The link above has audio from a fire just before 6:00 this morning at 1618 N. 20th Street in North Philadelphia. You will hear the evacuation ordered at 5:28 in the audio, followed by the call for additional medic units for injured firefighters.
(Commissioner Lloyd) Ayers identified the seriously injured firefighter as Lt. Marvin Melvin, a member of the department since 1999. He is assigned to Engine 27, located at 19th and Master streets.
Melvin was in critical but stable condition Sunday night in the burn unit at Temple University Hospital. Ayers said he was alert and talking to his family, and "doing well."
Bill Gault, president of Local 22 of the firefighters' union, said Melvin was burned on both arms and his back.
According to Philadelphia Fire Deputy Chief Michael Wahl, the call for the house fire came in at 5:58 a.m. at 1618 North 20th Street. Upon arrival initial reports were of heavy smoke and a couple trapped inside.
Upon entering the home, firefighters rescued two people while two others escaped on their own. Three women and one child were taken to Hahnemann hospital for treatment and were in stable condition.
Three firefighters were injured while rescuing the trapped victims. One member with first and second degree burns to his arms. Two other firefighters were transported with minor injuries. Four civilians were also transported with smoke inhalation.
From the AP:
Fire officials say a blaze in a north Philadelphia row home injured seven people, including three firefighters, one critically.
Authorities say the fire in the three-story building was reported just before 6 a.m. Sunday. Arriving crews have reported heavy black smoke pouring from the third floor. Firefighters battled the flames for about an hour.
One firefighter has been taken to a hospital burn unit in critical but stable condition. Two other firefighters are reported to be in stable condition.
Firefighters helped two people from the building while two others escaped on their own. All four had minor injuries that were treated at a hospital.
A fire a week ago on Locust Street in Rochester, New York has become the center of a controversy. The union president says budget cuts and a fire department reorganization put lives and safety at risk. The fire chief says otherwise. Four firefighters and four civilians were hurt during the blaze (see the story below about their charred PPE).
President Jim McTiernan went on to detail various fire units that were out of service at the time that this fire was called in as well as the location of a Battalion Chief who had to respond from South Avenue because another Battalion Chief post was recently eliminated.
McTiernan’s letter also detailed the need for a round-the-clock Group Safety Officer that happened to be present at this fire scene but had been cutback on various shifts due to budgetary restraints. A letter McTiernan sent to those same city leaders last week argued the union’s objections and concerns to cuts that lowered the number of on-duty firefighters from 99 to 86 over Fire Chief Caufield’s 4-Year Plan.
Fire Chief (John) Caufield fired back late Wednesday with a response of his own during an interview with 13WHAM News. Chief Caufield said he disputes nearly every word of McTiernan’s letter and said that 13 firefighters were on-scene at Locust Street in four minutes and a total of 26 were on scene in eight minutes. Caufield also pointed to a report from a senior officer, and a union member, who was at the fire scene and applauded the efforts and decisions of the firefighters that day.
Around 6:00 am on January 23, 2012, while returning from a dwelling fire, Battalion Chief 3 (F. Ruff) came upon a two-story, middle of the group dwelling, with heavy fire showing from the first floor. The box alarm and working fire were requested. While requesting the assignment, Chief Ruff sees a civilian jump from the second floor, front window. He immediately requests an additional medic unit. The civilian tells him that there are two other occupants in the second floor, rear room. That information is immediately relayed to responding units. Engine 14 arrives and begins an aggressive interior attack with a preconnected hoseline. Trucks 10 & 23 arrive, deploying ground ladders and initiating a primary search. Command orders the RIT engine to assist in search and rescue due to the known life hazard. Engine 8 arrives in the rear and reports that there is an adult civilian who jumped from the second floor rear as well as an infant who may have been thrown from the second floor. Additional medic units were requested,a total of five, as well as the EMS Battalion Chief. Engine crews worked quickly to extinguish all of the fire while Truck crews performed search and rescue while ventilating and checking for any hidden fire. Paramedics worked quickly to provide advanced life support to two adults and one pediatric patient. The Fire Investigation Bureau, as well as Police Arson Investigators, were on scene to determine the cause and origin of the fire. The victim that jumped from the front of the dwelling was a 45 year old female who was transported to Shock Trauma, in serious condition, with injuries sustained from her fall. The adult victim that jumped from the rear was a 21 year old female who was transported to Johns Hopkins Bayview Burn Center with 2nd and 3rd degree burns, as well as injuries she sustained in her fall. The pediatric victim in the rear was transported to Johns Hopkins Pediatric Trauma Center for possible smoke inhalataion. There were no apparent injuries to the victim and it is not clear whether she was thrown to another person or landed on the ground.
