, in tight quarters and with poor visibility, using tools available to them.

Sunday, March 25, 2012  On February 17 2012, at 0709 hrs the Moundsville VFD was alerted to respond to a structure fire with possible entrapment. Engine 501 was responding within 4 minutes with a crew of 4, followed by engine 501-2. Engine 501arrived on scene to find a 1 story residential, with one room content fire with extension to the front porch. Engine 501 deployed a 1 3/4 attack line into service and advised engine 501-2 to put a supply line on the ground from a nearby hydrant. Firefighters were confronted by law enforcement which they stated that 1 occupant was still in the structure. Units advised the responding Chief that units were going interior for a search and fire suppression. As Captain Daniel Holmes and FF Rusty Lightner were going across the front porch to make entry the porch roof collapsed on the knocking both unconscious. Lt. Jeff Henderson and 2 police officers were able to reach the down firefighter and remove them from under the roof and drag them to a safe area. Lt. Henderson issued a mayday and requested 3 ambulances and 3 other fire departments to respond. The two firefighters were taken to local hospitals and treated for concussion and back injuries. Both firefighters were off work for two weeks for treatment. The occupant did not survive.

Both firefighters did have full PPE on,
Enforce on every incident full PPE in to be worn by everyone.
Also the emotional effect it has on other firefighters.

Saturday, March 24, 2012  Upon arrival I failed to size up the scene and almost cost the lives of two firefighters and myself. The roof collapsed on us and two firefighters and myself were trapped plus another three firefighters almost dint make it back out as they were making entrance trough the front door as the roof was coming down.



Upon arrival the first thing to do is recognize the hazards that we will encounter conduct a 360 of the area and ensure that all information is passed down to the arriving companies.

Monday, March 19, 2012  Dispatched for smoke coming from the garage, we arrived on the scene of a 2 story SFD with an attached garage with heavy fire showing from the garage with extension to division 2. Both garage doors and the front door to the home were open upon my arrival. Just as we were about to make entry thru the front door with a charged hose line, a citizen, aprox 20 feet away was trying to tell me something, but I was too far away to hear him,I motioned for him to come to me and walked toward him, he advised me that everyone was out of the house. I communicated this information to my communications. This took about 10 seconds. I (OIC) was now ready to make entry with my crew,just about three feet from the front door, there was an explosion followed by a second explosion one to two seconds later with lots of debris flying out the front door at us. I turned my head, made sure my crew was safe. I heard something falling, couldn't tell if it was the house or something else. Side A was intact, when I walked around to side B, thats when I saw the Bravo wall had callapsed from division two and the cockloft. Side Delta had blown out aprox. nine inches with all the walls still intact.
If first due, Always perform a 360 of the structure. A lucky day for my crew and myself. If not for the citizen trying to tell me something that I couldn't hear prior to us going in saved our lives. (TEN SECONDS). TAKE YOUR TIME!

Monday, March 19, 2012  On Friday the 16th of March the Lake Twp Fire Dept from Wood County Ohio was called to a structure fire with flame showing. Engines from Lake Township and the surrounding area responded for a working fire. The fire source was a boat that exploded from being worked on by a mechanic. After the fire was brought under control. Fire fighters went into the attic space above the warehouse to search for fire extension. One of the Fire Fighters lost his footing and fell thru the ceiling. He was hanging on by his hands alone. He was over forty feet over the floor. Another Fire Fighter from Lake Township who probably weighs around 120 pounds came to his aid and grabbed the falling fire fighter by his air pack and prevented him from falling to certain injury or worst until other Fire fighters could bring ladders to safely bring the fallen Firemen down to be rehab. When asked what he did later by his Captain, his reply was "Just doing the job". The Captain was never more for lost for words and proud to have this young Fireman as member of his Fire Department.
Training brings you so far. Inner courage takes some to the place where some are called hero

