For hours, firefighters battled a house fire on North 9th Street. They were called to the scene around 2:30 a.m. and as of 5 a.m., firefighters were still trying to get the fire under control.
Tippecanoe Township Asst. Chief David Bisher said there was some difficulty getting the flames under control. There have been multiple additions to the home and multiple layers of roof that they had to fight through to get to the fire.
“As we would get air into those voids they would flare up and cause havoc. Conditions looked a lot worse on the outside than they were on the inside. It’s just that we couldn’t get to the attic where we needed to. Eventually that ceiling and that roof in the center of the building burnt and collapsed on us so pulled everybody out,” Bisher said.
We have been traveling the last couple days and are glad we haven’t had to deal with the ice issues firefighters in the Midwest encountered. Here are two incidents were firefighters were hurt and very lucky that their injuries weren’t more serious.
A Dayton firefighter was struck by an out of control pickup truck on icy US Highway 35 early Tuesday morning and it was all caught on a police cruiser cam.
Dayton Police released the video of the incident saying they do not plan to file any charges in the multiple vehicle accident that left the fire captain injured.
Captain Barry Cron was on the scene where a vehicle overturned in the median. Officials said icy conditions caused the driver to lose control. While police, firefighters and medics were on the scene, more vehicles began crashing.
In the video above Dayton’s fire chief shares his reaction to the incident with WDTN-TV:
Dayton Fire Chief Herbert Redden watches as one of his own, Captain Barry Cron, is hit while responding to an accident on US 35 around 5:30 Tuesday morning.
“It looks he made an attempt here to stop the traffic and then he goes back and tries to assess the injured party. Watch when he holds his head up, boom!” explains Chief Redden.
Chief Redden says he is very lucky, “we are blessed that our Captain wasn’t seriously injured and some of the other individuals on the scene that was there, wasn’t seriously injured. Emergency service workers do dangerous work. We try to do it in as safe environment as we can.”
The video above shows what it looked like after a slab of ice flew off a vehicle and hit the windshield of a Wayne Township, Indiana fire truck on Tuesday. Firefighter Matt Ervin was injured but able to bring the fire truck to a stop. Below is dash-cam video as the ice hits. Click here for an interview with Firefighter Ervin.
“I saw a vehicle coming at us and snow and ice came off the roof and like a second later, it was in the windshield,” said Matt Ervin, who was driving the fire truck. “(The windshield) came up real close and hit me right in the forehead.”
Ervin was injured but was able to safely bring the fire truck to a stop. The driver of the pickup truck continued east on 21st Street, officials said.
Video above from og9898 and below from Christy Matczak Boyle of a fire that started late this afternoon on 119th Street at Sheridan in Whiting, Indiana. The building where the fire began housed Lubia’s Dresses and Events shop and apartments on the upper floors.
Firefighters continued to fight a fire at a three-story building on 119th Street in Whiting at 7 p.m. Sunday. The fire stubbornly resisted firefighters on the building’s upper floors.
Whiting Fire Chief Gus Danielides said nobody was injured in the fire.
Spectators gathered in downtown Whiting to watch the blaze, which started about 5 p.m. and engulfed all three floors and spread to the back of the building, said Christian Loza, who was watching the fire from the nearby Sunrise Cafe.
Hundreds gathered Sunday evening in Greenwood to remember one of their own.
Second grade teacher Jennifer Longworth and her husband Dion were the two victims of Saturday night’s tragic explosion on the city’s south side.
Jennifer Longworth taught at Southwest Elementary for twelve years, said co-workers Sunday.
Co-workers, friends, family, students and parents all gathered outside for a candlelight vigil.
They laid flowers and candles near the flagpole outside, and wrote messages to Mrs. Longworth on a poster board.
Rick Callahan & Charles Wilson, Associated Press:
Splintered beams and boards on a piece of charred earth were all that remained Sunday where three Indianapolis homes were leveled in a blast that killed two people and rendered homes for blocks uninhabitable.
A backhoe raked through the rubble in the middle-class subdivision as clusters of firefighters and rescue workers weary from a long, chaotic day that began late the night before waited for their next assignment.
The two-story, brick-faced homes on either side of those demolished by the blast were in ruins. One home’s roof was gone, a blackened husk left behind. On the other side of the gap, the side of a home was sheared off. Across the street, garage doors had buckled from the heat.
