Early afternoon of February 2nd, I heard the tones drop for a residential structure fire at 8687 Indian Bend Road, so I quickly looked it up on google earth maps and saw it was a little ways up the road from Shawnee Ford Road, then headed that way after securing Onyx in the truck. It was Winter Fire School weekend and Sullivan FD usually send about ten firefighters to it as do many other surrounding departments, so it was likely that the fire crews might be stretched a little thin today. I was out in front of the fire crews with the help of the Elmont Bridge and when I reached the Boone Creek Valley, I started seeing a heavy column of black thick smoke ahead. Driving down Shawnee Ford Road from Hwy AE, the smoke kept increasing and when I approached the residence on Indian Bend Road, I could see there was a field on fire, flames approaching a long barn, likely stuffed full of hay bales, and several neighbors were out in the field fighting back the flames, many using their jackets and knapsacks to beat down the flames. I parked across the road out of the way and shot the first photo from the road….

…this one was different looking…the entire roof of the house appeared completely intact and it looked like there was something on fire behind the residence, but the residence looked fine from the road…there were a couple of neighbors in front of the house and the front door was standing wide open…I walked on around to the rear of the house and discovered a pick up truck on fire behind the house about forty feet behind it at the fence line…fire had spread from the truck to the back of the house, entering the house thru the basement right behind and below the garage, and shotgun shells could be heard going off inside the basement…

Sullivan firefighters arrived shortly after in new pumper 854 with Kory Snelson as the acting Captain and Command…two young firefighters Trevor Woods and Beau Kick, initially packed up, took the hoseline, and approached the basement from the west side…ammunition kept popping off and they prudently stayed where they were and used the wall as a barrier…one never knows whether those shells are inside a barrel or tube or tub…the first two options would be hazardous to the health of firefighters as they would provide direction like a gun barrel to the shells, yet in a tub or box of shells, they simply explode without direction…still hazardous tho…these two firefighters showed great restraint and caution for themselves and others. Instead they directed their hose stream through a small window into the basement interior and cooled things down fast…hence the white smoke below….

I took this time to walk back around the front of the house to get to the other side and to my surprise, discovered a mobile home trailer fully involved and on the ground behind the residence on the far side….

…so in addition to the house on fire and the field on fire next to the house, approaching a large barn full of hay bales, there was also a Dodge pickup on fire and a mobile home had completely burned to the ground as well….adding up to two structure fires, one vehicle fire, and one brush fire…great on the job training for the young firefighters on the trucks today….and then I turned around to check out the field fire, the neighbors were still fighting it, doing what they could, but as dry as the grass was, they had their work cut out for them…talk about dedication….

…the owner`s son arrived about that time and went to get his tractor, and drove it down to the field to assist in putting out the fire until brush trucks could arrive….

…and the neighbors rallied behind him with more knapsacks and sheets of tin….

…and shortly after, Sullivan`s brush truck arrived….

…I walked over to the fenceline and saw the fire had spread down into the woods, so I put my camera under my coat and went down to the brush truck to get a rake, then hoofed it back to the woods fire and began raking…Bourbon arrived with a brush truck then and assisted me in extinguishing the woods fire. Once that part was under control, I walked back up and found Ray Enloe and Corey Rice`s son spraying down what was left of the mobile home….

…and then the Rosenweig boy came over and helped with the tractor, lifting the roof up and off the trailer so firefighters could more easily extinguish the fire burning underneath it….

Sullivan was assisted by Bourbon and St Clair Fire Departments, St Clair brought their Super Tanker which carries ten thousand gallons of water. Despite being a bit shorthanded, firefighters did a great job with everything they had to contend with that day !!

I kept seeing a large column of smoke north west of Sullivan, yet could not find out anything about it, finally dismissing it as a possible controlled burn by the state. A little while later, Bourbon and Sullivan Fire Departments were toned out for a barn fire north of Bourbon at the end of Mound Road near Cartwright Road. I arrived at the same time as Bourbon and followed them in, parking off the road, then walking down the lane to the farm…the barn by that time was pretty much consumed by the fire and on the ground, spreading out to other areas of the forest around it and consuming a camper and stacks of tires nearby as well…

…firefighters masked up and then spread out to extinguish hot spots everywhere….

…I turned around and spotted Brent Byrd dumping water from the tanker into the drop tank, he is one of Bourbon`s senior firefighters and responds on many calls, often driving and operating the pumpers or the tankers, and an all around great guy, following in his Dad`s footsteps as a firefighter….

…like his Dad, he leads by example and he sets a great example for the young firefighters with his work ethic, as does Chief Daniel Whatley…a young Chief who sets a great example by pitching in and working right alongside his young firefighters at just about every scene I have photographed….

…Sullivan`s firefighters arrived soon after and pitched in to help mop up the scene, while Jimmy Smythe brought another load of water with one of their tankers….

…I headed back to Sullivan to send the photos to Jim Bartle for the paper`s website, and no sooner pulled up on the exit ramp at the west overpass, when I spotted several grass fires between the overpasses…it looked like the entire highway was on fire…I drove down to the first fire near the intersection of the South Service Road and Fisher Drive and then on down past a larger fire in front of Zephyr….where Jim was assisting firefighters in raking out the flames….

…and then I drove to the other side of the interstate to photograph the other fires…

…a smaller fire in front of Subway and a larger fire in front of Applebees required a Franklin County Deputy to move westbound traffic over…those flames often fanned by the gusty winds, compelled the Deputy to back up a few times before fire crews were able to get to that fire….shorthanded due to assisting Bourbon with the Barn Fire….

