Tanker Fire Shuts Down Route 220 in Downtown Roanoke

Tanker Fire in Roanoke. More on VAFireNews.com.

Fire on 6th Street Southeast

Roanoke Firefighters battle a house fire in Southeast Roanoke.
One homeowner is reported to be injured as well as one Firefighter taken to the hospital.

Click here for more pictures and information on VAFireNews.com

UPDATE: One firefighter suffered from possible heat exhaustion/dehydration at the scene and is at RMH now recovering.

Fire on Thirlane

Fire on Thirlane Road the other day. I was working for Doug Hurd when we caught this fire. I will come out and say that I made a huge but not very costly mistake and learned my lesson. I reversed out from Engine 10 to a hydrant laying 900 feet of 5" hose on the ground. The mistake was that there was one 200' away from Engine 10 that I didn't see. Lesson learned.
Click here or on the picture for more photos by Drew Abel.

Fire on Rorrer Avenue

Engine 9 was first in on this house fire on Rorrer Avenue. C shift responded to find fire blowing out of 4 sides of the attic. An aggressive interior attack on the fire brought the fire under control quickly. No injuries were reported.
To view more pictures and read the press release click here.

Fire on Tazewell Avenue

Fire on Tazewell Avenue this morning. Click for the story and more pictures.

Thanks after the Mill Mountain Brush Fires

Hey guys. I got an email from a frequent biker to the Mill Mountain Trails. She wanted to thank all the firefighters for their work. The email came from Jen over at "Jen's Bike Blog".

She writes:

Please pass along my Thanks to the firefighters both Roanoke City and County who responded to the brush fires on Mill Mtn the other day. I ride my bike up there regularly and have hiked and done trail work, etc up there so the place means a lot to me. We rode by where one fire was, and we are very lucky they caught it when they did. Mill Mtn is ripe for a huge fire - lots of deep, dry leaves. Again many thanks from a grateful biking community.

I know that the fires weren't that big by County standards, however most of us City guys aren't used to fighting many brush fires within City limits. Let alone near midnight on the side of a mountain.

Second Story Ladder Rescue in Roanoke City

More pictures and information at VAFireNews.com

Fires at Summit Apartments and Albemarle Ave

Fire at Summit Apartments

Photo by Mike Overacker

Fire on Albemarle Avenue

Photo by Mike Overacker

Click on the pictures for more photos

Highland Avenue Fire

Lt. Baron Gibson was able to get some pictures of the Highland Avenue fire yesterday. Click here or the picture for the story and more pictures.

Mike Overacker has some pictures from the other fires this past week on RoanokeFirefighters.com.

Fire on Highland Avenue

Here is video from Roanoke Times on the fire today.


I have a couple of pics from after the fire I will try to get online tomorrow. Check over at Mike Overackers site RoanokeFirefighters.com for more pictures.

Fires on Church Ave, 13th Street, and Grandin Road

Click here for pictures to the Church Avenue Fire on VAFireNews.com. Pictures by Mike Overacker and Drew Abel.

Click here for more pictures on RoanokeFirefighters.com by Mike Overacker.





Click here for pictures from the 13th Street Fire on VAFireNews.com.

Click here for more pictures on RoanokeFirefighters.com by Mike Overacker.






Click here for the link to the Riverland Fire from today on VAFireNews.com. Pictures by Mike Overacker.

Click here for more images by Mike Overacker on this fire.






Here is the link to the Famous Anthony's Fire on Grandin - sorry no pictures.

Mike might be putting up images of the fire on Riverland today.

Stay Safe

Three Fires today...so far

Roanoke Firefighters have battled 3 fires today:

Times are approximated.
0430 - Famous Anthony's at Grandin and 419 in Southwest
1700 - Single Family Dwelling Fire at 33 13th Street Southwest (look for pics on VAFireNews.com by morning)
1900 - Two Alarm Warehouse fire in the 700 block of Church Ave. SE (pics on WSLS and WDBJ)

Great job guys/gals. Stay Safe.