It wasn’t yet clear what caused the blast that shook the neighborhood at 11 p.m. Saturday. Residents described hearing a loud boom that blew out windows and collapsed ceilings. Some thought a plane had crashed or that it was an earthquake.
Alex Pflanzer, who was asleep when the nearby homes were leveled, said he heard his wife screaming and thought someone was breaking into his house. Grabbing his gun, he checked the house and saw the front door was standing open.
“I walked outside and all the houses were on fire,” he said.
Pflanzer, his wife and two dogs were staying in a hotel room Sunday night. They were, however, without their cat, who refused to budge from the crawl space.
Deputy Code Enforcement Director Adam Collins said as many as 31 homes were damaged so badly that they may have to be demolished. The explosion damaged a total of 80 homes, he said. He estimated the damage at $3.6 million.
Some residents were allowed to return to their homes to retrieve a few belongings Sunday under police escort, officials said. Others whose homes weren’t as badly damaged were allowed to go home, but officials said they would have to do without electricity overnight.
Deputy Fire Chief Kenny Bacon said investigators haven’t eliminated any possible causes for the blast. But U.S. Rep. Andre Carson, who represents the area, said he had been told a bomb or meth lab explosion had been ruled out.
Along with the two people killed, seven people were taken to a hospital with injuries, Bacon said.
A roaring explosion that leveled two homes and set two others ablaze in a huge fire forced about 200 people from a devastated Indianapolis neighborhood where at least two people werr killed, authorities said Sunday. The powerful nighttime blast shattered windows, crumpled walls and inflicted other damage on at least 14 other homes.
Two people were taken to a hospital with minor injuries after the explosion and fire, said Lieut. Bonnie Hensley, with the Indianapolis Fire Department. She said firefighters later put out the flames and searchers then went through the rubble and damaged homes one at a time in case others were left behind. At least one body has been recovered.
Some witnesses said in televised reports that they heard people screaming “help me! help me!” after the explosion and fire and that two parents and two children were safely pulled from one house that caught fire.
“This looks like a war zone; it really does,” Hensley told The Associated Press. “Police officers and fire department officials remain at the scene searching for other possible victims.” She said they used search lights until dawn as they peered into the damaged and ruined homes.
She declined to identify the only confirmed fatality, saying only that the body was found in one of the leveled homes after the fire was put out. Fire officials told AP after daybreak that they were not immediately releasing any further information until later Sunday morning.
The explosion at 11 p.m. Saturday destroyed two houses that were side by side and spread fire to two other nearby homes in the neighborhood on the south side of Indianapolis, she said, adding at least 14 other homes were damaged in the area by the blast’s shock wave or flying debris it kicked up.
The blast was heard for miles all around, and authorities said they had no immediate information on the cause. An investigation by fire and other agencies was under way. Reports said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also was involved.
A Monday morning fire heavily damaged a home on the city’s south side.
Goshen firefighters were called to the home of Jean and Richard Hirschler at 1420 Wilson Ave., just north of Lafayette Street. When firefighters arrived they found heavy smoke coming from the roof of the two-story home. The smoke from the fire darkened the neighborhood and drifted across South Main Street a block away, causing drivers to slow and wonder what was going on.
Ed Malik of MABAS21.com video from a fire on Sunday in Lake Station, Indiana. Here’s some of Ed’s description with the video:
Lake Station fire station one, two and ems were dispatched to a reported fully engulfed house at 3845 East 34th Ave on 09-16-12. On arrival Fire 6 advised of a fully involved single family dwelling and assumed command. Engine 5 being the first suppression company on scene hit the hydrant directly across from the house and two attack lines were stretched.
Ed Malik with Mabas21.com posted a pair of videos from yesterday in Gary, Indiana. Here’s part of his description with the first fire at 35th and Georgia. Note the ventilation with materials at hand at 3:54 in the video.
The second fire (below) was at 2691 Massachusetts Avenue.
An apparent explosion Saturday just north of downtown injured a man and turned a house into a smoking, charred pile of rubble.
The blast destroyed the house at the corner of Bayer and Sallie avenues, shredded the side of the home next door and sent debris flying across the street. Fire crews are still at the scene.
The injured man, an IPFW student, was staying at the home temporarily and planned to leave in August to complete his senior year at IU Bloomington.
