Chapter Two
Like every morning that he is on shift, Chris walked into the fire house about an hour early on Friday so that he could confer with the company officers of the opposing shift, and the other officers on his shift to go over work orders, after action reviews of any calls etc. This not only gave him a heads up on things, it also allowed him to brief his crew better and keep things running smoothly from the day before. After the meeting was over, he headed down the hall from the day room to the chiefs office.
“Hey Chief, got a minute?”
“Sure, you got an answer for me from the other day?”
“Yes sir I do. I talked it over with my wife and I’m going to accept the responsibilities of Emergency Management Officer and also go to that meeting in Charleston.”
“Excellent! I’m really glad you decided to. I’ve got an email here from the EM director for the state with what all is going to be discussed at the meeting. I’ll forward it to your email so that you can review it. Sound good?”
“Yep, I appreciate it Chief, and I’ll do my best.”
“I know you will.”
Chris walked back to the shift officer’s office and sat down at the Lieutenant desk and fired up the computer to check his email. After clearing some city wide emails out, he settled in to read the email from the Emergency Management Director for the state of West Virginia, Peter Hahn.
To all participating individuals,
First, I would like to thank you all for your interest and willingness to participate in this statewide meeting. We here in Charleston hope that this meeting will assist our different departments and agencies in coordinating and responding to a variety of different emergency situations within our state so that we can be of greater utility and help to the people we serve to protect.
Agencies that will definitely have representatives are: West Virginia State Police, West Virginia Department of Energy, West Virginia University Fire Service Extension, State EMS Director, West Virginia Department of Homeland Security and many others. All fire departments, emergency medical companies, police, public works etc. are encouraged to attend.
Speakers at this meeting, will be amongst others; Michael Pratt of the Dept. of Energy, Special Agent Peter Schultz of the FBI, James Yang of the CDC, Agent Arthur Briggsley of the ATF, and many others. Topics will be: Security and Response to Nuclear Terrorism, Response to Pandemics, Roundhouse on Domestic Terrorism, Drug Enforcement and Response to Drug Related Emergencies, and many others.
This is a large, multiple day event and will hopefully assist us all in our ability to serve the people in West Virginia. Again, thank you all for your interest and participation.
Signed,
Peter Hahn
Chris sat back and started running through his mind what all he’d need to take with him to Charleston. He figured on wearing his class b work uniform since it was “dressy” enough due to his being a truck officer, the uniform consisted of blue EMS pants, button up Brookstown Fire Department shirt and station boots. He also planned on taking his BoB and at a minimum his Glock 36 .45 caliber compact, he decided to run the idea of taking his shotgun past Morgan when he got home next morning.
After a surprisingly quiet shift, of only running one EMS assist, Chris headed home and pulled into the car port at a quarter past 7, greeted voraciously by him and Morgan’s one year old Akita, Huckleberry, and their two year old English Mastiff, Tipper. They had gotten their Akita when it was about 6 months old, Morgan really liked this breed and Chris had agreed because they were loyal, intelligent and very protective of their “family” and territory. They had gotten the Mastiff because it is a huge breed, protective of master and territory, good with kids, and in general, very gentle.
Chris walked in the house and checked the refrigerator to see if Morgan had left any notes or shopping lists for him to take care of while she was at work, seeing none, he walked back to their joint office and sat down to look over his “to do” list. With spring being there…it was a loooong list. The priority items at the top of the list were to repair the roof and add some interior dividing walls and exterior windows to the barn, add-on a chicken coop and run, and build a goat shed.
