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Firefighters have rescued eight people trapped by a three-alarm fire at an apartment building in Burtonsville, fire officials said.
Montgomery County Fire officials say approximately 100 firefighters have responded to the 14000 block of Castle Boulevard near Silver Spring. The fire started just after 7:20 a.m. Friday.
Upon arrival, crews found heavy fire on the ground floor of the building, officials say. The fire had also spread to the upper floors, stranding several residents, who firefighters rescued using ladders.
Captain Oscar Garcia, spokesman for Montgomery County Fire and Rescue, says fire crews were alerted to the blaze in the 14000 block of Castle Boulevard around 7:23 Friday morning. Firefighters arriving on scene found the apartment building fully involved. Captain Garcia confirms they have called for a second alarm.
Three, maybe four people had to be rescued from the upper floors of the apartment building, officials said.
It is believed that everyone got out of the building safely, officials said. Firefighters had to evacuated the structure after it got too dangerous for them to fight the fire, officials said.
They then performed an “exterior attack,” with hoses and ladders.
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plenty of grass and roof being watered…1000 GPM and none of it hitting the fire…
Not good use of master streams!
Typical Friday afternoon quarterbacking…. Too bad the wagon driver and truck driver’s didn’t have the helicopter cam view to direct the streams. Maybe fire departments in Seattle have live chopper feeds for each operator….dunno… The residents were removed, the fire went out, the firewalls worked….and they’ll have the place cleaned up and rented out in a couple weeks….construction project now
Some folks have been known to use those rung thingys on the truck to put someone up to get a view of the master stream ops. If there isn’t a tower in service, it works a heluva cheaper than your chopper cam idea.
Tell us about the water supply for the first arriving engines…….
It seems like always there are those comments who speak of why, whynot, Fireground Tactics and Strategy were employed. Ok now, let’s everyone take a step back. (1) First arriving saw Heavy Fire/Smoke issuing from a multi occupancy structure. (2) The first and foremost action was and is always Saving Life, Effecting Rescues of People. This was done quite efficiently. No One was injured. (3) The actual Firefighting Strategy obviously was the fact the Structure began to collaspe and Burning Debris was again visible. The Command Officer had to realize “Master Stream Devices were the best method to suppress
the Burning Fire. Yes the Ladder Pipes were employed to attack the fire from various positions. The comments about water on the grass seems a bit out of line. Who among the individuals who made comments here can say any degree of certainty how,why,whynot, who, when etc Operational Decisions and were made? Come on now. Yes again different people would probably have Managed the Fire according to what they would have seen and their Dept’s SOP’s. One thing here is quite certain, No one was in jured, and “Everyone Goes Home”. One can believe without question Chief Bowers will undertake an “After Action Review” of what did, didnot occur. Bottom Line here, The Effect of People Rescues and Firefighting was Managed and Handled in what can be described as Professional. For those who tend to critize stop and think how would you have handled this Fire, and how is it criticism always reflects Negative Perspectives?
“Everyone Goes Home”……Except the homeowners
This would of never happoned if the MCFRS administration wouldnt of ran out all the good volunteers at the BVFD. The tax payers of burtonsville deserve better than the FD opperations of the MCFRS Career Dept.
You must be referring to the local 36 ems troops. Stay down in DC and learn how to spell operations before you leave ridiculous comments. 17 people were saved, “operations” went pretty damn good.
Maybe you could equip the news chopper with a bucket and make water drops on your structure fires.
That’s gotta be more effective than what ya got goin’ now.
With respect to Truckie comments, MCFRS didnot take any unwarranted action against Volunteers at Burtonsville VFD. The Truth be known, the Volunteers in question brought the County Regime change upon themselves. They know who they are, what brought about the change. There are Volunteers at Burtonsville. It’s just that now there is some recognizeable sense of what the Fire and Rescue Service reflects. One can only believe there are some good well Trained Volunteers who are members of Burtonsville and they serve the Taxpayers well.
Criticism against MCFRS is nothing more than Stereotype of Career vs. Volunteers. This is pure foolishness. One can only believe there were Volunteers on the scene working alongside the Career folks. Come on now, let’s be realistic, what happened in the past is over, everyone must swallow their pride and move on. Burtonsville is a very busy Station. It takes both Career and Volunteer Personnel to ensure the best possible Fire and Rescue Service rendered to the Taxpayers.
Come on People Get it Together now.
Lets see here all you Saturday morning QB’s….17 citizens were rescued via ladders. No one was killed or injured. There will be always some operational mess ups. Been fighting fire for well over 20 years and have yet to be on or seen a “perfect” operation. If you have.. your either a liar or a wanna be I fight what you fear tee shirt wearing yard breather. Finally…the only reason why there wernt any good BVFD on the call because their are non left.. theyre urban lengend. There is reason for that…go read the papers and the police reports. Those firemen did their jobs….saving people, enough said.
-Be safe out there
Were these “rescues” in the fire service sense of the word or were they “rescues” when the word would only be used by the PIO for public consumption? It appears that all of these “rescues” were made from areas of refuge (balconies). In fact there were not any occupants transported from the fire scene. I would say that it is more accurate to say that a number of people were assisted down portable ladders by the fire/ems service?
Instead of blindly proclaiming that this was professional operation, how about giving us some tactical facts that support that claim.
So your definition of a rescue is trapped inside of the burning structure. Ok next time you have citizens hanging out on the “refuge” area go tell them that you can help them unless theyre trapped…and be sure you tell them your version of being trapped. There were citizens that were treated on the scene but refused to go to the ER.
“Instead of blindly proclaiming that this was professional operation, how about giving us some tactical facts that support that claim ” Take some of your advise
-Be safe out there
From a member of the initial on scene company:
“x was the driver of Truck 715 and made multiple rescues on the Alpha side, some were enveloped in heavy black smoke with one balcony lighting off seconds after the occupant and X were down the ladder”
By the way, just for the record, the First due engine from 15 had ZERO volunteers on it…
Rescues on the charlie side had to be done on air due to the heavy smoke conditions…..always a nay sayer’ in the group!! Hahahaha, haters.
In response to those comments about “Rescues” Anytime the Fire Dept assists people out of a Burning Structure either helping them walk out, by Raised Ground Ladders, Aerial Ladder/Tower Bucket it is a Rescue. Effecting a Rescue of people is part of the Basic Body of Knowledge in FireFighter 1 Training, and continues through In Service Training. As for comments in a Negative voice, the Driver of Truck 715 should already know the County (MCFRS) only Staffs the Engine and Medic Unit. The Rear Mount Ladder Truck shown in Photos and on TV Coverage was/is Staffed by Volunteers. ie; Truck 715 & Rescue Squad 715 are titled and oiwned by Burtonsville VFD. Those comments are obviously IAFF. The Mentality Us and Them/We and They seems to always surface when there is a working Fire Incident.
Holy Overuse Of Capitals, Batman!