It was a Monday night in March when we heard the other station get a call for smoke in a house. They reported the house to be abandoned and smoke showing. The Captain called for our Aerial Truck so we responded.

The call was in the next district so it took us a while to get there. On the way we heard the first in crew go in for an interior attack. The Incident Commander also called for another Pumper but then changed it to an Aerial/Pumper combination truck. The Platoon Chief responded as well and he called for the Rehab truck. Just before we arrived we heard the interior crew report a hole in the second floor. Since it was an abandoned building, the Incident Commander pulled them out and began defensive operations.

When we were about one minute from the scene I asked the Incident Commander for an assignment. He told us to stand by. As we pulled up we could see a two and a half storey brick house with grey smoke coming from the second floor window on the south side. The Rescue truck had already set up its light system so the whole area was lit up. As we stood by we chose the best spot for our truck. We thought we should put the turntable of our ladder right in front of the Rescue truck so we could reach the second floor window. No sooner had we decided this then the Incident Commander assigned us to set up in exactly the spot we had chosen.

We pulled in and set up our ladder. I noticed that whoever hit the hydrant had connected the hose wrong so we couldn't take another line off of it. As the crew got the ladder into position I looked for another hydrant. The nearest one was around the corner. I didn't want to have to go that far so I went to the Incident Commander and gave him the choice of us hitting the second hydrant or just getting the Pumper to relay water to us. He was busy deploying 65mm handlines but he said we could relay from the Pumper anyway. We were fortunate that one length of 100mm Hi-Vol hose just reached.

Our instructions from the Incident Commander were to put as much water as we could into the top two windows. By this time everyone was out of the building so we opened up and flooded the room with a fog pattern. Then we moved the nozzle up to flood the attic floor. While we were doing this the other Aerial truck set up its boom on the other side of the house and also sprayed water into the second storey. After a few minutes of this we were told to shut down and the interior crew were sent in to check the situation.

Now we just waited to see what the interior crew found. We could see some light smoke coming from the roof right along the ridge board. Soon a pike pole came poking up through the roof at that point. The Interior crew were doing overhaul. This was a pretty clear signal that our truck was no longer needed. I went to the Incident Commander and he told me that by the time we had our truck ready to go the coffee should be ready in the Rehab truck.

At the Rehab truck we got a chance to talk to the guys who went in. They said the first time they got up to the second floor they found a big hole burnt through. Because it was an abandoned building and it was full of smoke they decided to back out. They said they could have gotten across the hole by crawling on the joists but that the risk wasn't worth it. The second time they went in they could see a lot better and managed to get around the hole.

By this time it was getting close to one o'clock in the morning so after my crew had some soup and coffee I went into the Rehab truck to grab an extra package of cookies for the ride home. The Incident Commander cleared us and we returned to our station.

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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