Story and Photos by
DENNY CLOPPER

Early Wednesday morning, June 5, the Franklin County 911 center - located in Chambersburg - began receiving 911 calls about a building fire at the Open Door Church located at 600 Miller Street, Hamilton Twp., Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.

At 0422hrs business box 44-09 was dispatched sending Sta. 4 Franklin Fire Company 1st due, Co 13 Letterkenny Army Depot, Co 17 New Franklin, Co 8 Marion,Co 3 ET 3 Greencastle,Co 9 ET9 Mercersburg,Co 18 St. Thomas,Co 7 Sq7 Fayetteville, and Co 1 Amb 1-9 Chambersburg and with Chief 46 Sta. 4 responding.

What was going through the minds of some of the older members of Sta. 4 was that they were remembering back to about 15 years ago when the Open Door Church caught fire and was destroyed.

While units were enroute, a heavy haze of smoke could be seen as Eng. 43 pulled out on their station apron, which is about five blocks away from the scene.

Upon approach to the scene by Eng. 43, Chief 46, Deputy 47 and Asst 48, all arriving about the same time they had heavy smoke and fire showing. However, it wasn't the church as dispatched. The fire was coming from the Cumberland Valley Christian High School located to the rear of the church.

Eng. 43 crew began to pull attack lines, while Trk 42 positioned to the front of the school and laddered the roof. The other dispatched units began arriving to assist the first due company.

Asst 48 began a walk around of the high school and found four different fires all located on the south side of the building.

Chief 46 asked HDQ for a second alarm assignment to be dispatched along with the PSP fire marshall to the scene asap. The fire marshall was notified at 0428 hrs, followed by a second alarm dispatch at 0433 hrs.

Second alarm consisted of Co 10 Air 10,Co 7 Amb 7-9 Fayetteville, Sta. 4 Eng 41, Co 15 Sq 15 West End Fire & Rescue of Shippensburg, Co 1 Trk 1 Chambersburg, Co 5 ET5 Mont Alto, Co 18 Eng 18-2 St. Thomas and Co 1 Eng 1-4 Chambersburg.

The four different fires found were:

• a pile of plywood,
  
• a construction trailer,
  
• a propane tank,
  
• and a computer class room.
  

The stacked plywood was burning,the construction trailer was well envolved, the fire was spreading up the outside wall of the building from the propane tank and their was heavy fire blowing out the windows of the computer room.

By this time all units were working together and some of the second alarm assisgnment had arrived in a staging area, Eng. 41 was on a hydrant supplying Engine-Tankers and Command 44 was established. The bulk of the fire was knocked down at 0454 hrs and delcared under control at 0512 hrs by Chief 46.

The fire marshall has already been on the scene and observing and taking photos and collecting evidence. It was reported the morning or night before that an attempt to start a fire at the high school was evident due to construction workers finding a blue tarp had been burnt up when they arrived for work.

The last day of school was the previous Friday for the students of the school. There was no estimate amount of damage however the computer room did loose about two dozen computers melted to the desks.

No injuries were reported to firefighters that were on the scene among the twelve departments. There was no extension into the main building,only smoked filled.

Firefighters did ventilate the roof area for precautionary reasons. Transfer assignments were made to the committed departments, sending Co 52 Vigilant Hose to Sta. 4, Co 53 Trk 53 to Co 1, Washington County Co 27 to Co 9, Fulton County Co 57 to Co 18, Adams County Co 27 to Co 17 and Co 3 Greencastle to Co 8. The last unit to depart the scene was at 0743 hrs.

Arson is the suspected cause of the fire. There have been two other suspucious fires in Franklin County in the past weeks, both being in the South Moutain area.