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Troy Firefighters Make a Rescue While Battling Massive Fire in -37 Degrees

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February 04, 2023 | NEW YORK JEFFREY BELSCHWINDER, Senior Correspondent
This article is a direct street report from our correspondent and has not been edited by the 1st Responder newsroom.

TROY, NY - On February 4th at 5:27 A.M., the City of Troy Fire Department was dispatched to 490 2nd Avenue. Engines 1, 4 and 2, Trucks 1 and 2, the rescue squad, Medic 4 and the battalion chief were dispatched to the scene. The caller reported smoke coming from the neighbor's house next door. At the same time, a fire alarm was being transmitted and Engine 4 diverted from the fire alarm activation and had Engine 6 take the call. With heavy winds and extremely cold temperatures hovering around -37°F, Engine 1 and Truck 1 arrived on scene with smoke showing from the attic and immediately transmitted the Signal 30 for a working structure fire.


As firefighters were deploying a hand line and connecting to a fire hydrant the ground became wet and quickly froze solid. Firefighters had one person trapped inside of the structure and crews began to make the rescue. As firefighters connected to the truck company, another firefighter fell on ice and fractured his leg. Command notified the dispatcher that they also had heavy smoke showing from the side of the structure and they were making a rescue inside of the building. Firefighters notified the medic rig to pull up to the scene and remove the injured firefighter for transport to the hospital. 


As the individual from the home was being rescued by multiple firefighters, command requested from the dispatcher police to come to the scene as they had people attempting to get back into the building to get to their loved one. Firefighters were able to successfully remove the trapped person from the home and firefighters pushed up the stairs and made an aggressive push inside where heavy smoke had already begun to bank down to the floor area. Firefighters began pulling ceilings where they had heavy fire above them. Firefighters notified command that they had knocked down the heavy fire condition above them and believed they had the fire under control on the second floor. As firefighters continued to work on the second floor, conditions from the exterior of the structure rapidly began to change.


With the truck company's pump operator down, firefighters made their way to the roof from Truck 1 and began to vent the roof of the structure. Thick, heavy, violent turbulent smoke began to push from the vent hole that firefighters just cut. Command checked with crews working on the second floor and firefighters stated that they believed they had the fire knocked down again. The commanding officer on scene notified the dispatcher that he had multiple exposure issues. Command noticed the conditions changing from the roof and ordered all firefighters off. As firefighters evacuated the roof, heavy fire began to blow through the side of the building and push from the front eaves. As firefighters made their way outside of the structure, any water on the firefighters immediately froze solid, turning their helmets into blocks of ice and freezing their airpacks to their turnout gear. 


Hand lines on scene began to freeze as temperatures were hovering just around -37°F. Radios on scene that had gotten wet began to freeze open and transmissions were not being made. Firefighters became extremely frustrated that they could not get the quick releases on their air packs to release their air bottles to change them out in order to get back in and attempt to knock down the heavy fire condition that began to consume the buildings. Command transmitted the second-alarm, bringing Engine 6 from the City of Troy to the scene, as well as the Watervliet Arsenal FD, Colonie EMS, and the Cohoes FD as heavy fire began to spread to the building next door. Firefighters in the rear of the building requested additional help as they had heavy fire beginning to blow through the back of the building.


A couple of the firefighters were able to defrost the quick release mechanism on their airpacks and change out their air bottles, and then immediately grabbed a hand line and made their way back into the structure to conduct an aggressive interior attack to attempt to stop the fire spread. As firefighters pushed their way to the second floor hose streams blew through the front of the building, sending debris flying through the air. A large portion of the roof of the primary fire building collapsed onto a hand line that went inside of the building and caused the hand line to break. As another large piece of debris fell, the siding on the home quickly ignited. Additional resources from the mutual aid companies began to arrive on scene.


Heavy fire quickly began to consume the entire building, and the heat from the fire started warming up the fire scene. Firefighters still inside of the structure made their way out, bringing out the hand lines behind them. Firefighters kneeled next to the exhaust on the engine to warm up their frozen radios just to turn them off. 


Firefighters from the city of Cohoes and Watervliet Arsenal made their way to the front of the building and began to stretch out multiple hand lines to conduct defensive operations with firefighters on scene. As firefighters were pulling hose off of the rig, it began to freeze up not even charged. With water finally being charged to the truck companies on scene, they began to immediately open up their master streams and knock down the heavy fire condition inside the building. Firefighters in the bucket notified command that the roof in the primary fire building had just collapsed.


The workers in the nearby Stewart Shop provided shelter for the fire victims to remain warm and provided them with warm beverages. The American Red Cross arrived on scene and began to conduct interviews with the fire victims in order to get them the best possible assistance. As firefighters continued to work, the morning sun began to push up through the thick, heavy steam from the building. Firefighters had another large portion of the roof collapse on the second building. The front of the building had completely iced over. The pump panels on the fire engines were covered in ice and multiple hand lines that were damaged when the building collapsed on top of them laid in front of the truck company and engine company on scene.


Additional resources from firefighters coming in on the recall began to arrive on scene. Firefighters were absolutely exhausted and frozen to the core. The front of the scene covered in a thick layer of ice made it slick for firefighters working on scene. An axe that was left in the front of the building had a thick layer of ice covering it and froze to the tree it was up against.


The staff at the Stewart’s brought out multiple boxes of hot coffee for firefighters operating on scene as they continued to knock down the heavy fire condition that remained inside the building from the 'Bravo' side of the structure. As firefighters were working on scene, another reported structure fire came in down the road from the fire scene and the only two in-service engines in the city made their way to investigate. Thankfully, the reported structure fire was found to be just steam from a vent pipe. 


Firefighters remained on scene for the entire day and late into the night. The owner of Jimmy's Pizza around the corner from the incident graciously supplied firefighters with lunch and dinner. The City of Troy declared that an emergency demolition of the building was necessary, as it was a threat to life and safety. The cause of the fire remains under investigation at this time. The firefighter that was injured on scene fractured his Fibula and will remain out of service for an extended period of time.


The extremely cold temperatures severely hampered firefighters' ability to normally bring this type of fire under control quickly. Also, with one firefighter going down on scene and having to have additional firefighters from the medic rig that is cross staffed take that firefighter to the hospital exposed the low staffing numbers of the city of Troy Fire Department to be extremely dangerous for firefighters.


The City of Troy FD is set to have close to 24 firefighter vacancies due to firefighters retiring and firefighters leaving to go to other cities this year, and firefighters that will remain on the job will have to deal with close to an entire shift of firefighters not being available for staffing. The City of Troy was successfully able to hire one firefighter off of their examination list while the city of Albany was successfully able to hire 17 firefighters off of their exam list. That one Troy firefighter will join the 17 firefighters from the city of Albany in their training class. The City of Troy is getting several additional apartment buildings, but the individuals conducting these projects and individuals looking to move into these apartments, should understand that the City of Troy FD is severely understaffed and facing extreme challenges in being able to keep up with the call volumes.

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JEFFREY BELSCHWINDERSenior Correspondent

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