| Monday August 13, 2007 at 1820 hours, Communications alerted units to 7735 C St (Chesapeake Beach) for the "working townhouse fire". This was obviously apparent as all responding units could see the column of smoke in the sky. This brought Chief 6 (Riffe), Lieutenant 6 (Thrasher), Engine 62 (Muholland), and Tanker 6 (Montgomery, Jr) to the call as the 3rd due company. Units arrived on the scene to find not one, but two single-family dwellings (7533 C St and 7535 C St) with heavy fire showing from both of them. The houses in this development are approximately 8' apart from each other. Several neighboring exposures were also being threatened. In addition, an outside propane tank was also well-involved with fire.
Upon hearing this information, the 3rd crew at the station mounted Engine 61 (Cox, D) and was brought 1st due to the Working Fire Dispatch. A 4th crew mounted Ambulance 68 (Suchter)and transferred to Company 5. Later into the incident, a 5th crew, Ambulance 69 (Morgan) was alerted to the fire-ground and sent to Staging.
Crews from Company 1, Company 5, Company 6, and Company 2 pulled a multitude of handlines to bring this fire under control. At one point between 5-6 handlines were in operation (fortunately this is area is protected by hydrants and water supply was never an issue). Engine 62 supplied Tower 1 for heavy duty operations; however, they were never used due to quick work by the interior companies. Engine 62's crew and Engine 61's crew pulled their own attack lines and assisted inside. In addition to excellent work by the Engine companies, nothing would have been accomplished without assistance from Tower 1, Tower 2, Squad 5, and the additional engine companies that assisted with opening up the ceiling and walls to expose the heavy fire in the cocklofts of both houses.
Units from Calvert, Anne Arundel, Prince George's, and Charles County were brought to the scene to extinguish the fire. The Huntingtown Ladies Auxiliary/Canteen Unit also responded to the scene and provided refreshments as well as dinner for when we returned. The last piece of Huntingtown apparatus cleared the scene at 2149 hours.
With Huntingtown's resources depleted, many thanks to our transfer companies. LaPlata covered our Engine, Prince Frederick VFD covered our Tanker, and Prince Frederick VRS covered our Ambulance.
Command: Chief 1 (Freesland), Scene Operations: Chief 6, 7535 C Street Interior: Chief 5B (Sealey), 7533 C Street Interior: Chief 2B (Howes), Staging: Chief 2A (D'Agostino)
A few pictures courtesy of Company 1. |
