Running calls-that’s what the Kentland (MD) Volunteer Fire Department in Prince George’s County is all about.
And, Kentland’s busiest unit is its rescue engine, a Pierce Dash heavy-duty rescue-pumper. This hybrid unit was purchased in 2000 to serve a dual role. First was to supply a much-needed extrication and rescue unit for one of the busiest areas of the Washington, D.C., Capitol Beltway, and surrounding roadways. Second was to provide a backup unit to the busy engine company out of the firehouse located on Landover Road. After a long vetting process with the county fire department, the apparatus was granted status to run as a rescue squad and an engine company on the dispatch run cards. This created a very active and well-traveled rig that responded to all types of incidents within the county and beyond during its 15 years of service.
Surprise Ending
April 6, 2015, was just another busy day for the members of Kentland and the entire Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department-one of the largest combination departments in the country. There are 860 career firefighters and 1,600 volunteers that respond to an estimated 142,000 calls each year. They protect more than 500 square miles out of 45 fire stations. Like any other active day, fire and emergency medical service (EMS) units were busy responding all over the county. Units were clearing a fire in the Kettering section of the county when another box alarm was struck for a commercial building fire on Ashwood Drive in Company 37’s area. Four engine companies, two ladder trucks, two command officers, and Kentland’s rescue-engine were dispatched by the communications center.
Units had no doubt they were going to work as a very large column of black smoke could be seen from the area. As units arrived on the scene, a request for a second alarm was transmitted because the fire involved a number of vehicles, roofing materials, a storage yard, and a building. The department has a set of standard operating procedures that dictates apparatus placement on building fires and each unit’s responsibilities on arrival. Rescue Engine 33, acting as the second-arriving special, was assigned to side C of the structure. They positioned on side C of the D exposure about 300 feet from the fire building. To execute their objectives, they had to cut through a number of protective fences for the large number of commercial properties in this location.
![1 The Kentland (MD) Fire Department’s Rescue Engine 33, a 2000 Pierce Dash heavy-duty rescue-pumper. [Photos courtesy of the Kentland (MD) Fire Department unless otherwise noted.]](/content/dam/fa/print-articles/volume-21/issue-2/1602FA-Riley1.jpg) |
| 1 The Kentland (MD) Fire Department’s Rescue Engine 33, a 2000 Pierce Dash heavy-duty rescue-pumper. [Photos courtesy of the Kentland (MD) Fire Department unless otherwise noted.] |
The officer in charge (OIC) of Rescue Engine 33 gave returns (radio reports) on the conditions of the fire building and the multiple exposure buildings. Although there was some heat from the fire, the conditions in the storage yard were tenable. As other units began to arrive and worked to establish a water supply in the rear, the crew of the rescue engine was able to examine and report the conditions of the fire building and exposures. Approximately eight minutes into the incident, the winds shifted toward side C, and conditions immediately deteriorated to near-zero visibility and high heat.
As the fire reached pallets in the rear, the storage yard of foam-type insulation panels became a flaming, molten liquid that began to follow the path of the terrain, igniting everything it touched. Within seconds, what had been a tenabl