On Monday, December 21st, 2015, at 1745 hours, box 0119 was struck reporting a structure fire on Black Snake Lane, just outside the Town of Warrenton. Engine, Tanker, Rescue Squad, Attack, Support/Gator and Chief 1 responded with 12 volunteers. Engine, Tanker, and Rescue Squad 1 arrived at the same time to find 50% involvement of a very large single story home over a basement. Estimated at 4,000 sq ft, fire was showing from multiple windows on the number 1 floor, multiple hand lines were stretched and put into service by Company 1s personnel in an aggressive fire attack. Chief 1 held Incident Command throughout assisted by Battalion 1 (Charlie Division), Chief 8 (Safety Officer) Chief 11 (Water Supply Group), Engine 1s Officer held Division 1. Due to the area of the fire there were fire hydrants that were attached to a domestic water system. Attack 1 added to the call was able to draft water from the home’s in ground swimming pool, additional tankers were also requested for suppression efforts. The driver of Wagon 11 was able to find a small stream just down the road from the dispatched address and drafted water from that pond by dropping hard suction hoses over a bridge, this proved to be vital in suppression efforts. Utility 11 Support and gator provided refreshments and shelter in the Support Services Trailer. No injuries to emergency personnel or civilians were reported but the family’s dog perished in the fire. Fire was bought under control in approximately 20 minutes, personnel operated in total for approximately 2.5 hours conducting an aggressive salvage and overhaul operation. Crews from Warrenton, New Baltimore, Catlett, Remington, Orlean, Marshall and DFREM (Fauquier County) operated. Fire investigation revealed the cause to be improperly discarded fire-place ashes, which burned through a propane regulator causing the large volume of fire.
Units on the run: E1, E10, W2, E7, W11, E3, RSQ1, K1, K10, K3, K4, K13, K11, K7, X1, Support & Gator 1, M1, SK8, C1, C11, C8 and Batt.1
