The next night, New Years Day, again early morning, we were called to another garage fire, this one a larger lean to, on Seminary Road north of Sullivan. As I drove out north on Hwy H and 185, it started lightly raining and the wind was really gusting…I kept looking for a glow but didnt see one…and soon caught up with the ambulance crew on Seminary Road, as they were out in front and looking for it as well…we finally found it after crossing the Boone Creek bridge and starting up one of the many hills north of there…I was relieved that it wasnt at the home of one of my friends out there. The ambulance crew of Danny and Teddi, tried to drive up the driveway to the residence, but soon found it was quite narrow and there was no place to park out of the way of the pumper once it arrived…so they backed down the rocky hillside and I parked on the side of Seminary Road out of the way. Since I was halfway up a hill, I plugged in my blue light to warn any traffic of the emergency situation they would be about to encounter, as Pumper 854 arrived and started up the rocky driveway. I grabbed my camera and hoofed it up the hill behind them….and found the large lean to fully involved in heavy fire at the top of the hilly drive….   …as I was standing there photographing the fire, Capt Dave hiked up the hilly drive past me stretching an attack line…     …as heavy fire was rolling out of the lean to near me….     …Dave stretched his line out and took a kneeling position to wait for water at the end of the driveway, near the residence and in the next minute, Ray Enloe walked by me carrying his hoseline over his shoulder….as heavy fire continued to roll out of the lean to…     ..a few minutes later the wind changed direction and the smoke lifted to where you could see more of the leanto on fire….   …and then firefighters began their attack, Dave first as his line was now charged by Davey, the Engineer on 854, as Ray and his helper untangled their hosepack….   …it was about this time that we all noticed this pretty green flame coming up from the middle of the structure…we never did quite figure out what it was from, and it only lasted a few minutes…

..once the guys had the fire knocked down in front, they moved around to the sides of the structure….

…while Ray and JD went to the back of the lean to and knocked down the debris back there…

…the glow in front made for some nice silhouettes….

…and as more firefighters showed up, along with a good showing of junior firefighters, crews were able to pull some sheets of tin out of the way and enable those on hoselines to get in closer and extinguish hot spots….

and…

We responded to two garage fires over the weekend of New Years Eve while most people were celebrating the holidays…the first one was early morning New Years Eve on Highway JJ, north of Stanton a few miles. Dispatch informed us en route that the owner of the residence was trying to enter the garage to save forty cats believed to be inside the building. I was passed by a Franklin County deputy just north of Stanton and we both arrived a few minutes later, ahead of the trucks, to find the building fully engulfed in flames…

…I was standing behind the building when I shot this one, and it looked like fireworks going off, where the electrical connection comes in the roofline on the northwest corner of the building…I walked back up to flag down the  first arriving crews, after the neighbors informed me there was no drive or easy access for the trucks from the highway…meaning a longer lay of hoselines to the fire building from the trucks..I shot the next photos from the front of the building….

…the next photos show the east side of the building fully engulfed in heavy fire and the tree and a tall stepladder burning from the radiant heat produced by the intense fire as well…it was a good thing the deputy arrived early and pulled the woman back from the garage to prevent her from entering it….

…in the next photo you can see the building well involved and firefighters Damon Sumpter and Nolan Crawford untangling the hoselines from the hosepack they carried down after handjacking the two and a half inch hoseline from the pumper out on Highway JJ to the back of the residence…..

 They attached two separate lines of inch and three quarter with a wye to the two and a half inch line, to make their attack to the fire, Nolan approaching from the uphill west side and Damon from the downhill east side…here Nolan stretches his line around to make his approach from the west side….

…as Damon starts his approach from the east side, dousing down the debris burning on the east wall of the building…

In the next photo, Nolan approaches from the west side and as he and Damon approach the building, fireworks again erupt from the back side of the garage, where the electrical lines enter the building…

…Nolan made a slight adjustment, and moved to the right a few feet and directed his nozzle to the front of the building and kept on coming….

…a few minutes later, Nolan received some backup on his line from Chris, and while they doused down the west wall of the garage, Damon turned his attention to the burning tree on his right…

…then they moved in closer to the building and began hitting the deeply seated fire burning within….

…and right up to the garage door and window of the front wall….

 …and then the front wall at the southeast corner collapsed, taking the southwest corner down with it…

…by this time, more firefighters and a crew of Junior Firefighters, showed up to help with the total extinguishment and mop up efforts….

