WALKER COUNTY, Georgia - Thursday, December 28,2006 - 1:30 pm - Walker County Emergency Services received several 9-1-1 calls reporting a possible house fire at 218 Chambers Street near the Rossville Community. Several Walker County Fire Stations were immediately dispatched to the scene. Firefighters were busy doing some station duties at station 2 and were able to respond very quickly. Within minutes, Walker Engine 2 arrived on the scene and confirmed a working structure fire with ¾ involvement and several exposures. One exposure that was in serious trouble from the blaze was a neighboring home. Walker County firefighters quickly pulled an inch and¾ hose line and started an aggressive protection barrier between the blaze and the nearby home that was in trouble.
Walker County Fire Chief Randy Camp arrived in short order. Due to the seriousness of the situation, Chief Camp requested an additional alarm and mutual aid from the Rossville Fire Department. Chief Camp then geared up and assisted with firefighting efforts. Within seconds, Walker County Engine 7 arrived on the scene, bringing a supply hose from a nearby fire hydrant. Several additional engine companies also arrived on the scene in short order. Crews quickly pulled two additional hose lines and joined fire extinguishing efforts. Unfortunately the fire was extremely well seated in the structure and due to the intense heat and structure instability an interior attack was out of the question. Firefighters directed all of their efforts toward keeping the fire from spreading to exposures and knocking the blaze down from the outside of the structure.
Luckily due to the aggressive measures taken by the first firefighters on the scene, the nearby house did receive some cosmetic damage, but the structure was saved from any serious damage. Witnesses said that a man in a van and a man in a white truck had just left the house moments before the fire was spotted. Fire officials are investigating to determine whether this had any connection with the fire. The woman that lived in the house next door was not at home when the fire broke out. She did arrive home shortly after the fire was out and quickly retrieved her small dog from her house.
Firefighters ran into a serious obstacle while attempting to extinguish a detached garage that was part of the blaze. The garage was believed to have various canisters of gas and combustibles causing some difficulty with extinguishing efforts. However, firefighters were able to completely extinguish the entire fire after about 45 minutes. The house was believed by neighbors to be vacant when the fire broke out. No injuries were reported in connection with the fire. The actual cause of the blaze is still under investigation by fire officials.
Story and photos by Bill Carson. This story, email and photos are under copyright.