This incident was a perfect example of how all aspects of the Fire Service work together, from the suppresion units to the emergency medical units to the exceptional job by the Fire Communications Bureau in relaying all pertinent information to responding units.
For those of us in urban areas, the video is a reminder of what can be the reality of rural firefighting where there are often long response times with limited staffing.
The chief arrives at 5:30 in the first video, with an ambulance already on the scene but has to wait for suppression forces to arrive. Water is flowing a little after 4:00 on part 2.
At 1:12 p.m., Milton Fire & Rescue was dispatched to the report of a structure fire at 1283 Palmyra Rd. Car 8501 arrived on scene and found a fully engulfed two story residence. Crews from Milton, Bedford, Westside, and Ghent worked for several ours to extinguish the fire. There were no injuries in the fire and there was nobody home at the time of the fire. The fire appears to be unintentional and cause has yet to be determined. 8501 in Command.
This is audio from a fire on Thursday at 181511A St. in South Edmonton, Alberta. It was reported around 2:40 PM and burned through the night. As an evacuation of the building was ordered, a crew, unable to exit from the top floor, called a mayday in an effort to get a ladder to their location.
Firefighters had to fight the fire from outside the building after crews put in a mayday call while inside. Heavy smoke and steam generated by the cold temperatures can reduce firefighter’s visibility to zero, Lamb said.
Temperatures on Thursday evening were in the mid -20 C range with the wind chill. Equipment was damaged from ice buildup, and firefighters tend to tire more quickly in cold temperatures, Lamb said.
Crews were being rotated to prevent injuries and fatigue, (Deputy Chief John) Lamb said.
There were no injuries reported as of about 9 p.m. Thursday. At that time, the fire was still not under control.
This video is courtesy of Engine 10 and Truck 13 (The "Trinidad Fire Department" & "House of Pain"). It was shot Sunday morning around 9:00 AM at 1236 Mt. Olivet Road in Northeast Washington.
13 TRUCK had numerous locked gates and doors to breach to get THE DIME in position to attack the fire. Once inside the structure crews were confronted with zero visibility while discovering a large pile of debris on fire that had extended to the roof of the structure.
The Roosevelt Hotel burned a little more than 48 years ago in Jacksonville, Florida. While I was vaguely aware of the fire I had never seen this footage before. It is more than 11 minutes of film, apparently shot by local TV crews on Sunday, December 29, 1963. The fire left 22 people dead and injured more than 100, including 20 Jacksonville firefighters. Among the dead was Assistant Fire Chief James Romedy, who apparently suffered a heart attack while directing rescue efforts. The film was uploaded yesterday to the YouTube Channel for IAFF Local 122. The union dedicated it to Chief Romedy.
Spend a few minutes watching the film, particularly the daring ladder rescues with ground ladders used to extend the reach of the ladder trucks. One of the ground ladders comes crashing down at 3:55 in the film.
This fire occurred a little more than a month after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The hotel was packed with guests in town for the Gator Bowl held the day before the fire, where the University of North Carolina beat the Air Force Academy 35-0.
The fire started shortly before 7:30 am in the ballroom ceiling on the first floor of the 13-story, 300 room luxury hotel. Firefighters arrived on scene to find people hanging out of windows by tied-together bed linens. The United States Navy suppled eight helicopters for rescuing victims trapped higher than aerial ladders could reach. These victims were air lifted to neighboring parking garages for treatment by rescue personnel. A Second Alarm was struck at 7:47am, followed by a Third Alarm at 7:50. A Fourth and General Alarm was sounded at 7:57am.