…and then after the fire was out, hoselines had to be picked up and the tanker drop tank drained and put back on the truck as well….

Last Wednesday, as I prepared to return to work that evening after eight days off as a result of a bad cold and missing countless fire calls during that time, Missy and I were out and about getting caught up on things before heading home to get my work nap in. As I was headed back to the house, my pager went off and we were alerted to a residence on fire at Stanton…dispatch advised a couple of calls reporting flames through the roof. I grabbed my camera and drove to Stanton, catching up to the lead pumper about a mile from the scene, and as we rounded the curve on the interstate before the overpass, we observed heavy smoke and indeed, flames from the house. On arrival, the pumper pulled up in front of the double wide mobile home and I parked a little ways back and off the roadway as much as possible. I stepped out of my truck and took this first photo showing flames through the roof on the south end of the house….it was about then that the neighbor next door told me that a sheriffs deputy lived there and his wife and child might still be inside…I relayed this information to the Captain, Gary Midyett, as Firefighters prepared to enter the residence….

I then walked to the back of the house and shot this photo showing even more fire through the roof and blowing out the back window, and heavy smoke throughout the rest of the house…

the next photos show firefighters and paramedics pulling hoselines from the pumper and preparing to attack the flames…

…Paramedic Billy Harris then approaches the back of the house with a charged Safety Hoseline, where flames are blowing out the window and bleeds air from the nozzle and line…

…and then Billy makes his attack with the Safety line, while the Interior Crew prepares to enter the back door with the Red Hoseline…

…and Billy continues to cool down the back room near the back door to protect Interior Crews as they prepare to enter the house….

Crews enter the back door above and Billy continues to support their entrance with the Safety line, backed up on the line by Captain Dave Konys….

…here Deputy Chief Larry Flescher walks around to the rear of the house to get an idea of what is going on and let me know that they had confirmation that the wife and child were not inside the residence…boy that was welcome news, as I know everyone was really worried for the ten minutes before that….…I then walked around to the other side of the house and photographed the heavy smoke coming from the north end of the home….

…then back around in time to find Billy hitting the south end of the roofline with the Safety line and cooling it down….

…right after I photographed Billy at the south end of the house, a strong thunderstorm blew in on top of us with heavy rain, and at that point, with the fire under control, I left for the house to get my nap in before returning to work. I found out later in the week, this fire was a result of arson. Luckily no one was injured but the house, obviously,  was a total loss.

The day after digging in my birthday pocket with Docia, I slept in a little and shortly after waking up, we were toned out for a car fire near a residence…I quickly dressed and loaded up Missy and we took off…figuring the full time crew would arrive well before we did since the fire location was just a couple miles north of our Station Five, we drove direct to the scene. It was reported to be well involved, and I could see heavy black smoke from a few miles away. I still hadnt heard our crew go on scene yet and soon I arrived and parked behind Larry, one of our Deputy Chiefs, grabbed my camera and walked up the driveway to see Larry talking to the home and vehicle owner, and his jeep well involved in his driveway about thirty feet from the house….

and…

Shortly after, the crew arrived with Pumper 854 and two junior firefighters stretched the preconnect out while the firefighters masked up…here Stetson stretches the hoseline out…and then hands off the line and nozzle to Firefighter Jimmy Smythe…

Jimmy is soon joined by Captain Gary Midyett on the line….

..and they wait for Engineer Bill to charge the line with water…

..once charged, Jimmy bleeds the air from the hoseline....and he and Gary approach the jeep ….

..and begin their attack…

…quickly hitting the cabin interior floorboard where the base of the fire appears to be strongest…

…and thats when the FIREWORKS begin….

…and Roman Candle type streamers shoot out of the jeep at all angles….

..and continue to erupt from the cabin….

..and Jimmy gets aggressive and tries a different angle to snuff the flames…

..and gains more control faster….white smoke indicating extinguishment in progress…

..however a return to the front seat door also returns the fireworks when Jimmy delivers water to the front floorboard…

and…

..where it was later determined that the steering column was made from magnesium, which can violently react with water, resulting in fireworks looking reactions, much of the time.

Soon after this, the fire was brought under control.

