Sullivan Fire Department received a dispatch early morning of December 31st, 2020 for a car on fire on Miramigoa Road, near the turn off to Cane Bottom…I was able to catch up to the fire department response units as I was still awake and dressed, putting in a late night of computer work. As we approached the scene, it was easy to see that the car was well off the roadway down into a wooded area and not on a trail at all…big red flag…and fully involved…

…as you can see in the photo above, the back hatch was completely missing from the rear of the vehicle…second red flag….and no plates found on the car at all…third red flag…called in by a passerby who told dispatch it may have been due to an accident, but as it was, the car was too far off the road for that to have happened.

Firefighters Jacob Dace and Beau Kick with Captain Damon Sumpter`s crew, wait for water and then attack the blaze…

Fires 2020-1231 Audi Car Fire in Woods Near Miramigoa Park AVI 65

Turned out to be an Audi type car/suv style, if I recall correctly, one plate may have been found and a Franklin County Deputy arrived as I was leaving the scene, to assist in the investigation of it. Definitely a weird location for a car fire.

Around 2 pm on December 10th, 2020, Sullivan Fire Department was dispatched to a Residential First Alarm, House Fire, reported to be across from the old Japan Store on Hwy H…as soon as I approached Wolf Run Farm I could see some black smoke up on the hill to the north. I arrived just before Pumper 854 with Captain Dave Konys` crew aboard, and after parking across H from the two story white farmhouse, I walked over behind the house to find two nice young men, who had been passing by, spotted the fire, alerted the residents, and then stayed to help fight the fire with them…continuing to help them put out fire where they could manage to fight it on their own with buckets of water and a garden hose with little pressure on it.

A smaller house that was located behind the main farmhouse, is what was on fire, and that fire once it became fully involved, created even more damage by catching a nearby henhouse on fire, melting the vinyl siding of the two story farmhouse from roof to ground, igniting a huge woodstove wood pile between the fire building and farmhouse, two large round bales of hay that was leading fire to the barn nearby that was also stocked with more hay, and yard grass…..

As Dave checked for fire extension to the back wall of the farmhouse, Davey Sumpter manned a preconnect hoseline and began knocking down heavy fire remaining in all areas…

More firefighters arrived with more trucks soon after Dave`s crew arrived and Nick White checked for extension to the enclosed back porch of the farmhouse…

while Davey continued to apply water to the large round bales…they usually require a lot of water to fully extinguish, with them so close to the barn, firefighters didn`t want to take any chances on having to return for a barn fire as well….

and then concentrated on the small house that had been fully consumed by flames prior to their arrival…

while other firefighters attacked the flames consuming the pile of stove wood….

About this time, firefighters from Bourbon, St Clair, and Beaufort-Leslie began arriving as well, and Gerald Fire Department with a tanker….

Thank God for the timing of those nice young men who were passing by when this happened, and their responsibility to stay and assist the residents, who I am sure would have fared a much worse fate had they not…

I was relaxing on December 1st when I heard Sullivan Fire dispatched to a first alarm residential structure fire about 10 pm…I grabbed my camera and flash unit and headed that way. I was eastbound on I-44 when Jim Bartle called me to see if I knew about it…told him I was on the way and he said he was too, he was a few miles behind me. I arrived right behind Sullivan Firefighters and parked at the edge of a field about 50 yards from the house, which was totally engulfed in heavy flames….

Sullivan firefighters were scrambling to stretch lines to the front and rear of the house simultaneously and doing a great job with the personnel they had on the scene initially…

Fires 2020-1201 Structure Fire Stewart Residence at Stanton AVI 11

Trevor Woods manned the hoseline at the front of the house and began concentrating his stream of water on the heavy fire at the right side of the house where a two car garage was attached….

There were several Junior Firefighters on the scene as well and they were doing tremendous good work assisting firefighters with the hoselines and tools…

St Clair Firefighters arrived and set about assisting on fire attack immediately…

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Firefighter Sierra Smythe has the nozzle below with newer Junior Firefighter Bennett Sherrell backing her up on the line…

Fires 2020-1201 Structure Fire Stewart Residence at Stanton AVI 37

I left the scene shortly after, firefighters were still working the rear of the structure to knock down fire back there and firefighters at the front had a good knockdown on that side, but firefighters did remain on scene for some time after. From what I observed on scene, everyone did a great job, lots of good teamwork !!

I was off work on November 19th and resting up from my November trip to Arkansas when I heard Potosi Fire Department calling for assistance from a huge brush fire on Hwy 185 south of Sullivan in the Pea Ridge State Forest, a few miles south of Indian Creek Valley. I drove out to take a few photos and video for Sullivan Independent News and wound up staying a little while, talked to the Fire Command Officer on the scene for a bit, he is a Richwoods Firefighter and he gave me some information on some old mines in the area as well. When I first walked up, the smoke was heavy and acrid in the air, the fire had burned right up to Hwy 185 and firefighters had their hands full trying to prevent it from crossing over due to extremely high winds. The fire had apparently started a quarter mile west down a gravel road into the state forest, and stretched along Hwy 185 another mile to the south as well…St Clair Fire Department had their newest brush truck on scene and an open cab pumper from Richwoods was behind it…

…soon after shooting the initial photo above, I spotted firefighter friends Jacob Dace and Josh Hinson, armed with leaf blowers, entering the forest on the right side of the photo below, to put a second fire line in around this fire…it jumped their original line and would jump it several more times while I was there, due to the high winds…

…they put this line in and then had to back out due to the extreme heat and wind…after Jacob talked to Fire Command a bit, they tried putting in yet a third line around the right flank again…

The Fire Command Officer at this location helped with holding the line several times when the wind started howling once again….

