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More on the fire from the Pottsville Fire Department website
The video above was posted yesterday to the Pottsville Fire Department YouTube channel. It is from a fire on October 1 at 1342 W. Norwegian Street in Pottsville (Schuylkill County, PA). Here’s part of the description with the video:
At 1615 hours, Schuylkill County Communications dispatched Box 44 for the address of 1342 W. Norwegian St. for a report of a structure fire. First arriving units found a home in the middle of the row with heavy fire showing from the front of the building. Multiple 1-3/4″ hand lines were stretched to knock down the fire on the exterior of the home. A line was then taken interior to attack the remaining fire.
Click here for news coverage of the fire.
Click here for more pictures from Pottsville Fire Department website.
Also on STATter911 …
- Raw video: Six dead in Pottsville, PA fire. – May 13, 2013
- Video: Fatal multi-alarm duplex fire with exposure problems in Shenandoah, PA. – July 8, 2012
- Raw video: Two-alarm convenience store fire in Girardville, PA – November 29, 2012
- Raw video: Vacant restaurant fire in Schuylkill County, PA. – November 15, 2012
Comments
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I keep say’n it. Why doesn’t anyone lay in any more and then have to cry that you have no water?????????
Because it wastes time. Just ask the people hangin out a window watchin you stop and waste precious time taggin a hydrant.
I didn’t hear any crying on this video, I heard an officer notify command to have next in engine tag a hydrant from the east side. (West side already secured a hydrant/water supply). Thats called coordinating incoming units and notifying command of an assignment thats needed to be fulfilled.
Apparantly this department has their box card loaded with enough units to be able to mount an attack/rescue, knowing there is sufficient resources coming on the initial dispatch, to handle all subsequent assignments. And apparantly this department knows how to put out a fire.
Shows what happens when you put the wet stuff on the red stuff……fire goes out. Anyone who doesn’t have row homes might not understand what a huge stop this was in the middle of a row. I say pretty good job.
When your the first due engine doesn’t lay in and give a working fire IT’S your job to cover there tail and bring water.. Not drive past the plug to get to the fire next..
It has been this department’s policy for the first in engine to go in dry for many years. I would also point out that the dash cam video is from Ladder 51, which although a quint, generally has an engine lay its line in the city.
I echo what a tremendous stop this was. To have that fire load in a balloon frame row and hold it to the address of origin is a fairly rare thing. Usually a fire like this is already advancing down the row. Just goes to show what the boys of da Skook can do!
Take a look again—the 1st in engine stopped directly across from a hydrant. While the handline was stretched and charged, operator and another ff are hooking up 5″ to the hydrant on the opposite side of the street. Looks like they got it covered.
there is a hydrant in front of the building, a good PO can use tank water to start the attack then cut in the hydrant. good stop
How many engines does it take to lay a line? I just don’t get it. When they left the station it was fairly obvious that they had a working fire by the large amount of smoke. There was a hydrant on the corner of the street that they turned from. Why not stop and hit the hydrant? Can anyone give a valid reason for not laying in? I understand wanting to get water on the fire, but I sure would like to be able to KEEP it on the fire. Yoy and double yoy!
Not sure if your aware of this but the video is from Ladder 51 and the are requesting the line laid into them. The first in engine is visible at the other end of the street with a plug on the corner. the PFD runs about 7 or 8 engines on a box so i don’t think it is that important for the first due ladder to lay in.
My comment is not passing judgement on this group.
I agree if the fire goes out your troubles are becoming less.
My brother from FDNY is correct. Lets try another form of water application.
DETROIT OPS. hit it with a wagon/deck gun == 400 gpm solid stream,have the ladder co. nose into the engine co. This REQUIRES the first arriving companies to know each others route of travel.
Row house/townhouse fire fighting is setting where time is of the essence.
You must not allow the fire to control the building,your actions must gain control of the building.
PS === nice stop guys !!!
