Neodesha Fire Department
Chief Charles D. Reynolds
Personnel: Eight career firefighters, 22 volunteer firefighters
Apparatus: Three engines, one mini-pumper, one rescue squad, two ambulances
Population: 3,000
Area: 24 square miles
At 12:39 P.M. on Jan. 23, 1997, just as lunch was about to be served at the Neodesha, KS, Fire Department, a 911 call was received at the station, reporting a fire at a second-hand clothing store a half block away.
The fire had started on the ground floor of a two-story building that housed the Clothes-N-More store as well as an insurance agency. The back half of the second floor also contained an apartment. The building was erected shortly after the turn of the century and had been remodeled several times. The business buildings were separated only by a fire wall.
Two civilians were injured in the initial minutes of the fire. The clothing store owner suffered first- and second-degree burns to her face and smoke inhalation while trying to put out the fire. The drug store owner, who made the 911 call realizing that the owner of the clothing store was still inside, went in to rescue her. His rescue attempt of the woman was successful but he inhaled smoke. Both people were out of the building when firefighters arrived.
Photo by Judy Micus Fire vents through the roof at 1:15 P.M., the height of the blaze.
As the first engine pulled out of the station, light-gray smoke could be seen issuing from the front of the building, at the corner of 5th and Main streets. The first-arriving unit Engine 5 with two crew members at 12:41. Assistant Chief Duane A. Banzet and Firefighter Mike Woldum pulled a 2 1/2-inch handline and entered the front door of the clothing store. Immediately after entering the structure, a flashover forced the two firefighters back through the door. Banzet received a burn to his left ear through his hood; Woldum was not injured.
Shortly after the flashover, fire became visible in the ceiling of the front room of the insurance agency. With the arrival of other firefighters, Banzet was able to assumed command and, at 12:45, ordered a defensive attack. A second alarm was sounded for a second engine to lay in a line and set up operations in the back of the building. Engine 4 arrived at 12:46 and began operations in the rear of the building, which is its north side.
The incident commander (IC) then met with Police Captain Danny Thayer, who was responsible for evacuating the entire north side of the 500 block of Main Street, including a bank at the end of the block. Neodesha's Main Street is also U.S. Highway 75, which had to be closed and traffic rerouted. In addition, crowd control had to be implemented to deal with the large number of onlookers.
At 1 P.M., the IC radioed dispatch to request multiple mutual aid units. The Independence Fire Department sent a 1,500-gpm quint with a 75-foot ladder and staffed by three firefighters along with Fire Chief Dale Rail in his chief's vehicle. Mutual aid for an engine was also requested from the Fredonia Fire Department, which sent Fire Chief John Settle in his chief's vehicle along with a 750-gpm engine equipped with a monitor and carrying five firefighters. A request for manpower went out to Montgomery County Rural Fire District 1 station in Sycamore, which dispatched a pumper-tanker, a tanker, a brush unit and seven firefighters.
The Cherryvale Fire Department, hearing all the urgent radio traffic, called the Neodesha fire dispatcher and offered to send five firefighters. The dispatcher accepted the offer and the firefighters responded in their personal vehicles the 19-mile distance.
By 1:10, the building was fully involved and about to ventilate itself through the roof. Realizing that the ladder truck would not reach the scene before the fire came through the roof, the IC gave instructions for two city Electric Department bucket trucks to be used for aerial water streams operations to protect exposures. One truck was placed on Main Street to protect the west exposure (Porter Drug Store) with two men using a 2 1/2-inch handline; the other truck was placed on 5th Street to protect the north exposure (Blackstun & Associates) with one man using a 1 3/4-inch handline.
