Fire. Again.

[greatbear]

Soooo. I'm minding my business here, blogging, chopping music into little snippets and I hear a siren pass the house. Not common, still, it's unusual. A moment later, another. I peek out the door down the road and see emergency vehicles convening near the end of the street. Does not look serious, no flames, smoke or anything I could see, probably an injury or illness, even for that there is usually three or more different emergency vehicles dispatched. I head back in, not wanting to walk out further in my bare feet down the driveway than I feel is necessary. No sooner than I shut the door, it becomes a parade of heavy equipment. I grab my shoes, vest and camera and walk down to see what is up. Looks like some serious shit.





Sixteen total emergency, firefighting, EMT and police vehicles were rolled out. I kept my distance and took these few shots.



By the looks of things, a fire had started in the garage or nearby.



Firefighters dragged/shoved this Boxster out of the garage. It does not look like the cause, just a victim.


That should clean up pretty easily. Might not smell too good though.



These guys rolled up and took care of business before anything truly serious went down. Before I could gather up my stuff and walk the quarter mile or so, it was pretty much wrapped up.



Some rather impressive equipment hit the scene. When I built my house here 18 years ago, the area was pretty sparsely populated, with the nearest fire department a good five miles or better away. Additional stations were farther still. Also, there was no municipal water supply, only wells. In later years, after quite a few incidents and some houses burned completely down due to lack of water and machinery, the small reservoirs and ponds in the area were fitted with 'hydrants' to allow for local sourcing of water for firefighting, and a new, well-equipped fire department was built in '93 along with a county police station. This gave Mom and I a lot more peace of mind, since we saw some tragic things happen in the relatively short time it takes for crews to arrive. Fairly recently, with the development of the once rural area here, municipal water was brought in. While not down my street, it's close enough to handle the needs of this area.



The house is saved, thankfully. I know the people here only from walking the dog past the house and saying hello. I did not see any of them while I was here. They might not even have been home. I guess I'll know more soon. I'm just glad you all are on the job.


All of these pics were shot with my Canon 3S-IS, using available light, hand-held. No flash, and most from a distance of 100 feet or more. I could have done even better if I were not shaking from the cold, and, admittedly, from more than a bit of fear.

Comments

[liftinmoose.livejournal.com]

Great pics... I love seeing firefighters in action!

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

Two days in a row for me, and in two different states!

[liftinmoose.livejournal.com]

Yeah... did you elaborate on the first incident?

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

We dont know anything new yet. I just wish I took more pictures than I did. A couple of 'em were quite woofy.

[liftinmoose.livejournal.com]

I mean The first incident. I don't think I read a post about the details, except that it happened. Was that in your house?

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

Ah, okay. No, That was at Jeff's apartment in PA. We had finished up our Christmas dinner and were then treated to what basically seemed like a fire drill. Either a system malfunction in the building, a false alarm pulled, or a smoke detector was triggered. No one knows yet. There was no fire.

[liftinmoose.livejournal.com]

ahhhh.. so which FD has the hotter firemen?

[kjvbear.livejournal.com]

in the mid 70's I worked on the volunteer Fire Department in my home town. At that time, the initial response to any fire call was 3 Pumpers and an ambulance. If it turned out to be a working fire, the first engine on the scene would "call out the troops". Most Fire Departments have that type of response system, the day I had to call the Fire Department here they sent 2 engines. Anytime I here more than two arriving in the neighborhood I get up and look cause it usually means something big is up.

My only question about the pictures you took was why they had the Snorkel set up? Maybe it was for lighting, or maybe the fire was in the attic perhaps, but that just seems a bit over the top.

[m-f-patterson.livejournal.com]

It's comforting to see the house was saved. What a delightful looking house it is.

[rockybear02.livejournal.com]

Well great pictures Phil - and glad to hear that both incidents weren't a total disaster.