Photos/Story by Greg Ricker
Youngstown, Ohio Fire Department

An early morning fire on Thursday, May 23, 2002 resulted in the total loss of a vacant residential dwelling on Youngstown's lower Southside and extended to an adjacent church before being controlled by city fire crews.

The initial alarm was received and dispatched at 2:30 a.m.

The units on the initial alarm to Box 5516 were Engine 2, Engine 3, Engine 7, Squad 33, Ladder 24, Battalion 1 and Battalion 2.

Engine 2 set up on the street in front of the west side of the fire building and used their deck gun to protect an occupied residential dwelling next door.

Ladder 24 set up their aerial platform in attempts to push the fire away from the eastern exposure, a Baptist Church.

About an hour into the call, fire crews reported that the radiant heat had spread into the walls of the adjacent church and the incident commander put in a special call for one additional engine company, receiving Engine 15 on the box.

Fire crews quickly gained entry to the church and using a thermal imaging camera, extinguished the fire in the wall of the church.

Two hours into the operation crews began to clean up and Engine 12 was requested to the scene to extinguish leftover hot spots.