On August 2, 2005 at approximately 11:23 am, Maury County Rural Volunteer Fire Department was dispatched to reported smoke coming from a church on Highway 50 just east of the City of Columbia, Tennessee.
Maury Rural Fire members arrived on scene to find moderate smoke showing from the roof gables on Division A, B, and D of a 14,000 square feet two story brick church building.
Captain David Curry of Maury Rural Fire Department established Command and requested mutual aid from the City of Columbia Fire Department in the form of an aerial truck and crew. Command set up for Maury County Firefighters to mount an aggressive interior attack in concert with positive pressure vertical ventilation performed by Columbia Firefighters.
Columbia Fire Department Truck crew, lead by Captain Charlie Norman, cut a 6' x 6' ventilation opening in the roof and placed positive pressure ventilation fans blowing air into structure.
Maury Rural Fire attack crews were met with massive amounts of heat and smoke upon entering the structure and could not get to the seat of the fire to extinguish the fire.
After several attempts to bring the fire under control from the inside failed, the Incident Commander transitioned the operation to a defensive attack.
All fire crew were brought outside of the structure and master stream devises were put into place to protect exposures and extinguish the fire from the outside.
A PAR was immediately completed of all emergency workers on scene and found that everyone was outside of the structure and accounted for.
Flashover in and structural collapse of the worship center occurred minutes after the order was given to evacuate the structure and transition to a defensive attack.
The fire was brought under control at approximately 4am hours on August 3rd, with no emergency workers nor civilians injured at or as o result of the incident.
