We were at a 3-car collision when a call came in for a house fire in our district. I was driving the pumper truck. Most of our rescue equipment is carried on the aerial truck that runs out of my station. We didn't need the heavy rescue equipment so the aerial truck was dispatched immediately as well as trucks from other districts.

The police and ambulance were already on scene at the car accident. When the aerial truck reported they had a working structure fire we packed up and headed to that call.

Because of the delay in responding, my truck was the fifth one to arrive. Usually the driver stays with his truck, but I could see that this was a fairly big incident. Our S.O.P. (standard operating procedure) states that at any working fire the P.A.S. (personnel accountability system) should be implemented. So, I grabbed the P.A.S. tags from my truck and headed for the command vehicle. As I passed other trucks I grabbed their tags as well. When I arrived at the command vehicle, the Platoon Chief, who was the incident commander by this time, looked at the tags and said "Oh good, get that started at the back of my truck." from that point on I acted as the Platoon Chiefs aide.

The fire was in a house on a small court. That meant all the trucks had to enter from one direction. By the time my truck arrived the street was already jammed. The fire was in house No. 31 and was extending to house No. 27 immediately to the south (there was no house No. 29). The first arriving crew assumed command and stretched a handline to the front door of No. 31. The next two trucks arrived fairly close together. One was a telesquirt (a pumper truck with a 50-foot water tower on top) so it pulled up right in front of the No. 31. They set up their boom in case it was needed. The other truck hit a second hydrant and laid the line to the telesquirt.

A 65-mm handline was pulled around the back of No. 31. Most of the fire was in a bedroom at the back of the second floor. It had burned through the ceiling and into the attic. It had also burned out of the gable end of the roof at the south end and was catching on the roof of house No. 27. On this street the houses are about four feet apart.

The crew from my truck was designated Interior Sector and took the handline into house No. 31. This meant that the 65-mm hose in the backyard had to be shut down.

I learned later, from the Captain, the Interior Sector went in the front door and through the living room toward the back of the house. In the dining room, at the back, they looked up and could see through the ceiling and right out through the roof. This showed them where the fire was and also let them know the floor upstairs was unsafe in that room. They retraced their steps and took the hose upstairs. They made their way along the hallway toward the rear bedroom. There was the closet full of towels that was burning quite well so, they extinguished it. The outside line had knocked down most of the fire in the bedroom. The crew found only spot fires in there. These were difficult to deal with because of the unsafe floor. They couldn't get right up to them and overhaul them properly. After doing all they could in the bedroom, they backed out and reported to the incident commander.

Outside, the incident commander sent a crew into house No. 27 to check for fire extension inside. They knocked down a small fire in the attic. Another crew checked house No. 33 that was on the north side but found no fire.

Things had settled down by this time. There was still some fire in the roof of No. 33 but the interior crew couldn't get at it. The incident commander pulled the interior crew out and sent a crew onto the roof of No. 27 to spray water across into the attic of No. 33. The fire was extinguished. Then the work of checking hot spots and overhaul began. I finally managed to get inside and take a look at what happened. Our guys* had made a good stop. Most of the house was saved as well as the house next door.

* Most people view the term 'guy' as a masculine reference. I prefer to use it as a friendly term for a person who shares the same experiences. I think two of the Firefighters at this call were women but their gender had nothing to do with the job they did, so they were just a couple of "the guys". Some people think women can't do this job, but they don't know the women Firefighters that I know. Some are good, some are bad - just the same as the men.

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FIRES These are stories about recent fires;

• House Fire
• Tanker Truck to a Garbage Bin Fire
• Tanker Trunk to a Hopper Fire
• Car Fire
• Warehouse Fire
• House Fire
• Apartment Fire
• House Fire

MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENTS These are stories about car and truck accidents;

• Single Car Rollover
• Head-on Crash
• Rush Hour Accident
• Single Car Flip
• Car vs. Garbage Truck
• Van Rollover
• Sport Utility Vehicle Rollover
• 500m from the Dealership
• Left Turn Mistake

RESCUES These are stories about rescues we have made;

• Man Trapped in a Trailer

HAZARDOUS MATERIALS These are stories about emergencies involving Hazardous Materials;

• No Calls

MEDICAL We go to a lot of medical calls, but it is not fair to the people involved for me to describe their medical problems here. I can tell you about one incident and how it effected me;

• Stress

OTHER Sometimes interesting things happen around the Firehall;

• Skunk in the Firehall