The fire was extinguished within two hours. In all, 475 people were rescued. 21 people were found dead in their beds during a secondary search of the hotel.
Among the distinguished guests in the hotel at the time were Norm Sloan, the head basketball coach at the University of Florida, and 1963 Miss America Donna Axum. Axum was treated for smoke inhalation and burns to her throat and nose. She was bed ridden for several days.
A close call yesterday in West Haverstraw, New York. Firefighters were investigating the rupture of a high pressure gas line by a Verizon crew when there was an explosion that leveled a townhouse and injured two firefighters and two utility workers. The urgent message about the explosion comes from command at 4:49 on the audio above.
The injured firefighters are Gerry Knapp and Ken Patterson of West Haverstraw Volunteer Hose Company #2. As you will read below, Firefighter Patterson also had a close call a year ago.
Two firefighters were near the townhouse on Zarriello Lane investigating reports of a gas leak when the blast occurred shortly after 12:30 p.m..
“They knocked on the door at 52 Zarriello right before the explosion,” said Orange and Rockland Utilities spokesman Michael Donovan. “No one answered so we assume no one was home.”
The firefighters were brought to Westchester Medical Center as other first responders battled to get the blaze under control and to contain further explosions. Nearby homes were evacuated after the blast, which leveled the townhouse.
Knapp, who lives near the development and is West Haverstraw’s emergency coordinator, suffered first and second degree burns to his face, West Haverstraw Mayor John Ramundo said. Patterson, who works for the village Department of Public Works, suffered severe burns to a leg.
Patterson, one of the injured firefighters, was nearly killed while fighting a blaze almost a year to the day.
On Jan. 14, 2011, he was inside a home on Westside Avenue that had been illegally converted and became disoriented while searching for potential victims.
He ran out of air inside the burning building and issued a mayday call.
Another firefighter, Andrew Kolesar, found Patterson in the building and rescued him.
In Cornwall, New York (Orange County) firefighters are still dealing with a fire at a former mill that came in just before 11:00 this morning. Here are all eight parts from Paul Anderson's video (bmxking1504 on YouTube). The still frames below are from Anderson's video and show the fire's spread. The top one is what it looked like when he arrived and below it is how it appeared at the end of Part 4 (not yet sure of the time interval).
In the audio above the first unit went on the scene with "fire showing all over". At 3:47 Cornwall 1 advises, "This is going to be an exterior attack. Nobody in this building."
At 16:45 the announcement is made again that this is an exterior operation. At 17:20 there are a series of messages from command telling units to get off the roof and indications from command that those orders are not be followed fast enough.
At 27:00 command becomes aware there are other firefighters operating on the interior and again orders everyone out of the building.
At 28:45 command is told that there are eight firefighters operating in the building and the roof is about to collapse. Command orders again that this is a defensive operation and tells units to sound their air horns.
There is a significant collapse at 1:15 on Part 5.
A 911 call reporting the fire on Mill Street came in shortly before 11 a.m. and firefighters are still working at the site. Part of the building is still on fire, but officials say it is now under control.
The former mill is now being used to house seven businesses, which are now destroyed.
More than 20 businesses — tech companies, food companies, food, furniture and art supply firms — are housed in the former Firth carpet company complex.
150 firefighters from 14 are fire companies are battling the stubborn fire. The flames are working their way through the large series of connected buildings that once housed the Firth mill company of Cornwall.
At 4:01 PM on January 13, 1982 Air Florida Flight 90 crashed into the icy Potomac River during a Washington snow storm. Seventy-eight people, including four who were in their vehicles on the inbound 14th Street Bridge, died in the accident. Within a half-hour of the crash into the Potomac, the area’s subway system, Metro, suffered its first fatal accident. It happened just north of the 14th street bridge in a tunnel south of the Federal Triangle station. Three people were killed and 25 were injured.
