I had just woke up from a nice afternoon nap and was headed out to get some food when I received a text from Jim Bartle about a car and trailer fire on New Street, about the same time I turned on the South Service Road and spotted heavy black smoke to the east. I headed over there and arrived right behind Pumper 824 and St Clair Fire Department`s Mini Pumper 8319. Sullivan`s paid crew was at another call and so Stetson Zelch, coming home from St Louis, stopped at Stanton Station and drove 824 to the scene, while 8319 was standing by in Sullivan`s Station 5 and responded direct to the scene…this turned out to be a car on a trailer, close to a couple of mobile homes and the car was fully engulfed on the trailer…

…that is St Clair Firefighter Tim Ware taking the attack to the fire…he is also a volunteer firefighter in Bourbon, having grown up there…I had that on my mind when I shot the first video, mentioning Bourbon Fire on arrival, instead of St Clair Fire on arrival…like I said, having just woke up from a nap, I wasn`t fully awake…

Fires 2022-0316 Car on Trailer on Fire New Street Trailer Ct AVI 199B

GREAT WORK GUYS !!

The evening of February 26th, I heard Sullivan Fire dispatched to a residential structure fire on Golf Drive, so I dressed for cold temps and headed out the door, arriving right behind the first arriving units. Deputy Chief Corey Rice told me firefighters found smoke and fire in the kitchen area…when I started shooting photos, there was smoke coming out of the east and west ends of the house, and the front door on the south facing side….

…and firefighters set up positive pressure ventilation at that time, on this side of the  house…

AVI 246 Positive Pressure Fan Set Up and Running

and checked the rest of the house, including the basement…

AVI 251 Ladder 852 On Scene 21 Golf Street

firefighters were advised on arrival that a family pet might be inside yet…they searched and located a cat, unconscious, in the basement, and brought it outside to try to revive it with a specialized mask to provide it with oxygen…unfortunately, the cat did not respond to lifesaving measures.

Sullivan Fire was dispatched to a van fire on westbound I-44 at the 227 mile marker, Friday morning about 9:30 am….so I drove out to photograph it, taking the South Service Road and parking at Juergens Trailer Park, then walking over to the guard rail where several others were gathered to watch it as well. It was burning so intensely, that it was hard to make it out as I snapped this first photo of it….

…as I was shooting the first video of it, the flames separated enough to tell it was a van and I was talking to a young lady there, asking her if she had seen any fire trucks, she was telling me that they had gone by on the eastbound side a couple of minutes before…it dawned on me that they went to Stanton to turn around, and return to get closer to the fire to fight it….

Van on Fire WB 44 Shoulder 227 MM 02112022

Captain Damon Sumpter and Firefighter Tyler Goodman stretched out the hoseline from the front bumper compartment of Pumper 854, while Firefighter Jacob Dace operated the pump panel on the truck….

..and since Tyler was new to the crew, a recent hire by Sullivan Fire District, Damon handed him the nozzle to attack the fire…

Van on Fire WB 44 Shoulder 227 MM 02112022 AVI 26-001

In the video above, the young lady is asking me why people driving by don`t slow down…my answer was and is, because they are idiots…meaning they have no common sense in this situation…they should be thinking about the welfare of the firefighters…Jacob was standing at the pump panel of the truck, much closer to them than Damon and Tyler, but eventually Tyler and Damon are going to have to move closer to that van as they put the fire out, and that will position them closer to traffic…so obviously those drivers had no regard for their safety at all, driving fast through there like that…and then they wonder, why traffic gets stopped as a whole…it is all about the safety of first responders on the scene.

Within a few short minutes, they had it knocked down and had to mop up to fully extinguish it….

…they noticed the tires are still on fire on their side…so they….

…sweep out to the side with the hoseline and knock out those fires….

…and continue to the front of the van to knock down more small fires on the opposite corner….

…which kicks up a big cloud of smoke, so you know they were right on the money there….white smoke indicating that water is getting on the fire and putting it out…

…eventually, those fires around the rear tires persisted in burning, as they normally do…so Damon took the nozzle and continued working on those fires to finally extinguish them….

GREAT WORK GUYS !!

On the evening of January 15th, 2022, Sullivan Fire responded to a report of a shed fire attached to a mobile home on Highway A just east of Highway 185 South. On arrival, firefighters found the lean to shed, well involved…the lean to built by the homeowner to protect wood for his wood stove. Firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze and were mopping up when I got there…

Sullivan had a good response to the fire and made quick work of it.

I was up early on New Year`s Day getting caught up on some computer work, when I heard Leaburg, Bourbon, and Cuba Fire Departments get toned out for a residential structure fire near the Post Office in Leasburg. Initially it was toned as a Garage on fire, attached to a residence.

I headed that way, figuring Sullivan would respond as well but they were never toned out for it. I kept looking for smoke but never saw any until I parked at the post office and saw that the smoke was banking down near the ground and moving to the west down the valley.

Residential Structure Fire 2022-0101 Leasburg 110 First Street AVI 33.AVI

Leasburg Fire Department was first on scene and fighting fire with their Tanker/Pumper, when Bourbon Fire arrived with their pumper they parked behind Leasburg`s truck…Bourbon also responded at least one tanker, and Cuba responded with a pumper and tanker as well. Several firefighters were inside the residence holding the line at the wall that joins the garage to the residence on the south side.

The firefighters manning the hose and nozzle in front of the garage, were doing their best to get water on the flames inside it, everywhere at the same time….

Every once in a while, the flames would materialize out of the heavy smoke and show themselves and they would hit them and knock them back down….

…believe me, between all the elements that morning, the cold, the rain, the damp, heavy smoke and fire, they had their hands full and handled the situation well…

Residential Structure Fire 2022-0101 Leasburg 110 First Street AVI 46

I talked to the resident briefly, said he had three commercial lawnmowers inside the garage, for his mowing business, and it was gone.