On the Fire Ground
I am a fire fighter with the City of Urbana Fire Division in Ohio. We are a small, full-time fire department in a rural community. We wear Janesville® isodri® turnout gear.
On March 1,2002, we responded to a working fire in the attic of a house. The house was a large two-story home with a large walk-in attic. The second floor consisted of two bedrooms and a bathroom that covered half of the floor. There was an attic over the rest of the second floor and the garage.
We had heavy smoke from the eaves and fire venting out of a side entry door on the outside of the structure. The interior was hazy, but you could see the floor while standing. During our search for the interior access door to the attic, it turned black and heated up in a hurry. At about that time, I found the door to the attic. We got into position and I opened the door for our crew to make entry. The rest of the crew consisted of FF Dave Curnutte, FF Chris Massie, and Captain Phil Kellenberger. When I opened the door, for about 15 seconds, we saw no fire. Little did I know that the fire was rolling over our heads. The room was so charged with smoke we didn't see it. At this point, we were getting very hot and started to feel the heat.
Our Captain said, "I can't see you guys in the thermal imager, the screen is white." This means that everything in the room is super heated. As I said before, we were already getting pretty hot, so we started to back out. We crawled about two feet when the whole room lit up in an instant, blowing out the bathroom window, which was the next room over. There of us were enveloped by fire for about ten seconds until we exited into the hallway.
We feel that if it were not for the exceptional turnout gear, the burns that two of us received would have been a lot worse. I received second-degree burns to my ears and first degree burns to my back, arms, and face. I feel grateful for the effort Lion Apparel puts into making the best product ever. FF Curnutee received first-degree burns to his ears. The rest of the crew got out unburned. FF Curnutte and myself had farther to go to get out- our Captain was at the doorway and FF Massie was just outside the doorway.
After taking my turnouts to our dealer for inspection. I was back into service with my same gear. He inspected the shell and barriers. All that needed replacing was some Velcro® and reflective stripping. He then cleared it for service.
I am proud to say that I wear Janesville® isodri® PBI® turnouts. Lion Apparel does a great job and everyone involved should be proud that they provide the best equipment (in my mind) that is available. Keep up the good work so we can keep up ours. Thank you again for a job well done
Eric Beverly
