In my neck of the woods, it was pretty busy around the holidays. We were running a lot of calls—not all working jobs, of course, but the end of December and beginning of January found us taking in our fair share of work.
Sadly, this work came at the worst possible time, as residents were no doubt relaxing during their holidays. For responders, the temperatures in the Mid Atlantic region have been frigid. Many areas had not seen a day where the temperature got above freezing since Christmas, making firefights difficult.
The first job came in right after Christmas and involved a renovated farmhouse. The large single-family dwelling had a very long setback with a hilly, long driveway. This narrow driveway served as access to the dwelling and the route for the large-diameter hoseline as a supply line. Crews had to go defensive on this one.
On New Year’s day a fire that started on the exterior of a dwelling quickly spread and extended to the interior. Multiple additions made opening up to find all hidden fire a challenge, and temperatures outside made conditions treacherous for walking around the fireground and very uncomfortable for those awaiting their assignments. The attack remained offensive for this fire, and several newer firefighters got inside on their first job. There is a good mix of the young and old in my department right now, so calls like this allow seasoned veterans to mentor the younger firefighters.
Finally, the next day was a working job at an automobile dealership. The fire was above a dropped ceiling. The structure’s construction allowed crews to work inside, and the fire was brought under control with no injuries to firefighters—and a couple of Corvettes inside were saved!
As with many municipalities throughout the country, the majority of the calls for my department do not end up being working fires. So, the calls are frequent, but the opportunities to see work are less frequent. So, when we get multiple jobs close to each other, it’s easy to see an energy emerge. The youngsters are finally getting to do what they signed up to do, and many of the older firefighters are happy to turn over the reins and rest their knees. All of a sudden across multiple fire companies, the common bond is there—they were all at multiple jobs together. They worked well together, and the camaraderie was obvious.
After a few days without any work, things were more normal, although the burst pipe calls were becoming more frequent around the area. With the cold temperatures, fire departments were running more calls than usual all over. After getting a taste of the “fun” parts of the job, we were all brought back down to earth with news of the line-of-duty death (LODD) of Philadelphia (PA) Fire Department Lieutenant Matt LeTourneau. He died after injuries he sustained when the floor he was working on at a working fire collapsed. An 11-year veteran, he was 42 years old.
There were conflicting reports as the scene unfolded, but soon every firefighter’s worst fear was realized, and we received confirmation that we had lost a firefighter.
That week, the local fire service experienced the two extremes of the job. It had the feeling of hands-on firefighting resulting in jobs well done and properties saved, and it had the tremendous feeling of loss as we learned of LeTournea