A working house fire became the scene of a close call with reported firefighters trapped Thursday afternoon in Southeast Guilford County when the Mt. Hope Fire Department was called to the fire less than a 1/2 mile from their station. The initial fire attack crew fought to keep the fire contained to the second story portion of the split level house, however just as this crew began to run low on air a major collapse occurred in the area in which they were operating. After repeated radio calls to the fire attack crew went unanswered, the RIT deployed in an attempt to locate and remove the downed firefighters, following the hoseline approximately 10-15 feet into the structure when suddenly conditions began to rapidly deteriorate. The RIT recognized that the environment was becoming untenable, and began exiting the structure. Within seconds, a much more significant collapse occurred. Fortunately, two of the RIT members managed to exit the structure just as the collapse overtook them, and the third member ended up within a few feet of the door under light debris. Firefighters standing outside along with the what was left of the original RIT made quick work of removing the last firefighter from the structure as the evacuation signal was sounded. Several desperate moments passed as everybody on scene assumed the worst for the unaccounted for fire attack crew. Providentially the crew in question had managed to exit the rear of the structure literally walking out over the collapse debris, however a communication breakdown prevented the crew from expediently notifying command of their location or well-being. Most importantly, no one was hurt, and all firefighters involved were briefly evaluated by EMS before rotating back into other assignments.

LESSONS LEARNED:

There are a couple of huge lessons to take away from this incident concerning lightweight construction and reading smoke. The two-story portion of the house was built in 1989 and throughout the events of the day would withstand a relatively great amount of fire involvement. However the single-story addition to the house had been added in the year 2000, and the difference in the characteristics in how these two structures withstood fire conditions was extraordinary to say the least. This despite only the difference of one decade between the time they were built. Crews arrived on scene to find heavy turbulent smoke pushing out of the windows of the second floor on the 'B' side of the structure, indicating a well involved but localized fire. The roof area of the single story portion of the house showed no indications of either heat or smoke, leading crews to assume that the fire was contained to the second story of the older part of the house. However the single story portion of the house would be the area that collapsed suddenly and unexpectedly. During the investigation it was discovered that during the renovation a large opening was left where the two structures joined, allowing unseen fire to moved throughout the attic area of the single story portion of the structure. Regardless, the lack of any signs of fire involvement in the single story attic prior to its abrupt failure are disconcerting to say the least. Other key issues brought to light from this incident are the importance of accurate accountability from the onset of an event as well as the need for proper and concise radio traffic throughout the incident. Fortunately there were no injuries in this near miss, as the IC poignantly made note of as he radioed communications that all units had cleared the scene late that evening. Breaking normal radio protocol he simply added to the message; "And everybody is going home safe." I don't think anybody will get onto him too much for that.