Missy and I were watching a nice Dirty Harry movie a couple of weeks ago about midnight, while it was storming and raining outside…the last nice night I was able to shut the ac off and open the windows…when the fire tones interrupted my reverie and the dispatcher announced a car on fire near a residence and the address was only two blocks behind my house…so we got up and headed that way…I pulled in behind a Sullivan police officer and discovered not one car, but two, on fire in a driveway near the residence…

..and waited with the police officer for our fire truck and crew to arrive, as it stormed and rained…while I had a fire extinguisher in the truck, I decided it wasnt enough to handle this and tires were exploding right and left while we waited…a few minutes later Pumper 854 turned the corner….

..and approached…

…and pulled up in front…

..and arrived….

..and the guys started pulling the preconnect…

..and stretching the hoseline…

..and then Mike, on the hoseline, waits for Cody to charge the line…

..and waits…

..and then Mike starts his attack…

and joined by Nolan, they approach with caution as tires are still exploding…

..and pretty soon, the heavy fire is knocked down…

and firefighters are in control of the scene…

..it was a good thing, neither car was parked closer to the residence or side by side in the driveway or we probably would have had a house on fire in addition to the cars.

Last week the Sullivan Fire Protection District hosted the annual Junior Firefighter Academy again, with thirty juniorn firefighters from all over the state attending and participating, and all of them graduated at the end of the week as well. Several instructors from area fire departments also participated and assisted in the instruction, both classroom and on hands training. This year we saw juniors from as far away as Leadwood and Warrenton, participating in the weeklong classes. I was able to photograph the auto extrication training and the live burn training as well for a few hours each day.

Below is Sullivan FD Instructor Damon Sumpter assisting a junior firefighter in cutting the roof posts to enable removing the roof if needed….

..and next is a Cuba FD Instructor Bryan Wendell assisting Sullivan Junior Firefighter Justin Reed with a Haligan Tool….

and he also assists Sullivan Junior Firefighter Drew Osborn on the Jaws of Life in opening a car door…

Juniors also learned how to hook up hydraulic hoselines to the power generators that supply power to the tools…

..how to cut cars apart if necessary to remove victims of crashes…

..and even cut them in two if needed…

..here St Clair Instructors worked both sides of the car at the same time…

…cars donated to the department in one piece, were removed in several pieces…

here one of the juniors from Warrenton is shown assisting cutting a door post…

..and everyone in action here...

and here is a group shot of the Instructors present for the Auto Extrication Training Class…

Then on Friday morning, as I was on my way home from work in St Louis County, I stopped off at the Boles Fire District`s Burn Training Center behind the Labadie Power Plant…..

and photographed the live burn training and smokehouse training…here the juniors enter the burn trailer in teams to observe how fire builds up from a small fire in an enclosed area to a larger fire in a matter of minutes, they can see how certain items burn and the gasses they give off, radiating heat setting fire to a piece of furniture across the room, how a short burst of water from a charged hoseline will cool the fire and heat buildup in a room or allow the steam conversion to extinguish a fire…all this while in full protective clothing and wearing an air pack as well as having a charged hoseline in their hands and two safety teams outside ready to quickly enter and assist if needed….

Here is Drew Osborn with his team masking up and preparing to enter the trailer, with Leadwood Instructor Matt Perry to the left…

and after making sure everyone`s gear is ready…

the juniors subsequently enter the trailer ….

…each junior enters the trailer on their hands and knees, crawling inside and approaching the fire at the end of the trailer, holding onto the charged hoseline, with Cuba Instructor Bryan Wendell bringing up the rear…

..and then they wait and watch the buildup of the fire…

…in the following photo is Team One inside the burn trailer…

..and Team Two inside the trailer…

..and the Third Crew inside the trailer…

..and then the crews come out of the trailer much like they went in, crawling…

Not only was it hot inside the trailer, but outside as well so teams were rotated in and out of their coats and gear due to the humidity and heat of the day to prevent anyone from overheating…

Here is a group photo of the juniors at the Burn Center Training…

..and the Instructors present for training as well…

..soon after I headed home, their training was cut short by a strong storm that entered the area and later that evening all of the juniors in attendance for the week graduated in  a ceremony at Station One.

I know, I know…I seem to be going backwards here instead of forward…what happens when one gets behind…we had a car fire Sunday afternoon and my back was still hurting so Missy and I went direct and took photos…got there right after our Assistant Chief Chris Garner arrived….

one of Sullivan`s police officers tried to knock it down with a fire extinguisher….

