On July 14th, Sullivan Fire District was dispatched to a report of a brush fire with multiple vehicles on fire in the area of Seminary Road near Erni Road. Firefighters arrived with brush units, Pumper 854, and Tanker 813 to find heavy smoke in the area of this intersection, much of the smoke appeared to be coming from behind a residence on the north side of Seminary Road. Firefighters were unable to find an access road to the wooded area behind the residence, until they made a foot search around the residence, then located an old trail into the woods. Making their way down this old trail on foot, they located several vehicles heavily involved in fire throughout the brush….

…and evidence of other vehicles that had already burned themselves out…additional assistance arrived from Mutual Aid companies and firefighters remained on scene for a while.

On the evening of July 10th, 2022, Sullivan Fire District was dispatched to a trailer fire at the former Apollo Fireworks in Stanton. I arrived right behind the fire trucks and captured firefighters as they began to fight the fully involved trailer, that was believed to be fully loaded with fireworks…

This is Drew Richards above, preparing to attack the huge blaze….

…shortly after knocking the blaze down, Drew moved over to the left side to knock down more fire on the other side of the trailer….

….while Jacob Dace moved in to the center front line and attacked the fire there….

I was also fortunate to be able to get a couple of photos of Junior Firefighter Bennett Sherrel assisting on mop up on the back side of the fire…

On June 26th, 2022, I was having breakfast at The Silo Restaurant when Jim Bartle texted and then called me, advising me of a residential structure fire on Elizabeth Street in town, said there were reports of multiple burn victims and at least one resident still inside the house that was on fire. He was responding to it as well, so I immediately let my waitress know I was leaving and headed that way, too. When we arrived, we parked down by the home of retired Sullivan firefighter Bob Marsh and then walked quickly to the scene at the streetcorner. It was evident that there had been a heavy fireball blowing from the southwest corner of the house on Sullivan Fire District`s arrival, there was heavy damage to the residence immediately west of the house on fire and still smoking as well. Firefighters were still inside trying to extinguish the fire and conduct search and rescue as well when we arrived…

That is the house above that caught fire inside, there were seven people inside when the fire broke out…six were standing out in the street when the first units arrived from the fire station…all six had burns and related injuries so Command advised County Dispatch and upgraded the First Alarm to a Mass Casualty Alarm, which is similar to a 3rd Alarm with Multiple Victims, it basically calls for extensive Mutual Aid Response and Medical Units to respond and assist Sullivan Fire.

Jim and I began photographing the scene on our arrival,  and in the midst of the bedlam, where multiple ambulances were arriving and medics attending to the burn victims of all ages, Jim was requested to drive an ambulance due to his past experience as a firefighter with Sullivan Fire District, so soon after this he left the scene driving one of the ambulances to MoBap Sullivan Hospital. There was a lot of confusion on scene and reports of medical air units landing at the High School Parking Lot.

I stayed in contact with Police and Command while on scene taking photographs, respectfully not shooting any images of the rescue of the burn victim found inside the residence and carried out by the interior fire crew. I moved to the front of the attack pumper using it to block my view of that activity….I concentrated solely on the fire and the fire attack by crews.

Fire Crews and trucks from Bourbon, Cuba, St Clair, Union, and Boles Fire Districts were among some of the departments that responded to the scene to assist Sullivan Fire. Sadly, to this day, over a year later, I do not believe the cause of the fire has been determined and at least one burn victim died from their injuries from the fire.