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ENGINE
CAUGHT IN FLASHOVER IN WEST GATE HOUSE FIRE |
December
01, 2005 - Just before 1600 hrs today, Prince
William County Fire Communications began to receive
multiple calls reporting a house fire at 9703 King
George Drive, in the West Gate section of the county.
At 1550 hrs, box alarm 11-13 was struck bringing
Engine 501 as the third due engine company. Medic
551 arrived first and advised fire showing from side
A. Engine 511 laid out and pulled a line to the
front door, having Engine 508 pick up their line.
511's officer transmitted the report of people
trapped and requested a second alarm.
Engine 501
arrived and took a secondary hydrant, seeing heavy
fire in the basement climbing to the roof. The Engine's crew
ran their 300 down the block and, with the report of
people trapped, quickly made entry through the front door. Inside they were met with
extreme heat and heavy smoke. Engine 501 looked for the
basement stairs through "Colliers Mansion"
conditions while along the way sweeping for victims.
Conditions inside began to deteriorate
rapidly. With no luck finding the steps, the crew from Engine
501 decided to pull out and find a basement access
from the outside.
They advanced their line to the
rear and found Truck 511 at the sliding glass
basement door. The Truck took out the door, 501's lineman called for
water, and made his
way down the exterior steps to the entrance. He
waited for a minute checking the conditions and then
made his way in. Do to even worse "Colliers Mansion"
conditions in the basement, Engine 501 was not
initially able to push deep into the basement. This
was good, however, because as the Engine made their
way in, the basement, along with the rest of the
house, flashed over. The lineman with the
officer pulling, pushed backwards, but they couldn't
get out in time. The fire fully engulfed the lineman
and officer as they both dropped to the ground just
short of the exit. A few members of Truck 511's crew
also got caught in the flash as it came up the
steps. With the pipe open, the lineman was able to
keep enough of the fire off of the men to avoid
serious burns. On his back, Engine 501's lineman
extinguished enough of the basement to allow his
crew to push back in. They made their way forward just as
a "Mayday" was being transmitted.
One of the members of
Truck 511 was injured as he was knocked down on the
exterior steps during the flash. At the same time,
Command, having witnessed the whole house take off,
ordered an evacuation. Engine 501's officer saw that
Truck 511's man was out safe and continued to help back out his
line. 501 extinguished a good amount of fire from
the doorway and requested permission to head back
in. Command, seeing that 501 was making good
progress on the fire, gave them permission to
proceed. He advised them that that there was an
additional report of two victims in the basement.
501 pushed in, extinguishing a large volume of fire
as they crawled over mounds of debris. They were
only able to search part of the basement before they
were pulled out once again, this time because the
fire had broke through the roof.
It was not long before nearly every room in the
house was involved. Engine 501 operated their hand
line along with multiple companies from the County
on the outside of the building until the fire was
brought under control. Tower 501, due on the second
alarm arrived with a driver only and was met on
scene by our Hazmat Unit with three men, which
cleared a mutual box fuel spill at the time of
dispatch. The Tower's crew, along with other crews
from the county, worked hard to open up the building
from the outside. With the bulk of the fire knocked
down, Engine and Tower 501 were ordered into the
basement to complete a primary search and check for
extension. Shortly thereafter, the Engine's crew was
replace by Wagon 516 and sent to rehab. The Tower
continued to search and check for extension. Once
the fire was declared out, companies remained on
scene for quite sometime as extensive overhaul was
required. Animal control was requested to the scene
because there were some 30 cats inside the home at
the time of the fire. The firefighter from Truck 511
was transported to the hospital for precautionary
measures and is ok. The firemen from Engine 501
received only minor injuries from the flash. The
home had four residents, two of whom were home at
the time of the fire. Both residents were accounted
for outside and safe. Along with the firefighter,
one resident was transported to the hospital with
minor injuries.
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Photos by Jimmy Higgins and Rob Laver. |
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Manassas Volunteer Fire Company |
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