..but thats hard to do when standing back from it that far……our paid crew was returning from a call out north of town so Capt Kyle and Nolan responded from station one with Pumper 814 and while they were on the way, Chris geared up and tried to hit it with some more powder…

..but found out the SPD extinguisher was empty, so he walked around and released the hood latch to speed things up when the firefighters arrived with the truck…here Nolan and another firefighter wait for Capt Kyle to give them some water….

..then as the line is charged and Nolan bleeds air out of the hoseline, they start their attack…

and pretty soon they have it under control…before the paid crew arrived….

Sorry I skipped a day…Thursday the 24th was a day of multiple accident calls for us…not sure what happened  on the second call, but two vehicles wound up under our west overpass, the first on its side and the occupants had to be extricated…I was on my way to get supper before heading to work so I responded to the top of the overpass and photographed it from there…then heard one of our Chiefs call for Arch and to land them on the overpass, so not seeing any additional police officers available to stop traffic, I remained on the overpass to block traffic if needed…

..luckily the occupants in the second vehicle were out of the car and standing…

..and a few minutes later, our officers decided to land Air Evac on the westbound lanes so I headed off to get some supper…no sooner had I ordered, then we were toned out for yet another call, overturned tractor trailer on fire, with haz mat, westbound 44 half a mile east of the first accident scene, in front of Domino`s and Pizza Hut. So I took off again, and stopped down at Express Care where Brian and the guys were standing out in front and saw it happen…a tractor trailer driver driving westbound on 44 into the city limits at a fast speed, wasnt paying attention apparently to traffic ahead or he would have noticed the slowdown for the one lane change ahead for the accident ahead…instead he comes barreling down the highway and clips a car and another tractor trailer in an effort to get stopped in time and SLAMS into the back of a stopped tractor trailer, resulting in his truck overturning, spilling his load all over the median and westbound lanes, and catching fire.

fortunately there was a trooper on the scene in seconds as well as a few of our firefighters, who were in the area of the first accident. The truck driver that caused the accident was trapped in his truck and had to be extricated, so more of our personnel had to scramble to the scene in additional trucks with rescue equipment, causing some tense moments on the scene and someone was able to knock down the engine fire with a couple of fire extinguishers.Apparently this driver didnt want to come out of his cab and was refusing to be extricated as well…..

…luckily he didnt hurt anyone else too badly….

Missy and I drove over to Fire Station 5 last week one night to visit with the paid crew on duty and while there, our pagers kicked off and in the few seconds before the dispatcher announced the call, firefighters speculated on the call being a brush fire, due to the dry conditions and the many brush fires we had been running…however when she started rattling off truck numbers, I said ” thats no brush fire guys, thats a structure fire “, and sure enough, she announced a house on fire, flames through the roof and fully involved…on North and South Road and just a few miles due west of the station. I had experienced some pain in my back earlier in the day, so opted to drive my own truck to the scene, rather than take a chance on driving a fire truck and possibly injuring myself further and prompting medical care provided by the fire district. Missy and I hopped in my pickup and took off, taking the back way to the location…the ambulance and fire truck and crews following me to the scene.

As I rounded a corner about a mile north of the location dispatched, I noticed the heavy glow in the night sky from the flames and as I pulled up in front of the house, this was what I shot with my camera phone….

..this was a duplex, not a house, and the right side apartment was fully involved with flames through the roof…

…Jimmy and Captain Dave paused in front of the house to mask up and activate their air tanks, waiting for the hoseline they pulled to be charged by Bill, the Engineer.

..they then took the line and went around to the back door to enter and attack the fire…I paused a couple of minutes to record the fire advancing through the roof….

..and the next image shows that they have started their attack as the heavy fire cools quickly to heavy smoke instead…

…I then went around to hump hose for them, as there were no other responders on scene yet and assistance was needed at the back door. As more help arrived and they started getting a handle on the fire…I walked back around to the front of the duplex and shot the personnel and truck images with great reflections on the driveway and street surfaces….

…and then walked back around to record the knockdown made inside the apartment…

…Bourbon Fire Department crews showed up and assisted inside with hooking the ceiling and pulling down the blown in insulation, as fire remained in the attic area …as this stuff was falling down it resembled big goose feathers floating down…

…I walked around to photograph the front of the house after the fire was knocked down…

..and the next one shows the duplex next door, saved adn spared by a well built required firewall in between the two apartments over the garages…had this firewall not been installed by the builder, we easily would have had two apartments fully involved on arrival instead of one….

