Petersburg firefighters were calmly attending to their duties Monday night when a call came in to dispatch around 2133 hours for a possible structure fire at 1800 Boyton Plank Road in the Jefferson South of the James Apartment Complex.
The caller reported hearing a loud bang and relayed that there was "some fire." Petersburg's Bravest swung into swift action and discovered a few challenges to conquer and hungry flames to battle.
" Engine 3, the first due arrived on the scene to find an intense situation," said Petersburg Battalion Chief Steve Bowling. "The loud bang that was reported was an explosion and it was so strong it not only blew the glass out of the windows on the first floor of the three floor apartment building, but propelled the window frames out with the glass. The window debris was blown at least 20 yards from the building."
Firefighters found six apartments were fully involved with fire and the attic burning. Rolling smoke billowed through the complex and filled the apartments.
Bowling said the middle of the building had a center wall with apartments on each side.
The fire was burning so intensely it had already begun to consume the center dividing wall where pipe fixtures were located.
There were several major challenges to battling this blaze, the Battalion Chief said. Electric power and gas supplies had to be cut off.
The next challenge Bowling explained was access to the building was blocked by a fence. Crews did some creative thinking and improvised quickly by cutting two gates through the bordering fence so the firefighting apparatus could be driven closer to the building.
It was challenging, Bowling reflected, to run the attack lines we needed to fight the flames. Because of the layout of the complex six attack lines were really needed but we had to make do with three and the lines were shared. The initial lines were 1 3/4 inch.
Apparatus on scene from Petersburg included: Engines 2,3,4 and 5. Truck 1 and Fire Rescue 4.
Officials said one gate of the fence was used for firefighting apparatus to gain closer entry and the other gate for air utility to refill the SCBA bottles. Firefighters used about 3 bottles of air each during the battle Bowling said.
Battalion Chief Steve Bowling issued a special call which dispatched Petersburg E-4, a quint.
A second special call was issued for mutual aid.
Thomas Long, Colonial Heights firefighter/Paramedic and head of logistics said responding to the call for assistance was the City of Colonial Heights Fire and EMS Engine 1, Squad 1 and Battalion Chief 1 Greg Bride.
Also dispatched for mutual aid was Chesterfield Fire and EMS Engine 12 and Truck 12 from Ettrick. Rescue 3 from Bensley who was serving at the time as Rescue 12 and Battalion 2 Chief Mark Berry.
Bowling then issued a third special call for station coverage.
Prince George apparatus dispatched was Engine 110 and Truck 1 said Prince George Fire and EMS Training Officer Brad Owens.
Danger threatened the firefighters as they battled the blaze with the brick walls showing signs of buckling.
The fire was under control in about an hour Bowling said.
Petersburg firefighters are familiar with this complex, Bowling recounted, we've fought several fires here before...big fires. The last one bad one was in April of 2002, a whole building was destroyed.
Officials said no injuries were reported and that about 30 people were displaced, some by the fire and some by the lack utilities after they were shut off. The Red Cross was on scene to provide assistance. The cause is under investigation.
