I dont get a good chance to photograph Ray Enloe very often at fire calls, as he is normally the Engineer on the Pumper or Tanker at the scene, but last week I was able to photograph him on the red line at another grass fire in the district…this one accidentally ignited by a welding operation at a private farm. Ray and his crew, Davey Sumpter and Dave Konyss were standing out in the grassy field while Ray sprayed down smoldering cowpatties….

For one family from the St Louis area, Friday the 13th didnt bode well for their lake house south of Bourbon at Anthonies Mill Lake. Sullivan FPD received a call to assist Bourbon Fire District with  house fire there, and at the time of the call, it was raining cats and dogs. I loaded Missy up into my truck and drove out to the lake location, having been there several times before for photo shoots and to photograph the area for the owner. We were a few minutes behind the pumper and ahead of the tanker, but drove cautiously due to the torrential downpour. I remember hoping that the hard rain would soak into the ground rather than run off as a hard rainfall such as this would normally create. We desperately needed the moisture and I so hoped it would be a beneficial rainfall. I drove to Bourbon and turned south on N Hwy and the rain tapered off to a drizzle as I caught up to some slowpokes on the highway, who eventually turned off after a few excruciatingly slow traveled miles. I dont mind people driving slow, but 25 mph in a 55 mph zone is a little too slow in my book.

We eventually arrived at the lake subdivision and after talking to the gate guard, drove on around the lake to the turnoff to the residence on fire. I parked in a nearby driveway suggested by the guy directing traffic, as I didn`t want to be in anyone`s way, knowing tankers would be coming and going for water. I left the truck running with the ac on full blast for Missy, grabbed my camera and hoofed it down to the fire, and shot this one while walking up on it…

...arriving moments after the Sullivan pumper crew arrived, who told me a few minutes later, that the roof was fully involved and falling in as they pulled up to the scene behind Bourbon and Potosi Fire District pumpers and tankers. Sullivan`s junior firefighters and one of the deputy chiefs were setting up two drop tanks for a water shuttle operation as I walked up….

..and Potosi`s pumper was pumping from the red drop tank, which was being fed by the yellow drop tank, which the tankers were dumping their water loads into and then departing for another load of water. There was a dry hydrant down by the boat launch near the dam, where the tankers were filling their tanks and then driving back to dump their loads into the drop tanks.

I walked on down to the house after saying hi to Sean Johnson, with Bourbon Fire District, who was in charge of the fire. I saw Jimmy Smythe, Gary Midgyett, and junior Louis Trombley, walking around the front corner of the residence, taking a look at the heavy fire still inside the ground floor of the house and checking out the fire enveloping the wood encased chimney on the west side of the house…

Louie was waiting out in front as Gary and Jimmy decided on the best course of action in attacking the flames still inside the house…

…eventually deciding to try and cool the flames down and hopefully enter the house once that occurred….

..I walked around the back of the house and found firefighters back there from Potosi and Bourbon, looking at the partial collapse from the upper story and the glow of fire still inside the basement….

…funny how the flash shows one thing and the next photo, without flash, shows a bit more fire and glow involved…

and then the use of flash again to light up the firefighters….

…eventually firefighters picked up the hoseline and moved up closer to hit the hotspots….

..then walked back up front to see that Sullivan had the front of the house cooled down quite a bit now…

…but one could still see some fire inside the home about the middle of the structure….

…however, they eventually decided to enter the house through a bedroom window on the east side via a ladder……at this point, I observed what appeared to be another storm approaching from the northwest, with lightning popping off every few seconds…I decided to take off….shot this last one as I was walking back to the truck….

..can create…a barn fire…well almost…last week Sullivan answered a page for a house fire, assisting Bourbon Fire District, and the address given was on Butler Pond Road, between Sullivan and Bourbon, however the address given was wrong. After making two extra trips up the road, the right information was given by radio and we drove up the driveway to an abandoned farmhouse and barn to find the hayloft in the upper story of the barn ablaze and tall grass  outside the barn on fire as well. The Sullivan pumper crew, with several junior firefighters on board, pulled the hoseline and attacked the tall grass and discarded furniture burning near the barn….

…while Bourbon`s crews attacked the hayloft fire in the barn and debris on fire outside the barn loft….

…of a nice old barn, dating back at least sixty to eighty years old or more to the days of the Nolie Farm family from what I was told, prior to the days owned and operated by Meramac Nursery….

Saturday afternoon, I was returning home from rockhunting and about to make the turn on to my street to go home and unload the goodies from the truck, when we were paged out for a field fire at the Sullivan Airport. I looked in that direction and saw a huge cloud of heavy white and brown smoke, so decided to go over and snap a few photos if they didnt need any help, and then go home and unload the rocks.

