Working Incident

THE LEITHSVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA, FIREHOUSE in Northampton County is on fire this afternoon after a dump truck crashed into the building around 1 pm.

Allentown Morning Call

The Allentown Morning Call is reporting:

The three-alarm fire, reported around 1 p.m. Thursday, has firefighters from mutual aid stations in Northampton, Bucks and Lehigh counties responding with tanker trucks to bring water to the fire.

Firefighters on scene initially reported flames from three of the four bays of the fire station at 1995 Leithsville Road, which is Route 412 in Lower Saucon Township.

Emergency radio dispatches said there is at least one burn victim and the fire has spread to the entire building. A social banquet hall on the property to the rear of the fire station is not involved in the fire.

Two tanker task forces with at least 10 trucks have reportedly set up to draw water from two locations off Routes 412 and 212, and fire police have closed down those roads in the area of the fire station.

Leithsville's equipment is presumably still inside the building. The fire company has a 2001 E-One engine, a 1991 E-One heavy rescue truck, two tankers trucks and a brush trucks, according to its website.

This is a breaking incident and reports are just coming in.  Firegeezer will be updating so check back for fresh reports.

Update, 3 pm Eastern:
The dump truck was a triple-axle rig hauling asphalt.  It crashed through the front of the building and immediately broke out in fire with the driver barely escaping according to people on the scene.

It is not yet known if the burn victim is the truck driver or somebody who was in the station.  The firehouse is fully involved and it is expected that the building and the apparatus inside will be total losses.

Two tanker task forces have been deployed.  A third task force was dispatched but returned after fire officers said they didn't have the resources for more water supply.

Morning Call

Google Street View of Leithsville Fire Station

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

Seen Throughout the City

Greeley Tribune

A FIRE AT A GREELEY, COLORADO, WOOD PALLET manufacturer consumed thousands of pallets covering a city block-sized area Wednesday aftenoon.  The 2-alarm fire was dispatched to Et&t Pallets at 3:45 pm Mountain and was contained within an hour.  But the fire continued to burn for several hours due to the fire load and air spaces between the stacks.  The Greeley Tribune tells:

No habitable structures were burned — the wooden pallets, stacked in piles 12 feet high, were stored out in the open, spanning a city block. A few sheds, six vehicles and two semi trailers were lost, but a house on the property, as well as a building on the lot to the north, were saved.

Fire units remained on the scene all night and into this morning knocking down the hot spots.  This is the second major fire in 18 months at the plant.

Greeley Tribune

The Greeley Tribune has a photo gallery and the FULL STORY.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

No Weapons or Nuclear Reactor Threatened.

FIRE BROKE OUT ONBOARD A NUCLEAR SUBMARINE Wednesday evening in the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine.

AP

The alarm was dispatched at 5:40 pm to the USS Miami SSN 755 that was in the shipyard for routine maintenance and repairs.  It has been reported that seven people were injured fighting the fire.  Fox News reports:

Rear Adm. Richard Breckenridge, commander of Submarine Group Two, said that three shipyard firefighters, two civilian firefighters and two crew members received minor injuries and were in good shape.  (They were primarily heat exhaustion….ed.)

Breckenridge called their efforts heroic, saying the extreme heat and smoke in the contained spaces made it very challenging for them. "Their efforts clearly minimized the severity of this event," he said at a brief news conference.

Breckenridge said the fire started in the four forward compartments, which include living and command and control spaces. The sub's reactor, isolated in another part of the sub, had been shut down for a few months at the time and was unaffected. Breckenridge said it "remains in a safe and stable condition."  No weapons were on board.

At 4 am this morning it was announced that the fire had been extinguished.  It has also been reported that a foam unit from Boston's Logan International Airport, 60 miles away, was added to the dispatch.

Fox News has shared this video report from the scene:

The cause of the fire and the amount of damage have not been determined, but considering the military security needed, there may not be much disclosed anyway.

The USS Miami was commissioned in 1990 and is based in Groton, Connecticut.  It has been in Portsmouth since March 1.  It normally carries a crew of 13 officers and 120 enlisted men.  It normally is armed with torpedos and Tomahawk cruise missiles.  The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard was established on June 12, 1800, and is the oldest continuously operating shipyard run by the Navy, according to Gary Hildreth, a public affairs officer for the facility.

The AP has provided some raw video of the fire:

Assistance provided by Mark D.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

That Common Attic Will Do It

AN EARLY MORNING FIRE IN BOLTON, ONTARIO, had several families fleeing for their lives Wednesday.

