5 Fatalities In The Uptown

The following account is as accurate as the author can recall.

The Hill Brothers of Station 2 were sitting around the kitchen table jawing and busting nuts after dinner, which is the norm in most city stations. There’s nothing like a belly full of sausage and peppers to get you through the night.

Sometime around 1900 the beeps sounded for box 1-3 in the uptown district, the tone and urgency in the dispatchers’ voice let you know before he finished his sentence...we got work! Sure enough he finished the dispatch with... working fire with entrapment.

Tower 1 is due from the Hill station, with the Squad coming from the Hill district also. T-1 driver and T-1 rider beat feet across the station got our gear on and were out the door. About half way across the bridge we could see the column just as Wagon 3s driver went on the scene with a row of 5, and 3 were off. He requested the next alarm, which got the rest of the companies coming if they weren’t already.

T-1’s driver gave the tower a little more giddy up. Less than a minute later the BC arrived and he confirmed multiple entrapments. Now through the S turns at the capital complex we just went into warp drive. If the outriggers would’ve come down we were lifting off.

We arrived on the scene as the chaos was growing. T-1’s rider jumped off and made for the front of the building as the driver was getting his coat and BA on.

The shit was on out front.

The Wagon 3 guys stretched a line to the porches and went to work knocking down the fire there. The fire building had it standing out the windows and front door on the first floor. The 2 wagon riders advanced up the porch steps and into the front door. Once the front room was knocked down, the wagon rider 2 and T-1 rider made there way to the 2nd floor.

All the while T-2 rider was making searches in the exposure because that was the only building he could access for all the fire. T-1 driver then entered the fire building and met up with the nozzle man who requested more line, so he made the effort to get him more line, but as luck would have it, it had somehow wrapped around T-2s front wheel.

So the nozzleman was told “thats all ya got... hold the steps, don’t let us get burned up!” T-1 rider and the Wagon rider split one to the rear and one to the front. I believe the Wagon rider found the first of the kids and made his way to the street. T-1 driver made the top steps when he heard his partner yelling he had a victim.

They found the adult victim wrapped in bed covers, which made her invisible through the TIC. There was high heat and moderate smoke conditions on the 2nd floor which lifted pretty quickly once the windows were taken out. The T-1 crew wrestled with the victim for a few seconds trying to position her for the best avenue for escape. They then decided that out the window and onto the porch roof would be best.

There was a FF on the porch roof who was instructed to clear out the rest of the window; we’re coming out with one. The Wagon 4 rider did just that. T-1’s rider then lifted the victim high up onto his chest and fell back thru the window onto the porch roof, which they told us later that from the street it looked like he was dead.

T-1’s driver heaved the 2 of them the rest of the way out the window aided by what then seemed to be 20 FFs on the porch roof. The 3 of them then started CPR on the victim while the T-2 bucket was swinging around to pick the victim up. Once she was in the bucket the FFs on the roof filed back into the window like a line of ants to food. There were several FFs on the 2nd floor, T-1 driver met up with the Squad Lt. and went to the 3rd floor.

The 3rd floor conditions were moderate heat and heavy smoke, which at this point I was so amped up it could’ve been 1000 degrees and I wouldn’t have cared.

The Squad Lt. and the T-1 driver split at the top of the steps, one to the front and one to the rear. T-1 driver searched the front room and came across one of the kids; he grabbed him up and headed for the steps. Loosing his bearings, he ran into the Wagon 4 rider and was pointed in the right direction towards the steps, and made his way to the street.

Once on the street everything went into slow motion and no EMS insight at first. Not seeing any EMS, the T-1 driver laid the victim on the hood of a car and started chest compressions. Out of nowhere came one of the paramedics and scooped up the kid and rolled out down the street.

The Wagon 4 rider then came out with another victim and was met in the street by EMS, this kid was found not 2 feet from the other on the 3rd floor.

The Squad rider had a line stretched to the exposure 3rd floor that was really off, and it was kicking their ass. He and the T-3 Lt, as well as several other FFs stood their ground knowing what was going on next door, and keeping it from running the rest of the way down the row.

At some point there was a minor accountability issue at no fault of anyone. The BC recognized this issue and sent the RIT team in to check on the guys on the upper floors still making searches. One of the RIT members searched in the bathroom and moved a pile of clothing and had found the 5th and final victim. The rest of the team continued on and determined that all was well after the PAR . Most of the first in companies were operating on their 2nd and 3rd cylinders untill the fire was marked under control.

It was noted at the debriefing session that after the first EMS rig was on scene all victims were being transported inside of 6 minutes.

I often wonder, did I do everything right? In the end I think WE all did everything right! The Brothers of the HFD should be proud, and hold their heads high.