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Photo By John Whitaker
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Santa Clara County Fire responded to a small kitchen fire in Campbell on Saturday night, March 2. Located at 1655 S. Winchester Blvd., the fire was on the 12th floor of Wesley Manor. But, the fire was not the main problem. The blaze was doused by the senior living facility's fire sprinkler system and it was that system that caused the third alarm and the main workload for responding emergency crews.Arriving firefighters found the blaze extinguished...and water flowing all the way down into the ground floor lobby. With the building's elevators forced out of commission by the water, firefighters had to be dispatched to all 12 floors to assess damage and evacuate "victims" down many flights of stairs.
Fire Associates was paged at 11:00 P.M. and John Whiteside and Don Gilbert responded in Fire Support Unit 2. Rehab was set up in a nearby parking lot with several Rural/Metro EMS units and supervisors on standby to assist residents and tired fire crews. Assisting in Rehab were FASCV members Jerry Haag, George Hoyt, Dan Wong, John Whitaker, and guest, Walter Huber.
Rehab attendance was slow until all the water had been "moped up" and displaced residents had been attended to. Then, the flood gates of people descended on Rehab and the place got very busy. Several pots of coffee were quickly consumed along with cold water, Gatorade and the several dozen donuts brought to the fire scene. Once all the crews were through Rehab, FSU-2 packed up and was en route back to quarters shortly after 1:00 A.M.
- John's photos can be viewed at: Wesley Manor
- An ABC7 news story can be read at: Fire Results in 3rd Alarm