About an hour into my stay there, Missouri Conservation Department arrived with a flatbed truck transporting one of their dozers, and the operator went down the north side of the forest to put a safety line in on that side of the highway first…

Fires 2020-1119 Brush 1st Alarm AVI 71

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Fires 2020-1119 Brush 1st Alarm AVI 81

I assisted with traffic control on the north end of the fire scene, mainly helping traffic turn around and go back to Hwy A to get around the scene. I did see Sullivan`s crews before I left the scene and the next week I drove down to Potosi and saw the fire had extended a mile down the road on that west side of the highway in several areas. Potosi was wise to call for assistance that day.

I rolled up on a vehicle accident on September 25th after hearing sirens, and spotted a pickup truck in the median of westbound 44 just west of the James K. Schatz Memorial Bridge over 44…Sullivan Fire and MoBap EMS were on scene with several troopers and I still do not know what happened here but this pickup was severely damaged on the front passenger side…

Around 9 am on August 25th, I heard Sullivan Fire Department dispatched to a semi trailer fire on EB I-44 at the 227 mile marker, so I took the North Service Road and spotted heavy brown and white smoke from a mile away….

and was pulling up to park seconds later, Sullivan Firefighters were working the fire and struck a first alarm, summoning St Clair Fire Department to the scene as well…

…and I spotted a good friend of mine, Michael Richardson with Franklin County Sheriffs Office, on the scene assisting with traffic control as well…

Firefighters were shorthanded but doing great work at the scene, they were having a difficult time getting into the trailer to the seat of the fire, so Jacob Dace started cutting his way into the trailer with the K12 saw….

and soon firefighters were again attacking the fire….

…and about 15 min later, additional Sullivan firefighters arrived with manpower and water, and St Clair arrived as well….

…and the fire inside the trailer flared up once again….

Sullivan Fire Chief Eric called for Chuck`s Towing to respond and Chuck`s son Louis, showed up with their newest fleet wrecker and assisted with removal of the load of freight to assist in fire extinguishment…Louis is quite talented in removing freight and vehicles both…

Great work by all !!

On Saturday, May 23rd, 2020, around noon, Sullivan Fire Department was dispatched to a residential structure fire at 281 Hwy WW, about half a mile north of the Sullivan City Limits. I drove out and was on the scene pretty quickly, a good minute ahead of the Fire Department, heavy fire through the roof of a single story residence that had sat vacant for quite a while….

Fires 2020-0523 House Fire Hwy WW Acr From Joe Eye Residence AVI 91 Video 1

Chief Eric was first on the scene for Sullivan Fire Department, with Pumper 854 arriving a minute later, Captain Ray Enloe`s crew stretching hoselines and preparing for a good attack on this fire…

Fires 2020-0523 House Fire Hwy WW Acr From Joe Eye Residence AVI 98 Video 2

Drew Richards is on the nozzle of the line in front of the house and Trevor Woods stretched the red hoseline to the rear of the house in the above video….I walked around the house to the rear a few min later and shot some video of Trevor on the hoseline at the back door…between he and Drew, they did a good job banking that smoke down upon Kyle Robertson and me…

Fires 2020-0523 House Fire Hwy WW Near Joe Eye Residence AVI 110 Video 3

After a good knockdown from front and back sides, the fire came roaring back on the south side and firefighters had to attack through the window on that side…

Fires 2020-0523 House Fire Hwy WW Near Joe Eye Residence AVI 131 Video 5

…they ran out of water about that time and while waiting for another tanker to arrive and hook up to the pumper, Bourbon firefighters arrived on scene to help out in Dr Destructo mode….

…the Bourbon firefighter with the pike pole in his hands, walked over to Drew Richards and singlehandedly pulled the remains of the front porch down and out of Drew`s way….

…while Trevor worked on the south side fire through the window….

As I was leaving and got back out to the highway, all sorts of extra help were arriving, manpower, Pumper 814, Tanker 853, Crawford County Deputies, Crawford Electric crews…the deputy told me he was able to see the smoke from near Cuba…

…these guys are the background guys, the unsung heroes on every call, they stay in the background doing very important work…supplying the wet stuff to the guys on the front lines…alot of teamwork goes on at every call to make for a very successful effort by all involved….law enforcement officers are very vital to the success of a good firefighting team in terms of protection, traffic control, crowd control, etc. and other agencies like Crawford Electric and city crews can make things go much smoother and safer as well, shutting off electric or responding to make sure electric is shut off as in this case…making the job of fighting fire a much safer environment for all involved on the scene….