Sunday, March 11, 2012  We were dispatched at 2359 hrs on a Sunday night to what was originally reported as an apartment building fire. Our engine arrived two find a three story ordinary construction, mixed occupancy (Union hall on the first floor and residential space on the second and third floors). Upon arrival flames and smoke were visible from the Delta side of the first division. The crew on the engine advanced a 1 ¾ line to the door on the delta side and forced entry to initiate fire attack. A short time later the operator of the engine radioed to dispatch reporting we have a man down. When asked over the radio for clarification of the problem from our ladder truck (now about half way to the scene) the engine operator stated that a FF ********* went threw the first floor and fell into the fire in the basement. Crews already on scene managed to place an attic ladder down into the whole in the floor and pull the firefighter out and onto the sidewalk where he was attended to by EMS. At this time all personnel were accounted for and a second fire attack and search and rescue operations were initiated. Reports of a civilian being trapped on the second division prompted the search crew to check that area first. Conditions were zero visibility and there was a high level of heat on the second division upon entry. The search team officer radioed command and requested vertical ventilation and a positive pressure fan to the apartment entry door on the A side of the building. Crews were having a hard time making headway of the fire on division one and quickly realized that the fire was being fed by a gas line in the basement. No gas meter was found outside (do to this being an older building the meter was located in the A-B corner of the basement. The search crew completed a primary search with no results and command once again spoke with by standers who stated that the occupants vehicle was parked outside and that he was not out yet. A secondary search crew was sent to the apartment in an attempt to locate the occupant. About 6 minutes later fire and smoke conditions worsened and the Incident Safety Officer made the call to pull all firefighters out of the building. It was realized at this time that a second larger gas line was ruptured by the falling floor that collapsed. The gas company rep could not immediately locate the curb valve to isolate the gas and a fire crew was able to make entry into the basement threw an exterior door and shut the gas off at the meter. At this time the remaining fire was extinguished. It was later discovered that the occupant of the apartment was vacationing in Italy at the time of the fire. As far as the firefighter that fell into the basement; he was the second man on the hoseline that was being led by a Lieutenant. The Lieutenant was sounding the floor and after he made it about three feet inside of the door he felt a soft spot on the floor and yelled hold on there is something not right with the floor to the firefighter. The firefighter stated that he could not hear what the Lieutenant had said so he leaned forward to ask him to repeat when the floor collapse sending him over top of the Lieutenant and into the hole. The Lieutenant was able to hang on and even tried to grab the firefighter as he fell but was unable to keep a hold of him.

Luck was on our side that night and both the Lieutenant and the Firefighter suffered only minor injuries and are back on the job. After the fire we determined what caused the floor to go out so quickly. The building was owned by the owners of a chain of restaurants and they were using the basement of the fire building as a commercial laundry mat for the linens used by the restaurants. The fire is believed to have originated in the area of the dryers and ruptured the gas line early on. The building was not equipment with a fire alarm or sprinklers and it is believed that the fire had been burning for sometime prior to being discovered.
-Communication is key to safety. -Never judge a book by its cover and always be prepared for out of the ordinary hazards. -Regular training and drills on proper search and fire attack techniques are needed to keep our skills sharp. –Don’t be afraid to use the terms mayday and firefighter down on the radio. -Utility control is always key in fire operations and may not always be accomplished easily. -Code enforcement and fire detection/suppression systems do save lives!