Another man and a woman, a retired firefighter who lives nearby, worked with Baugher to find the source of the voice. Eventually, they saw movement through the smoke.
A soot-covered young man was on his feet in a part of the house that had not completely collapsed. On his own, he managed to maneuver his way out of the wreckage.
Baugher, 36, and the other two good Samaritans helped him over a fence to safety before flames got a hold of the house.
No one has been injured after flames gushed from a ruptured natural gas line near downtown Columbus.
Columbus Fire Department spokesman Matt Noblitt said that homeowner Harold Lockhart and another man were using a motorized auger to dig holes for a fence post Wednesday morning when the auger ruptured the line and the heat from the auger motor’s exhaust ignited the gas.
No one suffered serious injuries, but the house at 1024 Chestnut St. sustained an estimated $10,000 in damages from the heat of the fire, according to the Columbus Fire Department.
Fire department crews responded and worked to protect the house from the flames to prevent them from causing more damage, said Columbus Fire Chief Joel Thacker. Firefighters also controlled the flames until Vectren Corp. could shut off the gas and determine the source of the leak.
On arrival a working fire was declared and crews made entry to the third floor to knock the fire down. Mutual aid was requested, but due to the fact there were no fire walls and the fire got into the roof additional units were requested. Crews were pulled out of the building and ladders were used to pour water on the fire from above. No residents were injured and one firefighter suffered heat exhaustion.
Chris Martin sent us some more video from Friday afternoon’s fire at the Hurwich Farm Apartments in South Bend, Indiana. It includes radio traffic at the time the evacuation and defensive operations were ordered.
Two house fires back-to-back late Friday night and early Saturday morning in Gary, Indiana. Ed Malik says the one above was in the 3400 block of Burr and the one below was in the 7200 block of West 23rd.
Fire crews are investigating the cause of a fire that broke out at Hurwich Farms Apartments in South Bend Friday afternoon. The complex is off Portage north of Cleveland.
The call came in shortly after 1:00pm. No one was injured in the fire, but the South Bend Fire Chief says five apartments were destroyed. Several other apartments were damaged by smoke and water.
This is from a fire yesterday at the Pinnacle Square Apartments in Lawrence, Indiana outside of Indianapolis. News reports indicate these were two vacant buildings in the complex.
Ed Malik with some daytime footage from Gary, Indiana, visiting the 3800 block of Massachusetts Avenue twice within an hour yesterday.
Here’s some of Ed’s description:
At around 11:30 am crews were dispatched to a reported fire in the 3800 block of Massachusetts. Crews found a working fire in the rear of a vacant house and brought the fire under control quickly with tank water. About 30 minutes later a rekindle was called in and a single engine was dispatched. Seconds later a full still was dispatched for a working fire and multiple crews reported heavy smoke showing from miles away.
Video from Ed Malik of a house fire at 3721 Alabama in Hobart, Indiana. Here’s some of what Ed wrote in the description:
New Chicago firefighter had spotted smoke in the area and moments later located a house with heavy smoke showing. Crews quickly stretched a line to the rear of a vacant dwelling. The fire was knocked and it was quickly determined the fire was suspicious. Arson investigators did rule the fire as arson. The following day another attempt to start the house on fire was made.
This a fire yesterday in Indianapolis at the Creekwood Apartments. The fire was reported around 5:00 PM. The building was apparently struck by lightning that morning. Read more here.
Another video from Ed Malik. This one was today in at 320 W. 59th Avenue in Merrillville, Indiana. One firefighter, who apparently ran out of air, was treated by EMS.
Saturday was a busy day for Ed Malik. Above is a house fire at 2788 Warren in Lake Station, Indiana that came in around noon. Here is some of what Ed wrote:
Just a note, the siding on the rear of the house was melted by an intense garage fire a few months back set by a disgruntled girlfriend and the melted siding on the side of the house was caused when the homeowner set a couch on fire about a year ago.
Around 3:00 PM, Ed shot the fire below at 15th and Connecticut in Gary, Indiana:
On arrival Battalion 4 advised of heavy smoke showing from a 2 story apartment building. Crews made an aggressive interior attack and brought the fire under control quickly.
This is Ed Malik's video of a fire on Thursday in the 2500 block of Pennsylvania Avenue in Gary, Indiana. The video gets a little more interesting around the 4:00 mark.
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.
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.
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