Liberty Hose Co. No. 2 - Incident Detail #868

Truck 22 was dispatched to Tower City, Schuylkill County, for what was initially reported as a chimney fire. Truck 22 responded with a crew of five, and arrived on scene to find that the structure was well involved, with fire and smoke throughout the first and second floors. Truck was unable to get close enough to use the boom due to the property being set back too far from the lower street. The crew donned airpaks and took hand tools and the thermal imaging camera to the scene. The crew laddered the rear of the structure and attempted entry through the second floor bedroom windows. They were met by fire throughout the walls and worked on extinguishing and ventilating the building. Numerous wall breaches found pockets of fire everywhere. Suppression activities took quite some time. It appeared that the fire started on the first floor at a stove, traveled into the walls and ceiling above it, and worked its way throughout the rest of the second floor, finally breaking out at several locations on the south wall below the roof line. Extensive overhaul was required, with numerous caches of weapons and ammunition removed from the structure. PPV was set up on the first floor to clear remaining smoke from the structure. Companies on scene included Tower City, Muir, Orwin, Joliett, Sheridan, Reinerton, and Tower City EMS.