Saturday, April 5, 2008
Chambersburg Cold Storage Burns For Days
On April 5, 2001 at 12:38 p.m., a Chambersburg box was dispatched for a fire in the old ice and cold storage building at 1335 S. Fourth Street, Chambersburg the former Chambersburg Ice and Cold Storage. A fire of undetermined origin burned for more than 48 hours in the basement of the seven-story masonry building before being brought under control by firefighters. The basement contained a large quantity of cardboard. Firefighters entered the building briefly in an attempt to control the fire before being removed for safety reasons. After trying foam and other methods to extinguish the blaze, firefighters set up deluge guns and flooded the basement for two days to finally extinguish the fire. Over 100 firefighters manning 45 pieces of fire apparatus from over two-dozen fire companies battled the blaze. One firefighter was treated and released from Chambersburg Hospital for heat exhaustion. A damage estimate was not available. The Vigilant Hose, Cumberland Valley Hose and West End Fire and Rescue companies assisted at the scene.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I think this fire will stick with me for my career. We got to catch some rest for about 3 hours overnight before getting right back into it. I think the 'biggest' memory I have from this fire was, after raining all night, walking over to the CFD engine closest to the scene to see who I had been pumping to for hours on end and finding Norman under a little make shift tent, feet kicked up reading the newspaper. It was a pretty comical sight after I spent the night out in the rain! Anyways, got pretty good fire on that one with the aid of our TIC (that's of course after Max granted us permission to go after it!). The 'Wagonmaster in Training' might not always see eye to eye with me on E-One's, however nobody can deny that the old 252 pumped it's ass off on that call!
TJ
I didn't go back and check to verify so I failed to put it on here but wasn't this Bill Dubbs first job as the Chief? What away to start, and just a couple of years after six firemen died in the same type of building in Mass.. Sometimes I don't always recall things correctly without the proper amount of vitiman Y to get my memory working.
Brad,
If MY memory serves me correctly, I believe this fire was within a week or so of Bill taking over the Chief's position. I remember Bill running command out of the back of his buggy. I caught quite a bit of fire that year in the 'big burg', as we usually started out transfering to Headquarters Station, just to be brought in to the fireground while enroute. Caught a good job a week or two after the Cold Storage Fire in the borough, but I don't remember the location.
TJ
Post a Comment