I intended to sleep in on Tuesday morning, February 19th and was getting some good rest in, when the tones dropped and Fire and EMS were dispatched to an unknown type fire at the Flying J Truckstop in Sullivan…I say unknown because each time the dispatcher came to the part where he was to announce the type of fire, he un-keyed the microphone and then keyed back up to resume the rest of the dispatch information…..so I didn`t move as quickly as I normally would if it was a serious call…I had an additional clue of it sounding more serious,  when I heard Ray Enloe advise dispatch he was responding in Tanker 853, so I began moving a little quicker then. Luckily at 7 am, the streets were not choked with heavy traffic and I spotted heavy black smoke rolling to the west on the north side of the interstate as I was passing by the Skating Rink. When I crossed the West Overpass and looked east, there was a HUGE cloud of black smoke boiling up from the area of the Truck Stop. As I approached on the North Service Road, I spotted several on-lookers taking a safe look at it from the top of the hill in the vacant field pull off, so I pulled over and grabbed a quick video of it and talked to one of the guys I know that was there taking some photos and video of it too…I told David he should contact Jim Bartle and send him the video so he could get it online pretty quickly…David told me that a few minutes prior to my arrival, they heard several explosions down in the area of the fire…here is the video that I shot up there on the hill, at that time, all we knew was that it was a tractor trailer on fire at the truck stop….

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I drove on down to the parking lot, weaving around truck drivers and their rigs as they were in escape mode from the parking lot, and parked next to JT Hardy, Sullivan City Administrator, at the northwest corner of the lot. I left the heat on low for Onyx and then walked down to the front of Pumper 854, noticed not one but two tractor trailers parked side by side, burning…the cab of the one nearest to me appeared to be completely burned away and resting on its frame, the other one still burning from cab to mid trailer, very apparent that both trucks had been burning for some time…prior to my arrival in the parking lot, firefighters mounted a very aggressive and sustained attack with foam and water on both semi`s simultaneously. They were a bit shorthanded at first, but that did not deter them from the task at hand….several truck drivers were filming with their phone cameras during their attack…..here are three initial videos shot by one driver who started shooting from his cab before the Fire Department arrived….

https://www.facebook.com/keith.zecman/videos/2502655373096127/

https://www.facebook.com/keith.zecman/videos/2502709449757386/

https://www.facebook.com/keith.zecman/videos/2502710549757276/

It`s highly obvious from videos made of firefighters in action, that some people do not have a clue how fire departments operate…. and where is the simple appreciation that they even responded, arrived, and did their level best to put the fire out, for crying out loud, no less in frigid air temps early that morning. I would say most do not realize that most fire departments these days have the capability to fight fires of this magnitude with foam anytime, anywhere…the one fire truck that showed up initially, has an inboard foam system built into the pump, which saves firefighters a lot of time after arriving, enabling them to hit the fire with foam that much faster…and had this occurred in a big city, most of the time, one truck will be the first unit on the scene, usually a pumper just like this one, transporting a few firefighters to attack the fire and hold the scene til more manpower arrives to help out, so yes, the two firefighters who arrived with their Captain, Damon Sumpter, were only able to pull one hoseline, they packed up and manned that line until additional firefighters arrived, some arriving in their personal vehicles with their gear, then they packed up and pulled additional hoselines to assist in fire suppression. There was a junior firefighter seen in the one video, helping to stretch out the attack hoseline…foam also requires more water pressure on the hoseline than a hoseline with water only, so one hoseline will require at least two firefighters on the line to handle the pressure while fighting the fire. The truckdriver did a good job shooting the three videos, however he has no clue how firefighters fight fire.

I started taking a few photos from the front of 854 as I approached……

I walked over to the other side of the far tractor trailer….

….and asked Chief Eric if it was alright to walk down into the field behind the trucks and shoot back there, he gave me permission to do so and I walked back to where firefighters Ryan Sumpter and Quinton Hildebrandt were trying to get water on the interior of the trailer fire from the rear doors of the trailer….

…heavy fire burning in the center of the trailer, heavy and hot enough to have already burned a hole in the side of the trailer…the load inside was loaded clear to the ceiling of the trailer, which prevented their hose stream from reaching the center of the trailer….

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…Quinton was now on the nozzle of the hoseline, I`m not sure who was backing him up tho…

….and I pointed out to them they might make better progress from the side of the trailer shooting into the hole of the sidewall to knock the fire down….

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…once they had it knocked down good, I walked back up to the front of the tractor trailer to see what else was going on…some firefighters were changing out their air bottles after their initial 20 minutes on scene, to get them ready for round two…the second tractor trailer cab was beginning to burn inside pretty intensely again, so Quinton and his backup came back around to hit it again with the hoseline…

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Zach Martel is one of the firefighters who responded to assist, packed up, grabbed another hoseline and started helping to extinguish the fire…

…by this time, Chief Eric had St Clair Fire District on the way to assist, they initially responded Pumper 8315 and their Super Tanker as well…it`s a tractor trailer that holds ten thousand gallons of water. Since gaining access to the fireload in the trailer was difficult to do, firefighters decided to break out the K-12 saw and cut a few holes in the sidewall of the trailer on the far side to make things more accessible and Stetson Zelch was tasked with making the first cuts….

