Engine & Squad on Multi-Alarm Conflagration |
| By Assistant Chief Jonathan Riffe | |
| March 16, 2006 | |
| On Wednesday March 15, 2006 at 1235 hours, Company 3 (Solomons) and St Mary's County units were alerted to the LightHouse Inn on Solomons Island for the building fire. Immediately following this alarm, Communications dispatched the 2nd alarm (due to 911 calls). Units from Company 3 arrived on location to find the Lighthouse Inn fully-involved with fire along with the Bowens Inn. Additionally, several apartments, houses, boats, and the entire island were exposed to the threat of burning. Because of the fire, several brush fires were also caused leading to another 3 additional companies dispatched just to handle the brush fires. Soon after arrival, Command requested a 3rd Alarm along with evacuation tones of all the buildings. Huntingtown Engine 62 (Sgt Nasti) was already heading south to fill-in at Company 3. They were picked up on the 3rd alarm as well as Squad 6 (Lt Montgomery) and a total of 10 Volunteers. Heavy winds only added to the problem which ending up leading to 5 counties being called to the scene. Fortunately, several exposures were saved and the fire was brought under control within 2 hours. Near-by tugboats also responded to the scene and were able to flow copious amounts of water to assist in extinguishing the fire. Damages have already been estimated to be approximately 5 million dollars. Huntingtown units remained on the fireground until approximately 2200 hours (10 hours later). During this time period, at least 4 crews remained in the quarters of Company 6 running several calls. ****Many of these pictures came from neighboring fire departments, which apparently came from a local website, www.thebaynet.com. We would like to give full credit where credit is due to these organizations. Thank you. |
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