This is a story about a structure fire we had a couple of months ago.

 

           The Pitsburg Fire Department a long with automatic mutual aid from Arcanum Fire Department was dispatched to a reported structure fire. It was about 15:15 hours when the call came in, neither department was blessed with a lot personnel at that time.

 

           Upon arrival, moderate to heavy smoke was showing, I immediately asked for a second alarm. Arcanum arrived shortly and we put the fire out.  About 10 minutes later, the fire was under control. The fire was contained to the kitchen area, with slight heat damage to two adjacent rooms; smoke damage was throughout both first and second floors.

 

           Near the 15 minute mark, I spoke to Assistant Chief Jeff Unger of the Gettysburg Fire Department. I updated Jeff on the situation and at that point, asked him to assemble an Investigation Team. At that point we had halted all interior operations with the exception of some slight overhaul. It took Jeff about 15 minutes to assemble two more investigators; Chief Tom Hill of the Gettysburg Fire Department, and Firefighter Charley Rabley of the Arcanum Fire Department, and they started their investigation.

 

           The rest of us rehabbed, cleaned equipment, loaded hose, the normal things you have to do after a fire. Later, some of our people went into the house, to clear out debris the investigators needed moved, so they could effectively investigate the fire.

 

           After about an hour and a half, if that long, the investigation team had all their information gathered, paper work from the homeowners completed, and had the cause and origin of the fire. They asked Assistant Chief Hofacker and me to come into the kitchen. They went over everything they had found and what they thought had happened; sounded good to me. We then spoke with the homeowner, and the investigation team explained their conclusion. It was hard for him to take, but accepted the information as well as anyone else would have. The investigation team called it a day; and we shortly followed as to get the apparatus back in service and cleaned.

 

           I ran into the homeowner a couple of weeks ago and asked him, “Are you getting everything back to normal “? He explained that the insurance company was fighting everything. He said that all the personal property was totaled out. He stated that he, his wife, family and friends were interrogated for days and asked the same questions repeatedly, trying to catch them in some type of lie. He also stated that the insurance company sent its own fire investigation team and they searched for about 5 hours. Their findings were the same as our own investigation team.

 

           He was very upset the way his family and friends were treated, not to mention everything else he and his wife were going through because of the fire. I’ve known this person for many years, some of his family and a lot of his friends. It’s sad what the people have to go through, who we protect long after we have left the fire scene.

 

Chief Hill, Assistant Chief Unger, Firefighter Rabley………. Nice Job

 

 

Tal Mong, Fire Chief

Pitsburg Fire Department

Submitted December 2007

FIRE STORIES from DARKE COUNTY

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