Enormous house struck by lightning burns in South Barrington neighborhood without fire hydrants. Fire departments shuttle water to the scene with tenders. Photo gallery is at shapirophotogra...
It's almost criminal that they are allowed to build expensive homes in these areas without water service. It's really sad to see when those pump reservoirs run dry and no water is being put on the fire.
Although tragic, this is very interesting video footage of seeing how they fight the fire with water tankers.That's a tremendous amount of labor and apparatus.
I have to hand it to the firefighters, they did the best they could with what they had to work with. they did put their all into the effort of fighting this fire; my condolences to the homeowners, I am glad there was no injury or loss of life.
These are the chances you take with a couple of million invested in a home and there are no hydrants! I feel sorry for the homeowners but in the same instance, it's the chances you take waiting on tenders to arrive to supply water. The average fire engine only holds between 500 to 1000 gallons of water. That goes awful fast in just a few minutes.
Well when people build they dont expect their house to catch fire. Now i live rural with no hydrants and i bought extra extra ins and paying for it good. House to old for sprinklers because we asked when we put in central air. But i say if you afford the sprinklers doit
Obviously by the amount of tanker trucks they have that this is a common problem.Personally I would get the home owners together to have a large pond dug with each homeowners water supply keeping it full.I mean with million dollar houses how much could it cost.Pennies.
I would guess houses of this type would have swimming pools, so why not design pools to act as an emergency water source until the fire brigade can establish another supply?
We all agree we need fire hydrants everywhere, but sometimes you can't get them way out yonder or certain other places. I agree, if you want a house that big, that secluded, you have to accept that risk, because if something unfortunate happens, it's HIGHLY unlikely your home can be saved.
Zoning laws should not allow developments to be built without an adequate water supply for fire protection. If a hydrant system does not exist, the developer should be required to lay in water mains and install hydrants, or at the very least provide adequate sources such as ponds and cisterns for drafting. Developers are required to provide other infrastructure improvements and fire protection must not be the exception. Also both the International Residential Building Code and the Life Safety Code require installation of automatic residential fire sprinklers in newly constructed dwellings (and have for many years). All jurisdictions need to adopt these requirements.
An amazing water shuttle operation. Sadly, with light weight modern construction it's a battle to be lost. Food for thought though, if they had closed the garage doors and not broken out windows they could have reduced the flow of oxygen feeding the fire.
This is what happens when people build large homes outside the city limits. They pay very little property taxes and in exchange, no fire hydrants. I use to live outside the city limits but we had to pay M.U.D. (Municipal Utilities District) taxes so we can have fire hydrants and other services you get in the city limits.
I have seen so many instances of what are clearly wealthy neighborhoods filled with huge houses, and yet no system of hydrants in these communities. Then everyone blames the FD for not having fought hard enough to contain the blaze. If you have to rely on tankers for water to supply a couple of master streams and a bunch of hand lines, then outcome isn't gong to be ideal.
It is interesting how many people are strident that the fire should have been fought from inside. From what we saw it seems reasonable to assume the structure was unsafe to enter.
For the life of me, I don't wht they don't make it a requirement, that when they build houses like this, and the others nearby, that when the put a roadway in with sewer lines, that they say you have to put fire hydrants, Great video ::o( Sad that looks like they house is totalled,great action by Firefighters.
+Larry R Wendell Jr I'm with you Larry. If I had the money to build a house like this. I sure as heck would want to have a hydrant nearby. I think this video would make a heck of a PR campaign to have ALL homeowners pool their money and get hydrants. But most homeowners are more concerned about break in and theft then fire. I would make a bet that this homeowner had a heck of an alarm system
I've never seen a fire fought like that b4 , I mean with the swimming pools and tanker trucks filling them up !! Why would you have a big huge estate sub division but not have fire hydrants in the subdivision ?? Seems like the fire spread quickly because not enough water ! Is this normal in rural areas ?? I've really never seen this like this that's y I'm asking !
