Early on the morning of December 28th, 2022, Sullivan Fire District was dispatched to a Garage Fire at 414 Watson Road. I woke up and dressed for warmth, as it was bone chilling cold outside, and drove to the scene, arriving just ahead of Captain Ray Enloe`s crew in Pumper 854. Sullivan Police Officers were on scene when I got there, and I walked to the back of the residence where the resident was explaining that his pickup was inside the garage, that was well involved with heavy smoke coming from the building….

Ray`s crew arrived soon after and approached from the west side of the building…Firefighter Zac Martell on the preconnect hoseline…

Ray arrived to back him up after doing a walk around, and after they made a good knockdown of the fire from the west side….

….Ray decided they should make entry thru the garage doors, so they moved the hoseline back around the residence to the east side and prepared to make entry….

…I should prob note here that no other Sullivan units responded to this call other than Chief Eric….

I left shortly after this last photo, St Clair Fire District arrived as I was leaving….

Sullivan Fire District and MoBap EMS responded to a vehicle accident that occurred under the West Overpass at the 225 exit of eastbound I-44 on October 16th. It was dispatched as a rollover and appeared the vehicle rolled over the guard rails and struck one of the columns supporting the overpass. When I arrived, I observed a male standing on the side of the vehicle, appeared to be an SUV, and was holding one of the doors open…

167 Rollover into Center Columns West Overpass in Sullivan 2022-1016

Sullivan Fire District was dispatched to assist Cuba Fire District with extrication of a semi truck driver that left the eastbound lanes of I-44 about a mile east of the Hwy UU Overpass, in the area of the 212 mile marker. The semi struck a tree and overturned. When I arrived, I drove over to the North Service Road to photograph the accident, there was a long line of fire trucks parked on the shoulder with a few large wreckers mixed in here and there…..

It took firefighters quite a while to extricate the driver from the cab, the trailer believed to be on top of the cab, making things tougher for firefighters and medics to deal with….and once they did, a medical helicopter landed on the eastbound lanes and medical crews transferred the driver to the air unit….

AVI 58 Semi Crash Into Tree EB 44 at 211 MM East of Cuba 2022-1004.AVI

Sullivan Fire District was dispatched to a mobile home fire on Highway 185, south of Sullivan,  just south of Highway A in the 35,000 block of 185,  in the evening hours of Sept 15th.

On their arrival, firefighters discovered the trailer burned to the ground and no one around. Firefighters extinguished the few flames remaining, cancelled mutual aid,  and had Crawford Electric respond to the scene to check for electric…this turned out to be one of many trailer fires in this area….

On July 14th, Sullivan Fire District was dispatched to a report of a brush fire with multiple vehicles on fire in the area of Seminary Road near Erni Road. Firefighters arrived with brush units, Pumper 854, and Tanker 813 to find heavy smoke in the area of this intersection, much of the smoke appeared to be coming from behind a residence on the north side of Seminary Road. Firefighters were unable to find an access road to the wooded area behind the residence, until they made a foot search around the residence, then located an old trail into the woods. Making their way down this old trail on foot, they located several vehicles heavily involved in fire throughout the brush….

…and evidence of other vehicles that had already burned themselves out…additional assistance arrived from Mutual Aid companies and firefighters remained on scene for a while.

On the evening of July 10th, 2022, Sullivan Fire District was dispatched to a trailer fire at the former Apollo Fireworks in Stanton. I arrived right behind the fire trucks and captured firefighters as they began to fight the fully involved trailer, that was believed to be fully loaded with fireworks…

This is Drew Richards above, preparing to attack the huge blaze….

…shortly after knocking the blaze down, Drew moved over to the left side to knock down more fire on the other side of the trailer….

….while Jacob Dace moved in to the center front line and attacked the fire there….

I was also fortunate to be able to get a couple of photos of Junior Firefighter Bennett Sherrel assisting on mop up on the back side of the fire…

On June 26th, 2022, I was having breakfast at The Silo Restaurant when Jim Bartle texted and then called me, advising me of a residential structure fire on Elizabeth Street in town, said there were reports of multiple burn victims and at least one resident still inside the house that was on fire. He was responding to it as well, so I immediately let my waitress know I was leaving and headed that way, too. When we arrived, we parked down by the home of retired Sullivan firefighter Bob Marsh and then walked quickly to the scene at the streetcorner. It was evident that there had been a heavy fireball blowing from the southwest corner of the house on Sullivan Fire District`s arrival, there was heavy damage to the residence immediately west of the house on fire and still smoking as well. Firefighters were still inside trying to extinguish the fire and conduct search and rescue as well when we arrived…

That is the house above that caught fire inside, there were seven people inside when the fire broke out…six were standing out in the street when the first units arrived from the fire station…all six had burns and related injuries so Command advised County Dispatch and upgraded the First Alarm to a Mass Casualty Alarm, which is similar to a 3rd Alarm with Multiple Victims, it basically calls for extensive Mutual Aid Response and Medical Units to respond and assist Sullivan Fire.

