There is nothing that a firefighter hates more than a rekindle. It is embarassing. It is a royal pain. It is no fun. For those who are not of the firefighting persuasion I will define a rekindle. It is a fire in the same occupancy where you extinguished a fire earlier. Usually the same day but not always. What it means is that when you thought you had gotten every possible pocket of hidden fire... you didn't. Rekindles usually happen in occupancies where there is a lot of "stuff" strewn everywhere and also in places where there are lots of potential hidden pockets. There is only one thing that can make a rekindle marginally better...one where you were dispatched to assist BUT it was not your jurisdiction. I was on just such a fire last cycle.
The first dispatch was around 3 in the afternoon (1500 for you fire types) and it was to a neighboring jurisdiction. This is how it works for us. We have two dispatch agencies in our county. We received tones from the one we do not regularly use. The clue for us at our station is that the tones go off but we do not receive a CAD printout. For me that means a quick trip to our computer, a command to remotely access the other dispatch center to get the printout they are sending to the other agency. I do that because it lets me know more information... like who else is responding, any occupancy information they may have, and the type of emergency. I can do this before our dispatch agency can send the tones and a printout.
We were the 3rd engine to arrive with a Battalion Chief, aid car and ladder also arriving before us (this is normal when going to another agency because it isn't your first due area but you are close). The occupancy was an older home: a 50's vintage single wide mobile home that had at some point in time had an additional two or three rooms added to the side of it with at least two different roof systems. This may or may not have been done legally (meaning permits and inspections) and they can be a real problem. The fire appears to have started near the chimney and appeared to be in the roof between the different roof systems. My crew and I reported to command to await assignment. After 5 minutes or so we were assigned to assist with overhaul of some of the contents considered salvagable. We spent 10 - 15 minutes helping with that task and then the crews onscene 'cut us loose'. This too is standard in that 1) they want to handle their own fire problem and 2) since we are mutual aid it is common curtesy to get you back in service in your own area as fast as possible.
Then around 1930 hrs (7:30 p.m. to you normal folks) we get a tone for a structure fire with our neighboring department at the same address! No need to look this up! As we were responding the Battalion Chief was the first to arrive. You could hear the disgust in his voice as he reported "B... onscene. Fully involved. Establishing ________ command." This wasn't going to be much fun!
Again we arrived last and moved forward to report to command. This time command was nowhere to be found! So we moved forward to the fire (and it was ripping!) and finally found him. He didn't even want the accountablility tags I offered him (that means he was pissed off about the rekindle...) We got a nozzle and began knocking down fire from the outside (known as a 'surround and drown') and then worked our way inside. I was helping my crew by feeding line to them. As I always do I looked up to check what was going on over my head and saw the moon and stars through the smoke! No roof! Burned away!
So we spent a couple of hours this time helping dig out this fire from the rubble (this person had bookcases covering every wall full of paperback books!). Finally they cut us loose again so we could get back in our area. Even then we had to go to another station and fill our SCBA bottles.
Rekindles.... I hate 'em!
No comments:
Post a Comment