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….

Last Wednesday, as I prepared to return to work that evening after eight days off as a result of a bad cold and missing countless fire calls during that time, Missy and I were out and about getting caught up on things before heading home to get my work nap in. As I was headed back to the house, my pager went off and we were alerted to a residence on fire at Stanton…dispatch advised a couple of calls reporting flames through the roof. I grabbed my camera and drove to Stanton, catching up to the lead pumper about a mile from the scene, and as we rounded the curve on the interstate before the overpass, we observed heavy smoke and indeed, flames from the house. On arrival, the pumper pulled up in front of the double wide mobile home and I parked a little ways back and off the roadway as much as possible. I stepped out of my truck and took this first photo showing flames through the roof on the south end of the house….it was about then that the neighbor next door told me that a sheriffs deputy lived there and his wife and child might still be inside…I relayed this information to the Captain, Gary Midyett, as Firefighters prepared to enter the residence….

I then walked to the back of the house and shot this photo showing even more fire through the roof and blowing out the back window, and heavy smoke throughout the rest of the house…

the next photos show firefighters and paramedics pulling hoselines from the pumper and preparing to attack the flames…

…Paramedic Billy Harris then approaches the back of the house with a charged Safety Hoseline, where flames are blowing out the window and bleeds air from the nozzle and line…

…and then Billy makes his attack with the Safety line, while the Interior Crew prepares to enter the back door with the Red Hoseline…

…and Billy continues to cool down the back room near the back door to protect Interior Crews as they prepare to enter the house….

Crews enter the back door above and Billy continues to support their entrance with the Safety line, backed up on the line by Captain Dave Konys….

…here Deputy Chief Larry Flescher walks around to the rear of the house to get an idea of what is going on and let me know that they had confirmation that the wife and child were not inside the residence…boy that was welcome news, as I know everyone was really worried for the ten minutes before that….…I then walked around to the other side of the house and photographed the heavy smoke coming from the north end of the home….

…then back around in time to find Billy hitting the south end of the roofline with the Safety line and cooling it down….

…right after I photographed Billy at the south end of the house, a strong thunderstorm blew in on top of us with heavy rain, and at that point, with the fire under control, I left for the house to get my nap in before returning to work. I found out later in the week, this fire was a result of arson. Luckily no one was injured but the house, obviously,  was a total loss.

The day after digging in my birthday pocket with Docia, I slept in a little and shortly after waking up, we were toned out for a car fire near a residence…I quickly dressed and loaded up Missy and we took off…figuring the full time crew would arrive well before we did since the fire location was just a couple miles north of our Station Five, we drove direct to the scene. It was reported to be well involved, and I could see heavy black smoke from a few miles away. I still hadnt heard our crew go on scene yet and soon I arrived and parked behind Larry, one of our Deputy Chiefs, grabbed my camera and walked up the driveway to see Larry talking to the home and vehicle owner, and his jeep well involved in his driveway about thirty feet from the house….

and…

Shortly after, the crew arrived with Pumper 854 and two junior firefighters stretched the preconnect out while the firefighters masked up…here Stetson stretches the hoseline out…and then hands off the line and nozzle to Firefighter Jimmy Smythe…

Jimmy is soon joined by Captain Gary Midyett on the line….

..and they wait for Engineer Bill to charge the line with water…

..once charged, Jimmy bleeds the air from the hoseline....and he and Gary approach the jeep ….

..and begin their attack…

…quickly hitting the cabin interior floorboard where the base of the fire appears to be strongest…

…and thats when the FIREWORKS begin….

…and Roman Candle type streamers shoot out of the jeep at all angles….

..and continue to erupt from the cabin….

..and Jimmy gets aggressive and tries a different angle to snuff the flames…

..and gains more control faster….white smoke indicating extinguishment in progress…

..however a return to the front seat door also returns the fireworks when Jimmy delivers water to the front floorboard…

and…

..where it was later determined that the steering column was made from magnesium, which can violently react with water, resulting in fireworks looking reactions, much of the time.

Soon after this, the fire was brought under control.