The fire started shortly after 3 am on a back porch of one of the townhouses that stretched along a city block.  All of the homes had working smoke detectors but the fire was spreading outside and into the attic before some of them were activated.  Neighbors throughout the block mobilized to see that everybody was awakened and evacuated safely, which they accomplished.

The blaze destroyed four homes and severely damaged two others that may be able to be salvaged.  The roofs of three of them collapsed as the fire ran the common attic area of the block.

Global Toronto image

The FD arrived on the scene around 3:30 and set up containment operations immediately.  The 80 firefighters had the fire knocked down by 6 am.

Global Toronto has the story and a good video report HERE.
CP24 News has more and additional video HERE.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

Quick Rescue by Other FF's

A 3-ALARM FIRE IN MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE, that destroyed an apartment house caused six firefighters to be temporarily trapped on the upper floor when a "flashover explosion" in the attic blew the ceiling down on them. 

WMUR-TV / Hastings

WMUR-TV reported:

The building is a seven-unit, multi-family building. Chief James Burkush described it as a wooden structure more than 100 years old.

The fire department said about seven minutes after their initial attack at the fire, a flashover explosion in the attic caused the ceiling to collapse. Six firefighters were temporarily trapped inside as visibility dropped to zero and heat increased significantly.

Firefighters who were not trapped were able to free their partners from the rubble, the fire department said.

One of the firefighters was treated for minor injuries but they all were taken out safely.

This home video posted by Jim Terrero catches some good fire footage that emphasizes how fortunate the six FF's were to be rescued so promptly on that top floor:

The FD estimates that the fire had been burning for about an hour before it was discovered and reported around 3:30 pm.

The insurance adjusters have already written it off as a total loss.  The owner of the building says it has been in her family for several generations.  It was currently being renovated.  Early investigation is considering that the fire started in the former stable attached to the rear of the house that you can see in the photo.

This Google Street View of the house illustrates the close exposure that the FD was able to protect.

Thanks to Mark Donovan.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

Another Great Tanker Operation From Chicagoland

A 2-ALARM COMMERCIAL FIRE IN BEACH PARK, ILLINOIS, Sunday was elevated to a 3rd when the town's limited hydrant flow was insufficient.  The fire was dispatched at 6:06 am after it was discovered by a police patrol.  The Chicago Tribune reported:

A Beach Park pet store was completely destroyed this morning after a blaze broke out in the basement and killed hamsters, gerbils, fish and reptiles, officials said.

photo by Larry Shapiro

Firefighters were alerted about 6 a.m. to the Happyland Pet Center located at 11432 W. Wadsworth Rd. and found heavy smoke, said Beach Park Fire Department Chief Paul Tierney.

The two-story building housed a pet store on the first level and residential apartments on the second level, Tierney said. No humans were injured.

Firefighters went into rescue mode and searched the upstairs of the structure when a flashover occurred. A water supply issue at the scene slowed down firefighting efforts and assisting companies were called in from 15 surrounding communities including Waukegan, Zion and Newport, Tierney said. About 75 firefighters were called to the scene.

Larry Shapiro photo

"The fire had been burning for quite some time before we were called," said Tierney. He added the fire originated in a concrete bunker-type basement that had only one entrance.

As mentioned earlier, a tanker shuttle was set up from the special-call for water supply and fire photographer Larry Shapiro was on the scene documenting all the fire operations and equipment dispatch.

Check out that lineup of Fold-a-tanks!  (Shapiro photo)

You can view Larry's 206-image photo gallery of the fire (and tankers in action) HERE.

Larry also took a breather to compile this raw video:

Firegeezer points out that this is not so much a fire story, but rather a tanker story – my passion.

Tanker dumps photos by Larry Shapiro

*  *  *

Tanker staging line  (Shapiro)

Da' Guys  (Shapiro)

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

Semester-Ending Celebration Gets Too Hot

A LOUISIANA TECH UNIVERSITY Fraternity house in Ruston burned down Saturday afternoon, completely destroying the large home that was next to the university campus.

News-Star

The fire was first reported at 4:30 pm, but it may have been burning for quite a while before then.  The early speculation is that several residents were celebrating the end of the school year by burning some textbooks in the fireplace and the fire got into the void space around the chimney and spread through the walls.  Somebody on campus had called the police to say that they saw smoke coming from the house.  Why they called the police instead of the fire department has not been asked yet.

When an officer showed up to check on the report, the boys (perhaps unknowing of the hidden fire spreading) told him that everything was under control.  It wasn't long after that the fire suddenly broke out and the FD was called.  It didn't take long for the roof to collapse, thus dooming the entire structure.