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while Davey Sumpter stood by with the hoseline and other firefighters waited to help peel back the trailer skin….

It was about this time that St Clair Fire District`s first pumper, 8315 arrived on scene along with St Clair Fire Chief Sullivan and Batt Chief Mike Kelly, their firefighters were packing up as Sullivan`s crew returned to 854 for hooking tools  to make the job easier peeling the trailer skin back once the cuts were made….Beau Kick and Ryan Sumpter made the first pulls on the trailer skin….

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…and then Davey joined them on the third attempt….

…while St Clair`s crew went in search of a working hoseline to address the escaping gas that re-ignited the sleeper unit of the cab…

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St Clair firefighters returned to hit the sleeper cab unit fire soon after they located a good working hoseline….

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…and then they hit the interior of the cab again…about the third time….while Sullivan`s crew pulled more Lunchables from the trailer thru the open skin hatch of the trailer….the cheese in those Lunchables sure does burn hot and intense….

…while Chief Eric and Chief Sullivan kept a close eye on everyone…Damon came over a few minutes later to point out the buildup of ice as well as the mix of oil into the water that was pooling up on the parking lot….

…and a truckdriver brought out several coffees for the firefighters, which I am sure was much appreciated by all of them…

…soon after, the top of the trailer ignited once again at the very front and St Clair firefighters decided to get a ladder and address the fire once again….

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…the Chiefs decided a different approach was needed to address the trailer loads that kept re-igniting, so Chief Eric made contact with Chuck`s Towing and requested Louis Trombley respond with a fork lift to rip the sides of the trailers off so firefighters could gain access to the fires….while Louis was on his way, fireifighters continued to cut holes with the K-12 and do the best they could to get to the fires….

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St Clair`s second pumper 8324 and their Super Tanker arrived about this time…and then the sleeper cab re-ignited once again….Quinton and Zach addressed it this time around…

…and then Damon came up with the idea of cutting open that sleeper unit to get to the fire better with the K-12 Saw….

….and St Clair Firefighter Billy Williams stepped up with the hoseline after Damon cut thru the red tape so to speak,and extinguished the fire for the final time….

…just as Louis was arriving with the fork lift to take apart the trailer walls and Lunchables load….

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I told Louie we were gonna have to re-name him Dr Destructo, after watching the way he operated that fork lift so well and the progress he made with it…one could tell he had done that before, he sure made it look easy. 🙂  he is also a good wrecker driver/operator…gets it natural from his Dad, Chuck. 

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…I left the scene shortly after and Louie was still pulling product out and firefighters were keeping him safe during the entire process….

…I left around 9 am…and I know firefighters were on the scene for at least another 90 minutes…great job by all were there…

We recovered from the ice storm after Sunday`s temps finally warmed up and then Friday, we braced for another round of winter weather, snow and sleet both coming in starting in the afternoon and going through the night. I drove up to Bourbon`s Town and Country Market to get some ice cream and as I was leaving and preparing to drive back to Sullivan, I spotted a Leasburg Fire Department tanker and Bourbon Fire Department Rescue Truck coming up behind me, responding to what I figured was a structure fire on Hwy N south…they stopped behind me, held up by a westbound train, and once the train cleared, I was able to move over for them at Hwy JJ, then followed them south on Hwy N…half a mile south of the Salvation Army Camp, they came to a stop at a driveway on the left side, where they were backing up to dump their water loads into a drop tank set up in the northbound lane of Hwy N. I backed up to a pull off spot a quarter mile back up the highway, secured my truck, grabbed my camera and walked back down to the driveway….I stopped and talked to one of the Bourbon Firefighters who drove the Rescue truck out there for a few seconds, then hiked on down the highway to the water supply staging area….

…Cuba`s tanker was backed up dropping it`s water load and Leasburg`s tanker would be next to dump their load…

…..I figured the tankers were returning to Bourbon to fill off a hydrant and then return in shuttle to the drop tank…Sullivan Pumper 854 was drafting water from the drop tank and would then pump water up the hill of the driveway to the Bourbon Pumpers near the top of the hill where the house was on fire…I could see a heavy fire glow through the wooded area enough and heard a lot of popping and crackling, to know it was fully involved….as I hiked up the steep gravel driveway, I soon could see it was very much heavily involved in fire….

…it appeared to be a two story residence with a deck around two or three sides on the south side of the house and a two car garage on the north side, much of the fire was at the lower and upper level on the south side, while the north side was mainly heavy black smoke…I hoped no one was inside the house…I shot this video as soon as I climbed up that steep hillside, hence the reason I sound out of breath on the video….