Fires in Roanoke on Christmas Eve

Three various fires from Roanoke on Christmas Eve. Click the picture for more pics and info.

Video from the first fire here on WDBJ7.com

Roanoke Fire-EMS Responds to 31st St. Fire

Roanoke Fire-EMS Responds to 31st St. Fire

Press Release from Roanoke Fire EMS

On December 19, 2007, Roanoke Fire-EMS responded to a structure fire at 753 31st St. The call came into the E-911 Center at approximately 4 a.m. The response of 4 engines, 2 ladder trucks, 2 medic units, the EMS Captain, the Investigation Unit and a Battalion Chief for a total of 26 personnel responded to the scene. The fire was under control at 4:23 a.m.

Click the picture for more pictures and the rest of the story.

Roanoke Firefighters battle fire in SW

Mike Overacker was on scene taking some really great photographs. I have the story and photos on VAFireNews.com, and Mike has some more photos on RoanokeFirefighters.com.

City Manager doesn't want crimes or fires given a quadrant designation

The City is doing away with documenting crimes and fires in specific quadrants of the City. Apparently, the City Manager feels that it "could fuel negative racial and socioeconomic perceptions about certain areas of the city."

Honestly, I don't really care anymore about this. The City has been using tactics like this to spread out certain statistics. The Fire Department sees this all the time when territories are changed to make an engine, ladder, or medic truck seem less busy in order to prove a point.

However, if they removed the NW, SW, SE, and NE designations from CAD, this could cause a big problem. How many streets do we have that share the same name? Including the same block.

Yesterday, there were two fires...one in SW and one in NW.

Below is from the Roanoke Times (Read the entire story here)

Roanoke residents who want to know if crime is happening in their neighborhood could have a harder time getting complete information from the city's Web site.

City police earlier this fall removed a list of crime incidents from their Web site. They re-posted it last week, but without the quadrant designations -- Southeast, Southwest, Northeast and Northwest -- that had specified where the crimes happened.

It is the latest example of a reluctance by some city officials to provide the most precise information about where crimes are occurring. And it could cause confusion in a city where numerous streets cross quadrants and where one street may have two 600 blocks.

Under a directive from City Manager Darlene Burcham, officials are not allowed to provide quadrant designations in news releases reporting crimes or fires.

Scott Hetherington is going home from the hospital

Scott (pictured to the right) is going home from the hospital today after suffering cardiac arrest at a house fire on December 3rd. We wish him the best in his recovery. The cause of the fire has been determined. You can read more about it here. Scott, pictured to the right, The picture to the right is Scott from Todd Reighleys blog. It is the only one I could find and is about a year old.


Structure fire in Roanoke

Elsewhere, Northwest Roanoke Firefighters had a structure fire the other day. Click on the picture to the left to view more pictures and read more about the fire.
The cause is still unknown.

Working fire on Ferdinand - 1 firefighter reportedly injured

I put the story and some more pictures up on VAFireNews.com. Click the picture for the article. Also note that Firefighters around the Country are interested in Scott's story and hope that he is resting comfortably and recovering. I understand that the family would not like visitors to Scott's room, however they can visit with the family on the 7th floor of RMH.

Listen to Jay Lowry's Podcast on FirefighterHourly.com where he talks about the incident.

Firefighter Scott Hetherington was injured today while working at a structure fire with a report of occupants trapped. Firefighter Hetherington went down while in the structure and a mayday was called.

He was transported to the hospital and is awake and talking. His family is by his side.

Scott works on Quint 7 and has been a firefighter for 9 years.

Update:

Here is the story from what I have gathered talking to those on scene:

Engine/Ladder 7 was toned out to a fire at 1101 Ferdinand for a structure fire with other units. Engine 7 arrived and began interior suppression with a crew of three - Captain Rorrer, FF Zimmerman, and FF Hetherington (I do not know who was driving). Lt. Simmons met the crew at the front door to begin positive pressure ventilation by placing a fan at the front door. Upon entry by the crew of three, Simmons started PPV. The crew had a report of occupants inside. Shortly after the crew entered, Captain Rorrer came back to the door and signified to Lt. Simmons that something was wrong. Lt. Simmons retrieved FF Hetherington from just inside the door where he had collapsed. Hetherington was dragged to the front yard where firefighters began a fight to save his life. Apparently, Hetherington had suffered a cardiac emergency. Deputy Chief Altman, FF/PM Pfister, and FF/PM Murphy (all Paramedics) transported Hetherington to the hospital and were able to revive him. Shorty after, Hetherington was awake and oriented in the hospital.

