One Saturday in January, We had one of the biggest fires our community has ever had. Keith had just looked out our front window and saw a pillar of smoke going up into the sky. Normally this site would not have alarmed us since everyone has fires going in their house this time of year. January is one of the coldest months of the year so seeing smoke would not normally concern us, except this was in the direction of the school which runs on oil. Plus our neighbor Tim was running out of his house and headed in that direction. Tim is the head of the volunteer fire department in our town so we knew something had to be up. Keith jumped in the car and headed that way to see if anyone needed help. One thing I love about this community is people jump right in when someone needs help. I got a call from Keith a few minutes later saying our school carpentry shop was on fire and he was going to help clear out what he could. They cleared out as much of the tools and machines that they could before the fire reached them. The fire truck was there with our small group of firefighters targeting the fire, but they were facing a battle against not just the fire.
For one, they had a VERY limited supply of water. While the fire truck was spraying water on the fire, they had to replenish the water the same way all of us get our water, by the city water truck going across town and filling up their truck to drive back and fill up the fire truck to do it all over again. Many times during the night the fire was being contained but then the truck would run out of water, leaving the fire to flame up again. This was a constant problem throughout the night.
The next problem they were facing was that it was a carpentry shop. Which meant, the attic was full of wood to be used for projects for the school. One the fire hit the attic it spread like wildfire. They also had Hydrogen tanks in the shop which when they got hot they exploded and off the fire was again. Thankfully they were able to contain it only to the carpentry building and not spread to the main school building.
The hardest problem they were facing were there dropping temperatures. The fire just happened to start on the coldest day of the year. The temperature dropped to a -57 degrees. YES that is a -57 degrees. That meant that not only did they have a problem with a limited supply of water, they had the problem of the hoses freezing. During the wait between the water truck getting water and filling up the fire truck the guys would have to take the water hoses into the gym of the school and let them thaw out. I am not sure how many fire departments have to face that every time they fight a fire but our guys had to do it. At -57 degrees people face freezing very fast, you add spraying water on top of freezing temps and you have a very dangerous situation. This was another time that our community stepped up to help. People brought their cars to the area so that the guys fighting the fire could get into a warm car and get warm for a bit before going out to face the freezing temps again. Our Pastor Chris Kopp said he took off his overalls at home and they stood up on their own due to the ice caked on to them. I can not imagine fighting a fire in such a cold night. It was so cold that we had to cancel church because it was to dangerous to walk to church. THAT IS COLD!!!
The fire continued ALL night into the morning. I think they finally got it out at noon on Sunday morning. Thanks to all the hard working firefighters the fire was contained only to the one building. Not only were they fighting a fire but also frostbite and possible hypothermia. They were facing a huge Giant!
For one, they had a VERY limited supply of water. While the fire truck was spraying water on the fire, they had to replenish the water the same way all of us get our water, by the city water truck going across town and filling up their truck to drive back and fill up the fire truck to do it all over again. Many times during the night the fire was being contained but then the truck would run out of water, leaving the fire to flame up again. This was a constant problem throughout the night.
The next problem they were facing was that it was a carpentry shop. Which meant, the attic was full of wood to be used for projects for the school. One the fire hit the attic it spread like wildfire. They also had Hydrogen tanks in the shop which when they got hot they exploded and off the fire was again. Thankfully they were able to contain it only to the carpentry building and not spread to the main school building.
The hardest problem they were facing were there dropping temperatures. The fire just happened to start on the coldest day of the year. The temperature dropped to a -57 degrees. YES that is a -57 degrees. That meant that not only did they have a problem with a limited supply of water, they had the problem of the hoses freezing. During the wait between the water truck getting water and filling up the fire truck the guys would have to take the water hoses into the gym of the school and let them thaw out. I am not sure how many fire departments have to face that every time they fight a fire but our guys had to do it. At -57 degrees people face freezing very fast, you add spraying water on top of freezing temps and you have a very dangerous situation. This was another time that our community stepped up to help. People brought their cars to the area so that the guys fighting the fire could get into a warm car and get warm for a bit before going out to face the freezing temps again. Our Pastor Chris Kopp said he took off his overalls at home and they stood up on their own due to the ice caked on to them. I can not imagine fighting a fire in such a cold night. It was so cold that we had to cancel church because it was to dangerous to walk to church. THAT IS COLD!!!
The fire continued ALL night into the morning. I think they finally got it out at noon on Sunday morning. Thanks to all the hard working firefighters the fire was contained only to the one building. Not only were they fighting a fire but also frostbite and possible hypothermia. They were facing a huge Giant!
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