This is a complete video of the 4-Alarm fire at 240 East Houston Street on Thursday, 7/8/10. Apologies for the windy mic and shakiness, this was shot on my phone. 1 of 5
Further comment. I did not realise it was the whole fire filmed. Yes it later seeemed to be a roof fire, and to me very unusual. I think the firemen did a wonderful job, and just worked their way beautifully through that inferno. Thanks so much for posting these videos. God bless those brave men.
Thanks for filming this intense fire however one pan of the smoke rising into the sky is all that we need. You don't need to look at the smoke 5 times.We want to see the ground activity especially when the FD arrives,. Thanks.
WAIT WAIT WAIT whats going on i cant see because the camera is shaking Maybe holding it still so people like me can see a little bit better i cant see at all since its so shaky...
Hi joek, I want to try and explain this to you without being sarcastic or talking down to you. This is a roof fire only. From the video, it does not appear that there is any fire extension into the top floor of the building itself. The proper way to fight this fire would be with the engine crews accessing the roof and putting it out with hand lines. Roofs have several openings in them such as sky lights, access hatches, drains for the rain water etc. By using the master streams
with their high pressure, you run the risk of pushing the fire through one of those openings or through the roof itself if their is a weak spot. Many roofs are rubber coated now days. if there is a tear or leak, or if it melts which it likely did in this fire, you want to push it sideways, not down onto the exposed framing below. That is why they didn't use the master streams. The ladders were up for firefighter evacuation in case of an emergency. Capt Eng 732 (retired)
@joek0617 That would serve pretty much no purpose other than steaming alive the crews inside. How exactly would you try to shower the fire with master streams off the trucks? Let then engines do their work.
FDNY is not a department that gets there and starts lobbing water in from the outside, they will always try and aggressive interior attack first, until command says to get out, they have a system and riding positions on all their apparatus, they know what they are doing, great job to the FDNY.
canadiancatgreen hey guys here’s a surprise, a negative comment on a fire they don’t know nothing about, by a person who knows nothing about firefighting!! You do know it takes a little for guys to get to the scene in traffic, and city blocks ? Wow pull up your diaper now cause you been spanked well little boy!!
@boerenlol If they set up the master streams on the trucks, they're going to push the fire inside and the building would be a total loss. They let the engines do their work and fight it from the inside saving the building. Very aggressive tactic but thats FDNY for you.
A big fire and getting bigger. What was the outcome here. To the guy that thought this was just a roof fire, I dont think it was at the end of the film, And I would not send men to the upper floor of that building, based on what I could see at the end.
@joek0617 No they are not already dead. Look at the top floor not the roof. See whats on the roof, if they would have done your idea they would of pushed all of that down onto potential victims and FF's inside of the fire building. You cannot mix offensive and defensive operations.
do not think it was done in Denmark, where Copenhagen fire departement has a different response than there are in America...jeg tror ikke det var sket i Denmark, hvor copenhagen brandvæsen har et andet beredskab end der er i amerika
I'm so sorry for your and all the residents' loss. I heard nobody was seriously injured and even most pets were rescued, which I really hope is true. This can be a truly frightening place to live.
Fires like this are rare so NYFD has to make them last to justify their numbers and for people to still think they are great. Slowness is one of NYFD's greatest feats and they are good at it, nobody is as slow as they are when it comes to actually fighting a fire.
