Report Number: 05-0000196
Report Date: 05/27/2005

Event Description

Dispatched as the mutual aid truck company on a working fire in a fire station. My unit, a Tower Ladder as 1st Due Truck, and a mutual aid Engine as 2nd Due Engine, arrived as the firefighters of the host department were evacuating their apparatus from the station. Heavy smoke was showing from the roof and fire venting from Side D. My crew was split into 2 groups. One group went to the roof while the second crew, including me, forced entry into the building on Side C along with 2 hand lines from the mutual aid engine company. Smoke conditions were down to the floor and fire could be seen on the Side C wall. As we started suppression activities, we began to hear some strange sounds in the building, banging and creaking. Our hand lines either were not reaching or were not having any effect on the fire. Conditions were rapidly becoming worse, high heat and smoke. I ordered our crew to back out to the doorway. Just as we reached the doorway, the AC units which were in the ceiling above the banquet hall where we were operating fell into the room, crushing the tables and chairs and bringing the entire suspended ceiling down with it. We all narrowly escaped being crushed or entangled by the collapse.

Lesson Learned

We were unaware of the fire's exact location. Both crews, mutual aid departments, were familiar with the building's general layout, but did not know specifics like the fact that there was a 15' void space containing HVAC equipment above the suspended ceiling. We also didn't know that the fire was already in this void space. The roof crew had cut a hole in the roof and fire was venting from it prior to the collapse. This information was never relayed or announced on the radio. The fire started under the stage in the banquet hall, ran up the walls and had control of the void space over our heads. Under the heavy fire conditions and the weight of the multi-ton AC units, the ceiling and support system failed. Better communication of what each crew was doing and the conditions they were experiencing would have made a big difference in this operation. Also the host department whose building was on fire was trying to maintain command while saving their assets. This action delayed fire suppression efforts and had some effect on the fire ground communication. The host department knew where the fire was and because of their intimate knowledge of the building probably knew where it was going and the hazards that existed. However, the host department was not actively involved in fire suppression at the time of collapse which kept information from being relayed to all personnel.

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