The house was positioned facing to the east towards the road about 300 yards away down a tree and bush lined gravel driveway that curved up in front of the house, but also broke off and went around the northern side of the house to the main door of the barn which was about 50 yards from the house. The barn was of the old style wood construction with a good sized hayloft, it also faced east. Access was through two large swinging doors at both ends and a few normal doors on the side closest to the house. On the right side of the barn as you walked in from the driveway was an area that had been set up for dairy cows, including a pen area for the cows to stay in during inclement weather and also a milking room. Farther down past the cattle section was an open area that Chris wanted to turn into a couple stalls for horses. The rest of the barn had been used as a parking location for the tractor and miscellaneous farm implements by the prior owner. Since the Dawson’s did not own a large tractor, Chris planned on re-configuring the open area and adding a couple interior walls to make a tool room, and supply room, while leaving room to park his Dad’s old 1964 Ford Model 41303-D Tractor, brush-hog, and a couple farming implements.
On the southwest corner of the barn, Chris and Morgan planned on adding a chicken coop with access either from inside the barn proper, or through a door on the outside. They planned on making it big enough for about 20-30 hens and 1-2 roosters. A goat shed was going to be built close to the backside of the barn, the challenge being where to let them feed. They settled on dividing up their pasture-land into segments and then rotating the animals to allow for better pasture management. They also decided to use the dairy room in the barn as their cow and goat milking room for ease of use and to save the cost of building an extra room on the goat shed. This decision led Chris to leave one stall in the barn for use as a milking goat stall after a goat gave birth.
After looking over the “To Do List”, Chris settled on framing in all the rooms and stalls in the barn. Since he’d already sawn enough lumber for the project he figured he could get the framing done in a day. On his next 5 day off from work rotation coming up in about a week he planned on re-roofing the barn, and possibly doing the work on the windows if he had time after the roof was finished. With the weather cooperating and a little help from Morgan when she arrived home at 4 o’clock they were easily able to get all the framing done. Since he was on shift the next day, they planned on finishing the walls on Sunday since they were both off work.
Just as they were finishing up supper, the phone rang, “Hello?” Morgan answered. A couple seconds later, “Chris it’s for you, he says to tell you it’s Red.” Morgan said, slightly confused.
Chris started smiling and took the phone. “Red, you sunofagun, how the hell have you been!?” After about 20 minutes on the phone Chris hung up and turned to Morgan, “That was Brent “Red” McMullan, one of my best friends from high school. You’ve heard me talk about him, but I never called him by his nickname. We’ve kept in touch over the years but I haven’t heard from him in about two…not since right before we got married.”
“What’d he want?” Morgan asked.
“Well, the last I heard from him, he was headed to SFAS, or Special Forces Assessment and Selection with the army, I guess he made it through that and earned his green beret and just got back from his latest deployment. He’s home on leave before he reports back to Fort Campbell and he wants to hook up and grab lunch sometime while he’s in. I told him, that instead of lunch he should just come over Sunday.”
“Chris! You are not going to put your friend who is home on LEAVE, to work.” Morgan said with a laugh.
“Darn right I am.” Chris replied laughing. He and Morgan went about cleaning up from supper and then Chris sat down and started looking over the list of animals that they wanted on their homestead.
Chickens:
Silver Laced Wyandottes – Heavy, hardy breed. Good egg laying and meat birds. Stand up to cold well. x9 hens + 1 Rooster
Buff Orpingtons – Heavy, hardy breed. Heavy plumage makes them good winter layers. Meat and eggs. x9 hens + 1 Rooster
Barred Rocks – Egg and Meat. Good winter layers. x9 hens + 1 Rooster
Goats:
Alpine – Excellent milk producers. x3 = 2 does, 1 buck
Toggenburgs – Excellent milk producers. x2 = does
Cattle:
Jersey – Gentle, good creamy milk producer. x2 = cows
Black Angus – Meat. x5 cows, 1 bull
Horses:
x2 Mustang – Quarter Horse mixes
After reading over the list and not seeing anything they needed to add just yet, Chris headed to bed.
*************************************************************
The next morning dawned overcast with some rain and the possibility of thunderstorms in the forecast. Chris arrived at work and started his crew on rope rescue training at about 8am, rain starting to come down and the sky darker than normal as storms started to roll in from the west. At 9, he re-called everyone inside due to lightning being within 5 miles and set everyone to work on their books for Rescue Technician 1.
