The fire tones dropped the other night and the dispatcher advised of a trailer on fire a few miles down Hwy WW from the North Service Road……I was already headed to bed, having taken a pain pill for my back and removed a contact to rest my eyes. I jumped up and popped a contact in… hearing sirens pass my house and knew someone else was headed to Station One to get a truck, so I grabbed my camera and took off for the fire…it was cold out and I was glad I had grabbed my heavy  jacket. I crossed the interstate on the Elmont Bridge and looked east to see if the pumper was anywhere close…I could hear its Q siren but didnt see it at all, so I turned to the service road and then headed west toward Hwy WW, still no sign of the pumper, so I figured maybe they were ahead of me…I turned down Hwy WW and listened to County Dispatch trying to talk to someone on the scene…someone having radio problems reaching Dispatch and then the ambulance crew intervened on the radio and relayed for them…as I topped the hill on the far north side near Joe Eye`s farm, I looked in my rearview mirror and saw Pumper 854 turning on to Hwy WW….nearly a mile behind me and so I continued on…as I rounded the last left hand curve on WW, I could see a faint glow in the night sky and figured this was going to be at the small trailer court near the end of the highway. As I pulled up on the scene, exactly where I thought it would be located, I chose to park in the ditchline on the right side of the highway and about one hundred feet before the turnoff to the trailer park….off the road as far as I could, my right wheels sinking into soft ground there…I remember hoping I wouldnt need a pull to get out when I left…..and walked up the road to find firefighter Marko Turner on the scene and the trailer fully involved….       …with heavy fire rolling out the west end window and front door on the north side of the trailer. Marko was the one trying to talk to County Dispatch earlier…to let them know that someone might be inside the trailer…information given to him on his arrival a few minutes prior to mine.       A few minutes went by before the pumper arrived behind me, they came up the hill and nosed into the driveway off the trailer park road while I continued to take a few photos….I turned and assisted Driver Bill Windham as he pulled into the driveway….       …the yard area grass was waist high and just about every imaginable plastic and metal toy known to man, was strewn all over the place among the weeds…you really had to be careful where you stepped. The crew on 854 pulled an attack line off the truck, a Cleveland style load, designed to be pulled off in straps and once pressurized by the driver/pump operator, the hose will untangle itself and charge with water and pressure, ready to take inside and fight fire. At least, that`s the theory involved…I was standing up on a small hill in the yard, above the crew, watching as they masked up and prepared to attack the heavy fire which continued to roll out of the trailer….               …as the crew approaches the trailer in this next photo, you can see the amount of  junk and obstacles on the ground in front of them that they had to wade through in order to get to the trailer…Mike was having problems with his air mask as Gary bled air pressure from the hoseline thru the nozzle….       …a few minutes later, Gary and John Wayne began their approach to the trailer door, Mike feeding them additional hoseline….now armed with information that no one was believed to be inside the trailer after all…       and it soon became obvious that Mike was experiencing problems with his air mask, so the crew slowed their response until he was able to remedy the situation….               …Gary immediately began calling to Driver Bill Windham for more pressure on the line…the water coming out was little more than garden hose pressure, definitely not enough to enter a blazing structure fire…another firefighter and I, were relaying the request for more pressure from the truck crew to  Bill, using hand signals…due to Bill`s position at the pump panel, he was unable to see the truck crew…and he immediately dialed up the pressure on the hoseline, however the pressure was not increasing at the nozzle…       …despite this, for whatever reason, Gary then started to attack the fire at the front window, at the west end of the trailer…. even with very little pressurized water coming from the nozzle still….       …and then started toward the front door of the trailer, as heavy fire once again rolled out the door….       …and no sooner did he and John Wayne start toward the front door on the north side of the trailer, did the fire begin to erupt from the west side window in fireball fashion once again….       …and the crew, unable to gain a foothold near the door, backed off once again to attack the heavy fire coming from the west end window again…       …I stayed up on the hill as the crew moved back toward the front door once again…catching them silhouetted against the heavy flames from the door….                   …still obviously having pressure problems as they were not able to move forward against the tremendously heavy fire rolling out of the trailer door and windows…               …and as you can see by the stream from the hoseline below, they still had very little pressure….           …eventually they decided to take a lower approach at the doorway and try once again to enter the trailer…               …and once again, unable to make any headway at the door, they backed away and hit the front window once again….

 

 

 

 

 

 

…and here they were finally able to gain a stronghold after a tenacious fight with heavy fire and low hoseline pressure…

 

 

 

…and now they were able to return to the front door once more…

 

 

   

 

..and as crews were making headway on the north side of the trailer, flames were intensifying on the south side of the trailer near an add on to the trailer, as well as underneath it…

 

 

 

 

 

…with the arrival of Pumper 814, followed soon after by Bourbon`s pumper and tanker, Sullivan`s next crew of arriving junior firefighters pulled a two and a half inch hoseline and manned it on the south side of the trailer after several of us unraveled and straightened it out….

 

 

 

 

…and Bourbon`s pumper crew assisted first in removing junk….

 

 

 

…and then in removing the siding of the trailer, in order to get at the fire behind the wall on the south side of the trailer…

 

 

 

 

 

…I walked around to Pumper 854 again and as I walked up on the right side of it, talking to Jay Arnold, Bill came around the truck and we found the initial hoseload all jammed up with severe kinks in the line…we all three reached down and grabbed the line and straightened it out…this was the cause of low pressure at the nozzle for the pumper crew….by this time, much of the fire was knocked down and I decided to head back to the house and hit the hay after a very long day….I was sure glad, no one turned out to be inside this trailer.