As I was heading that way, I flipped my pager over to open channel to monitor radio traffic and heard several units responding to the call. I knew they had training that morning so figured there would be a good response and there was, many were at Station Five still, so only half a mile from the airport. As I turned on to Hwy AF, I heard one of the officers state that they could handle the fire with two units already on scene and everyone else could disregard. I looked at the huge cloud again, and thought to myself, this I have to see…so as I pulled into the airport road entrance off AF, this is what I saw….

…I drove on down around the buildings to the hangar entrance area and saw that most of the trucks had entered from the hangar near ARCH, so I drove on down and parked next to Pumper 814. I made sure my ac was on high for Missy and grabbed my camera and walked around to the passenger side of 814 and started shooting photos of the head of the fire, which was burning toward the north, toward the runway…..

…I could see that the grass had been recently cut and was brown and dry, so it was burning pretty hot and heavy out there…I saw one of our red brush units in the burn area near the head of the fire, but they didnt seem to be attacking the head of the fire at all….

…another of our units was down along the rear line of the fire, and the jeep, unit 898, was nearest to me, on the west side of the fire. I thought that was highly unusual since we are trained to get to the head of the fire as soon as possible and attack it first, and none of the three units were doing that….

…the fire started growing in intensity, it was moving up a slight hill toward the runway and so it was burning hotter as it climbed the hill….

….the flames were getting higher too…

….pretty soon ahead though, it would hit a swale and slow back down….

..Casey was driving 814 and came over to me and we talked about the fact that no one was taking care of the head of the fire, so he radioed Command and advised him that the head of the fire needed to be attacked with a brush unit soon because the flames were approaching the runway…I had moved off to shoot a few extra photos and then Casey asked me to join him in the pumper, he had been ordered to drive the pumper out and attack the head of the fire. I was amazed as we dont normally do this with pumpers…we use our pumpers mainly as a base for water, for the brush trucks to return to and refill their tanks with water, then return and fight fire…Casey wanted me to operate the pump while he hosed down the fire.

He cut across the field in front of us since it was dry and the ground would support a heavy truck, we had four tons of water on board alone. We were asked later why we didnt drive down the runway, and my answer was that we didnt know if the runway had been shut down to air traffic…it had been requested to be shut down by radio, but we had no confirmation that it had been done…so he drove out and parked the pumper about seventy to a hundred feet from the fireline…I climbed out of the passenger side and as I did, I noticed a shrill whistle from the pump indicating some type of alarm….I climbed up into the driver seat and confirmed Casey had set the air brakes and I then set about to place the truck into pump, activating an electronic two lever switch and I usually hear a sound that indicates the truck has switched over to pump once you activate the switch, but I didnt hear that sound…the green light came on at the switch indicating the truck is now in pump, but that doesnt always confirm anything…after placing the transmissing into drive, I got out and climbed up on the crossover and pulled the levers to pump water from the tank to the front preconnect hoseline, which Casey had pulled and was waiting for water at the nozzle…the fire was about fifty feet away at this point…and I started throttling up the pump.

The third indication to me that something was wrong, was when I looked around the cab and saw Casey still waiting for water with a limp hoseline in his hands…by now water and air pressure should have charged that hoseline and he should have been opening the nozzle to bleed off the air pressure, but he was still waiting for water. I now had confirmation that the pump wasnt working and probably hadnt been working since he arrived at least, possibly before that, and that was confirmed later for me as well. Casey dropped the hoseline and yelled to everyone to clear the truck, and he made one last ditch effort to jump in the cab, disengage the pump and move the truck out of harms way…but the fire raced up with a gust of strong wind, and the super heated air  and smoke overtook him and the truck way too fast, and we abandoned ship and ran for the runway…..

…luckily no one was hurt, there were only four of us up there at the time, one junior firefighter who remained relatively calm for his first big fire and three of us senior firefighters, and thats always the main thing, safety of our personnel. The fire quickly raced under and around the truck, the flames under the truck were not very high, not over a foot high and didnt get any higher than that until the fire reached the north side of the truck and hit open space once again….

…within a few seconds the fire raced past the truck and the smoke lifted, and I tapped Casey on the shoulder and pointed out that the truck was still there in one piece, and we walked over to check it out….

..Jimmy and his crew in 858 came up and hosed down the truck tires and undercarriage with a fog stream from the brush truck, and hot spots around the truck, as we were checking it out….and made sure everyone was okay. We started taking inventory of the damage…old Glory hanging off the back of the hosebed was melted down and singed…

the front preconnect hoseline was burning out in front of the pumper, a fire helmet was melted down, and some belts and wires were hanging down under the truck`s undercarriage….