With multiple departments about to arrive, the IC gave instructions to Captain Mark Billquist to set up a staging area at 6th and Main streets. Billquist was also placed in charge of operations. The first-arriving unit was the Montgomery County pumper tanker, which was placed at the north side of the building. Settle arrived at 1:15 and was designated as the safety officer for the operations area in the front of the building. Safety was a high priority with dozens of out-of-town firefighters about to arrive from various departments. Immediately after Settle's arrival, fire erupted through the roof. Independence Ladder 1 laid in a five-inch supply line to the front of Porter Drug Store and set up aerial operations protecting the exposure. Rail was utilized as the rear operations area safety officer. Fredonia Engine 3 arrived at 1:24, laid in a four-inch supply line to the north side of the building and set up a portable monitor to protect the west exposure.
Photo by Judy Micus Independence Fire Department Ladder 1 and a city Electric Department bucket truck conduct aerial operations.
A two-man crew was sent into Porter Drug Store with a 1 3/4-inch handline with orders to pull down the suspended ceiling and look for any fire extension into the attic. With the two master streams flowing a combined total of 1,750 gpm and numerous handlines in operating, the fire was beginning to be controlled.
At 1:37, Settle told the IC that the roof was near collapse. The warning was passed to all ground personnel. The roof collapsed at 1:46, greatly reducing the threat to the west exposure. Settle then reported that the south wall had pulled away from the east wall during the roof collapse and now threatened to collapse on Engine 5. The engine was shut down and repositioned out of the collapse zone, then resumed pumping water. After Engine 5 was moved, traffic cones were placed in the middle of the street as a safety zone. No one was allowed between the cones and the fire building.
At 2 P.M., Cherryvale's five-member crew was sent into the attic of Porter Drug Store, which had light smoke throughout the building, to check for any extension in the historic building (it originally was the Clock Theater). The crew found no extension into the attic, then began ventilation operations. The state health department assumed security of the drug store for pharmacological safety reasons.
Command released Independence from the scene at 2:15, after Ladder 1 reported that there was no danger to the west exposure. The rear of the building was still involved but was no longer a threat to the north exposure. All other mutual aid units were released at 4 P.M.
The collapse of the roof made it difficult for firefighters to reach all of the small hot spots that were still burning. Neodesha Reserve Engine 3 was brought in for the mop-up work so Engines 4 and 5 could be returned to service. Because of the danger of the building collapsing onto Main Street, the IC requested heavy equipment to remove the upper story of the south and east sides of the building. Once the top story was brought down, the highway was reopened. Fire-fighters took shifts watching the building overnight.
The following morning, the Office of the Kansas State Fire Marshal undertook an investigation of the incident. The cause of the fire remains undetermined.
The fire had breached the north fire wall into the Blackstun & Associates building but it was put out quickly and caused only a small amount of flame damage. Both exposures received smoke and water damage. A total of 500,000 gallons of water was used to extinguish the blaze. No water had to be used inside the Porter Drug building; the water damage was due to water coming through the fire wall resulting from the pressure of the fire streams. During an inspection of the attic the next morning, some of the rafter tails in the drug store building were found to be chaffed from the excessive heat placed on the fire wall.
Lessons Learned
- Proper size-up early into the fire is important. Can the fire be knocked down quickly? Is there enough manpower present? Do you have enough equipment? Is it the right equipment for the job? If the answer is NO to any of these questions, how is the problem going to be corrected?
- Small towns do not always have the resources that are available in larger cities. Fire departments may have to be creative with the available resources until the proper equipment can arrive. Using an electric department bucket truck for firefighting may appear to be crude and inefficient but when an elevated stream is needed and an aerial is not available, this procedure is better than having no elevated stream.
- The 2 1/2-inch supply lines are old technology. The four- and five-inch supply lines that Independence and Fredonia laid in to their pumps, coupled with their master-stream devices, were the key in containing the blaze. The Independence truck alone, pumping 1,000 gpm through its master-stream device, provided more than the two Neodesha trucks combined. No matter how you slice it, big fire takes big water; there is no substitute.
Duane A. Banzet is assistant chief of the Neodesha, KS, Fire Department and an EMT-D. He also serves on the Independence Community College EMS Advisory Committee. David Gutschenritter is a firefighter/EMT with the Neodesha Fire Department and holds a bachelor's degree from Pittsburg State University.
