2-alarm House Fire In Palo Alto

 
Date: Dec. 30, 2016
Agency: Palo Alto Fire
Incident Address: 2126 Louis Ave
Type: 2-alarm House fire 


Details:
Single-story, older Eichler-style home. Fully involved upon arrival. Initially unable to confirm if all occupants were out, only one occupant made it out with no injuries. Heavy B side exposure with two cars involved in the attached carport. 2nd alarm called and firefighters initiated a new “nozzle forward” mode of attack. 4 pots of coffee, snacks were served.
 
Agency Responders: 
PAF
MTV
CNT
MOF

FASCV Arrived: 0530 Released: 0800
FASCV Responding Unit: FSU-1
FASCV Responders:
Mike Garcia (driver), Walter Huber, Larry Carr
 
Reported by Walter Huber

FASCV Provides Support At Sunnyvale Apartment Blaze

   
Date: Nov. 17, 2016
Agency: Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety
Incident Address: 516 N Mathilda Ave.
Arrived: 0010; Released 0200
Type: 2nd Alarm
   
Details:
Small 2-Story complex with fully involved first/floor apartment unit.
   
Agency Responders: Sunnyvale
   
FASCV Responding Unit: FSU-1

FASCV Responders: Larry Carr, Mike Garcia, and Walter Huber (driver)
 
-- Report submitted by Walter Huber

FASCV Provides Rehab Support at Gas Leak

   
On Friday, Nov. 14, at approximately noon in the area of Park and Sunol in San Jose FASCV received a Special Call for a major natural gas problem.
   
FSU 1 driven by Walter Huber and FSU 2 Driven by Don Gilbert responded. FASCV provided meal pickup and rehab for about 5.5 hours.
   
A contractor's backhoe ruptured a 6” high-pressure natural gas line while at the same time the backhoe also ruptured a sewer line. This caused the underground sewer line system to become charged with natural gas over a large geographical area.  This required the evacuation and sealing off of a large area covering several city blocks.
   
Once the natural gas was shutdown, it took a period of time to purge the gas from the sewer system and allow for a size reduction of the evacuation zone. When PG&E started to make repairs to the 6” pipe, a 4” gas pipe was located that had to be neutralized before the 6” repairs could be started.
  
-- Report submitted by Don Gilbert through Bob Gundrum

FASCV Members Respond to 3-Alarm House Fire

 
San Jose Fire responded to a 3rd alarm blaze at 3253 Ensalmo Avenue, cross of Hillsdale Avenue. FSU-3 responded for Fire Associates with Don Gilbert, John Whiteside, Teri Costentino, and Walter Huber providing support.

The blaze gutted a single-family house with some damage to houses on both sides.
    
-- Report submitted by Bob Gundrum

Fire Associates Supports Fire Academy

 
Date: Oct. 12, 2016
Agency: Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety 
Incident Address: 795 E Arques Ave.
Arrived: 0830; Released 1500
Type: Special Call
   
Details:
FSU-1 provided support for JFA 16-2 Fire Academy

Agency Responders: Sunnyvale, Palo Alto, Boulder Creek, Scotts Valley

FASCV Responding Unit: FSU-1

FASCV Responders: Mike Garcia, Bob Gundrum, Walter Huber (driver), and Dan Wong
   
-- Report submitted by Walter Huber

Campbell RV Fire Goes to Two Alarms

    

On October 8, Santa Clara County Fire answered a 2nd alarm at ‪202 W. Rincon Ave‬, cross of Salice Way, in Campbell.

   

FSU-3 with Don Gilbert and John Whiteside, were cancelled by radio upon departure from SJS Station 6. The call was for a ully involved RV in the yard of a house.

   

-- Report submitted by Bob Gundrum

Late September House Fire Taxes Crews in the South County

 

Friday, September 30 at 4:54 A.M., Morgan Hill CalFire received reports of a house fire in the hills west of town. This was located in the South Santa Clara Fire District, at 2880 Tohara Way. This is in the area off of Sycamore Drive, west of Watsonville Highway. 

   

The woodlands are tinder dry, and the fire danger is HIGH! Consequently a high initial dispatch of 18 engines, 9 being wildland engines, 4 water tenders, 2 hand crews and 4 Chiefs was made. Fire units from San Jose, Gilroy and Morgan Hill City were also part of the dispatch.

      

The single-story house was located near the deadend of Tohara Way, with no nearby hydrants. Water was trucked in to the scene. At 6:17 A.M. Fire Associates was paged to respond with a Fire Support Unit and John Whiteside took FSU-3 about 30 miles to the scene. Benches, donuts, hot coffee, water, Gatorade, and Clif Bars were provided the remaining crews. John was released around 9:00 A.M. The house was gutted.