The video above is a compilation of coverage from Channel 9 in Washington. In it you will see some of the video shot by my friend Bruce Bookholtz who was on the 14th Street Bridge as five survivors were plucked from the icy Potomac by the US Park Police Eagle helicopter crew of Donald Usher and Gene Windsor. Bookholtz and reporter John Goldsmith were at nearby National Airport just prior to the crash and captured a shot of Flight 90 before take off as part of their coverage of the snow storm.
The failure of the plane to be properly deiced, along with a cockpit crew inexperienced in winter weather operations contributed to the accident, according to the NTSB. The most significant factor leading directly to the crash was the failure of the crew to use the engine anti-ice system during ground operation and takeoff. This allowed the engine pressure ratio (EPR) thrust indicators to provide false high readings. Because of it, the crew did not provide enough power to keep the Boeing 737-200 airborne and it came down just 30 seconds after leaving the National Airport runway.
The interaction of the crew and the failure of the pilot to heed warnings of the co-pilot have long been cited in the area of crew resource management for pilots and in other disciplines, including the fire service.
The Air Florida and Metro crashes were important to the fire service, particularly in the Washington, DC area, for another reason. There was little cooperation or coordination that day across jurisdictional lines. On the scene, working somewhat independently were DCFD, the Arlington County Fire Department, the National Airport Fire Department along with other resources. There was not a strong regional plan on how such disasters were to be handled, which brought much criticism.
Among the loudest critics was Channel 9 Editorial Director Rich Adams. Rich, who died in 1996, was also a columnist for Firehouse Magazine and member of the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad. Rich did many on-air editorials prodding local fire service leaders to come up with better regional planning in the days and months that followed the twin disasters. Since the mid 1970s the Northern Virginia fire departments were working daily with an automatic aid policy. But that stopped at the Virginia state line. I urge you to listen to some of Rich's editorials related to the Air Florida and Metro incidents (above). Rich was an important voice in fire and EMS in the Nation's Capital and around the country.
Because of Rich and some progressive fire service leaders, the lessons learned from January 13, 1982, allowed for a much better response almost two decades later when the largest and longest DC area fire and EMS operation took place just south of the 14th Street Bridge. That, of course, was at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.
Another friend, Chester Panzer, then a videographer at Channel 7 and now at Channel 4, got the award-winning close-up video of the rescues. His account is above.
Some other notes from January 13, 1982
One story that wasn’t publicly known until I reported it on the 20th anniversary in 2002, is that the actions of another US Park Police pilot possibly saved the day. In 1982, US Park Police did not supply a snow plow for the hanger in Anacostia Park. Pilot Ron Galey took the call about the crash. As Usher and Windsor got the chopper ready. Galey jumped into his own snow plow equipped pickup truck and cleared a path for the helicopter’s take off. Without that effort, the helicopter may have arrived too late for the rescues.
Just short of 20-years later, Galey also took the call from National Airport’s tower for the notification that a jet had slammed into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.
There were a number of heroes that day. This includes Arland Williams, believed to be the sixth passenger who survived the initial impact. The other survivors say Williams repeatedly passed the life ring from the helicopter to his fellow survivors. Williams drowned by the time the helicopter came back for him. The inbound 14th Street span is now named for Arland Williams.
The other story from that day that has always touched me is of Roger Olian. Olian was then a sheet metal worker on his way home from his job at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital. Olian saw the survivors flailing in the frigid waters before any rescuers arrived. Feeling he had to do something, Olian jumped in and swam toward the middle of the river. While he didn’t save anyone, the survivors all cited Olian’s act as giving them hope they soon would be rescued.
Olian’s actions were somewhat overshadowed by Lenny Skutnik who also jumped into the river. Skutnik grabbed survivor Priscilla Tirado who had been brought close to the shore by the helicopter, but couldn’t make it in on her own. Skutnik was recognized later that month during President Ronald Reagan’s State of the Union address. It began the tradition of honoring heroes during the event.
January 13, 1982 was more than three years before I started my television career. In fact, I was unemployed, having been fired as a traffic reporter for KIX-106 because I was concerned about a safety issue with the airplane we were using. But that day turned out to be my first day on the job at WTOP Radio where my wife Hillary Howard now works. If you care, that story of my live audition and hiring is in this month's Washingtonian Magazine, in an article by Cindy Rich titled Pre-Internet Citizen Journalism. You can click here to read it.