WSLA-TV posted some raw video of the fire:

The Shreveport Times adds:

Lt. Tim Parker, spokesman for the Ruston Police Department, said the fire began in the fireplace or chimney of the Pike house, and quickly reached the attic where it grew rapidly.

He said one firefighter was injured when the roof of the building collapsed, knocking down a flight of stairs the man was standing on. He was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.  Two other firefighters were treated for heat exhaustion, Parker said.

Parker said officers with the Ruston police managed to awaken and evacuate one student who was still asleep in the apartments at the back of the fraternity home at the time of the fire. All six students who (were) in the house were evacuated safely with no reported injuries, according to Parker.

Read the full story in the Times HERE.
Ruston Fire Department WEBSITE.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

Furniture Warehouse Roof Collapse

A 41-YEAR-OLD FIREFIGHTER IN CHEMNITZ, Germany, perished Sunday morning when the roof of a burning furniture warehouse collapsed.  The unnamed firefighter was working along with 45 colleagues at the fire when it fell in.  A second firefighter was hospitalized with smoke poisoning.

Freipresse

The fire began around midnight and it took several hours for the four fire departments working the blaze to knock it down.  They were able to contain it and prevent the spread to close exposures including a gas station.

There is no indication yet of what caused the fire.  An investigation has been started.  A spokesman for the city stated that this is the first LODD for the town that they know of.

Sachsen-Fernsehen  has the early REPORT.
Chemnitz News has an updated report HERE.

Thanks to Christian Lewalter of Feuerwehn Weblog.
Firegeezer notes that German law prohibits anyone from identifying the name of recently-deceased people until the family releases it first.  Sometimes they decline to do that.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

"It's prom season and we're fully booked…"

 WHEN FIRE STARTED RACING THROUGH a commercial building in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Friday afternoon, the Studio Raw Hair Salon was filled with customers, most of them high school girls getting ready for this weekend's prom.

The 2-alarm fire began around 2 pm.
(North Hills Patch)

The 2-story building had been added on to over the decades and was filled with hidden voids and attic spaces.  As the fire grew quickly, everyone was told to evacuate but the salon's owners and employees couldn't abandon their customers.  The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review tells what happened next:

"We didn't want to disappoint them, so as we were leaving the building we grabbed a (styling) chair and some other equipment so we could keep working outside," he said.

Dan Burda, another of the salon's owners, said getting all the clients done — especially those preparing for the prom — was important.

"It's a big event in their lives," he said. "There's no way we were going to turn them away because of a fire."

As the fire continued on its way to completely gutting the building that held five businesses, the Studio Raw crew kept on cuttin'.  The clippers weren't the only ones getting kudos yesterday.  More from the Tribune-Review:

Attorney Michael Eisen, who has his bankruptcy law practice in the building at 3185 Babcock Blvd., said the willingness "to go above and beyond" that the salon operators exhibited extended to the (firefighters).

"I realized that everything in my office was probably destroyed," Eisen said. "But I asked one of the firefighters whether he thought there was a chance my law school diploma could be salvaged. Before I knew it, he was walking out of the building and handed it to me."

WTAE-TV

WTAE-TV has a good video HERE.
The North Hills Patch has MORE.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

Two Quarter Million-Gallon Tanks Involved

A LINE OF VIOLENT THUNDERSTORMS that swept up the East Coast Tuesday night lent a lightning strike on a Dow Chemical storage tank in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.  The blaze that broke out in the 250,000-gallon tank quickly spread to a second tank and brought a 3-alarm response from several Pennsylvania and New Jersey fire departments.

Courier Times

The tanks contained ethyl acrylate and butyl acrylate, both of which are used in the manufacture of acrylic paints.  The fire began at 3:35 am Wednesday morning when the lightning bolt hit the Dow plant in Croydon.  During the incident, a volunteer police officer, David Wintz, 65, was directing traffic when he began feeling ill.  He then went home where he suffered a fatal heart attack.  No other information has been released on this sad outcome.

The fire departments attacked the tank fires with heavy applications of foam and finally had them cooled down enough by 5:30 where they stopped re-igniting spontaneously.

The Philadelphia Inquirer has more details HERE.

PhillyBurbs.com posted this video report filed early into the incident:

*  *  *

The fire was marked under control at 7:30 am and is now effectively extinguished.

Fox News

NBC10 News filed this later video report from the scene:

View more videos at: http://nbcphiladelphia.com.

*  *  *

*  *  *  *  *  *  *