At 4 am on Sunday we responded to an apartment fire. The fire building was divded in the middle by a garden level utility room with four mirrored appartments on each side, 2 up and 2 down. I’m usually very observant and cautious when I approach any fire building and I immediately noticed what I though was a fence gate or a wood cover that had been removed. It was on the ground a few feet from the fire building… Hatch1.jpg
After the fire was declared out I was standing next to it with an engine crew and noticed smoke coming from the cracks in the wood. I first thought that there must have been burning material between the grass and the wood. But when I shined my light at it, I could see a deep void charged with smoke below it. With it’s proximity to the utility room I figured it was a cellar that had been missed. The crew pulled it open and we had a return of hot steam… hatch2.jpg
As it turns out this was a 4-5 foot deep sprinkler control pit, full of pipes. With its poor construction, the weight of one or two firefighters could have easily lead to a nasty fall into a pipe filled sauna. It was the first time I or anyone else had seen something like this, hopefully others will find it beneficial.