BADABEEPBEEPBEEP – pagers and the station alarm went off, “Engine 9, Rescue 2, Quint 1, Medic 4 First alarm assignment, Box 3042. Report of a fire on the 2nd story of the apartment building. Repeating, Engine 9, Rescue 2, Quint 1, Medic 4 Respond First alarm assignment Box 3042. Report of a fire on the 2nd story of the apartment building.
Firefighters ran to their gear, throwing it on in the smooth speed of lots of training and experience. Jumping on the trucks, Engine 9 was the first out of the bays, its Federal Q siren winding up into its long piercing cry, the lights from the lightbar flashing and reflecting off of road signs and windows. “Dispatch, Engine 9, Rescue 2, Quint 1, and Medic 4 are responding to Box Alarm 3042 on the reported apartment fire.” Chris spoke calmly into the mic.
“Copy all units responding at 0923. Additional information, PD on scene reporting flames showing from the 2nd story, no persons trapped.”
“Copy information.” Chris turned in his seat and said to the firefighters in back, “Remember your training. We’re all going home today.” A chorus of agreements followed as the guys shrugged into their seat-mounted Self Contained Breathing Apparatus, SCBA’s. Brian Simpson grunted as he cinched his straps down, “Hell of a day to fight a fire, we ain’t doing anything when we get back, right ell tee?”
Chris smiled a little and said, “Probably not.” As thoughts of what he would find on scene rolled through his head. “Clear right.” He said to the driver as they slowed to a stop at a red light.
“Thanks.” Michael Capeano the 18 year veteran driver said as he executed the turn and accelerated. “We got smoke showing.”
“I see it.” Chris said, glancing up ahead through the windshield. The truck rounded the curve and they were in sight of the scene. As they pulled up to a hydrant about a 100 feet from the front of the building, Chris keyed his mic, “Dispatch and all responding units, Engine 9 is on scene and establishing command. We have a 2 story residential apartment building involved on the 2nd story A side, flames showing through the windows, roof is not involved at this time. Exposures are in danger on the B and D sides. Engine 9 will be laying out from the hydrant at Smith and 2nd street.”
“Dispatch copies information. Engine 9 is Box 3042 Command. 0926 hrs.”
As the radio traffic was going on, the plugman jumped out wrapped the hose around the hydrant and then gave the signal and the truck pulled down in front of the building, laying out the supply line. After hooking to the hydrant and turning it on, the plugman then moved up to the truck and assisted in pulling the attack lines off the truck. By that time Rescue 2 and Quint 1 were both on scene and had reported to command. Chris had the Incident Command board out and as firefighters checked in with him to receive assignments he collected their accountability tags off the backs of they’re helmets. Since he didn’t want anyone on the roof due to the rain making it very slick, Quint 1 was assigned to exposure protection. Rescue 2 was assigned the job of Rapid Intervention, or RIT team, and Engine 9 was given the job of interior attack. With a plan now in place, the different crews began moving off to their respective assignments.
The first snag was encountered when the guys from Engine 9 tried to open the front door. Since it was a center door into a hallway/entry way for access to the different apartments, it opened inward. After trying the door and finding it locked, they then proceeded to attempt forcible entry. It wouldn’t budge. They then proceeded to cut the door with a chainsaw. Upon getting it open they found that someone had nailed boards over the door from the inside. Upon relaying this tidbit of information to command, they moved up the stairs checking doors as they went until they found the fire door. Opening the door, they found an apartment fully engulfed. The ceiling had already come down, which they relayed to Chris who was watching as the fire started moving faster with the wind as the fire began venting through the roof.
