| On Sunday morning, September 2, 2007 at 0416 hours (4:16 a.m.), Box Alarm 01-01 was sounded for a building fire in the 200 block of South Main Street in downtown Mt. Airy. The initial response brought engines from Mount Airy, Howard County Station 4 (Lisbon), Frederick County Station 15 (New Market), Montgomery County Station 13 (Damascus), Ladder 12 (Sykesville), Frederick County Truck 4-1 (Citizens Truck Company), Rescue 1 and Ambulance 19.
While enroute, units were advised that police were on the scene with a working building fire. Chief 1 arrived at the front of the building with heavy smoke showing from the first floor of a restaurant occupancy. He was quickly met by a building occupant who advised where the bulk of the fire was and that he had alerted occupants in the basement apartment to evacuate. Engine 12 arrived shortly thereafter and layed a 5-inch supply line from a hydrant in the 100 block of South Main Street to the corner of the fire building. As crews were pulling a 2-inch attack line for fire attack, the front windows of the fire building vented and fire began blowing out the front of the building. An additional 3-inch blitz line was brought in and water was directed into the first floor to knock down the fire. As the fire was knocked, initial crews from Mount Airy entered the fire building encountering heavy fire and smoke conditions while attacking the fire in the restaurant.
A second alarm was sounded as crews attacked the fire and did a quick search for victims in the restaurant. Additional crews entered the adjoining structures to search for victims and check for fire extension. Those crews found moderate to heavy smoke conditions in the adjoining apartments. While searching an apartment they came across a family, including a child, who had not awaken to the smoke and fire from next door. These crews evacuated the family outside to a safe location.
Meanwhile, crews inside the restaurant had knocked down a large portion of the fire on the first floor but had to exercise extreme caution due to the weight of the restaurant equipment including a brick oven and the amount of fire involvement that had weakened the very old building. These crews continued to work making an effort to open up the building and extinguish all of the fire. However, the fire traveled very fast and could be felt underneath and above where crews were operating, extending between the ceilings and floors and also into the upper floors of the building. The call was made to evacuate the building and set-up for defensive operations on the main fire building trying to contain the fire. Crews had been positioned in the adjoining building on the north side and were attacking the fire very aggressively that had made it into the walls and roof area of that building. It was very hard for crews to access the areas of that building that was on fire and conditions began to deteriorate. All crews in that building were also evacuated and defensive operations put into place.
A third alarm was sounded and it became a very long process of trying to attack the fire from the exterior. Ladder trucks and tower ladders were put into position to flow large amounts of water onto the fire in an attempt to extinguish. Due to the location of the fire building in town, and the electrical wires on Main Street, it was very difficult to get these pieces of apparatus into position to be most effective. Crews continued to do an excellent job of protecting the buildings to the south of the fire building. These crews prevented fire from going into any other exposure buildings and protected several propane tanks close to the fire building. Crews also protected the Town Hall located on the north side of the fire buildings from any fire.
This fire required a large amount of water and taxed the towns water system. A hydrant being used failed briefly in the operation and the call was made for tankers to respond to assist in supplementing the water supply. Ponds from just outside town, as well as a pond in town were utilized to supplement the town water system. This proved to be very helpful and provided an additional source of water, thus relieveing some of the strain on the town water system.
By the late morning and early afternoon the fire still burned inside both buildings and extinguishment efforts continued keeping all firefighting personnel outside of the hazard zone in which the building could collapse. The roof had collapsed inwards but was shielding large portions of fire from the water crews were applying. The roof was allowed to burn off and provided better access to those large areas of fire. Eventually, the north wall of the second fire building collapsed allowing crews to access areas of the fire with heavy streams of water. This proved very beneficial to the incident as the bulk of all the fire was then knocked down.
Logistics for this incident were complex and many agencies were involved. The Town of Mount Airy, Carroll County 911 Center, Carroll County Sheriff's Office, Maryland State Police, Carroll County Government, Allegheny Power, American Red Cross, Carroll County Fire Police, State Highway Administration, Maryland State Fire Marshal's Office, and local citizens and businesses cannot be thanked enough for the help and support of the firefighters operating on the scene. Our operations were assisted as they provided traffic control, helped arranged for fuel for our apparatus, assisted in acquiring demolition crews to help access the fire, food for personnel, arrangments for the fire victims and just being there in any way possible for the fire department during a very stressful fire.
The incident began to downsize as demolition crews brought down the remains of the second fire building allowing crews to access a major portion of fire and all but extinguishing it with only several areas of smoldering left. A large amount of water and foam was put on the remains of both buildings and crews packed up after 14 hours of operations.
The fire damage was estimated to be $4 million dollars. Six businesses wre destroyed and one heavily damaged. Five apartments were destroyed or heavily damaged displacing 12 people. No one was injured or killed during this incident despite the time of morning, people sleeping, and the amount of fire that was present. Three alarms and a tanker task force brought over 50 units with more than 175 personnel that operated on the scene from just after 4 A.M. until just after 6 P.M. More than a million gallons of water were used during the operation. Main Street was closed from Park Avenue to Hood Street.
The Mount Airy Volunteer Fire Company appreciates all the assistance received from those who helped during this incident.
Video of the fire can be accessed through the following links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_pmND0dzDI&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5ltpdwnvxk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHVnor-GWnEhttp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCs8c7nwPsM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfXH5HCpHHk
http://www.abc2news.com/mediacenter/local.aspx
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0907/452327_video.html?ref=newsstory
http://wjz.com/video/?cid=5 |
