With a severe winter storm dumping a few feet of snow over the last week the members of the company staffed the firehouse from beginning to end. After running numerous incidents in both our first due and our mutual aid areas, at approx 0513hrs LFC, Station 36 (Po-Mar-Lin), E-51-2 (1st West Chester F.C.) and E-24-6 (Kennett #1) were dispatched to Lenape Forge Products in the 1300blk of Lenape Rd for the commercial building fire.
Asst. 25 (McCarthy) responded and was advised that the caller was reporting a fire in a smaller building on the property. While enroute the caller stated that he would be sitting on Pocopson Rd and that the fire appeared to be getting bigger.
Asst. 25 arrived with smoke and fire showing from the shipping/receiving department. Asst. 25 established Lenape Command and requested the working fire dispatch which added the second engine from 51 and the RIT from Good Will (Sta.52). Command also had the fireboard make up the units that failed to respond.
E-51-2 arrived first and was instructed to stretch a line through the pedestrian door to the loading dock. Asst. 51 (McClure) was appointed as the operations chief. E-25-2 arrived and was instructed to open up and pull walls for E-51-2.
Crews quickly knocked down the bulk of the fire and command placed the incident under control. Asst 53 (McDonald) was assigned ventilation and utilized E-52-1, Ladder 25 and Ladder 53 to remove the large amount of smoke from the warehouse and office area.
Crews worked for approx 2 hours to remove the smoke from the building. FM102 (Kilmer) arrived and determined the fire to be accidental, electrical in nature.
Final units cleared the scene at 0842hrs
Units:
E-25-1, Ladder 25, Traffic 25, Micu 25-2 and Micu 25-3
Mutual Aid:
E-51-2, E-52-2, E-52-1, E-53, Ladder 53 and Chester County Fire Marshal's Office.