This is very common not to have fire hydrants in rural/semi rural areas. South Barrington is like this in a lot of areas, big estates in a unincorporated area. There is no city water, just wells on each persons property. I grew up in a semi rural area about 5 miles outside of St. Charles IL. It is a risk you have to be willing to take. Are closet hydrant was about a mile away at the county highway department headquarters. We all know the risks and accept that we are SOL if there is a fire. This is why the vast amount of fire companies in Northern Illinois all have a tender/tanker.
The video started 30 min AFTER the initial alarm and there is still that much fire load? That house is unsafe for firemen at this point. I would not trust the gang nail roof trusses at this point. Hope they did an initial search well before the start of the vid,
Pretty impressive tanker relays... NOICE JOB! Portable ponds are always easy to keep up with, but you guys are awesome. Looked up the house on Google maps... it looks absolutely gorgeous now... (second house after house under construction)
Was always curious, cince that this was posted way back in 2013, did the city of South Barrington actually learn from this and finially decided to install Fire Hydrants in this housing community, cause if they would have had them back them, they probably would have been able to save more of that home than what they did here......
Why weren't they pulling from the retention pond by the house. Looks like most if those tenders can function as a pumper. Dump the water and send them to the pond to pump.
According to a news story, the local FD responded quickly, and attempted an interior attack, but was hindered by guess what? A lack of water. Takes time to get all those tenders to where they were needed.
Now thats a strange one, a housing complex without any fire hydrants? Is it that they just havent installed them yet in that area???? Seems like the fire dept could get into some trouble for not being able to save a great looking house like that one all because they ran out of water and had to wait fopr another tanker to arrive with more. Look at that all those water things and they are as dry as a bone and the house continues to burn away and the fighters cant do a thing.....
OK, have done a little more research... no fire hydrants because there are NO water mains (or sewer mains, either) in this part of the village. Each property is very large, and relies on wells and septic systems. I don't know if it's possible to put a dry hydrant on a well, but do know that a single hydrant of any kind wouldn't have been enough to successfully fight this fire. There is some open water, but I don't know how far away.
A dry hydrant would not do any good. A residential well produces no more than 30gpm. A standard fire hydrant flows 1000-1500gpm. A bare minimum acceptable flow for a fire hydrant in a stand-alone setup is 400gpm.
In a community where I lived. Large tanks (10,000-15,000gal. or more depending on calculated fire loads) where placed in the ground and all the rural fire department had tankers. The static water tanks were required and at the expense of the developer.
I live in Naperville, about 20 miles South of this fire with just as many multi-million dollar homes. Thankfully the city is smart enough to have hydrants throughout the city and a fire dept. that knows what its doing. Why anyone would buy a multi-million dollar home is some fancy suburb without hydrants is beyond stupid. BTW to the guy that said 600K+, more like 2.5 million plus on this home.
The problem is a lot of South Barrington and a lot of other suburbs might have a city address, however are miles from the town. I grew up in unincorporated St. Charles where there was one hydrant in the immediate area, which was at Kane County's highway department. We all know the risks of this choice, and accept the fact we are SOL if there is a fire. Now the area is Campton Hills and has a fire station now. You see no hydrants in areas with 100k houses to the multi million dollar ones like this house. However I do get your point, it's a risk like in the above video.
Big money area for those that don't know. Doctors, lawyers, politicians, engineers, CEOs... I am not a fire fighter nor am I going to criticize any of the departments BUT... Why couldn't the FD have said something about the lack of hydrants in the area when the area was first being built? Why is it that so many cities don't give the fire departments more say so in the engineering of new areas? OK! Let's just say for the sake of an argument that this area is NOT so new (doubt it) the city should provide adequate water for the FD and for the protection of their FD members AND citizens. Another great video Sir!
From what I could see they about had a knock down and ran out of water. I know this is horribly discouraging when they were trying so hard. It looked like they had their act together.
Materials have changed, burn hotter and faster. Wide open expanses and truss design. It was most likely a huge open attic with little or no access. Plus limited water supply until all local tankers could be dispatched.
I think anyone who could afford a house like that could have afforded to include residential fire sprinklers. If there really are water mains in the neighborhood, they could have sprung for a privately-owned hydrant. It's really too bad that all that hard work wasn't enough to save the place.
