| On Sunday, June 3rd at about 7:45pm, Longwood, Kennett (Station 24) and Po-Mar-Lin (Station 36) Fire companies were all dispatched to unit block of Orchard View Drive in Kennett Township for a reported dwelling fire. Initial calls to the 911 center indicated that the residence had been struck by lightning and the roof was starting to catch on fire. Deputy 25 responded immediately with Engine 36, Tanker 36, Engine 24-2 and Engine 25-2 marking up within minutes of the dispatch. Deputy Chief Bisson arrived first to find a two story single family dwelling and requested the Working Fire Dispatch bringing additional units from Concordville Fire Protection Association (Delco 59) and Goodwill of West Chester (Station 52) for the RIT.
Engine 25-2 (Asst. Chief Ruoss) was the first unit to arrive and pulled past the driveway to leave room for Ladder 25. FF Chris Keenan and Lt. 25-A Brian McCarthy quickly stretched a 200' minute man crosslay into the D side of the residence while FF Aidan Keenan and Engineer Dennis Mellinger secured the water supply, along with Engine 24-2, using the fire hydrant located in front of the residence. As the first in hose team was packing up to make entry, Asst. Chief Ruoss joined the hose team and stretched the line to the second floor where the crew encountered a moderate smoke condition. The fire could be heard above the ceiling so Asst. Chief Ruoss and Lieutenant McCarthy began pulling the drywall off the ceiling while FF Keenan initiated the fire attack. Meanwhile, the crew from Engine 24-2 stretched a line to the front of the dwelling and began suppression of the fire on the roof. Ladder 25 (Capt. Horstman) arrived next, backed into the driveway and deployed its crew to throwing ground ladders while Engineer Paul Dawson position the aerial ladder to the roof. Engine 36 arrived shortly after and stretched a third line into the A side of the building to back up the initial hose line from Engine 25-2. All of the crews worked quickly and efficiently together to expose the fire that consumed the attic and put a stop to it before it could spread to the eaves of the dwelling. Deputy Chief Bisson requested two more engines to the scene for manpower. As additional units came into the scene, their crews were rotated through the manpower pool and tasked with removing almost all of the drywall from the second floor of the residence as well as pulling the shingles off of the roof to check for additional fire extension. Once all areas of the attic and roof had been checked, the area was sprayed down one last time and crews returned their respective stations.
Special thanks to the West Bradford Fire Company (Station 39) for standing by in station while the Longwood crews operated at the fire ground. |