The fire began at 6:15 AM Monday and the mayday occurred around 2:30 PM. The mayday is on the audio above at 10:09, followed by transmissions from the firefighter trying to get out of the building after he fell from the third floor to the second.
From Global News (video with this link has comments from firefighter who fell through floor):
Fire crews were still trying to put out hot spots late Monday after knocking down a four-alarm fire at a public storage facility in west-end Toronto. Most of the fire had been contained by afternoon, officials said, but some small areas were still burning.
Firefighter walks from building after falling from third to second floor.
A firefighter inside the building fell from the third floor to the second, resulting in a "mayday" call being made and a rapid intervention team being deployed. Fire officials later said the unidentified fireman was OK and was able to walk out of the building under his own.
Firefighters continue to douse a stubborn blaze at a storage facility in the Junction and evacuation orders remain in effect Tuesday for some nearby homes and an elementary school.
The flames erupted at the Save and Secure self-storage facility at the corner of Pelham Avenue and Osler Street—near Dundas and Dupont—around 6:15 a.m. Monday and escalated to a five-alarm fire as the morning wore on.
Firefighters have met with several challenges during the response, including concerns of the possible collapse of the four-storey building—crews evacuated once Monday morning and again later in the day after a firefighter fell between the second and third floors when concrete crumbled due to the intense heat.
As in the New Year's Eve incident with Medic 9 broken down and surrounded by gunfire, members of the Detroit Fire Department were again left waiting for Detroit police officers during a tense situation. It happened at a fire near Burlingame and 12th Saturday around 9:00 PM. According to news reports, firefighters rescued an elderly person and a child from the home, but a man and woman in their 60s died in the fire.
The audio above is compressed and not in real time, but the Detroit Police Department says it took 13 minutes to get an officer to the scene. At 3:45 on the recording you hear Chief 5 ask for police. At 4:26 he is told no scout is available. At 5:07 the chief wants an ETA for arson or homicide because of an unruly civilian. He is told the ETA for an arson car is 30 minutes and the dispatcher would try again for a scout car.
At 5:41 the Chief 5 transmits the following: "Central, one way or another I am going to need police on the scene. We are starting to get a crowd of unruly citizens and they are starting to come after the firefighters."
Police were called to the scene after a riot broke out. Some say the police response was too slow.
Detroit Police tell us it took officers 13 minutes to get there. They say considering travel time and other emergencies in the city that night, the response time was acceptable.
"Acceptable"? Thirteen minutes is acceptable when firefighters are under attack? Really?
How about "unavoidable", possibly, because DPD has the same limited resources as DFD? But I don't see how you can ever call that an "acceptable" response time in this situation.
“It was an ugly scene,” (Detroit Fire Arson Investigator Patrick) McNulty said, adding that close to 100 police officers were there when he arrived at 9:45 p.m. “The firemen felt like they were close to turning the water on people. They’re outnumbered. There were a lot of people out there. And once police arrived, things calmed down pretty quick.”
Dan McNamara, head of the firefighters union, said Saturday night that no police officers were initially available when firefighters called for help.
“We’re unprotected out here,” McNamara said Saturday night.
Recently we've shared with you raw video from two fires handled by California's Stockton Fire Department. In each, relatively heavy fire conditions rapidly disappeared. The resident fire critics here at STATter911.com, or keyboard incident commanders (KICs) as I affectionately call them, have been near unanimous in their praise of the work by Stockton firefighters and have been using the department quite often as a standard to judge other operations. Stockton, by the way, is a fire department that lost staffing (losing a position on each company) and closed two fire companies due to budget problems.
The video above is from a fire posted to YouTube yesterday that occurred on Easter Sunday of last year. In this case the fire was a bit less cooperative and at about the 4:00 mark there is a transition to defensive operations.
The clip above combines fireground audio, early pictures and video from a townhouse fire in Harford County, Maryland Saturday morning.
