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Sunday, January 07, 2007

Fire at 1133 Pilot Street - Maple Grove Apartments

Roanoke Firefighters respond to an Apartment Fire at the Maple Grove ApartmentsRoanoke Fire-EMS responded for a Building fire at 1133 Pilot Street NW. E13, L13, E9, E4, E5, L7, M10, M4, BC-2, and Salem Engine 2 responded for the reported fire. E13 advised of a heavy column of smoke which could be seen as they responded from Station 13 on Peters Creek Rd. Firefighters experienced heavy fire from two apartments which had spread to one other in the 4 unit apartment building. The Firefighters were able to contain the fire quickly and the primary and secondary searches were negative.

This was my first fire since joining the guys at Station 13. Last day we had a small fire at another apartment complex in NW, which was relatively small.

Unfortunately, 16 tenants were put out of their homes due to this fire. Luckily, there weren't any serious injuries to any of the tenants or firefighters.


Engine 9's crew stand in the burned out window casing. The guys are from left to right; Jon Dixon, Chris Franklin, Captain Willie Wines Jr., and Brad Glidden (from station 10). Lt. Richard Alley was pumping Engine 9.

Captain Wines told me a little story after the fire. Captain Wines was just recently moved from Station 14 to Station 9. He said that the first day on the job was at Station 9, being assigned to Ladder 9. His father, a retired firefighter who worked at Station 1, came to visit him on his first day of work. While his father was there L9 got a fire, the first one of his career. Fast forward 100 years or so to today, his father stopped by again. This time it was Willie's second day back at Station 9. Ten minutes after his father got there, this fire was toned out. I thought it was a pretty good story.
Lynwood English from L13 and R. Caughey from E4 stand in the upstairs apartment window. This was their first fire.

On a personal note, this was my first fire since a fire at the Ferncliff Apartment fire 2 years ago. It was good to get back in the action. Once on scene, it was like I was never gone. We (E13) got the hydrant and brought the 5" supply line. I helped hook it up to E9 and was able to get in and do some overhaul. It was a nice homecoming being back at Station 13. It is always a great fire when all the firefighters stay safe.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...
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FireFleitz said...

Before you ask why the last two comments were removed I will remind you that I would appreciate if the comments were professional. I understand wanting to poke fun, and that is fine within reason. Any questions? Let me know.

Anonymous said...

way to go rhett. dont let the trash from the rumor mill run onto your blog!

Anonymous said...

" I will remind you that I would appreciate if the comments were professional."

"way to go rhett. dont let the trash from the rumor mill run onto your blog!"

Now does that comment sound professional? Your editing has caused people not to comment anymore. Have you noticed?

FireFleitz said...

If editing comments which I believe make "us" look like babbling idiots causes people to stop commenting then so be it.

If you realized how many people read this blog from all over the World you wouldn't want them to relate certain comments with you.

Some of the bad comments might not come across so bad if there were many "nice" comments.

But as I have said before, it is much easier to point out the bad things than the good. I fall into this trap all the time.

Plus, I didn't put this blog together for the comments, they are a bonus and provide a source of communication for all the readers.

All told, I have only deleted a handful in the life of the blog.

Anonymous said...

DONT READ IT ANYMORE THEN FELLA...AND DONT COMMENT ON IT EITHER. ITS YOUR RIGHT.