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….