After several weeks of inactivity, we had a structure fire last week…the call came in a few minutes before I was going to lay down for my nap ahead of work that evening…but since I had a few minutes, I grabbed my camera and Missy and I headed for the truck. From the address given on the pager, I knew it was close to a buddy`s house so we took off and headed over there, only like a mile from my house and about halfway there, I heard a radio report advising the house fully involved, shortly after that seeing the column of black smoke…I pulled into my buddy`s driveway and hoofed it a block up to the house and this was my first photo….

..the house sat back in some trees and the clouds were darkening down on us so it looks more like dusk here…but the flames were rolling out the front and side of the house…

…so then I moved over to the south side of the house and shot this one…

..heavy dark smoke started coming from the back room windows….

and heavy fire was blowing out the windows on the north side already too…

…by this time I heard the siren on Pumper 854 arriving from Station Five and so I backed up and shot a few photos of it on approach…..

…and pulling up in front of the house….

Davey pulls the handline off the pumper……

…and stretches it out…..

..while the fire rages on….

…and Davey, joined now by Captain Dave, stretch the hoseline around to the back of the home, intending to push in from the back door and hopefully save something for the investigators to sift through….

..and so they hit the fire hard and heavy from the back door, Davey on the nozzle and Captain Dave backing him up….

..and heavy flames continue to dart out the windows and doorways, even multicolored flames, green indicating freon from possibly an air conditioning unit inside the house….

…and not seeing whats going on from my vantage point, they have no idea of what effect, if any, they are having on the entire house….

 

..where heavy fire continues to roll out the front windows of the house….

..and the back window on this side, shows heavy fire still inside the back of the house…

..and since the front of the house is still heavily engulfed and going strong, Captain Dave backs up and consults with Command via radio and a decision is made to do something differently…

..the next in crew and truck hadnt yet arrived, but was only seconds from arrival, so Davey and Dave hit it again from a different angle this time and hitting the ceiling to go for a steam conversion attack…

..and the flames along the back wall seemed to just intensify….

..and then more green flames started mixing in with the orange flames…

..and heavy fire started rolling out on either side of the guys now……and heavy dark smoke started coming out from the ceiling area as well….

…and the smoke at the roofline really darkened down….

..and Davey and Dave kept at it, and eventually the smoke and fire load lightened up some…the crew in front were also hitting the front of the house with a deck gun on Pumper 854 too….

..resulting in a good knockdown…

…at this point, my camera battery went dead and then my phone battery died as well and so I went home to get my nap in.