Here's an excerpt from the description by repoman-4920 on YouTube:
At 10:19 am, the Joppa-Magnolia Volunteer Fire Company was alerted for an automatic fire alarm from 1252 Valley Leaf Court in Edgewood, Harford County. Units arrived to find smoke showing from a two story, middle of the group, occupied dwelling.
A firefighter was transported to a local hospital after suffering burns in a fire Saturday morning in Edgewood.
The fire took place in the 1200 block of Valley Leaf Court Saturday morning, and was under control in 20 minutes, according to Rich Gardiner, spokesman for the Harford County Fire and EMS Association.
The gas leak and explosion happened yesterday afternoon on Avenue B. Besides destroying the single family home where the leak occurred fire had already extended to the Side D exposure and threatening the B exposure when firefighters arrived. In the audio below you will hear that the original call was dispatched as a natural gas leak. The initial report of the explosion came when the first unit arrived on the scene and reported fire and asked for a second-alarm.
A quiet Schenectady neighborhood was instantly blown into horror late Wednesday afternoon. A powerful natural gas explosion leveled one house and severely damaged two others on Avenue B on the city's north side.
As horrifying as it was, residents who experienced it say it was a miracle that no one got hurt.
A contractor, working on the duplex where he lived, had pierced a natural gas line while trying to ground an electrical wire.
Minutes later, there would be a massive explosion and fire that would level the home and damage two others along this dead-end street on the city's North Side.
Schenectady Fire Chief Michael Della Rocco said, “By the time our crews arrived, the gas had ignited and subsequently exploded.”
“Our investigation has already begun. We’re working with the Department of General Services, also with the police department and our own investigative crews to find out what happened,” said Chief Della Rocco. “The results are typical of a gas explosion. The front, rear and both sides of the building being blown outward, and the debris field associated with that.”
A fire on New Year's Day at 2223 Cortelyou Road in Brooklyn left nine people injured. Make sure you hear the comment from the woman at 2:58 in the video and the response. Read more.
A Tracy home was destroyed after a garage fire spread to the rest of the home Tuesday afternoon.
Tracy firefighters responded to the home on the 18000 block of West Byron Road, near the Mountain House community after the call came in around 12:45 p.m., Division Chief David Bramell said.
The fire, which originated in the garage, spread to the second floor and attic.
Ed Malik apparently does surface during the day time in Gary, Indiana. Usually his fire videos are shot well before the sun comes up. Besides shooting the store front and apartments burning, Ed also has video at 8:35 of one of Gary's rigs with an apparent fire issue. Here's Ed's description of the fire:
Crews were dispatched to a reported structure fire in the 1600 block of Broadway at approximately 1pm on 12-28-11. Crews reported a large header from quite a distance and a working fire was declared in a 25×60 2 story brick apartments over a store front. An aggressive attack was made and conditions deteriorated quickly. An exterior attack was executed from multiple angles. Crews from Lake Station, Lake Ridge, and Merrillville were requested to assist. The building did collapse towards the end of the fire. It has not been determined what happened as of yet to Truck 4 (Truck 7) when it caught fire. One firefighter was treated for exhaustion. Crews worked on the fire scene for over two hours.
Some interesting audio from a house fire just after 2:00 AM on Friday in Sacramento, California. News reports indicate there were concerns on arrival about someone trapped in the home on Traction Avenue. Firefighters initially entered the structure.
In the audio above, at about 1:20, you will hear command order everyone out and off the roof at the request of Rescue 20. At 2:40 into the audio (unclear if the audio and video are synched), you hear someone on the radio with priority traffic yelling "Get off the roof!". Later, at 6:53 there is a transmission, " … crew operating inside the building, second floor, from the stairs, get out of the building. That's an order."
This is video shot Thursday by Don Murtha of a house fire at 55 Muskingum Street in Depew, New York (Erie County). Here's part of Don's description of the fire:
Depew Firefighters responded this evening at 1800 Hrs for a report of a structure fire on Muskingum St. Depew 9-4 went on location with a working fire in a 2 1/2 story occupied dwelling. Crews were ordered out of the building and exterior operations were used.
