I dont think I can recall a busier Christmas Eve than the one yesterday…I worked the night before in dispatch and we were rocking and rolling all night long with fire and police calls…came home and slept for a few hours, then drove out to Mom and Dad`s for Christmas Dinner with my nieces and nephew…my sister`s family,  and after visiting with them for a few hours, came back home to relax a bit. I hadnt been home long when I noticed someone run up on the front porch of the home of one of my neighbors and grab a package, and then continue walking down the street like nothing happened. I reported it to the police, who apprehended the suspect a few minutes later. I was wrapping that up as the fire tones dropped and a residential structure fire was dispatched, so I grabbed my coat and camera and Missy and I headed for the truck.

As I was driving toward the address, I overheard the ambulance crew arrive and advise county that the house was fully involved…soon after that I could see dark smoke a few miles ahead on Hwy 185, north of town. I arrived about five minutes behind the lead pumper, parked my truck off the road and out of the way, set the heat low for Missy, secured my truck and ran up the highway to the fire scene…this is how it looked when I got there…

Damon Sumpter, Captain on Lead Pumper 854, was on the nozzle and John Strothcamp, was backing him up, at the north end of the house, where there was heavy fire showing…

..the rest of the home was well involved too….mainly showing up high on the roofline….

…however as I continued to shoot photos, fire soon appeared in the large front glass window of the home, to the left of the front door….

..and the color of the smoke curling up from the eaves of the roof was starting to darken down as well, indicating the fire was reaching the attic area and gaining strength…

 

 

Larry Flescher arrived a few minutes after me and took command of the fire, and a tanker arrived soon after. The fire continued to strengthen both outside the house as well as inside the home….

 

…and soon Damon had John return to the pumper and pull another hoseline, so that another crew could fight the outside fire while he and John would enter the house and fight the interior fire that was beginning to gain strength…..and as heavy fire began to penetrate the roof at the back side of the house as well….

…and John was no sooner away than Damon was enveloped in a cloud of smoke as he continued to fight the outside fire on the north end of the house….

…I was shooting fairly fast for the first few minutes, trying to capture the flames when they emerged from the heavy smoke, so it might appear that alot of time is taken and things are moving slowly, when in fact things were happening pretty quickly. Damon was solo on the hose for just a couple of minutes….

 

 

…before Junior Firefighter Eric arrived and backed him up on the hoseline…

…and soon they were both enveloped in the growing smoke cloud…

…as the fire everywhere intensified….

 

 

…pretty soon, John returned with another hoseline, as Eric and Damon continued to fight the outside fire and as the fire intensified inside the home, as seen by the glow through the window….

 

 

 

…and it was about this time, that Damon told Eric that he and John were going to take the red line and enter the house…

 

 Eric took over the nozzle and was backed up by Corey Rice and Jr Firefighter Korey….

…and soon Corey instructed the juniors to take the hoseline around to the other side to get a better angle on the heavy fire…however this required dragging the hose through some branches that were laying there…

 

…while the fire raged on and intensified near the peak of the roof…once they were able to stretch the line through the brush and approach from the back, they had a  much better angle on the fire at the roofline too….

…while back at the front of the house, a third hoseline was being stretched by Eric and EMT Korey Zancauske to place another line in service…

….. the fire outside still raged on as Damon and John now worked inside to knock down the heavy fire……while Corey Rice and Korey Snelson masked up to enter the house with the blue line to assist Damon and John with the interior attack…

As soon as Corey and Korey were inside and fighting fire, Damon and John came out and began attacking the north end of the home again, this time using foam instead of water only….

…and pretty soon the flames were dying down and disappearing with only the smoke remaining….

…Bourbon Fire Department arrived and three of their firefighters relieved Corey and Korey on the attack line inside the house, so they could get their air tanks replaced with new ones and take a shortbreak…

…while Damon and John were trying to get a handle on the outside wall with the foam…Damon getting a good angle through an open window and trying to knock down the fire within the wall…

Corey and Korey then re-entered the house with fresh packs and gave Bourbon`s firefighters a  chance to change out their air bottles as well…

…a few minutes later, Corey and Korey ran out of air again and came back out to take a break. Shown here is Jr Firefighter Louis assisting Korey with his air tank….

….and a few minutes later, Louis was helping Eric with overhaul of the exterior fire on the north side of the house, where moments earlier, Damon and John were able to finally knock down the flames with foam…

 

…and here Bourbon`s crew is shown masking up to enter the home after changing out their air tanks….

…it was soon after this that I left the scene, headed home to warm back up and relax….a four hour nap doesnt get me as far these days as it used to.