Jim and I began photographing the scene on our arrival,  and in the midst of the bedlam, where multiple ambulances were arriving and medics attending to the burn victims of all ages, Jim was requested to drive an ambulance due to his past experience as a firefighter with Sullivan Fire District, so soon after this he left the scene driving one of the ambulances to MoBap Sullivan Hospital. There was a lot of confusion on scene and reports of medical air units landing at the High School Parking Lot.

I stayed in contact with Police and Command while on scene taking photographs, respectfully not shooting any images of the rescue of the burn victim found inside the residence and carried out by the interior fire crew. I moved to the front of the attack pumper using it to block my view of that activity….I concentrated solely on the fire and the fire attack by crews.

Fire Crews and trucks from Bourbon, Cuba, St Clair, Union, and Boles Fire Districts were among some of the departments that responded to the scene to assist Sullivan Fire. Sadly, to this day, over a year later, I do not believe the cause of the fire has been determined and at least one burn victim died from their injuries from the fire.

The early morning hours of April 2nd around 1 am, I heard Cencom dispatch Cuba, Bourbon and Steelville Fire Districts to a First Alarm Commercial Structure Fire at the Resale Shop on Old Hwy 66 in Cuba, the official address 501 East Washington Street. As I passed through Bourbon, I noticed lights on inside the Fire Station just north of 44 and figured Bourbon Fire would soon be on the way.

I kept looking for a glow in the sky as I approached the Hwy UU overpass, but never saw one til I arrived…parking two blocks west of Missouri Hick Restaurant on Old 66, and walked down to see a few Cuba firefighters near the back of the building, trying to make entry through a side door with heavy fire through the roof on the east side, right above their heads….

295 AVI East Side of Building Heavy Fire Thru Roof

…after a few minutes on the east side of the building, I walked over to the west side of the building, to see if the fire on the roof was traveling in that direction, and I discovered heavy fire over there as well…

288 AVI Resale Shop Cuba 1st Alarm Com Structure Fire West Side

I walked back over to the east side of the building as another of Cuba Fire`s trucks arrived on scene…

303 AVI Resale Shop Cuba Structure Fire Water Issues

…and from the level of activity, it appeared they might have been experiencing some water problems…I also didn`t know it at the time, but found out later, that Chief Mike Plank had upgraded from a first alarm to a 3rd alarm, calling in several area fire departments…Bourbon Fire arrived soon after and Sullivan I learned, was on the way with Ladder 852…Cuba Fire had not received their new ladder truck as yet and the older one had been sold. The heavy fire continued to spread across the roof….

In the meantime, Cuba firefighters did what they could while help was on the way…

Sullivan Fire District arrived with Ladder 852 as the heavy fire rolled across and consumed the west side of the roof, and the ladder was placed into operation quickly…

306 AVI Sullivan Ladder Truck 852 Arriving

The ladder is raised and firefighters were making sure they had enough lines added to the truck for an adequate water supply….

329 AVI Sullivan Ladder Truck Flowing Water Now On To Roof

And then once the lines were hooked up, Sullivan began flowing water on to the roof fire with the ladder pipe…Firefighter John Wayne Strothcamp was at the top of the ladder, while Firefighter/Engineer Drew Richards was operating the pump at the back of the Ladder Truck…I had talked to Captain Ray Enloe a few minutes before and he was hanging near the front of the truck. Just before they started flowing water, I heard a few explosions, it sounded like, from withiin the building…

334 AVI Sullivan Ladder 852 Flowing Water on Heavy Fire

377 AVI Very Heavy Fire Rolling Thru Roof

The fire continued to grow bigger and intensify as well….a few minutes later, the fire moved to the front of the building and the front porch facade came crashing down…you will hear a yell for help…turned out it was from Ray Enloe, who was operating a handline near the pump…he dived under the Ladder Truck as the intense heat from the porch and embers swept across the space between the truck and the building quickly…can`t see it from my vantage point, but firefighters near Cuba`s attack pumper quickly rushed to Ray`s aid…you see Chief Mike Plank walk over to make sure everyone is okay, then return and confer with medics who walked over to check on everyone as well…