..making for a long afternoon and evening for firefighters on the 25th of January…

Shortly after returning from Crestwood with a new camera that I purchased as a backup to my D90, Bourbon was toned out for a residential structure fire on Bechter Road, not far east of Old Argo Road. I looked up the address and took the back way to it, arriving seconds behind Bourbon`s lead pumper and tanker…I decided to park down by the pasture gate so I would not be in the way of any trucks. A friend of the family was pulled over there as well and let me know it was the Hofstetter residence and he was on his way home now…the house sitting back well off the road with a few outbuildings nearby…was well involved with heavy fire blowing out the front and back windows of the home….

Chief Daniel Whatley arrived and took Command of the scene…firefighters had their hands full from their arrival, battling extremely cold temps and a stiff wind blowing in from the south and straight through the house….

…as hoseline crews attacked the fire from outside the front windows, other firefighters scrambled to set up a drop tank for the tanker shuttle….

…you could definitely tell when the wind gusted up, as the flames coming out the front windows doubled and tripled in size….

It was decided that the tankers would enter and exit the pasture gate where I was located, leaving the driveway open….I figured this out soon after when Bourbon`s tanker driver dumped his load in the drop tank and then drove across the field in my direction, returning to the Bourbon station to get another load of water…

…as he departed the scene, Bourbon`s second pumper arrived and parked on the other side from their green pumper…Sullivan`s new pumper 854 then arrived with their tanker and second pumper not far behind…

After Sullivan`s pumpers entered the field by me…I had a horse come trotting down toward the gate, so I shooed him back into the middle of the field and then he turned and headed toward the driveway…one of the family members soon walked down and secured him in the front corner of the pasture near the driveway. Firefighters continued to pour water in through the front windows of the house in an attempt to knock down the intense fire and heat….

Soon after Sullivan`s tanker arrived, more tankers arrived from Leasburg, Cuba, and Beaufort-Leslie. A second alarm was requested at some point by Command, bringing in additional tankers from Owensville, St Clair, and Gerald….

….and soon after a pumper arrived from Steelville…Joe Smart, a good firefighter friend of mine was on board with a young crew and they were assigned to set up a drafting station at a lake just up the road from the residence, to fill the tankers and cut down on the return time for more water….

Lee Eikerman and his son assisted Joe and his young crew by chopping a hole in the thick ice on the pond, while Joe and his crew hooked up the hard suction lines to the truck and fitted it with the right appliances for drafting…Joe also placed his deck gun into operation so as to circulate the water through the pump and keep it from freezing up in the extremely cold temps. The fire was soon brought under control although firefighters remained on scene for some time that afternoon…great job by all there !!

Late morning on Dec 19th, Cuba Fire Department responded to a structure fire at Flying A Motorsports near Rosati, and struck a second alarm with heavy brown smoke showing on arrival. Sullivan and Bourbon firefighters responded along with several other departments…by the time I got there and positioned on the eastbound shoulder of I-44 to shoot across the interstate, brown smoke was still flowing out the south side doors and Cuba`s ladder was set up at the front of the building and the roofline laddered and a tanker shuttle was established as well….

…and what it turned out to be was one of those pretty signs that lights up and hangs inside the store, caught fire and smoked up the interior real well.

Late afternoon of December 13th, I found out where Marko Turner lives…call came in over the scanner for Bourbon Fire Department to respond to a vehicle fire at the end of Highway WW. I drove out there and saw heavy black smoke the closer I got to the end of the highway, turned around at the end and drove back to a very nice ranch style home and up into the large circle drive to find Marko standing there with a car and motorcycle fully involved behind him….

I thought he was first on the scene, but then he said no, this is his residence..for some reason I thought he lived farther out Licklider Road, this was also one of his cars that was now on fire…had it been closer to the house, his house might have caught fire too…glad for his sake that it didn`t happen. Bourbon showed up seconds later and began to extinguish both fires, and soon after Sullivan showed up to assist…

Stetson Zelch made the initial attack on the car fire…

and here you see Devin Mooney from BFD on the hoseline….

I was taking a nice nap on December 4th when the sound of sirens whizzing by my house woke me up…I jumped up and heard even more sirens approaching and then heard the dispatch on the scanner, Sullivan Fire Department responding on several calls, one of which was a structure fire on the South Service Road west of town. I grabbed my camera and headed out the door, got Onyx secured in the truck, and headed west…saw heavy black smoke toward Bourbon, five miles west of Sullivan, and called Jim Bartle, the newspaper editor I shoot for, and he was already on scene, house and garage fire at 775 Chestnut in Bourbon. From the looks of the smoke and the wind that was really blowing stuff around,  the fire was rocking and rolling…I arrived a few min later, parked on the shoulder and ran up to where Jim was standing and shooting….and yes, one could tell, it was and had been, rocking and rolling…

..it was obvious that it had ripped through the house at least halfway before firefighters stopped its advance, and they were knocking down fire in both east end of the house and the garage next to it when I arrived…..fighting the fire in these photos from Sullivan FD are Corey Rice in the red helmet and Nick White….

…initially they had their hands full, moving back and forth between the fire in the house and the garage as well…..

…when they were hitting the garage flames, one of Bourbon`s firefighters was knocking down fire in the house again…

…soon after, more firefighters showed up from both departments and Cuba and Leasburg arrived as well, to assist in overhauling both buildings to extinguish the fire, as it was a very windy day and no hotspots needed to be left to re-ignite the structures….

…Sullivan also responded with a brush truck as flames spread by wind from the structures to a brushy area behind the garage…great work by all who were there that day !!