Missy and I were watching a nice Dirty Harry movie a couple of weeks ago about midnight, while it was storming and raining outside…the last nice night I was able to shut the ac off and open the windows…when the fire tones interrupted my reverie and the dispatcher announced a car on fire near a residence and the address was only two blocks behind my house…so we got up and headed that way…I pulled in behind a Sullivan police officer and discovered not one car, but two, on fire in a driveway near the residence…

..and waited with the police officer for our fire truck and crew to arrive, as it stormed and rained…while I had a fire extinguisher in the truck, I decided it wasnt enough to handle this and tires were exploding right and left while we waited…a few minutes later Pumper 854 turned the corner….

..and approached…

…and pulled up in front…

..and arrived….

..and the guys started pulling the preconnect…

..and stretching the hoseline…

..and then Mike, on the hoseline, waits for Cody to charge the line…

..and waits…

..and then Mike starts his attack…

and joined by Nolan, they approach with caution as tires are still exploding…

..and pretty soon, the heavy fire is knocked down…

and firefighters are in control of the scene…

..it was a good thing, neither car was parked closer to the residence or side by side in the driveway or we probably would have had a house on fire in addition to the cars.

Last week the Sullivan Fire Protection District hosted the annual Junior Firefighter Academy again, with thirty juniorn firefighters from all over the state attending and participating, and all of them graduated at the end of the week as well. Several instructors from area fire departments also participated and assisted in the instruction, both classroom and on hands training. This year we saw juniors from as far away as Leadwood and Warrenton, participating in the weeklong classes. I was able to photograph the auto extrication training and the live burn training as well for a few hours each day.

Below is Sullivan FD Instructor Damon Sumpter assisting a junior firefighter in cutting the roof posts to enable removing the roof if needed….

..and next is a Cuba FD Instructor Bryan Wendell assisting Sullivan Junior Firefighter Justin Reed with a Haligan Tool….

and he also assists Sullivan Junior Firefighter Drew Osborn on the Jaws of Life in opening a car door…

Juniors also learned how to hook up hydraulic hoselines to the power generators that supply power to the tools…

..how to cut cars apart if necessary to remove victims of crashes…

..and even cut them in two if needed…

..here St Clair Instructors worked both sides of the car at the same time…

…cars donated to the department in one piece, were removed in several pieces…

here one of the juniors from Warrenton is shown assisting cutting a door post…

..and everyone in action here...

and here is a group shot of the Instructors present for the Auto Extrication Training Class…

Then on Friday morning, as I was on my way home from work in St Louis County, I stopped off at the Boles Fire District`s Burn Training Center behind the Labadie Power Plant…..

and photographed the live burn training and smokehouse training…here the juniors enter the burn trailer in teams to observe how fire builds up from a small fire in an enclosed area to a larger fire in a matter of minutes, they can see how certain items burn and the gasses they give off, radiating heat setting fire to a piece of furniture across the room, how a short burst of water from a charged hoseline will cool the fire and heat buildup in a room or allow the steam conversion to extinguish a fire…all this while in full protective clothing and wearing an air pack as well as having a charged hoseline in their hands and two safety teams outside ready to quickly enter and assist if needed….

Here is Drew Osborn with his team masking up and preparing to enter the trailer, with Leadwood Instructor Matt Perry to the left…

and after making sure everyone`s gear is ready…

the juniors subsequently enter the trailer ….

…each junior enters the trailer on their hands and knees, crawling inside and approaching the fire at the end of the trailer, holding onto the charged hoseline, with Cuba Instructor Bryan Wendell bringing up the rear…

..and then they wait and watch the buildup of the fire…

…in the following photo is Team One inside the burn trailer…

..and Team Two inside the trailer…

..and the Third Crew inside the trailer…

..and then the crews come out of the trailer much like they went in, crawling…

Not only was it hot inside the trailer, but outside as well so teams were rotated in and out of their coats and gear due to the humidity and heat of the day to prevent anyone from overheating…

Here is a group photo of the juniors at the Burn Center Training…

..and the Instructors present for training as well…

..soon after I headed home, their training was cut short by a strong storm that entered the area and later that evening all of the juniors in attendance for the week graduated in  a ceremony at Station One.