Chris made a tough call over the radio, “All interior units back out, Quint 1 will be taking over from the exterior. Break, 3042 Command to dispatch, can you strike out a 2nd alarm assignment, and a Chief Officer please, we have a possible arson fire and due to structural integrity issues we will be switching to defensive posture. Exposures are also becoming involved.”
“Dispatch copies information.” Chris listened as dispatch struck out a 2nd alarm – “Engine 8, Engine 7, Quint 2, Battalion 1, 2nd alarm assignment, Box 3042 on a possible apartment arson fire exposures becoming involved.”
As the 2nd alarm units started going en-route, Chris turned his attention to current operations. Engine 9’s crew had pulled out and was changing bottles on their SCBA’s while Rescue 2's guys worked on lobbing water up on the exposed buildings next to the apartment building. Quint 1 raised its ladder and a firefighter started shooting water from its master stream nozzle onto the fire from above. As other units started arriving, crews from the additional engines started hitting the fire from the hallway on the interior, as the new quint also raised its ladder and started lobbing water from above. Battalion Chief Rich Hundley assumed command, but kept Chris as his operations officer. Approximately 3 hours after the first units had arrived on scene, the fire was declared out and overhaul and investigation began.
The Fire Marshal put on an SCBA and went in with the crews doing overhaul so that he could get a look at the scene before they started ripping things apart looking for any hidden fires. Seeing the door nailed shut, multiple problems with other doors, rapid fire spread, and signs of accelerant use which caused it to be difficult to control the spread, the fire marshal ruled it an arson fire and began the process of figuring out who started the fire.
Chris and his crew cleared the scene about 5 hours after the initial call had come out. Keeping in mind that once fire units leave a scene, it’s no longer their scene to investigate, and can cause a breakdown in the chain of evidence, the department inspection truck was brought down and manned by 1 firefighter to maintain scene control and possession. The rest of the crews returned to the station to clean up and put the trucks back in full service. After that was done everyone met in the training room for a After Action Review and debriefing, and then they ate and relaxed for the rest of the day, running only once more on a diabetic emergency EMS assist.
Like every morning that he is on shift, Chris walked into the fire house about an hour early on Friday so that he could confer with the company officers of the opposing shift, and the other officers on his shift to go over work orders, after action reviews of any calls etc. This not only gave him a heads up on things, it also allowed him to brief his crew better and keep things running smoothly from the day before. After the meeting was over, he headed down the hall from the day room to the chiefs office.
“Hey Chief, got a minute?”
“Sure, you got an answer for me from the other day?”
“Yes sir I do. I talked it over with my wife and I’m going to accept the responsibilities of Emergency Management Officer and also go to that meeting in Charleston.”
“Excellent! I’m really glad you decided to. I’ve got an email here from the EM director for the state with what all is going to be discussed at the meeting. I’ll forward it to your email so that you can review it. Sound good?”
“Yep, I appreciate it Chief, and I’ll do my best.”
“I know you will.”
Chris walked back to the shift officer’s office and sat down at the Lieutenant desk and fired up the computer to check his email. After clearing some city wide emails out, he settled in to read the email from the Emergency Management Director for the state of West Virginia, Peter Hahn.
To all participating individuals,
First, I would like to thank you all for your interest and willingness to participate in this statewide meeting. We here in Charleston hope that this meeting will assist our different departments and agencies in coordinating and responding to a variety of different emergency situations within our state so that we can be of greater utility and help to the people we serve to protect.
Agencies that will definitely have representatives are: West Virginia State Police, West Virginia Department of Energy, West Virginia University Fire Service Extension, State EMS Director, West Virginia Department of Homeland Security and many others. All fire departments, emergency medical companies, police, public works etc. are encouraged to attend.
Speakers at this meeting, will be amongst others; Michael Pratt of the Dept. of Energy, Special Agent Peter Schultz of the FBI, James Yang of the CDC, Agent Arthur Briggsley of the ATF, and many others. Topics will be: Security and Response to Nuclear Terrorism, Response to Pandemics, Roundhouse on Domestic Terrorism, Drug Enforcement and Response to Drug Related Emergencies, and many others.
