DISPATCHES
departments
Multiple alarm razes building
It took 200 fire fighters and 34 pieces of apparatus to bring this multiple alarm blaze in Gettysburg, Pa.’s Lincoln Square Building under control last Feb. 10. Four hydrants supplied 380-500 gallons per minute of water and a four-hour relay operation was set up at a quarry one mile from the Incident to provide an 1100-gallon water flow. There were no casualties. The cause of the fire is still under investigation, and damages were estimated at $1 million.
Extra effort easad the elements
In a 19-hour operation, 25 members of the Orangeburg, N.Y., Volunteer Fire Department with help from six mutual-aid companies rescued more than 200 motorists in what was ranked as the fourth worst blizzard to hit New York this century.
The 12-hour storm, which began at 3 p.m. on Feb. 11, brought 22 inches of drifting snow At 8 p.m., Fire Chief Jack Ahlf requested all fire fighters to report to the station for a snow emergency standby.
Calls were received at 11:30 p.m. from the Orangetown Police Department and the Rockland County Radio Control Center reporting motorists stranded on the Palisades interstate Parkway. Four Orangeburg fire fighters in a four-wheel-drive vehicle searched a 7-mile section of the parkway for the motorists. Stirling winds and 3-foot snowdrifts made visibility practically nil.
A half-mile incline had caused cars to slip and sink, resulting in a domino effect as more vehicles reached the area. Stalled vehicles also added to the congestion.
Rockland County Fire Coordinator Donald Hastings, who had been called to the scene to help coordinate evacuation procedures, requested mutual aid from nearby departments, Blauvelt, Tappan, Piermont, Sparkill and Valley Cottage Fire Departments, and the Rockland Psychiatric Center. This extra aid netted a total of 12 rescue vehicles.
One rescue involved a paraplegic. Fire fighters formed a stretcher by rolling the ends of a blanket and carried the man ¼ mile to the rescue vehicle.
All motorists were taken back to the Orangeburg fire station, where coffee and hot food waited. By night’s end, more than 200 refugees were rescued.
After a check of each car on the parkway, the search was called off the next morning and all mutual-aid companies dismissed. At 9 a.m., the Pearl River, Monsey and New City Fire Departments used their equipment trucks to assist in transporting the stranded motorists to their areas of the county.
Dispatches, a new Fire Engineering department, offers a quick scan of fire department activities around the country.
Delayed alarm, absence of detectors leads to disaster
A general-alarm fire that took the lives of two people spread through an apartment building for nearly 30 minutes before the Daly City, Calif., Fire Department was notified.
Flames pushing out the fullyinvolved fire building rose 10 to 20 feet above the roof and spread across an alleyway to an adjacent apartment house. As fire fighters pulled out of the station, they could see smoke coming from the 30-year-old structure two blocks away.
Twenty-one fire fighters from five engine companies, two ladder companies and auxiliary units were able to halt the fire at virtually the point where they found it by having lines surround the involved buildings.
Four apartment units in the fire building and three units in the exposure building were damaged and/or destroyed. Estimated damage was $350,000.
Destruction was so complete that the fire’s cause could not be determined. The bodies of a 9-year-old boy and a 27-year-old man were found in the upstairs bedroom. Neither building had smoke alarms or sprinkler systems, which possibly could have saved the people’s lives.
Efforts are being made to pass a city ordinance mandating the installation of fire prevention and detection equipment in older structures.
The apartment buildings were expected to be fully rebuilt by May 1983, and a sprinkler system installed in the alleyway to guard against exposure fire.
During the incident, San Francisco and South San Francisco Fire Departments manned some of Daly City’s fire stations.
