I was just about to shut off my computer and head to bed the other night when I heard the tones drop for Sullivan and they were dispatched to a barn fire, well involved, on Highway A…I looked up the address online and the maps put the address at Indian Creek where there were some big farms in the area, so I grabbed my camera and flash, and Onyx and I headed for the truck. I drove thru town and headed down Hwy 185 into the state park…the highway thru the park there was under construction and I had not been down thru there yet, so I got to see all the roadcuts made thru the hillside as Modot widened the path of the highway…something that should have been done many years ago. I figured that I would be able to see a glow soon and that would give me a better idea of where the fire was located on Hwy A. Soon after rounding the curve just past Hwy K, the entire sky lit up with a HUGE orange glow, indicating that this fire was much closer to Hwy 185 than the map indicated it to be…and I was looking for a parking spot out of the roadway as soon as I turned on to Hwy A. I turned the air on low for Onyx and hoofed it down the highway to the fire, with my camera in hand, arriving at the scene to see a medium sized barn fully involved…..shooting without flash on the first one….

…..and then spotting a mobile home extremely close to the fire as well….heavy smoke was seen coming from the end of the trailer on the barn end and a blue hoseline going into the trailer…interior fire crews wisely entered the trailer to locate and attack the fire inside there first….

…and then I spotted EMT Ronnie Martin up on the hillside in front of Pumper 854 attacking the barn fire with another hoseline….

…I walked up and took a few from the hill above and behind him…he told me there were upright gas tanks by the wall of the barn in front of him and he was trying to keep them cooled down….while Captain Cody Martin and Firefighter Gary Midyett were inside the trailer….

…soon after I arrived, a second Sullivan pumper arrived and set up at the bottom of the hill in the driveway next to the highway, where a drop tank was set up for tanker operations to supply water to 854…..

…soon the interior crew came outside and began to attack the barn fire after cooling down the trailer from the outside and extinguishing a small fire under the trailer…

I was getting ready to have some ice cream the evening of the 20th of April when I heard the police department dispatched to a possible fire at the City Pool, which is about two blocks from my house. Onyx and I headed to the truck and arrived moments later as the Fire Department was being dispatched to it as well, arriving in time to see Officers Zack Hudson and Sgt Jeff Rohrer knocking down the fire in one of the exterior restrooms with a powder fire extinguisher….

…and then they waited outside for the Fire Department to arrive….

I had my alarm set for 5 am on Sunday morning, getting up early to take the Memphis Club rockhunting in Eminence, and shortly after 4 am, I heard sirens and the blast of an air horn brought me out of a deep sleep…I missed the initial page of the FD, but immediately heard the dispatcher give the address on Seminary Road and advise flames showing for a residential structure fire. I quickly dressed and then Onxy and I headed to the truck and drove north out of town…by the time we reached Seminary Road I could see a glow in the night sky and as we approached, I could see that the home was fully engulfed in flames. I parked on the side of the road in the grass, set my flashers and hiked up the road a short distance to the front of the home…coming up on the resident of the house as he was walking back across the front lawn…

…only when the heavy smoke cleared somewhat, could I tell it was a brick house….

…this fire did not want to go out…while I was photographing the crews trying their best to get to the flames and knock them down…the wife of the resident stopped by to talk to me and told me how they escaped the house with just the clothes they had on while sleeping and how they had to break through a window from outside the home to get to their grandson in the front bedroom, a very harrowing night for them…as she walked away, I said a quick prayer for her family. I turned the flash off for the next few images….

…and then moved to the side a few feet for a different view of the residence….

…and watched Bourbon`s firefighters kneeling and donning their air masks preparing to assist Sullivan firefighters in the fire attack….

…I left soon afterward as the hour was approaching 5 am. Please keep this family in your prayers, they lost everything they owned that morning, escaping with their lives. 

Last week one evening while having supper with my parents, I received a call from Jim Bartle asking if I could cover a house fire for him as he was out of pocket…I drove over to Tipton Street, could see heavy black smoke from the Elmont Bridge on my way there….arriving after the first firetruck in….this was dispatched as a car on fire inside an attached garage. Sullivan crews had made a good stop on it soon after arrival, as the color of the smoke had changed to a dark yellow by the time I arrived….