Frozen Fires

There’s an old saying in the fire service, “your turnouts will keep you warm in the winter and hot in the summer”. It really couldn’t be any truer than that. They are big and bulky with multiple layers, designed to protect you from the flames and heat. They aren’t completely protective of everything, but they are resistant to water and flames, plus give you a nice overall protection from the heat when you’re in the hot zone. Naturally, in the freezing cold temperatures they are perfect for keeping you warm when you must be out in the elements. On the flip side of that, once you do get wet, they aren’t only heavier, but you are more likely to have them freeze on you making it harder to move around and stay warm. Nighttime fires also tend to be the coldest and give us the highest level of exposures. In the wee hours of the morning, we were dispatched to a structure fire in town. Even though most fires dispatched in the night are usually real, this one was no different when the update was given that it was a confirmed fire. It was a normal winter night, temps dipped below freezing with a small layer of snow on the ground. I rolled out of bed for the call and slipped into my clothes before running out to the call. I remember rolling over a hill and seeing the faint glow in the sky as I was approaching the house. I could see now that it was indeed a real fire. Parking up the street, out of the way for the apparatus to park, I wiggled into my (at this point) extremely cold turnouts. Cold enough that as you start walking towards the house, you force your legs to move the stiff pants into a form other than “stuffed into a gear bag” form. The house was rolling pretty good at this point. The bulk of the fire was in the living room, dining room, and kitchen space. It had blown out the big picture windows on the front of the house and the all the roof above that section of the home was burning. Our Incident Commander was making a plan as the first engine arrived. Our first task was pulling the attack line. After it was stretched out, I hollered for water. As the line came to life, we did a quick knock down on the roof. Most of that fire seemed to be exterior (the fire had rolled out the windows and caught the roof on fire and not burned up through the ceiling yet). Once that was completed, we were instructed to take our line around to the back of the house to make entry. We were going to hit the fire from the rear and try to continue the push through to the front of the house.

We worked our way up the slippery stairs on the deck, up to the sliding glass door. Kneeling down and getting set up on our air, we quickly forced the door open and we hit the fire hard. Crawling and flowing the water to the left, knocking out the kitchen. Forward further through the dining room and into the living room. The floor was still solid so we could continue our advance. Now we realized the fire had spread into the stairwell and up through the ceiling. The house was a split-level construction- meaning, there is a short flight of stairs up and a short flight of stairs down. Fortunately, the fire only traveled up so we could continue to chase in one direction and not have to worry about the downstairs. As our low air alarms starting sounding, the backup crew was coming in. We gave them a briefing of what we were doing before we rotated out. Just as we turned to head out, I looked up to the stairwell and saw that the roof had burned through, and the fire was swirling like a tornado. Being like a wind driven fire, it was burning hot and fast. The next crew would have to work hard and fast to get the fire stopped before it took off in the attic space. My crew went out and went up to rehab. Fresh air bottles and to get our vitals checked. Now, back to the frozen part. Being inside the burning building, I certainly wasn’t cold coming out. Oh, how it was cold outside. It didn’t take long to cool down. The exhaust from the engines were also wreaking havoc on the streets. The hot exhaust melts the snow then add in the water that comes out of the engine. Now most of the street was solid ice. The city’s street department had come by to help throw some sand on the road so we could keep our feet under us. By now, we had a few crews working the fire. The bulk of the fire had been knocked down, but we had a lot of work still ahead of us. My crew rotated back in and was assigned overhaul. We were to get access into the attic space and make sure the fire was completely extinguished along with pulling out insulation that was still left smoldering. That is a messy and dirty job. With the big picture window gone, however, it was easy to get that insulation out of the home. It took some time, but we were able to get the full extinguishment and start pickup up our equipment. This is one of those calls that would be considered a good save. Sure, there was lots of fire and about a third of the home really burned. But it was still standing, and it wasn’t a total loss. It could be rebuilt. Calls like this one also reminds me of the other risks that are out there. It isn’t just about the safety during the firefighting efforts, but all around the operation. Slick streets, freezing water, cold exposures to those not in the heat of the work. I was glad that we all came out uninjured and able to gain the experience and lessons learned. Every single incident will give us the benefit of experience. Things you can’t learn in a book or class. Hopefully, as we gain those experiences, they can be shared with the “rookies” to help them better understand what we’ve already seen.