We rolled up the windows on the truck as there were still alot of super heated embers flying around and we didnt need a fire inside the cab, and then we walked away to let things settle down and try to cool down ourselves…

Jimmy and his crew headed east toward Acid Mines Road to join up with other brush units, as the wind changed direction and was now gusting solid and pushing the fire to the east…..

…..flames could be seen jumping out ahead of the fire line as embers were blown way out in front of the fire as it moved east toward the Catholic Cemetery and heavy wooded areas, as the fire moving across the field literally exploded in intensity and strength….

 …with some flames seen as high as fifteen to twenty feet high….

Nolan came along with the jeep and tied up loose ends near the runway…..

…with junior firefighters raking behind them, before driving on down the runway to fill their water tank and then rejoin the brush units down at the east end of the airport property.  As Casey and I waited for things to cool down, additional brush units began arriving after Command called for a brush first alarm. After the smoke and embers cleared, Casey and I returned to the pumper and rolled the windows back down to clear out the smoke and dust from the cab. Casey tried to see if the truck was driveable, however could only get it to back up and the brakes didnt seem to be working well, so he chocked the wheel and we waited for Chuck to arrive with this big wrecker.  I continued to photograph the progress of the fire on the east side of the airport while we were waiting….

…and looking to the southeast, where the fire was consuming tall grass not cut yet, flames were twenty to thirty feet high and approaching woods as well….

…we found out while cooling down that the fire started as a result of hay cutting…the airport fields are contracted out to individuals for the hay and the guy cutting the grass to bale hay, hit a rock and sparked the blaze.

Crews were able to bring the fire on the east side under control with water eventually and began moving back across the tall grass on the southeast side….

….on approach to the south flank where flames were high as the fire moved through the tall grass….

…the jeep crew soon refilled, once again drove across and joined the effort to bring the south flank under control….

…which by this time, the wind had shifted once again and was pushing the fire toward the wooded areas once again….

…so that between the wind and the fuel load, the high dry grass, the fire load was unbelievably high on the south line in no time at all, and crews had their hands full once again….by this time, Bourbon and St Clair Fire Departments were on scene as well and joined in the fight….

…and pretty soon, Chuck`s Towing arrived and safely transported Pumper 814 back home…..

All in all, about twenty acres burned up, no injuries occurred, no lives were lost, and airport delays were minimized, and damage to fire equipment is yet to be determined, as there were a few other trucks there that day that had problems afterwards. However, that is why departments and districts carry insurance on personnel and equipment.

Yesterday, while everyone was at Bourbon helping them with the big brush fire, Missy and I got up about 2 pm to go run on the treadmill at the fire station and as we were heading out the driveway, my pager sounded and we were kicked out to a truck fire at Flying J Truckstop, reported to be near the pumps. I started instead toward Station One to get the pumper, but two blocks up the road, the pumper went enroute, so I turned around and headed direct to the truck stop. I arrived shortly behind the pumper and pulled up to find Junior Firefighters Drew Osborn and Stetson Zelch attacking the small fire in the bed of the dodge pickup, which was not near the pumps thankfully….

..with Larry Flesher, our Deputy Chief, supervising their efforts. Following their training protocols, they were properly attired in protective gear and wearing air packs as well, and they worked well as a team….

Drew grabbed a pike pole and took care of overhaul work while Stetson cooled down the bed liner and wheel wells….

…combining for teamwork, which is what all departments should strive for….

GOOD JOB GUYS  !!!!!

…for those unaware or visiting Missouri these days, we are experiencing a severe dry period and approaching drought conditions of extremes due to a lack of rainfall and higher than normal heat temps during the day, so please dont be burning anything and be careful with open flames and cigarette butt and ash disposals. Fire departments across the state are responding to and fighting alot of brush fires and a few departments in this area are dealing with arsonists running around setting fires no less. We assisted Bourbon Fire Department yesterday with a brush fire that got up to about thirty acres and our guys were telling me today, that tall and bushy cedar trees were crowning fully involved like firecrackers all around them. I have been in a few of those types of brush fires and it can be a little unnerving. They were up at that Bourbon fire from 10 am to 4 pm.

We also assisted Bourbon with a farm field fire a few days ago where about ten acres burned along with twenty five large round bales of hay, and one of the barns nearby was threatened for a short time as well. The photos below show our personnel and Bourbon`s crews mopping up the fires….

 …and then came home to find an overheated or tired squirrel in my walnut tree behind my carport….