Sunday, August 18, 2013

Sunnyvale Refuse Fire Brings Multi-Alarm Response

  
Date and Time:  08-18-2013, 0400 hours
Agency:  Sunnyvale
Incident Address:  301 Carl Road, Sunnyvale
Type:  Second alarm
  
Details:  Fire in a large refuse consolidation facility (Sunnyvale SMART Station).
  
Agency Responders:
SNY: E-1, 4, 40, 5, 6, 60; R-2; Batt. 1 (Rushmeyer - IC)
  
FASCV Responding Units:  FSU-1. Arrived: 0435, released: 0630 hours.
FASCV Responders:  Ron Green, Jerry Haag, Len Williams (driver) and Dan Wong.
  
-- Report submitted by Jerry Haag
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Tuesday, August 6, 2013

National Night Out - “America’s Night Out Against Crime!”

Photo By Bruce Dembecki
Photo By Bruce Dembecki
 
Tuesday, August 6th, was National Night Out - “America’s Night Out Against Crime”! To highlight the event, the San Jose Fire Department held a special Open House at Fire Station 6 in Willow Glen. The Open House offered members of the public a chance to meet their firefighters and get an up-close look at the fire engines. The BBQ was running overtime as hundreds of residents were fed by San Jose's firefighters. Meanwhile, fire station and fire engine tours were popular.
    
In addition to the station's "local" regulars, Engine 6 and Fire Support Unit 2, other fire units on display included Med 30, Truck 30 and one of the San Jose Squads. Also joining in the evening's get-together were several representatives from the San Jose Police Dept. In addition to this wide range of equipment for residents to learn about, the event was well attended by San Jose Fire Department's firefighters and administrative ranks. Fire Chief Willie McDonald was on hand - during his last week as San Jose's Fire Chief. Also attending were an Assistant Chief, some Deputy Chiefs ,and a whole squad of Battalion Chiefs (or is a group of Battalion Chiefs called a "gaggle"? ...maybe a "Battalion"?).
    

Photo By BC Steve Alvarado
The public enjoyed their visit to the fire station and the entertainment put on by SJFD and SJPD. To go with the hot dogs and baked beans (flying off the BBQ) and the equipment tours, guests were spotted swinging away at a Pinata, watching a rather fine video presentation, and talking with Fire Associates' volunteer Bruce Dembecki about our group. Later in the evening Truck 30 came by and showed off San Jose's newest piece of fire apparatus - the new Pierce aerial tiller. The Pierce "stick" was put up into the night sky and the lights on the tip made the whole area seem like daylight.    
  
Several hundred people came through the doors of Fire Station 6 on a fine Tuesday evening, and Fire Associates was happy to have been able to participate.
    
-- Report submitted by Bruce Dembecki

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SJFD Firefighters Tackle Challenging Storage Unit Blaze

   
Photo By Craig Allyn Rose

Tuesday morning, Aug. 6 at 06:26 A.M., San Jose Fire started receiving reports of a structure fire in the area of Interstate 280 and Hwy. 101. Additional callers placed the fire at the Public Storage facility at 925 Felipe Ave., while another caller gave yet another address behind Felipe Ave. on Olinder Ct.
  
Full first responses were dispatched to both the Public Storage location and the possible 912 Olinder Ct. address. Fire units arriving at Public Storage immediately requested a second alarm to deal with flames shooting out of two stories of the building. Olinder Ct. units went to work protecting the exposures on their side of the Public Storage building.
   
Ultimately, the Olinder Ct. units were added to the Public Storage incident, putting more than 3 alarms of equipment and manpower at the disposal of the Felipe IC.

Photo Provided By SJFD Deputy Chief Juan Diaz
As is often the case with Storage building fires, heavy fuel loads and the varied nature of the things being stored in different units, present fire crews with many challenges. One of those added challenges was dealing with the extremely tight access space in the driveways between rows of units. Storage units suffered extensive damage on both floors of the Public Storage facility.
    
At approximately 7:10 A.M., Fire Associates was requested and Bruce Dembecki responded to the scene with Fire Support Unit 2. After arriving a little before 7:30 A.M., Bruce was joined on scene by FASCV member Dan Wong.
  
FSU-2 set up Rehab operations offering cold drinks, coffee and Cliff bars to crews dealing with their early morning start, while Med 30 and Rural Metro EMS crews went through the formal rehab process for fire crews.
   
By 10:00 A.M., many crews had been released and those remaining had their fresh A-shift crews in place, having replaced their B-shift counterparts on scene. Fire Associates was released from the scene and Support Unit 2 headed back home to SJFD Fire Station 6.
  
The best news being that the fire was under control and there were no injuries.
-- Report submitted by Bruce Dembecki

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Friday, August 2, 2013

FASCV Responds to Multiple-Alarm Refuse Transfer Station Fire In Morgan Hill

Photo from Morgan Hill Chief Jamie Norton

Photo Provided By San Jose Deputy Chief, Juan Diaz
On August 2, at 7:12 P.M., Morgan Hill Cal Fire dispatched equipment to a blaze at 10470 Llagas Avenue, with a cross street of East Middle Avenue. The site was a large refuse transfer station and the contents were blazing! Fire Associates received a page at 8:13 P.M. for rehab support and John Whiteside responded to San Jose Station 35 to drive Fire Support Unit 3 to the fire, about 25 miles away.
  
Located south of, and just outside, the Morgan Hill city limits, this site is in the response area of the South Santa Clara County Fire District, staffed by Cal Fire. First-arriving units laid a large-diameter supply line almost 1,000 feet to reach the fire. This was later supplemented with 4 water tenders shuttling water from several miles away. Lots of foam was expended to penetrate the piles of refuse, which had been moved outside by tractors.
  
FSU-3 arrived on scene at 9:09 P.M. and began to set up Rehab. Later, FASCV member Dan Wong arrived from Mountain View to assist. Firefighters enjoyed our portable benches, lemonade, coffee, water, Gatorade, blueberry and CLIF bars, and area lighting.
 
South County equipment was aided by fire units from Gilroy, San Jose, Cal Fire and Morgan Hill. Based on the amount of equipment (10 engines, 4 water tenders, 1 ladder truck and many chief officers and support personnel), it was deemed to be equal to a 3rd-alarm response. San Jose Fire also provided station coverage with additional units. Fire units remained on scene most of the night.
 
John was released at 12:59 A.M. (August 3) and arrived back at Station 35 at 1:25 A.M.
-- Report submitted by John Whiteside
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