Water for the subdivision has to come from a main line. Why not put at least one (1) hydrant in the subdivision for fires. If you have to, run an engine relay from the hydrant to the scene.
No hydrants in my rural Tennessee area either. The fire department (volunteer) is almost 15 miles away. I know if I catch fire it is going to go all the way.
I live up in that area and the command structure is unlike anything that I have seen elsewhere. The fire departments in McHenry County and Lake County have an extensive system in place to get resources to scenes as quickly as possible. There are not many fires, I'll give him that, however, when there are fires, they are well coordinated and they are extremely efficient.
What happened to the good old aggressive interior attack?? Lightweight trusses and engineered wood products, that's what. Maybe they know something YOU don't. Not knowing exactly what was going on with the water supply, I won't comment on the exterior attack,
Very impressive method of providing water at a location that apparently does not have hydrants. Maybe something the homeowners should have considered before moving in.
While I understand the difficulties with water supply in non-hydrant areas, the best way to extinguish a fire is from the inside. There was still time to conduct an interior attack at the start of this video. Most of the thousands of gallons of water were just wasted on almost useless master streams by flowing them through a big hole instead of on the fire under the roof structure. The end result would have been the same if they just let it burn. Oh well. At least they received great water shuttle practice.
18dmedic When you post you're own videos, you can disable the comment sections. Right or wrong, the OP has enabled comments for this video. We commonly do critiques after big incidents, so EVERY emergency worker has Monday morning quarterback incidents in their career. It's how we learn.
Everyone with there Capes on trying to be critics to this company. Were you there? Did you know the conditions they faced? No you dont so stop being a keyboard warrior and shut up. Oh god they used a Tanker Task Force for water. They used drop tanks to hold the water. And im pretty sure the ones you saw dry were dry because they just got set up. But i wasnt there so i dont know. Nor do i care. The Tanker Task Force ran very smooth as far as the actual interior attack we dont know what was inside
Not sure what video you were looking at. I saw a well coordinated effort for water supply with no less than 5 dump tanks. and everyone busting their hump to work this thing down. Just because it's a large expensive house doesn't mean there is a water supply for the engines to pull from. So take your holier than thou attitude and shove it.
From what I see here nice job, a tanker that can pump good. They needed another tower ladder. But that 2.5" with good pressure and supply worked good. But the fire was faster than the firefighters. If you build with no hydrants, build a pond or water recharge pond with aerators. Would look nice, and put in a dry hydrant, this would help. Also fire walls and fire stops in attic. but lightning can blow that apart. :(
What a cumbersome dispatch system. NOBODY around here uses the dept. name, just the unit. We all know who's numbers are what. Every dept. has their own numbers. And if you're being dispatched on a run, there's no need to say "You're due", that should be obvious.
That's because fire departments in most places in Mexico aren't up to the standards in most first world countries. And they may be fire resistant, but they are slam full of other hazards (electrical, structural, etc). Finally, they are plain ugly, you don't see houses this beautiful south of the border
A big open attic and no sprinkler system..... way to go, guys... How much would it have cost to build firewalls up to the top of the roof? In the US, once a fire reaches the attic, it can freely move to any part of the building, and the building is lost. Penny wise and pound foolish, we call it.
Blame the city or towns for their "it won't happen here" attitude and not requiring a main line be put in for hydrants. Culda had it knocked down quickly if their were hydrants. I can imagine how much the insurance was, (and will be), because of this.
The house I had designed for me in Mexico was all concrete, even the roof, with metal windows. Do you think I ever worried about not having a fire hydrant in proximity to my house down there? More expensive to build a house in the U.S. out of concrete? I've never ever bought that line of propaganda, perpetrated by the lumber companies! In Mexico you can't even get house insurance on a structure built out of wood!
This was a bitch of a fire. Definitely a construction issue that prevented prolonged entry especially with the initial fire being in the center of the residence and effecting the main supports of the structure. Huge cudos to the H2O supply ops that was sexy.
