Let me explain the title….we were dispatched to a reported trailer fire and arrived to find a wooden fence on fire near a trailer…I suppose if it was reported by a passing motorist from I-44, one could understand because the fence stood fairly high and was in front of a trailer, in a trailer park…here is what it looked like when we arrived….

…and here Engineer Bill Windham is shown at the pump  of Pumper 854 and charging the hoseline….

..that Firefighter Casey Bridgeman is holding and waiting for water to put the fire out….

…and then Casey starts extinguishing the fire on the leaves end and works his way to the fence….

…and eventually gets water on the fence as well….

…it was suggested that perhaps Casey didnt read this sign before he approached the small facility behind the fence….

The next night, New Years Day, again early morning, we were called to another garage fire, this one a larger lean to, on Seminary Road north of Sullivan. As I drove out north on Hwy H and 185, it started lightly raining and the wind was really gusting…I kept looking for a glow but didnt see one…and soon caught up with the ambulance crew on Seminary Road, as they were out in front and looking for it as well…we finally found it after crossing the Boone Creek bridge and starting up one of the many hills north of there…I was relieved that it wasnt at the home of one of my friends out there. The ambulance crew of Danny and Teddi, tried to drive up the driveway to the residence, but soon found it was quite narrow and there was no place to park out of the way of the pumper once it arrived…so they backed down the rocky hillside and I parked on the side of Seminary Road out of the way. Since I was halfway up a hill, I plugged in my blue light to warn any traffic of the emergency situation they would be about to encounter, as Pumper 854 arrived and started up the rocky driveway. I grabbed my camera and hoofed it up the hill behind them….and found the large lean to fully involved in heavy fire at the top of the hilly drive….   …as I was standing there photographing the fire, Capt Dave hiked up the hilly drive past me stretching an attack line…     …as heavy fire was rolling out of the lean to near me….     …Dave stretched his line out and took a kneeling position to wait for water at the end of the driveway, near the residence and in the next minute, Ray Enloe walked by me carrying his hoseline over his shoulder….as heavy fire continued to roll out of the lean to…     ..a few minutes later the wind changed direction and the smoke lifted to where you could see more of the leanto on fire….   …and then firefighters began their attack, Dave first as his line was now charged by Davey, the Engineer on 854, as Ray and his helper untangled their hosepack….   …it was about this time that we all noticed this pretty green flame coming up from the middle of the structure…we never did quite figure out what it was from, and it only lasted a few minutes…

..once the guys had the fire knocked down in front, they moved around to the sides of the structure….

…while Ray and JD went to the back of the lean to and knocked down the debris back there…

…the glow in front made for some nice silhouettes….

…and as more firefighters showed up, along with a good showing of junior firefighters, crews were able to pull some sheets of tin out of the way and enable those on hoselines to get in closer and extinguish hot spots….

and…

We responded to two garage fires over the weekend of New Years Eve while most people were celebrating the holidays…the first one was early morning New Years Eve on Highway JJ, north of Stanton a few miles. Dispatch informed us en route that the owner of the residence was trying to enter the garage to save forty cats believed to be inside the building. I was passed by a Franklin County deputy just north of Stanton and we both arrived a few minutes later, ahead of the trucks, to find the building fully engulfed in flames…

…I was standing behind the building when I shot this one, and it looked like fireworks going off, where the electrical connection comes in the roofline on the northwest corner of the building…I walked back up to flag down the  first arriving crews, after the neighbors informed me there was no drive or easy access for the trucks from the highway…meaning a longer lay of hoselines to the fire building from the trucks..I shot the next photos from the front of the building….

…the next photos show the east side of the building fully engulfed in heavy fire and the tree and a tall stepladder burning from the radiant heat produced by the intense fire as well…it was a good thing the deputy arrived early and pulled the woman back from the garage to prevent her from entering it….

…in the next photo you can see the building well involved and firefighters Damon Sumpter and Nolan Crawford untangling the hoselines from the hosepack they carried down after handjacking the two and a half inch hoseline from the pumper out on Highway JJ to the back of the residence…..

 They attached two separate lines of inch and three quarter with a wye to the two and a half inch line, to make their attack to the fire, Nolan approaching from the uphill west side and Damon from the downhill east side…here Nolan stretches his line around to make his approach from the west side….

…as Damon starts his approach from the east side, dousing down the debris burning on the east wall of the building…

In the next photo, Nolan approaches from the west side and as he and Damon approach the building, fireworks again erupt from the back side of the garage, where the electrical lines enter the building…

…Nolan made a slight adjustment, and moved to the right a few feet and directed his nozzle to the front of the building and kept on coming….

…a few minutes later, Nolan received some backup on his line from Chris, and while they doused down the west wall of the garage, Damon turned his attention to the burning tree on his right…

…then they moved in closer to the building and began hitting the deeply seated fire burning within….

…and right up to the garage door and window of the front wall….

 …and then the front wall at the southeast corner collapsed, taking the southwest corner down with it…

…by this time, more firefighters and a crew of Junior Firefighters, showed up to help with the total extinguishment and mop up efforts….

…and then after the fire was out, hoselines had to be picked up and the tanker drop tank drained and put back on the truck as well….