Great job by all involved. I find it hard to believe that this was short of a miracle. If the situation were just the tiniest bit different, the outcome might not have been the same.

According to the comments:
Book keeping note: Although Altman did run the resuscitation at the scene, Dave Pope rode in and maintained Scooter's airway througout. Brady McDonald drove M4.Gator, who was right in the middle of it, pulled the truck closer to Scooter. Chief Bishop was right there too. Fine job done by all!

Here are links to the story:

Updated: Firefighter, family OK, but dog dies in Roanoke fire

House Fire in Roanoke

Engine 9 A-shift makes a save on Milton Street

On November 3, 2007, at 17:53, Engine 9, Engine 5, Ladder 13, Medic 2, Medic 101, Battalion Chief 2, and RS1 received a call for a structure fire at 605 Milton Street Northwest. Engine 9 arrived at 17:56 hours to find heavy smoke showing from all sides of the dwelling.

Firefighter Jerry Franks started a primary search and found a victim in the hallway just outside the bedroom where the fire was located. This patient was found unconscious and barely breathing. Firefighter Franks with the assistance of Captain Kevin Weeks removed the patient from the heavily smoked structure to the front yard where the patients care was transferred to Firefighter Duane Noell. At this time, the appropriate care was rendered to the victim until the arrival of Medic 101. The patient suffered moderate smoke inhalation with burns to one leg. The patient is expected to make a full recovery.

After removal of the patient, crews from Engine 9 remade entry into the structure with members from Engine 5 to extinguish the fire. The fire was quickly knocked down and under control by the units on scene at 18:07 hours.

Quick actions and decisive decision making by the first arriving company not only prevented further injury to the patient, but was most certainly the decision that saved the patients life. On top of saving the patient, the crew also played a big role in stopping the damage that the fire would have caused if not attended to in such a timely manner.

A congratulations is in order to the members of Engine 9 for the roles that they played in the rescue and extinguishing of the fire.

The account above was written by Firefighter Duane Noell. The interpretation exemplifies how teamwork accomplished the save and further extinguished the fire. I commend all units on scene for the job they did. While I have been on numerous fires, I have not been a part of a viable rescue from a fire.

I apologize for not getting to this story earlier. However, the press release that was given did not talk about the rescue, and I only learned about this a couple of days ago. In the future, if you guys have a story/incident to share, be sure to let me know about it.

Good job guys/gals. Below is the press release from the fire.

On November 3, 2007, Roanoke Fire-EMS responded to a fire at 605 Milton St. The call came into the E-911 Center at approximately 5:53 p.m. The response of 3 engines, 1 ladder truck, 3 medic units, the EMS Captain, the Investigation Unit and a Battalion Chief for a total of 21 personnel responded to the scene. The fire was under control by 6:07 p.m.

When crews arrived they found heavy smoke coming from all sides of the building. One of the occupants stated someone was still inside. Crews gained entrance and assisted an occupant from the home. The fire was quickly extinguished.

There were 2 people in the house when the fire started. They were helped out of the house by Fire-EMS personnel and transported to Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital for smoke inhalation. There were no injuries to Fire-EMS personnel.

The fire started in a bedroom and was contained to the house. The house sustained some heavy smoke damage. The cause of the fire was due to a match being accidentally dropped on the bed. Damage estimates are approximately $18,000.

Hunt Ave Fire and Casper Drive Fire in Photos

Station 2 A-shift sent in photos of the fires on Hunt Avenue and Casper Drive. Check them out below. Click on the pictures for more. Thanks to Drew Able for taking the pictures.