On Tuesday night, April 21, as Support Unit 2 was on the road returning from the FASCV monthly meeting in Los Altos, San Jose Fire called a 2nd alarm for a house fire. As luck would have it Support Unit 2 was very close to the fire, loaded with ice, and staffed with 4 FASCV members. The obvious decision was made -- Head to the fire!Located in the 6100 block of Tracel Dr., near the intersection of Miller Ave. and Prospect Rd., the fire involved most of the attic space above a two-story, single-family residence. Cruising down Interstate 280, near De Anza College, Support Unit 2 was so close to the location that it was in staging well before most of the 2nd-alarm fire rigs. Needless to say, a lot of the responding firefighters were surprised to see us already on scene!
Responders included Don Gilbert, John Whiteside, Fred Oehm and John Whitaker. Soon after arriving, contact was made with the IC and Med 30. The decision was made to set up Rehab on the east side of the fire. Med 30, Support Unit 2 and AMR relocated from staging and quickly had Rehab up and running. Even though it was well after 9:30 P.M. on an April evening, temperatures from the warm day stayed mild and cold drinks were much more in demand than hot coffee. It's good that Don had been proactive and loaded ice on the rig before leaving the Station. A lesson learned.
Rehab was broken down at approximately 11:00 P.M. and Support Unit 2 and it's crew continued on to Don Gilbert's home. Earlier in the day, Don had relolcated the Support Unit from Station 26 to his home so its passengers could all meet in one place and go on to the meeting site. At the end of the evening, everyone all had to return to Don's to get their personal vehicles. Because of the late hour, Don returned the Support Unit to Station 26 on the following day.
Photos from the event can be seen a Bruce Dembecki's site at this link: Tracel Dr. Fire. Bruce had attended the FASCV Monthly Meeting as a guest, and detoured to the fire scene when he heard it dispatched on his scanner.