This is a large, multiple day event and will hopefully assist us all in our ability to serve the people in West Virginia. Again, thank you all for your interest and participation.
Signed,
Peter Hahn
Chris sat back and started running through his mind what all he’d need to take with him to Charleston. He figured on wearing his class b work uniform since it was “dressy” enough due to his being a truck officer, the uniform consisted of blue EMS pants, button up Brookstown Fire Department shirt and station boots. He also planned on taking his BoB and at a minimum his Glock 36 .45 caliber compact, he decided to run the idea of taking his shotgun past Morgan when he got home next morning.
After a surprisingly quiet shift, of only running one EMS assist, Chris headed home and pulled into the car port at a quarter past 7, greeted voraciously by him and Morgan’s one year old Akita, Huckleberry, and their two year old English Mastiff, Tipper. They had gotten their Akita when it was about 6 months old, Morgan really liked this breed and Chris had agreed because they were loyal, intelligent and very protective of their “family” and territory. They had gotten the Mastiff because it is a huge breed, protective of master and territory, good with kids, and in general, very gentle.
Chris walked in the house and checked the refrigerator to see if Morgan had left any notes or shopping lists for him to take care of while she was at work, seeing none, he walked back to their joint office and sat down to look over his “to do” list. With spring being there…it was a loooong list. The priority items at the top of the list were to repair the roof and add some interior dividing walls and exterior windows to the barn, add-on a chicken coop and run, and build a goat shed.
The house was positioned facing to the east towards the road about 300 yards away down a tree and bush lined gravel driveway that curved up in front of the house, but also broke off and went around the northern side of the house to the main door of the barn which was about 50 yards from the house. The barn was of the old style wood construction with a good sized hayloft, it also faced east. Access was through two large swinging doors at both ends and a few normal doors on the side closest to the house. On the right side of the barn as you walked in from the driveway was an area that had been set up for dairy cows, including a pen area for the cows to stay in during inclement weather and also a milking room. Farther down past the cattle section was an open area that Chris wanted to turn into a couple stalls for horses. The rest of the barn had been used as a parking location for the tractor and miscellaneous farm implements by the prior owner. Since the Dawson’s did not own a large tractor, Chris planned on re-configuring the open area and adding a couple interior walls to make a tool room, and supply room, while leaving room to park his Dad’s old 1964 Ford Model 41303-D Tractor, brush-hog, and a couple farming implements.
On the southwest corner of the barn, Chris and Morgan planned on adding a chicken coop with access either from inside the barn proper, or through a door on the outside. They planned on making it big enough for about 20-30 hens and 1-2 roosters. A goat shed was going to be built close to the backside of the barn, the challenge being where to let them feed. They settled on dividing up their pasture-land into segments and then rotating the animals to allow for better pasture management. They also decided to use the dairy room in the barn as their cow and goat milking room for ease of use and to save the cost of building an extra room on the goat shed. This decision led Chris to leave one stall in the barn for use as a milking goat stall after a goat gave birth.
After looking over the “To Do List”, Chris settled on framing in all the rooms and stalls in the barn. Since he’d already sawn enough lumber for the project he figured he could get the framing done in a day. On his next 5 day off from work rotation coming up in about a week he planned on re-roofing the barn, and possibly doing the work on the windows if he had time after the roof was finished. With the weather cooperating and a little help from Morgan when she arrived home at 4 o’clock they were easily able to get all the framing done. Since he was on shift the next day, they planned on finishing the walls on Sunday since they were both off work.
Just as they were finishing up supper, the phone rang, “Hello?” Morgan answered. A couple seconds later, “Chris it’s for you, he says to tell you it’s Red.” Morgan said, slightly confused.
