Teamwork between Hamilton Township firefighters and police officers is being credited for a successful outcome -- no injuries and everyone went home after their shifts.
It started when a woman called 9-1-1 Friday afternoon saying her boyfriend had doused her with gasoline.
"He just caught his house on fire. I need someone right now. I see the smoke. I got out of the house. I'm across the street, but I can see the smoke coming out," she said to a dispatcher, adding that he was suicidal and owned a gun.
Firefighters and officers arrived about the same time. WLWT reported.
Hamilton Township Police Chief Scott Hughes told firefighters to take cover behind their rigs.
"I knew we don't want these folks to roll up there with no protection if there was an ambush situation, which fortunately it wasn't," Hughes said.
Michael Burch, 60, had emerged from the house waving a gun.
While the house fire intensified, firefighters held off to protect the officers.
"As the officers were traversing this side over there, we had this wall starting to bow out. He had poured so much fuel onto the house, the right side of the house, the main hallway, plus the living room, the floor has already collapsed into the basement," Fire Chief Jason Jewett said. "We knew that the more water we put on there, the more smoke we're creating, the less visibility there is."
When Burch was distracted as a police dog was released, the K-9 handler and other officers rushed in to take him into custody. The gun he was holding went off, but the bullet hit the ground.
"You can plan throughout your whole career, but this truly is a once-in-a-career-type call," Jewett said.
The police chief agreed: "There's no playbook for everything you're going to encounter. You don't go to this page for this exact scenario, because it just doesn't exist."
Burch, charged with aggravated arson, felonious assault, inducing panic and two counts of assault, was ordered held in lieu of $250,000 bail.
