DEPARTMENT
NEWS
Firefighters
respond to simultaneous building
fires
In
fire service circles, it's often said that the job entails long periods of
boredom with sudden bursts of intensity. Such was the case for Maumelle
firefighters in the early morning hours of July
15th.
Maumelle Police & Fire Communications dispatched
career and volunteer firefighters to a fire alarm in the Cintas facility
at 102 Champs Blvd. at approximately 1:13 am. Although no smoke or fire was
visible when the three on-duty firefighters arrived on scene four minutes
later, they found a burning clothes hopper inside the building while
investigating the source of the alarm.
Even without the aid of backup -- no volunteer
firefighters had yet responded to the scene -- the three members of Engine
1 (C-Shift) went to work. After removing the burning hopper from the structure,
it was realized that fire had extended to other hoppers and bags of clothes
inside the building. Firefighters stretched a handline inside the structure
to begin extinguishing the fire.
At approximately 1:29 a.m., some 12 minutes after
firefighters had been operating at the fire on Champs Blvd., a second fire
was reported in a house at 181 Diamond Pointe Drive. With all three of the
career firefighters committed and working alone at Cintas, volunteer firefighters
began responding to the second fire.
The first arriving volunteer at Diamond Pointe reported
finding heavy smoke from the garage and fire coming from a laundry room inside
the residence. An engine company was requested as mutual aid from North
Little Rock and off-duty career personnel were recalled to
duty.
Engine 2 responded to the call initially, with
firefighters stretching their first handline in through the garage to knock
down the main body of fire in the home's laundry room. They later stretched
a second line to prevent extension of the fire into the rest of the home.
In all, volunteers responded with Engine 2, Truck 1, Brush 1 and the Mobile
Air Unit.
Firefighters at both scenes reported their fires
under control at almost the same time -- 1:59 am on Champs Blvd. and 1:57
am on Diamond Point Dr. Fire damage to the structure was prevented at Cintas,
atlhough a number of fabric items were damaged or destroyed. The fire at
Diamond Point caused fire damage to the laundry room near the garage with
the remainder of the residence sustaining heat and smoke damage.
JULY 7, 2008
Probationary firefighters Patrick McIntire (L) and Brett Burris wash Engine
2 Tuesday (July 8) afternoon. McIntire and Burris are two of five probationary
firefighters that began work July 7. Four of the five positions are being
partially funded by a federal grant.
Five
new career firefighters start work at
MFD
The
Maumelle Fire Department took a significant step towards operating two separate
companies as five new career firefighters joined their ranks on Monday (July
7).
The hires represent four new positions for the department
funded by a $377,053 federal SAFER Act grant in March. The fifth probationary
firefighter fills a vacancy created by a resignation in June.
New to the department are Probationary Firefighters
Brett Burris, Russell Barker, Travis Foreman, Patrick McIntire and Dustin
Worlow.
After three weeks of departmental orientation, all five
will report to "Rookie School" at the Arkansas Fire Academy in East Camden
for three months of training in firefighting, emergency medical skills, hazardous
materials response and emergency vehicle driving.
The successful completion of Rookie School paired with
the planned promotions of existing members to captain and engineer
will allow the department to consistently staff -- albeit minimally -- two
pieces of apparatus around the clock.
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