Chris started smiling and took the phone. “Red, you sunofagun, how the hell have you been!?” After about 20 minutes on the phone Chris hung up and turned to Morgan, “That was Brent “Red” McMullan, one of my best friends from high school. You’ve heard me talk about him, but I never called him by his nickname. We’ve kept in touch over the years but I haven’t heard from him in about two…not since right before we got married.”
“What’d he want?” Morgan asked.
“Well, the last I heard from him, he was headed to SFAS, or Special Forces Assessment and Selection with the army, I guess he made it through that and earned his green beret and just got back from his latest deployment. He’s home on leave before he reports back to Fort Campbell and he wants to hook up and grab lunch sometime while he’s in. I told him, that instead of lunch he should just come over Sunday.”
“Chris! You are not going to put your friend who is home on LEAVE, to work.” Morgan said with a laugh.
“Darn right I am.” Chris replied laughing. He and Morgan went about cleaning up from supper and then Chris sat down and started looking over the list of animals that they wanted on their homestead.
Chickens:
Silver Laced Wyandottes – Heavy, hardy breed. Good egg laying and meat birds. Stand up to cold well. x9 hens + 1 Rooster
Buff Orpingtons – Heavy, hardy breed. Heavy plumage makes them good winter layers. Meat and eggs. x9 hens + 1 Rooster
Barred Rocks – Egg and Meat. Good winter layers. x9 hens + 1 Rooster
Goats:
Alpine – Excellent milk producers. x3 = 2 does, 1 buck
Toggenburgs – Excellent milk producers. x2 = does
Cattle:
Jersey – Gentle, good creamy milk producer. x2 = cows
Black Angus – Meat. x5 cows, 1 bull
Horses:
x2 Mustang – Quarter Horse mixes
After reading over the list and not seeing anything they needed to add just yet, Chris headed to bed.
*************************************************************
The next morning dawned overcast with some rain and the possibility of thunderstorms in the forecast. Chris arrived at work and started his crew on rope rescue training at about 8am, rain starting to come down and the sky darker than normal as storms started to roll in from the west. At 9, he re-called everyone inside due to lightning being within 5 miles and set everyone to work on their books for Rescue Technician 1.
BADABEEPBEEPBEEP – pagers and the station alarm went off, “Engine 9, Rescue 2, Quint 1, Medic 4 First alarm assignment, Box 3042. Report of a fire on the 2nd story of the apartment building. Repeating, Engine 9, Rescue 2, Quint 1, Medic 4 Respond First alarm assignment Box 3042. Report of a fire on the 2nd story of the apartment building.
Firefighters ran to their gear, throwing it on in the smooth speed of lots of training and experience. Jumping on the trucks, Engine 9 was the first out of the bays, its Federal Q siren winding up into its long piercing cry, the lights from the lightbar flashing and reflecting off of road signs and windows. “Dispatch, Engine 9, Rescue 2, Quint 1, and Medic 4 are responding to Box Alarm 3042 on the reported apartment fire.” Chris spoke calmly into the mic.
“Copy all units responding at 0923. Additional information, PD on scene reporting flames showing from the 2nd story, no persons trapped.”
“Copy information.” Chris turned in his seat and said to the firefighters in back, “Remember your training. We’re all going home today.” A chorus of agreements followed as the guys shrugged into their seat-mounted Self Contained Breathing Apparatus, SCBA’s. Brian Simpson grunted as he cinched his straps down, “Hell of a day to fight a fire, we ain’t doing anything when we get back, right ell tee?”
Chris smiled a little and said, “Probably not.” As thoughts of what he would find on scene rolled through his head. “Clear right.” He said to the driver as they slowed to a stop at a red light.
“Thanks.” Michael Capeano the 18 year veteran driver said as he executed the turn and accelerated. “We got smoke showing.”
