The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed.

If not for the the courage of the fearless crew, the Minnow would be lost.

Ok, so maybe the weather Thursday evening wasn't THAT bad, but it was pretty rotten. We were at work watching it come straight at us. For a long time it looked like it was going to just stall out in Nashville, about 1/2 a mile to the north of us. The news kept reporting lightning strikes in the thousands (as high as 7 thousand in about a 2 county area in a 15 minute window), so we really figured we'd have a fire.

The storm was supposed to hit our city at 21:45, then at 22:20, then by 23:00. I got tired of waiting and went to bed about 23:30. I had been watching the lighting to the north, and it was pretty fierce. It was popping fequently enough and close enough that I could clearly see colors and details on objects in the distance. It really was like daylight when it hit.

Sometime after I went to bed, I'm still not sure of the time, the tones started going off. I was on the ladder for the day, so there was a really good chance that the engine was going out to move a tree out of the road or babysit some downed power lines, but something told me to go ahead and get up and start moving towards the door. The tones just kept coming, and I quickly realized that what had started out as being dispatched as a residential fire alarm had been upgraded mid tone to a working fire. We hopped in the trucks and began our trip across the city.

The first engine on scene reported that there was no smoke or fire visible from the road. About 45 seconds later they reported heavy smoke in the second story, and about 20 seconds after that, they told the ladder that they needed us to perform verticle ventilation (get on the roof and cut a hole in it to let the heat and smoke out). I was a little nervous, this was the first fire call for this particular ladder truck and the roofs in the neighborhead we were destined for were known to be pretty treacherous.

We got on scene and quickly got the ladder set up. Since there were only 2 of us assigned to it, we picked up another guy from an engine, and he and I headed up in the bucket towards the roof while the driver of the ladder stayed on the platform to help control the bucket we were riding in, and to spot for us.

(the pictures are a bit out of sequence here, and this computer has a problem that won't let me move them or even delete them, so I'm sorry, I'll try to fix it later)



Unfortunately, even with a 100 foot long ladder, the house was set so far back from the road that we could only just barely reach the roof, and to top it all off, this roof was just like I had feared, very steep, lots of angles, and not a good one to be climbing on in a thunderstorm. I never noticed, but apparently there was a ton of lightning still going off while we worked. I was a little pre-occupied with the fire in front of me and never noticed. We were positioning the bucket, and the crews inside reported that they could not make any more progress until we got the roof opened so they could continue to advance. It was way to hot for them to reach the seat of the fire without us relieving the heat. We couldn't quite get to where we wanted, but as I looked at the roof, I saw it start bubbling, then two big holes burst open with flames shooting out of them. The roof had vented itself, so our job was partly done.

In the above picture, you can see a ground ladder that someone had put up. To the left of that is a hole we had cut in the roof (there is a picture of that further down), but we weren't able to get it open all the way. A few of the guys climbed that ladder, and were going to attempt to open it further. We had backed the bucket up to give them light and cover them with our hose. It was kinda funny to see them, and I felt pretty justified for not getting on it. They were from another department, and were there as mutual aid. The guy climbing first got face to face with that roof, looked down at his buddies, shook his head no, and tried to smash it open from the ladder. It still was unfortunate that we couldn't get it open, but it was nice to see other people shared my opinion of this roof!

Believe it or not, they tell me we actually probably saved the house. We were able to contain the fire to the attic and upstairs areas where it started.

We moved the bucket around a bit trying to find another place we could try and vent. We went ahead and punched out a ridge vent and started knocking bricks out of the side of the building, figuring any holes we could make would be a good start.

We had made a little headway with venting the roof, and the crews inside were able to advance some more and start knocking the fire down. At one point their hose stream dislodged a brick that flew right between me and my buddy, so we had to duck down and take cover in the bucket from flying debris.

I tried cutting a hole in the roof on that eve on the far left in the photo below. It was awkward, because I couldn't get out on the roof and had to try and hang over and cut. I had one foot on the platform, and the other on the peak of the roof. To top it all off, when I started cutting, the smoke was so heavy, I couldn't see what I was doing and had to stop so I didn't hit my foot. I was way too off balance to attempt to do it blind.

The guy that had hopped into the bucket with me was able to lean against the bucket and start making some cuts to open the roof, but even that was precarious and didn't work out that well. We got a hole cut, but weren't able to open it as well as we would have liked. There were a few things going against us; the roof was incredibly steep, and we weren't able to place our roof ladder, which is a ladder with hooks on it that goes over the ridge of the house. Then we have something we can stand on to get traction. The ridges of this house were at crazy angles, so it wasn't really possible, plus the roof was really tall in a few places, so we couldn't reach the ridge to place the ladder. There are probably some FF's in the world that would call us weenies for not getting out there on this roof, but I'm ok with settling for going home in the AM instead.

While he was cutting that hole, I was leaned down holding on to him to help steady him in case he slipped. At one point so much smoke was coming out of there that I literally could not see my hand at the end of my arm. I could feel his weight and hear the saw, and that is the only way I knew he was still there.

I had a little excitement trying to control the bucket too. It is all hydraulic, and you need a delicate touch at times. I had gotten decent at it during training, but with my adrenaline and nerves running the show, what was a gentle touch in training turned into Mario Andretti ripping through the gears! I tossed us all over the place. The guy on the ground kept telling me to be smoother. It was kinda funny, my mind was telling me to be gentle, but my hands just wouldn't co-operate!

So anyhow, it made for a night of hard work, but we live for this sort of thing, so while we felt bad for the homeowners, we were happy to be able to do our jobs and help them out. I really wanted to be the big hero and get on the roof and get a hole cut so we could make a quick stop, but it just wasn't to be. Everyone in the house made it out safely, and none of us got hurt. We probably saved the house, but this community is notorious for tearing them down and rebuilding anyway. I'd still call this a win, all things considered. Talk to ya'll later.