Luckily no one was home at the time of the fire and we suffered no injuries on scene either. A suspect was taken into custody just a few days after this fire.

I was sleeping good and sound when the pager went off about 2:20 am last Wednesday morning and FC kicked out our main pumper to assist Bourbon on a residential structure fire, meaning a house on fire, south of Bourbon on Hwy N near the Meramac River…so I got up and started dressing, remembering it was very cold outside and putting on layers of clothes. Bourbon doesnt always call us, just on first alarms like this and major accidents, so I figured as far out as it was, it would prob be something major and I might be there awhile. I heard the pumper crew go enroute and Missy was already waiting for me at the door…so I grabbed my camera and flash attachment and out we went to the truck. Luckily my truck warms up pretty quickly, and it was very cold out, temps prob hovering around zero, and luckily still, not much wind. As we started down the street, I heard radio traffic asking about a tanker so I knew then it must be a pretty bad fire if they were already calling for water. We got to Bourbon and turned south on Hwy N and I saw what I figured was their tanker`s water trail crossing the railroad tracks and continuing south and as we headed out of town, snowflakes started falling fairly heavy.

The Meramac River bridge is about seven miles south of Bourbon and you go up a big hill and then down that big hill to the Meramac Valley below and bridge as well, a route I know too well from photo shoot locations and rock hunting too…as we started up the hill, you could see  a large glow in the distance, and I had an idea of where the fire was located…and as we started down to the bridge in the valley below, my suspicions were slowly working their way to confirmation.

We crossed the river bridge and went around a curve passing first Hinch Road and then Thickety Ford Road, and started up a small hill and came upon one of Bourbons firefighters, who was pulled off the side of the road on the right of way, which was solid ice by then, and pulling on his fire gear…I stopped and asked Shannon if it would be okay to park on down in the roadway and he said sure, someone else had already done so anyway. I pulled on down behind the other pickup, moving over to the right as far as I could, activated my flashers, set the heat low for Missy, grabbed my camera and flash unit and headed up to the fire scene…stopping to shoot this photo as I did….

…and as I walked up on the driveway, my suspicions were confirmed…a beautiful two story log home that I had driven by and admired several times, was now fully engulfed in fire…I stopped and asked Brent,  a good friend who is a firefighter and Bourbon Fire Command, if it was okay to photograph the scene and he gave me permission…

I started down the hill to the fire, the home located about two hundred feet down a hill off the highway, and could see and feel the drive was a sheet of ice and becoming very slick under my feet, so I headed off into the snow in the wooded area to the right of the road and continued safely down to the fire scene, seeing this….

..our firefighters assisting Bourbon`s firefighters in trying to get a handle on the massive flames and try to bring the fire under control…there is a deck off to the left side which surrounded the main living room of the home and there was a garage on the right side…I worked my way to the right around the garage end, where there was no more garage to be seen, and saw a large flatbed truck and heard some type of muffled explosions further thru the heavy smoke, so I walked up into the woods and went around the smoke cloud, coming out on the other side to find Sullivan firefighter Davy Sumpter working a handline on the fire in the back of the garage area…

…I lit him up with the flash and discovered it had started snowing again…flurries coming down that quickly became heavy….Davey was cooling down a propane tank as well as trying to figure out what was under a pile of sheet tin that kept exploding…turned out to be a Volkswagon Beetle, the engines are made of magnesium and they react with water to explode…I walked back around to the front of the house to use my flash some more…

…and shows the spaghetti hose lines as firefighters wade in and hit the flames…

..but the silhouettes looked better due to the snow falling….

..showing the heavy volume of fire that firefighters had to contend with from one side to the other of the massive home…I walked around to the back of the house to get a better perspective of the size of the house and fire…found Davey moving the tin from around the VW Beetle…so he could better access the fire…

..and by this time more firefighters were arriving on scene and coming down the hillside to assist with attack lines…another hoseline was laid out and firefighters moved to the back of the house as I moved around it as well…

…shooting this one right around from the garage area where Davey had been removing the tin from the Beetle…

 here are a few more photos of the fire that night in no particular order…..