“I see it.” Chris said, glancing up ahead through the windshield. The truck rounded the curve and they were in sight of the scene. As they pulled up to a hydrant about a 100 feet from the front of the building, Chris keyed his mic, “Dispatch and all responding units, Engine 9 is on scene and establishing command. We have a 2 story residential apartment building involved on the 2nd story A side, flames showing through the windows, roof is not involved at this time. Exposures are in danger on the B and D sides. Engine 9 will be laying out from the hydrant at Smith and 2nd street.”
“Dispatch copies information. Engine 9 is Box 3042 Command. 0926 hrs.”
As the radio traffic was going on, the plugman jumped out wrapped the hose around the hydrant and then gave the signal and the truck pulled down in front of the building, laying out the supply line. After hooking to the hydrant and turning it on, the plugman then moved up to the truck and assisted in pulling the attack lines off the truck. By that time Rescue 2 and Quint 1 were both on scene and had reported to command. Chris had the Incident Command board out and as firefighters checked in with him to receive assignments he collected their accountability tags off the backs of they’re helmets. Since he didn’t want anyone on the roof due to the rain making it very slick, Quint 1 was assigned to exposure protection. Rescue 2 was assigned the job of Rapid Intervention, or RIT team, and Engine 9 was given the job of interior attack. With a plan now in place, the different crews began moving off to their respective assignments.
The first snag was encountered when the guys from Engine 9 tried to open the front door. Since it was a center door into a hallway/entry way for access to the different apartments, it opened inward. After trying the door and finding it locked, they then proceeded to attempt forcible entry. It wouldn’t budge. They then proceeded to cut the door with a chainsaw. Upon getting it open they found that someone had nailed boards over the door from the inside. Upon relaying this tidbit of information to command, they moved up the stairs checking doors as they went until they found the fire door. Opening the door, they found an apartment fully engulfed. The ceiling had already come down, which they relayed to Chris who was watching as the fire started moving faster with the wind as the fire began venting through the roof.
Chris made a tough call over the radio, “All interior units back out, Quint 1 will be taking over from the exterior. Break, 3042 Command to dispatch, can you strike out a 2nd alarm assignment, and a Chief Officer please, we have a possible arson fire and due to structural integrity issues we will be switching to defensive posture. Exposures are also becoming involved.”
“Dispatch copies information.” Chris listened as dispatch struck out a 2nd alarm – “Engine 8, Engine 7, Quint 2, Battalion 1, 2nd alarm assignment, Box 3042 on a possible apartment arson fire exposures becoming involved.”
As the 2nd alarm units started going en-route, Chris turned his attention to current operations. Engine 9’s crew had pulled out and was changing bottles on their SCBA’s while Rescue 2's guys worked on lobbing water up on the exposed buildings next to the apartment building. Quint 1 raised its ladder and a firefighter started shooting water from its master stream nozzle onto the fire from above. As other units started arriving, crews from the additional engines started hitting the fire from the hallway on the interior, as the new quint also raised its ladder and started lobbing water from above. Battalion Chief Rich Hundley assumed command, but kept Chris as his operations officer. Approximately 3 hours after the first units had arrived on scene, the fire was declared out and overhaul and investigation began.
The Fire Marshal put on an SCBA and went in with the crews doing overhaul so that he could get a look at the scene before they started ripping things apart looking for any hidden fires. Seeing the door nailed shut, multiple problems with other doors, rapid fire spread, and signs of accelerant use which caused it to be difficult to control the spread, the fire marshal ruled it an arson fire and began the process of figuring out who started the fire.
Chris and his crew cleared the scene about 5 hours after the initial call had come out. Keeping in mind that once fire units leave a scene, it’s no longer their scene to investigate, and can cause a breakdown in the chain of evidence, the department inspection truck was brought down and manned by 1 firefighter to maintain scene control and possession. The rest of the crews returned to the station to clean up and put the trucks back in full service. After that was done everyone met in the training room for a After Action Review and debriefing, and then they ate and relaxed for the rest of the day, running only once more on a diabetic emergency EMS assist.
