This was a huge fire on Anderson between A & D. Some departments came from as far as 40 miles away. The second ladder truck was about 30 miles away. It went as well as could be expected. No lives were lost, No injuries were reported that I remember. Damage was in the millions. The building under construction was a soon to be retirement living center that was torched by a bored teenager (to summarize). It was all fuel. No suppression measures were in place yet (such as drywall, sprinklers, alarms, fire doors). As you can see GPFR attempted a trench cut on the roof of the occupied retirement center next door to keep the fire from spreading. But it didn't hold. The fire had spread through the attic above the sprinkler system and destroyed the roof and much of the third floor. Both buildings had to be rebuilt from scratch. Both buildings were 3 stories high. Grants Pass Fire could muster around 8 on duty Firefighters and one or two interns at the time. Rural/Metro another 8 or so including officers. Reserves and call backs accounted for 15 to 25 more firefighters before a task force from Jackson County made it over later in the morning. So with the help of law enforcement an evacuation of the elderly next door was a priority early on. It turned out to be the right decision as you can see later in the video.
16 дек 2009
