Monthly Archives: July 2021

Sullivan Fireworks Display 2021

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Friday evening, July 2nd, 2021, I drove over to the Atlas Car Lot entrance, to set up and photograph the Sullivan Fireworks Display at the Fairgrounds on the south side of I-44. The City of Sullivan joined the Bank of Sullivan, each contribuing five thousand dollars to purchase the fireworks and private company to shoot the fireworks. This year`s display lasted fifteen minutes and did provide a few new bursts, some pinwheels, sidewheels, and some unusually colored bursts as well….

I havent been able to figure out how to convert my MP4 videos to AVI files yet…the AVI files I shoot with my Nikon Camera load up easily to my blog sites…whereas the MP4 files I shoot with my cellphone camera only load up easily to my FB page…so I have the two finale videos of the fireworks display open so anyone can view them on my FB page…https://www.facebook.com/jwjphoto

Rubber Pellet Playground Fire, April 26th, 2021

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On Monday evening, around 5:30 pm, I was at Central Market getting a sandwich for work the next day, when I noticed a huge cloud of obnoxiously black smoke rising high in the air about two blocks south of the grocery store. Smoke like that is usually a good indicator of a structure fire, so I drove in that direction to see what was on fire…as I did so, I noticed alot of vehicles in front and behind me, other drivers with the same idea as I had. I drove south on Church Street to the Elementary School complex, and turned left on to Washington Street…. and as I did so, the smoke cloud banked down to ground level from the high wind driving it out of the south, and all I could see was the playground on fire. I turned around in a nearby driveway, returned to park next to the Sullivan Elementary School and then walked down the sidewalk to get a better idea of what was on fire…I shot a few videos with my phone camera and then shortly afterward, Brush Truck 828 arrived with Firefighters Devin Baker and Quinton Hildebrandt…Quinton had been training Devin on the operation of the brush truck and they spotted the smoke from Stanton and came to investigate. Devin put the pump into operation quickly and Quinton manned the brush hoseline…Pumper 854 was also responding to the call from Station 5….

As Quinton was preparing to attack the fire, I wondered if water alone would have any effect on this type of fire, figuring at some point that foam might be required to control and extinguish the fire…Quinton told me that he was thinking the same thing, but thought maybe he could at least cool it down til 854 and their crew arrived with the foam….

I think all of us watching, were mildly surprised that Quinton`s attack was having a good effect on the extremely hot burning fire….

…and as Pumper 854 arrived, Quinton and Devin had the fire knocked down and under control, requiring no larger lines to be deployed or operated…I left the scene as firefighters were mopping the scene up. A week later, Sullivan Police Officers completed their investigation and had three juveniles in custody for the crime of Arson….

 

 

 

Storage Shed Fire on Alice Street April 23rd, 2021

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Early morning on April 23rd, I happened to wake up a few minutes before Sullivan Fire Department was dispatched to a First Alarm Commercial Structure Fire at Elmont Storage Yard, which is just four blocks north of my house. The call came in at 12:30 am, so I got dressed quickly and drove down there, arriving just as Sullivan PD shut down Elmont Road at Alice Street, so I parked near the corner and activated my flashers, then walked down to the entrance of the Storage Yard that faces Alice Street…to find one building well involved…..

Elmont Storage Yard Structure Fire AVI 43

Pumper 854 was parked there and the crew were handjacking the 5 inch supply line to the nearest hydrant, located on the west side of Elmont Road…so they were pulling the hoseline by hand up the incline, crossing over Elmont Road and then down into that deep ditchline on the west side of Elmont, up the other side into the residential yard there, to the hydrant.

Why there was no hydrant located right in front of that Storage Yard years ago when those buildings were built, is beyond me…five large storage buildings there inside a high fenced in yard, and no one thought to install a hydrant there in case there might be a building fire there ????? Seriously ????

Firefighters pointed out to me later, that the next nearest hydrant was at the rear of the storage yard and…get this…located on the other side of the rear fence of the yard…right behind the Mobil Station…so firefighters, if they wanted to use that hydrant, they would have had to cut a hole in the fence in order to get to that hydrant. Keep in mind, firefighters do not install hydrants and likely had no say in where this hydrant should have been placed, years ago when this Storage Yard was built…had they been included in the planning, I am sure that hydrant would have been at the entrance to the Storage Yard.

A First Alarm was struck, they knew Bourbon and St Clair Fire Departments were dispatched and would be enroute soon…what they did not know, was that St Clair Fire Department was assisting Union Fire Department on a trailer fire at the time of Sullivan`s call, so St Clair`s Station 2 Pumper, which is located at the Lonedell Station, responded first…then St Clair`s Super Tanker, was returning from Union and responded from Hwy 47 near Union…St Clair`s main Pumper, 8315, responded from the trailer fire at Union shortly afterward, but there was a little delay on the arrival of St Clair`s units…I found this out from St Clair Firefighter Kirby Banderman on his arrival. If I recall correctly, Kirby said this was their third structure fire in 24 hours. I know Sullivan`s firefighters were relieved when St Clair firefighters arrived to assist them though, because only 3 volunteer firefighters showed up to assist the paid crew, and that was well after the five inch supply line was hand jacked and put into operation….no easy feat for only three guys to accomplish, either.

By the time they got the five inch supply line in operation, the building on fire was fully involved from one end to the other….

Elmont Storage Yard Structure Fire AVI 47

Elmont Storage Yard Structure Fire AVI 53

…heavy fire blowing out every opening in that building…so Chief Eric had firefighters hit the building with the deck gun on Pumper 854…Firefighter Jacob Dace climbed up and manned the Deck Gun as firefighter John Wayne Strothcamp operated the pump and Captain Damon Sumpter supervised the operation….

Elmont Storage Yard Structure Fire Deck Gun Used on 854 AVI 55

As the next video shows, the Deck Gun operation was a huge success, knocking down the heavy fire very well…during this knockdown operation, St Clair Firefighters arrived with the Lonedell Pumper 8325 and the Super Tanker, and Cuba Fire Department arrived shortly after with a Tanker Pumper as well….

Elmont Storage Yard Structure Fire After Knockdown AVI 66

Sullivan and St Clair Firefighters began dismantling the walls of the Storage Building on Fire with their pike poles to enable a closer attack with hoselines…while shooting this last video, I heard Chief Eric requesting a backhoe located to respond and assist with the dismantling so that firefighters could gain better access to the building to fully extinguish the fire. I left the scene shortly after to get some sleep before going to work a few hours later….

Elmont Storage Yard Structure Fire AVI 67