The early morning hours of April 2nd around 1 am, I heard Cencom dispatch Cuba, Bourbon and Steelville Fire Districts to a First Alarm Commercial Structure Fire at the Resale Shop on Old Hwy 66 in Cuba, the official address 501 East Washington Street. As I passed through Bourbon, I noticed lights on inside the Fire Station just north of 44 and figured Bourbon Fire would soon be on the way.

I kept looking for a glow in the sky as I approached the Hwy UU overpass, but never saw one til I arrived…parking two blocks west of Missouri Hick Restaurant on Old 66, and walked down to see a few Cuba firefighters near the back of the building, trying to make entry through a side door with heavy fire through the roof on the east side, right above their heads….

295 AVI East Side of Building Heavy Fire Thru Roof

…after a few minutes on the east side of the building, I walked over to the west side of the building, to see if the fire on the roof was traveling in that direction, and I discovered heavy fire over there as well…

288 AVI Resale Shop Cuba 1st Alarm Com Structure Fire West Side

I walked back over to the east side of the building as another of Cuba Fire`s trucks arrived on scene…

303 AVI Resale Shop Cuba Structure Fire Water Issues

…and from the level of activity, it appeared they might have been experiencing some water problems…I also didn`t know it at the time, but found out later, that Chief Mike Plank had upgraded from a first alarm to a 3rd alarm, calling in several area fire departments…Bourbon Fire arrived soon after and Sullivan I learned, was on the way with Ladder 852…Cuba Fire had not received their new ladder truck as yet and the older one had been sold. The heavy fire continued to spread across the roof….

In the meantime, Cuba firefighters did what they could while help was on the way…

Sullivan Fire District arrived with Ladder 852 as the heavy fire rolled across and consumed the west side of the roof, and the ladder was placed into operation quickly…

306 AVI Sullivan Ladder Truck 852 Arriving

The ladder is raised and firefighters were making sure they had enough lines added to the truck for an adequate water supply….

329 AVI Sullivan Ladder Truck Flowing Water Now On To Roof

And then once the lines were hooked up, Sullivan began flowing water on to the roof fire with the ladder pipe…Firefighter John Wayne Strothcamp was at the top of the ladder, while Firefighter/Engineer Drew Richards was operating the pump at the back of the Ladder Truck…I had talked to Captain Ray Enloe a few minutes before and he was hanging near the front of the truck. Just before they started flowing water, I heard a few explosions, it sounded like, from withiin the building…

334 AVI Sullivan Ladder 852 Flowing Water on Heavy Fire

377 AVI Very Heavy Fire Rolling Thru Roof

The fire continued to grow bigger and intensify as well….a few minutes later, the fire moved to the front of the building and the front porch facade came crashing down…you will hear a yell for help…turned out it was from Ray Enloe, who was operating a handline near the pump…he dived under the Ladder Truck as the intense heat from the porch and embers swept across the space between the truck and the building quickly…can`t see it from my vantage point, but firefighters near Cuba`s attack pumper quickly rushed to Ray`s aid…you see Chief Mike Plank walk over to make sure everyone is okay, then return and confer with medics who walked over to check on everyone as well…

382 AVI Front Porch Facade Collapsed Some Tense Moments No One Hurt

…and soon after the front porch facade came down, the southwest corner piece came down as well…

387 AVI Knocking Down Heavy Fire at Front Wall Roofline with 852

…and within about 20 minutes, firefighters had much better control of the fire, with an extensive mop up operation soon to begin….the fire was nearly under control before the third alarm units began arriving, just in time for the real work to begin…

389 AVI Last Video With Explanation on Ray Enloe When Porch Collapsed

I left the scene and headed home soon after…not sure how long firefighters remained on scene, but they had their work cut out for them.

Sullivan Fire was dispatched to assist Beaufort-Leslie Fire District with a residential structure fire at 2770 Spring Creek Road on a first alarm, bringing in units from Gerald-Rosebud Fire District and Union Fire District as well. I arrived shortly behind Sullivan and Beaufort-Leslie units, to find a double wide trailer with heavy brown smoke coming from the ends of the trailer and the front door and porch blackened from heavy fire that firefighters found on arrival….

278 Burning Leaves in Burn Barrel Sets Front Porch of Home On Fire

I talked to the resident, who is a nurse full time, she said she was burning leaves in the burn barrel seen in the photo above, when the wind blew the leaves out of the barrel and under her front porch, igniting more leaves, setting the porch on fire and spreading to the trailer…in the video above, she can be heard explaining it to her  next door neighbor. Firefighters were able to make a quick stop on the fire, arriving just in time…

The morning of March 24th, Sullivan Fire was dispatched to a first alarm residential structure fire on Highway FF in the 3400 block, just south of the quarry. When I turned on FF, I caught up to Chief Eric and followed him to the scene, and then drove past the scene to a driveway 100 feet further south, parked out of the way of that drive, and hoofed it back to the fire. As I was approaching the residence driveway, MoBap Ambulance backed out of the driveway and allowed Pumper 854, on approach with Ray Enloe driving, the right of way. Ray had to swing wide to make it up the narrow gravel drive, which was tightly enclosed on both sides with overgrown cedar trees, that were in huge need of some major pruning work. The tanker was next and then the ambulance drove back up…there was very little parking space at the end of the drive, all other units responding on the first alarm had to park down on the highway. The residence turned out  to be a rock and wood frame, two story home, with heavy fire blowing out the entire back of the house…

House Fire 3419 Hwy FF 2022-0324 AVI 211

Firefighter Tyler Goodman was on the nozzle with Captain Damon Sumpter backing him up, and Ray was on Damon`s shift, filling in for Jacob Dace. I told Ray later, that I recognized this house, that we had been there many years ago on a working flue fire…Ray remembered that call as well, as the chimney was damaged that night and it was apparent it had been rebuilt…somewhat…lasting many more years.

House Fire 3419 Hwy FF AVI 214-001

Tyler made a good knockdown on the back of the house, and then moved up on the south side of the residence, trying to knock down heavy fire through the windows…

…and despite the initial knockdown, the fire upstairs continued to build…and then fire returned to the back porch so Tyler returned to that area yet again…

…and then he tried to hit the second story fire as well….

…and then he was hitting the first floor windows once again….

The fire upstairs began to build, the smoke turning dark brown from white, fairly quickly, and then Bourbon Firefighters arrived to assist… their crew entered the front door with a hoseline and proceeded upstairs to try and locate the fire there….

…led by Bourbon Assistant Chief Brent Byrd…while I didn`t hear the radio traffic while they were up there, I did follow the smoke signals…the heat and fire up there kept building and building, as did the smoke cloud….

Bourbon`s crew came out briefly and Damon put the stream thru the second floor windows as the fire continued to build and the smoke went black as well….

House Fire 3419 Hwy FF AVI 264-001

…as you can see, a  ladder was placed up to the roof, as a safety for the crews upstairs battling fire, in case they needed to make an escape through the windows…pretty soon, one could tell they were making headway on the fire upstairs because the smoke started turning from dark brown to white once again…

…while Tyler kept pouring the water on the back porch area…eventually, Firefighter Zach Martel was sent up the ladder to the roof….to pull those heavy curtains out of the windows to ventilate the smoke up there…

…and they eventually fed him a hoseline as well….

I left the scene soon after…understand the Fire Marshal responded to the scene and determined later, that the fire was accidental and began on the back porch area.

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 !!