Engine at the far end of the block a little slow charging the line… either 51 Engine or 11 Engine (camera in cab) good job getting the line charged when the crew was ready… water almost followed them… Strike Da Box! I guess the red X on exposure D means dont go in… If not get the line in there quicker K
Good stop on the fire.. But why would you not lay in…..
Please read previous posts prior to writing . There was a hydrant on scene, the rig with the camera was a quint and requested for an engine to lay into it . They may have known there was a closer hydrant , but didnt know the other crew already tied into it .
They should have placed the quint closer to the fire and hand jack a line to the first arriving engine .
Anybody familiar with this area or department – what is the big red “X” on the D side exposure mean?
The D exposer does have a big “X” on it however it was a decoration for halloween. Good spot thought
I have seen hundreds of videos on here from million dollar fire departments who burn’m down pretty quick with their textbook fire ground operations. Good old fashion firefighting basics in place here, the quicker you put water on the fire, the quicker the problem goes away. The lesson here is, LOOK WHAT A GOOD CREW CAN DO WITH 500 GALLONS OF TANK WATER!!!!
And as stated prior, the hydrant on the corner by that engine was hooked up to, ipso ergo a continuos water supply, tank water 1st, hydrant 2nd.
Can’t wait for Monday to be over, all the quarterbacks can get back to their football teams that need them
Everyone is talking about the engine work, but what about the lack of truck work. When the Quint gets committed to engine work, the truck work becomes extinct. I did see 1 guy walk around back but with no ladder. The front is most clearly fully involved but what about the back? It is really hard to see whether any truck ops take place but you have to do both and quints usually end up being engines not trucks. Maybe PFD engines only have the ability to pull 1 line off and that’s why there needs to be a line off every rig. With 7 or 8 engines you would think there would be plenty of hoses and booster tanks to take care of pulling lines and supplying water.
QUINTS CAUSE CONFUSION
NJdude, throttle back a bit, Chief. If you really pay attention, you’ll notice that each message is not posted immediately. They aren’t posted until Dave posts them, usually in a group.
As far as PFD, yeah, everyone would like to see every engine lay in; a great ideaa if the water system can support it. Judging by the age of the system, don’t count on it being able to supply 6 or 8 engines on the same grid. Those lumberyard rowhouse neighborhoods are either knocked by an aggressive initial attack, or you end up setting up firebreaks at the cross streets. Many times it depends on that first handline crew which wsy it goes. As far as parking right in front of the fire building on those narrow streets in that lumberyard, I hope you have a good relationship with a paint shop. I would rather see a rapidly deployed portable master stream device planted in front of the building. BTW, they get some pretty impressive winds rolling down the mountains, which can make fire conditions rather interesting to say the least. There is a book on fires in Schuylkill County where during several jobs, residents can be seen down carrying furniture out of their homes ahead of the fire rolling down the block.
All in all, on this job, the troops grabbed a hydrant and kicked some butt with that first line. Not bad.
Not sure what I said that needs to be throttled back . People are making the same complaint about no one laying in .
Your remark about people reading previous posts before writing. Those posts aren’t necessarily there yet to read until Dave posts them, usually more than one at a time. A lot of times there is info given in a post that although the timestamp might be earlier than yours, you can’t see that earlier post to get that info.
Simple enough.
My Department’s SOP’s call for the third on Engine to address water supply. As first on, constant water is a consideration for me, but in an offensive operation tank water applied quickly and correctly will correct more issues than allowing the fire to grow.
OLD SCHOOL is right. The quicker you put water on the fire the quicker the problem goes away. I have 4 minutes of water before tying into a hydrant. I personally would rather use my time for fire attack and let the next few in cover constant water.
Hey Dave, did you ever get a consensus or good number on the rate of growth for fire? The number I always heard was -given O2 and fuel- fire roughly doubles in size every minute.
Per the men at NIST they have no idea where doubling came from. It’s not linear and grows much faster especially today with the heat release rates of the contents. Some of the stuff can’t get enough O2.