Thursday, February 23, 2012  On 2-12-2012 Charleston wv fire fighters were sent to 1525 Rambler Road for the house fire. While operating in a 2 story single family with a full basement a firefighter fell through the floor . Transported with a knee injury and minor burns. house was also a hoarder house and units were also short due to city cuts on manpower.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012  Gather round children, let me tell you a story, thought I would document this while it was still fresh in my mind..(not that im ever going to forget it)....so it was a normal day at work, just got done checking off the trucks, finished all the station duties, ate breakfast, and just sat down to watch the news. right when I go to lay back and relax in the recliner, the chime goes off..call comes in as a structure fire..not sure what kind yet..im thinking a regular old house fire..its close by (about 3 mins), so I have to quickly put my mask, gear and SCBA on. Im not too experienced and havnt done this long so I dont really know what to expect, as im frantically putting my gear on, I look over at bryan (a guy who has been a firefighter for about 5 years) and he has a look of concern and says "damn Zack, we got a big one!" so I stop what im doing for a second and look over and see a 4 story biulding, thats every bit of 100 years old, with smoke billowing out of the top windows. Its an old cigar factory..I thought to myself "HELL yeah!! this is what its all about! Excited and a little nervous I get out of the truck geared up, fully protected, and ready to go. I get orders from my captain telling me and bryan to check the top floor to see if we can see the fire, and if its small enough to put out with an extinguisher..grab a high rise pack(a hose line, an axe, and a haligan) and an extinguisher, and check it out. So we take the stairs and the more we go up the thicker the smoke gets we turn on our flashlights which doesnt help much, but its better than nothing..we get to the top floor, and its extremeley smokey. But no fire..we can kind of see so we walk straight in WITHOUT doing a left hand search (staying on the wall to the left the whole time) we were just searching for the glow of the fire..the deeper we went in, the thicker the smoke got, to the point where I couldnt see my hand a foot in front of my face..not seeing the fire and not really knowing where we were going. We decided this was pointless, its very dark and confusing..lets go back down and reassess the situation, get a ventilation fan, new airpacks(which at this point had about 25 mins left on them) and tell captain theres a lot of smoke and zero visibility. So we walked back to where we came from..or where we thought we came from, to try to find the stairwell...we found a wall.....kept feeling down the wall..found some sort of room..I grabbed onto bryans jacket and yelled, wheres the stairwell??...in a semi panicked, muffled voice, he yelled "man........I dont know".................at this point so much was going through my head..we're lost..we have 20 minutes of air left..if we run out of air we'll be dead in no time from smoke inhalation..its an old concrete building with one or two windows, but the windows are on the other side..its near impossible to break through a concrete wall..we could call a mayday, but we dont know where we're at on the top floor, so how would they find us....the thought crossed my mind, is this really how its going to end..........I felt helpless and for the first time I feared for my life....I said a sub-conscious prayer...tried not to panic, and we did all we could do, keep feeling down the wall until we find the stairwell..it has to be somewhere in this general area....so we kept shining our flashlights and after what felt like a lifetime..the longest 10 minutes of my life..I see a doorway and a railing, shining off of bryans light..and yell "THANK GOD"......we go down stairs, in silence..not sure what he was thinking but it had to be close to what I was thinking..DID THAT REALLY JUST HAPPEN.....I walked outside appreciating life and thanking god we made it out ok..took a 10 minute break and got back to work, eventually putting the fire out and ventilating the building, it was about a 4 hour ordeal for all of us..the cause of the fire was some guys were taking apart an old machine with blow torches and caught some old caked up tobacco on fire...but anyways, I will never forget this day. I learned some lessons and gained even more respect for everyone who does this job..after we were back at the station, when it was all said and done a veteran firefighter asked me with a smirk on his face "so do you still wana do this job"..my response...HELL YEAH!

Always stick to the wall or use a rope (which I carry with me now)and always safety first.

Thursday, February 16, 2012  Our dept was alerted to a structure fire at about 0230 hours. Upon arrival we found the attached picture. We were able to secure a quick knockdown. During overhaul, we noticed the front area above the garage doors sagging out a bit. We made note of it and decided to watch for further deterioration. After about 45 minutes into the incident, we had total failure of the front of the structure which resulted in collapse onto four of our firemen. They had to be transported but thankfully all have since been released from the hospital. This structure was showing weakening as I mentioned above but, as we hear time and time again in the fire service, it gave no notice or warning whatsoever before the total collapse. All men had their full PPE ensemble on; which I am certain saved at least one of the fireman's lives, if not all of them.

I am sure that we will critique this fire and find that we need to continually evaluate the risk vs benefit of every call much heavier than we currently do. Funny thing is, myself and an officer from one of the mutual aid companies discussed the fact that we should start operating out of the initial collapse zone as we knew we were saving nothing on this call. However, as what happens sometimes as you move into the overhaul stage, we felt a false sense of safety becuase the scene had basically been mitigated and we were just "moppping up". The structure decided otherwise and rather rudely let us know that safety has to be high priority at all stages until the trucks back into the station. Just thankful that it was not worse. We all still "went home".

Wednesday, February 8, 2012  While operating at an attic fire in a 6,400 square foot single family dwelling two close calls worth noting occurred. Background: Units went on scene with nothing showing. We had an audible water flow alarm from the sprinkler system, water coming out of the ceiling in the area of a fire place and a fire burning in the fire place. Initially the attic checked clear (unknown to the FF, there was a second, partitioned attic space that include the chimney chase) and the TIC didn't pick up heat. We think opening the attic scuttle introduced enough oxygen to get into the other attic space increasing the intensity of what was a deep seated, smoldering chimney chase fire. The FF in the main attic space called for and got a hoseline which he used to keep the fire from advancing into that space. At the same time crews were pulling additional attack lines to the second floor in preparation of pulling ceilings and to the roof for vertical ventilation. Only then was smoke now visible from the outside of the structure. As the first vent hole was going in we got heavy pressurized smoke. The Vent group felt they needed a bigger hole because solar panels restricted the first so they moved to the other side of the ridge. As this transpired, the smoke turned to heavy flame pushing out the vent hole. As the crew sounded to their spot the sounder reached back, handed off the rubbish hook and grabbed the saw from his officer. As he positioned to make a cut he fell through the roof; fortunately hitting an interior wall about four feet below the roof line. He was immediately pulled out and the roof was evacuated with no injuries. As ceiling were being pulled below and hose lines were being introduced the chimney, which consisted of stucco and brick facade failed. It tipped to one side and partially disappeared into the ceiling area. A communication was made that the chimney had failed and was in a precarious position. Crews pulling ceiling inside identified it and flagged it off as the fire was being extinguished. Ultimately the fire was held to the concealed, inaccessible attic void and the only injury was an unrelated ankle injury.