A fire this afternoon at 6412 2nd Place, NW in Washington, DC with a report through communications of a person trapped. The Twitter feed for IAFF Local 36 reports that one occupant was treated on the scene by EMS. The official Twitter feed for the DC Fire & EMS Department reports four occupants displaced. No further details.
This video above from WVUB Radio gives a much better view of the progression of the fire that began Saturday night at 2nd Street and Main Street in Vincennes, Indiana.
The previous early video and pictures posted on STATter911.com, like the shot above from Arthur Collins, gave the impression to many of our readers that this might be the intitial main body of fire presented to arriving firefighters. It shows flames breaking through the middle of the block, Side A (Main Street), ground floor windows at The Old Gimbel Corner Antique building. But some of the video we posted Sunday morning did show hints of a glow above the roof line coming from the other side of the building. I am not sure everyone picked up on that.
A couple people who were at the scene sent in comments to our legion of loyal and much appreciated KICs that, by the time fire broke through on the front, firefighters were already well engaged with a large body of fire and a collapse on Side C. This latest video gives a much better illustration of that and how the fire spread.
None of this is a slam on anyone. But after seeing this video, and aware of the first impression, I thought it fair that we share this one.
Below is another video, from WVUT-TV, it opens with a shot later in the fire, of Side C.
Above is raw, pre-arrival video that begins five minutes before the first engine company up. As you can see in the video, the townhome where the fire started was beginning to fall apart even before firefighters arrived. At about 6:10 on the fireground audio below, as evacuation of one of the exposures is ordered, a mayday is sounded due to the structural collapse of the main fire building. From the audio, it sounds as if everyone was accounted for and the mayday was quickly cleared. Below the audio are two more parts of the early video followed by a news report.
A three-alarm fire destroyed one townhome and damaged at least five others Monday afternoon in the Brandywine Hundred community of Ballymeade, officials said.
The fire broke out around 2:30 p.m. in the 800 block of W. Boxborough Drive, said Assistant. State Fire Marshal Michael Chionchio.
The home that caught fire collapsed into a pile of rubble. Before it did fire shot out of the top floor window to a home next to it and caused external damage to the roof and side of the home, Chionchio said.
This is some of the radio communications with Brooklyn from the fire Monday morning at 1102 Prospect Place in Crown Heights where Firefighter Robert Wiedmann, 38 of Rescue 2, bailed out of a window in flames after the top floor flashed.
Firefighter Wiedmann was taken to New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, where he was in serious but stable condition Monday evening with burns over 45 percent of his body, the authorities said. Another firefighter, James Gersbeck, 52, was seriously injured as well; three other firefighters were treated for minor injuries.
This appears to be the clearest & most extensive version of the video of the escape by Firefighter Wiedmann.
The brownstone was empty, but the firefighters did not know that as they searched amid the four smoke-filled bedrooms on the top floor. Meanwhile, other firefighters prepared a hose and carried it up the stairs, Chief of Department Edward Kilduff said.
Without warning, a front room ignited, trapping Firefighters Wiedmann and Gersbeck, who were searching for residents to rescue, Chief Kilduff said. Firefighter Gersbeck made his way to the door and tumbled down the stairs, Chief Kilduff said.
Mr. Wiedmann was "literally on fire when he came out that window," said Stephen Cassidy, the president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association.
Mr. Cassidy said city budget cuts—which lowered manpower on one engine truck to four men from five—increased the response time and endangered the firefighters.
Chief of Department Edward Kilduff rejected the claim. The distance between the fire hydrant and the structure was small and "the line was in position in a sufficient amount of time," he said. Two engine trucks responded, and firefighters were spraying water on the flames six minutes after the fire was reported, he said.
FDNY early video & audio: Brooklyn 2nd alarm apartment fire. Citizen: ‘You’ve been here 10 minutes. Where’s the water?’
21 commentsA fire on New Year's Day at 2223 Cortelyou Road in Brooklyn left nine people injured. Make sure you hear the comment from the woman at 2:58 in the video and the response. Read more.