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.