382 AVI Front Porch Facade Collapsed Some Tense Moments No One Hurt

…and soon after the front porch facade came down, the southwest corner piece came down as well…

387 AVI Knocking Down Heavy Fire at Front Wall Roofline with 852

…and within about 20 minutes, firefighters had much better control of the fire, with an extensive mop up operation soon to begin….the fire was nearly under control before the third alarm units began arriving, just in time for the real work to begin…

389 AVI Last Video With Explanation on Ray Enloe When Porch Collapsed

I left the scene and headed home soon after…not sure how long firefighters remained on scene, but they had their work cut out for them.

Sullivan Fire was dispatched to assist Beaufort-Leslie Fire District with a residential structure fire at 2770 Spring Creek Road on a first alarm, bringing in units from Gerald-Rosebud Fire District and Union Fire District as well. I arrived shortly behind Sullivan and Beaufort-Leslie units, to find a double wide trailer with heavy brown smoke coming from the ends of the trailer and the front door and porch blackened from heavy fire that firefighters found on arrival….

278 Burning Leaves in Burn Barrel Sets Front Porch of Home On Fire

I talked to the resident, who is a nurse full time, she said she was burning leaves in the burn barrel seen in the photo above, when the wind blew the leaves out of the barrel and under her front porch, igniting more leaves, setting the porch on fire and spreading to the trailer…in the video above, she can be heard explaining it to her  next door neighbor. Firefighters were able to make a quick stop on the fire, arriving just in time…

The morning of March 24th, Sullivan Fire was dispatched to a first alarm residential structure fire on Highway FF in the 3400 block, just south of the quarry. When I turned on FF, I caught up to Chief Eric and followed him to the scene, and then drove past the scene to a driveway 100 feet further south, parked out of the way of that drive, and hoofed it back to the fire. As I was approaching the residence driveway, MoBap Ambulance backed out of the driveway and allowed Pumper 854, on approach with Ray Enloe driving, the right of way. Ray had to swing wide to make it up the narrow gravel drive, which was tightly enclosed on both sides with overgrown cedar trees, that were in huge need of some major pruning work. The tanker was next and then the ambulance drove back up…there was very little parking space at the end of the drive, all other units responding on the first alarm had to park down on the highway. The residence turned out  to be a rock and wood frame, two story home, with heavy fire blowing out the entire back of the house…

House Fire 3419 Hwy FF 2022-0324 AVI 211

Firefighter Tyler Goodman was on the nozzle with Captain Damon Sumpter backing him up, and Ray was on Damon`s shift, filling in for Jacob Dace. I told Ray later, that I recognized this house, that we had been there many years ago on a working flue fire…Ray remembered that call as well, as the chimney was damaged that night and it was apparent it had been rebuilt…somewhat…lasting many more years.

House Fire 3419 Hwy FF AVI 214-001

Tyler made a good knockdown on the back of the house, and then moved up on the south side of the residence, trying to knock down heavy fire through the windows…

…and despite the initial knockdown, the fire upstairs continued to build…and then fire returned to the back porch so Tyler returned to that area yet again…

…and then he tried to hit the second story fire as well….

…and then he was hitting the first floor windows once again….

The fire upstairs began to build, the smoke turning dark brown from white, fairly quickly, and then Bourbon Firefighters arrived to assist… their crew entered the front door with a hoseline and proceeded upstairs to try and locate the fire there….

…led by Bourbon Assistant Chief Brent Byrd…while I didn`t hear the radio traffic while they were up there, I did follow the smoke signals…the heat and fire up there kept building and building, as did the smoke cloud….

Bourbon`s crew came out briefly and Damon put the stream thru the second floor windows as the fire continued to build and the smoke went black as well….

House Fire 3419 Hwy FF AVI 264-001

…as you can see, a  ladder was placed up to the roof, as a safety for the crews upstairs battling fire, in case they needed to make an escape through the windows…pretty soon, one could tell they were making headway on the fire upstairs because the smoke started turning from dark brown to white once again…

…while Tyler kept pouring the water on the back porch area…eventually, Firefighter Zach Martel was sent up the ladder to the roof….to pull those heavy curtains out of the windows to ventilate the smoke up there…

…and they eventually fed him a hoseline as well….

I left the scene soon after…understand the Fire Marshal responded to the scene and determined later, that the fire was accidental and began on the back porch area.