     

Several of the responding wildland rigs from other CalFire units were covering vacant stations around Morgan Hill. A 4,300+ acre vegetation fire has been burning since September 26 in steep inaccessible terrain about 10 miles northwest of this house. A large base camp had been set up in nearby Gilroy, about 10 miles south, and some 2,000 personnel are involved. The morning of this fire, there were 179 engines, 34 water tenders, 32 dozers, 61 hand crews, and 22 helicopters and air tankers assigned to the “Loma” vegetation fire.

   

— Report submitted by John Whiteside

Fire Associates Supports South County House Fire

 

Thursday night, Sept. 8, at 11:50 P.M., Morgan Hill Cal Fire, which also staffs the Morgan Hill City Fire Dept and the South Santa Clara County Fire District, dispatched units to a house fire at 14840 Columbet Avenue in San Martin, cross street of East Middle Avenue, in the fire district. Arriving units reported fire from the rear of the structure, 50% involved. All occupants were out, but the structure was the home of an organization that shelters rescued dogs. Almost a dozen dogs were lost, but 4 were saved with resuscitation.

    

Fire units from the District, Cal Fire, Morgan Hill City, and Gilroy responded to the scene while San Jose provided 2 engines to cover open stations. Eight (8) engines, 2 water tenders, 1 ladder truck and 2 Battalion Chiefs were involved in the fire attack.

    

At 12:25 A.M. Friday morning Fire Associates was paged for support. John Whiteside and new member Walter Huber met at San Jose Station 35 to take Fire Support Unit #3, while Bill Roth went to the scene. Lighting, bench seating, water, Clif bars, Gatorade, donuts, and coffee were provided and much appreciated by the fire fighters.

FSU-3 was released at 04:03 A.M.

— Report submitted by John Whiteside

4-Alarm Blaze Destroys San Jose Storage Units

 
On Saturday, August 27, at a few minutes past 9:00 P.M., San Jose Fire received calls for smoke coming from a unit in a very large complex of Public Storage buildings. The location was 925 Felipe Avenue at the dead end off Olinder Court and Story Road. This location is almost underneath the bridges at the junction of Highway 101 and Interstates 280/680.
 
San Jose dispatched a full first alarm at 9:06 P.M., and initial attacking units reported a car fire within a unit in the middle of a large, L-shaped building.
   
The fire soon spread to adjacent units and a second alarm was requested. Master streams were soon put into service and a third alarm was requested. At 10:31 P.M. Fire Associates was paged and Don Gilbert and John Whiteside responded with Fire Support Unit 2. They were met on-scene by Mike Garcia. While FSU-2 was enroute, the fire escalated to a fourth alarm with a Mutual Aid structure response from Santa Clara County, Milpitas, and Santa Clara City fire departments.
 
However, the en route fourth alarm rigs were cancelled when the smoke coming from the other leg of the L-shaped building was found to be only drift smoke from the main fire. A great effort contained the fire damage to several units centered on the initial fire site.
   
Donuts, water, Gatorade, Clif bars and coffee, along with bench seating were very much appreciated by the exhausted fire fighters. FSU-2 was released at 3:05 A.M. and returned to quarters. A few fire crews remained on scene through the next day to completely extinguish the fire.
   
-- Report. Submitted by John Whitesite

FASCV Called to Vegetation Fire Near Uvas Dam

 
On Friday, August 12, CAL FIRE Morgan Hill received many, many calls reporting a fire west of Morgan Hill in the area of the Uvas Reservoir. Smoke could be seen from CAL FIRE Headquarters.
 
At 3:12 P.M., a high-level dispatch was initiated and ultimately included over 30 engines, 3 dozers, 4 hand crews, 3 air tankers, 2 copters, and an air attack coordinator. Fire Associates was also requested for Rehab. Other fire agencies included: San Jose, Santa Clara County, Felton, and Monterey CAL FIRE who all sent equipment.
 
Due to the steep terrain, air tankers were used to slow the spread of the fire by surrounding it with retardant and protect houses threatened by the blaze until ground crews could access the location.
 
Fire Associates member John Whiteside, on CAL FIRE Volunteer in Prevention (VIP) duty in the Emergency Command Center, put on his FASCV cap and responded in his POV with drinks and ice while Don Gilbert was preparing Fire Support Unit 2 in San Jose to respond to the support request. Rehab was set up in a vacant lot near Fell Court and Uvas Road. FA was released at 8:50 P.M. The fire was contained at 15 acres.
   
-- Report Submitted by John Whiteside