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Afterward, I stopped and talked to a couple of ladies, turned out to be their residence, Parkans their name, and the younger lady told me that they thought it started in the basement, they smelled smoke and her husband went downstairs to check…..found the basement in flames…they evacuated the house then and called the fire department. Even worse than standing there watching your home burn like that, was the fact that firefighters down the hill were having problems pumping water from the drop tank up to Bourbon`s pumpers…no water pumped to the trucks at the fire meant no water in the handlines for firefighters to attack the fire…there is nothing worse than that helpless feeling when you are faced with equipment failure like that. Luckily tho, there were good people down there trying to figure it out and get it working…there was a driveway around the front of the house, so I walked around it to take some photos and video on that side…

The heavy black smoke on the north end indicated the fire was advancing from south to north so at this point three fourths of the residence was heavily involved in fire….

…and a few seconds later, the fire lit up the roof of the garage as well….

…traveling across the peak of the garage roof to exit out the north end at the roof peak in a ball of fire….

I then moved over to the driveway that runs along the north end of the house, up above the garage to get another angle on the fire…

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After talking briefly to Captain Damon who was assisting the Bourbon Pump Operator, as they waited for water from Sullivan Pumper 854 at the drop tank below, I moved back over to the front side of the house to shoot a few more videos of the home that was now fully involvd from north end to south end and burning ferociously….

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Then all of a sudden, I saw Sullivan firefighters packing up in the driveway, a good sign that the water supply was on it`s way up the hill to the Bourbon pumper and soon the handlines would be pressurized and ready to mann….

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About three fourths of the way through the video above, you can hear an explosion, sounded like a civil war cannon going off and a ball of fire blew out the north end of the garage as well…I still don`t know what it was that exploded. Below, firefighters from Sullivan and Bourbon approach the handlines and prepare to mount a defensive attack on the structure….

…and pretty soon, firefighters were putting water on the flames….

…they decided to move over and start on the north end of the house at the garage first and then work their way back to the south end…

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Pretty soon they had the fire in the garage knocked down and were making good progress down the line toward the south end of the house….I was on the phone talking to Jim Bartle when I shot this next video, he was snowplowing over in the Cuba and Owensville areas…incidentally, Beaufort-Leslie and Owensville Fire Districts sent Tankers to this fire as well….

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Within a few minutes, flames were completely knocked down on the south end  and firefighters could now take a break, before beginning the long task of mopping up hot spots before leaving the scene….

Please pray for this family in the coming weeks, as it`s very likely that they lost nearly everything they own. 

I had just returned to town from rockhunting on the evening of January 28th when I spotted heavy smoke northwest of town, so I drove to Hwy WW to see if I could spot it, appeared to be a huge brush pile on fire in the backyard of a home, so I found a parking spot as the Fire Department was arriving behind me in brush trucks. When I walked down there, they had knocked down the flames and were putting out the smoldering remains of a huge pile of furniture….

Sullivan Fire Department was initially dispatched to a semi trailer fire located on EB I-44 at the 225 mile marker about 6:30 am on January 25th. By the time the crew of Pumper 854 went into service responding from Station Five, Washco advised them the semi driver had relocated to the Flying J Truckstop just a quarter mile from the fire station. Firefighters arrived soon after and with flames showing at the rear of the trailer, advised they had a Working Fire. I arrived a few minutes later and found firefighters had knocked down the flames and the pup trailer was heavily smoking in the parking lot near the street…

Firefighters opened the door of the pup trailer to ascertain if fire had penetrated the floor of the trailer, determining soon after that it had not….

…while Captain Dave and Engineer Gary were checking the trailer interior, Firefighter Davey Sumpter continued to cool down the trailer brakes, which were believed to be the cause of the fire….

Captain Dave and Davey double-checked the brakes and bottom of the trailer with the heat seeking camera as well….

The sun was beginning to rise and the temps seemed to get colder out here, Chief Eric arrived and checked with Maintenance to see about getting some salt on the water flowing out into the street to prevent any accidents from happening….

Within the next hour, firefighters were able to cool the brakes down quite a bit and placed the alarm under control. 

Sullivan Fire Department was dispatched to assist St Clair Fire Department with a house fire located off Old Springfield Avenue, behind Ritter Automotive…I heard the St Clair Police arrive on scene and advise Franklin County that there were flames showing and it was a working fire. St Clair FD laid a supply line down the single lane driveway from the hydrant at Havin Material and their firefighters made a good stop on the fire, which was up in the attic area on their arrival….Sullivan and Union crews did mop up work after their arrival….I walked down the lane and spotted several of my firefighter friends with St Clair in the front yard talking about the fire load on their arrival….

Sullivan firefighters came out a few min later and assisted St Clair draining and rolling up supply lines in the driveway….