Hydrants or not they still would have burned this one down. Roofs are designed to shed water, pouring 30,000 gallons of water from a ladder pipe is a waste of water. Get inside the structure, Pull ceilings and put the wet stuff on the red stuff directly. This is an easy fire to handle. Manpower intensive,but easy to put out. Lack of proper training is the issue. I dont doubt the brothers on scene want to do a good job. They just havent been trained how to be effective. Obviously common place
But did you consider that the newer trusses are made with gusset plates that are well known to fail rapidly under fire conditions? So, you are saying you would risk your crew to put this out? That is NOT an "easy fire to handle". Glad I don't work for your command.
I hope there were no pets in the house, Insurance companies take forever it will be two+ years before the new home is built and thats only if the insurance company does not try to get out of it or bullshit and say you were only covered for this amount they are vicious.
So, only all of your stuff would burn, and you would have this great black smelly concrete shell to stay in. Sounds like a plan! It would keep stray rifle rounds out, I'll say that.
But did you consider that the newer trusses are made with gusset plates that are well known to fail rapidly under fire conditions? So, you are saying you would risk your crew to put this out? Just plain dumb. Are you even a firefighter?
No condolences will be forthcoming from me at the loss of so much. I take this position, inasmuch as the property owner built a mansion in an unincorporated area of the county within a secured and wealthy subdivision. A homeowner who not only wanted to live in luxury, but also wanted the low taxes which living in such unincorporated rural areas mean. As such, the homeowner got exactly what low taxes means and brings with it. (i.e.) The right to depend solely on a nonprofessional VFD aided by other VFD's, with none having professionally trained officers nor firefighters nor an immediate and adequate water supply (fire hydrants) to protect such property owners from financial loss by fire. The worse part of a VFD being, that the volunteer staff of officers and firefighters are all nonprofessional volunteers . The main problem being that such departments have the VFD's Fire Command Chief Officers chosen by County Council or some other such local government agency. Officers who were not appointed as such because they have the ability of leadership nor because they have served as seasoned firefighters with having received thousands of hours of personal training nor having posted numerous years of fire fighting experience with a PFD. No, such Chief Officers being chosen and elevated to the position and rank of Fire Command simply because they are known and highly respected throughout the rural community. Most all who are chosen are local business owners who regularly attend local church services, serve as church elders, sponsor yearly fish fries and cake bake sales at the firehouse. White men who were born and raised within the community, as was their father and their grandfather, who were all revered as being pillows of the community. The real losers in this story are the people who are forced to have their property insurance premiums once again raised to compensate the financial loss the insurance company endured as a result of the claim filed by the fire consumed home's owner !!! Money has its privileges and we all pay for those privileges !!!
I agree with you. I would never buy a house of that magnitude where there are no fire hydrants. At least you have a fighting chance to rebuild. The construction of these new homes is horrible, however.
Clearly you don’t live in the area or know anything about it. It’s not out in the middle of BFE its 5 miles to downtown Barrington IL As for cheap property taxes, they pay just over $20k a year! The address is 4 Terra Vita dr, 60010 and the home in a large residential subdivision. They probably had no clue there wasn’t a fire hydrant system in the neighborhood because most people don’t look for that kind of stuff when buying a house. Im shocked there isnt one because again this isnt in a remote area. As for the fire department, they did the best they could and the outcome would have been the exact same had it been a PFD. LITH, Algonquin, W.Dundee, S.Elgin, Hoffman are PFD that were delivering water. It’s crazy that a neighbor that size doesn’t have fire hydrants. But saying they got what they deserve because you think they were trying to pay lower taxes…Your a real ignorant POS!
Oh i forgot, the property the subdivision is located in was purchased in 2000 by a developer who built most of this neighborhood. The current homeowner purchased the new home in 2004. So if anyone is to blame, it’s the developer and local official that permitted the neighborhood without requiring a fire hydrant system.
The fact that this subdivision was built without fire hydrants warrant criminal charges for the local government and the developer! This is not in a remote area, Its 5 miles from the driveway to downtown Barrington. This home was built in 2003-2004 when the neighborhood was built by developers and its a rather large neighborhood. The homeowner has paid approximately $250k just in property taxes since they purchased it. Yes they pay right at $20k a year for property taxes and you would think that would get you fire hydrants! This is why I left IL because property taxes are outrageous and the funds are poorly mismanaged.