Lessons: Don't trust newer construction roof sheeting when you know you have significant heat and/or fire under it. 1/2" OSB is junk. Get your people off sooner under these circumstances. In retrospect the first hole would have been sufficient. I'd never given it much thought, but there's only a few studs holding up those (in some cases really heavy) ornate chimneys we see protruding out of homes. Weighing 500lbs. or more, they need to be considered as a fall potential in any attic fire and especially when the fire is suspected to be in the area of the chimney chase. Had the chimney not gotten hung up on an interior wall and fallen into the second floor where folks were operating it could have easily killed someone.

Thursday, December 29, 2011  At approximately 00:30 hours on Tuesday, September 20th, We responded to assist with a fire at a (3 story apartment complex). Lieutenant  lead his crew to the fourth floor where they located a male who had become lost and disoriented in the thick smoke. The LT and fire fighter  lead the man to the stairwell, while fire fighter  continued to search for a female who was said to be in one of the apartments on that floor. While leading the man to safety, the man became unconscious and collapsed, pinning The Lt in the stairwell. The fire fighter worked to free the LT and they were able to drag the man down to an exit. Having located the female while they were removing the male, fire fighter notified command and requested help to remove the woman to safety. Hearing the call for help, they returned to the fourth floor, along with Captain. The Captain had been part of the initial attack crew and was out of air. Together, the four fire fighters carried the unconscious woman from the fourth floor to awaiting medics at the rear entrance of the building


Lack of strong command, freelancing, and accountability played a part with the Captain returning into the building without ample air supply. Lack of company officer experience with the Lieutenant leaving his one of his guys alone to continue a search without notifying command. Lack of RIT and or manpower for a large scale incident. 

Tuesday, December 27, 2011  Nixa Fire Close Call At the staff level we preach train like you play. We all know it can feel a little silly during a training session. You are hot and sweaty in full gear all blacked out yelling fire department announcing your presence. For some of our younger members you may not know the purpose of this practice. Let me give you a real life story of training paying off. Recently C-Shift responded to a report of a flu fire in a ranch style home. Units arrived on scene and reported smoke and flames coming from the roof line around the flu. Normal tactics were employed of sending a crew to the roof. This was around 1730 hours on a weekday. The house was secure with no lights on and no cars in the driveway. The IC pounded on all doors both front and rear and got no answers. Neighbors checked the garage and found a vehicle. They stated that if a vehicle was there the people would be home. Now we had an attic fire with a rescue situation. Again the front door was pounded on with no response. Engine 2s crew was assigned to primary search. They had to force entry. The crew entered and announced themselves repeatedly by calling out fire department! They began their search in the bedroom areas. As the crew addressed the entry into the master bedroom they encountered a man holding a loaded weapon ready to take out the intruder.From the perspective of the homeowner; His wife just had surgery and he was very sick from a cold. They both had taken medication to help them sleep. He began hearing noises, but because of the medication could not process what was taking place or completely wake up. He recognized a pounding on the door and then heard a window crash. In fear of his life and property loaded his hand gun and prepared to defend his family. He stated that the only thing that really registered was hearing the loud yell of Fire Department. He said once he heard that he knew everything would be OK! It was at that same point that the crew entered the bedroom and observed him holding the handgun. This represents how all the factors of a situation were perfect for things to wrong and a tragedy happen. Our training and level of professionalism prevented a Chief Officer knocking on the door of a firefighters family and making a notification with the Chaplain.

Don't EVER take for granted the simple things you are asked to do in training. Trust that those with more experience, education and training are there to prevent bad things from happening.