News

Working Structure Fire
Thursday, March 24, 2005

On Tuesday, March 21, 2005 at approx 0551 hours the LFD with automatic mutual aid response from Delmar and Sharptown Fire Departments, and SCEMS were alerted for a House fire on Evergreen drive. Asst. Chief Alan Schweitzer arrived on scene and found smoke showing from the rear of the structure. E-4 arrived with Fire Chief Mark Sheridan and Command 81 advised them to place their unit in the driveway and make their attack thru the front door of the house. Tower 81 and E-3 arrived and Command advised the Tower to back in the second driveway and set the tower up, and E-3 to reverse lay a 5 inch supply line to the hydrant. Chief Sheridan and crew advanced their way into the structure finding little fire at this point, but heavy smoke and heat conditions. Chief Sheridan determined that the fire was below them in the basement area of the house. As interior crews pulled out of the structure trying to re-group on their attack, further evaluation after a good size up determined the house was a split level home, with a full basement, and garage below ground level. You could only determine this by the rear of the house, as looking at it from the front it looked like a single story ranch style home. Delmar and Sharptown units arrived on scene and Command advised them to take the driveway leading to the garage in the rear of structure. The access to the driveway of the garage had to be utilized from a secondary street, which was hard to see in initial size up. Delmar Chief Jeff Kowalski and his crew, along with a crew from Laurel entered a rear door leading to the lower level of the structure. Chief Kowalski and crews began to make good progress on the fire at this point. Chief Billy White from Sharptown and his crew entered the rear of the house thru a secondary door, only to escape serious injury or death as they encountered an in-ground swimming pool. As Chief White and his crew overcame this obstacle and advanced further into structure they encountered heavy fire. Blades Fire Company was alerted for stand-by in Laurel, and Command advised Sussex to divert them to the scene. As fire broke thru the roof in the rear of the structure command gave the order to evacuate and sounded the air horns. As crews were backing out, the roof in the rear collapsed. Command then requested all crews to be accounted for. All fire crews escaped injury during the collapse. Exterior operations went into effect with Tower 81 placing a master stream in service. As crews worked to control heavy fire venting thru the roof, Command sounded a second alarm bringing Georgetown, Millsboro, and Hebron Fire Departments to the scene. A RIT team was standing by at all times during the incident. Tower 81 and numerous hand lines worked the exterior and knocked the fire down enough to allow firefighters to re-enter the structure. Chief Kowalski and Chief White with crews entered the lower level and worked on extinguishing remaining hot spots and overhaul. Chief Fensick and crews from Blades, Millsboro, and Georgetown worked the upper ground level extinguishing remaining fire and overhaul. Command 81 placed incident under control at 0833 hours with units working. Laurel, Delmar, Sharptown, Blades, Georgetown, Millsboro, and Hebron Fire Departments worked well for approx 2 ½ hours to control the blaze. Due to the lay out of the house, and large square footage, along with the varnished knotty pine timber construction creating a heavy fire load, firefighters could not save the structure and the house was a total loss. The single occupant escaped serious injury or death as working smoke detectors alerted him, allowing enough time for escape. Two firefighters did receive minor injuries, one was transported to NMH treated and released, and the other has returned to full duty. The cause of the fire is believed to be a heater plugged into an over loaded extension cord in the lower level of the house. All units cleared the scene and placed in service at 1108.

Units on scene: Command 81, E-4, Tower 81, E-3, Rescue 81, A-81, Utility 81, Truck 74, E/T 74-2, Truck 14, E-1404, E 71-9, E 71-5, E 77-2, E 83-2, E 507, E 87-3, SCEMS 102, FM 16, FM11, LPD.
Special Thanks to Seaford FD for providing a stand-by crew in Laurel for the duration of the incident. Also special thanks to Stacey Northam Smith (LFD Photographer), and SCEMS Paramedic Eric Borneman for pictures of the incident.