TROY, NY - On March 27th at 3:17 A.M., the city of Troy's FD was dispatched to 188 6th Avenue for a reported structure fire. The caller reported that her hair was on fire and the stairs in the house were also on fire. Engines 4 and 1, along with Trucks 1 and 2, the rescue squad and the battalion chief were dispatched to the scene.

The dispatcher notified all responding units that they were taking additional calls on the structure fire reporting that everyone was out of the house, and that there was a burn victim on scene.

Engine 4 arrived and immediately declared the Signal 30 for a working structure fire with a heavy fire condition on the second and third floors. The battalion chief requested the second-alarm to be transmitted, bringing Engines 6 and 2, the Watervliet Arsenal FD and the city of Albany’s FD to the scene. With all medic rigs in the City of Troy tied up on other calls, command requested a medic rig from a mutual aid agency to the scene.

Engine 1 pulled up to the opposite side of the boulevard, laid in the supply line from 103rd Street and connected to Engine 4. Within seconds of arrival, Engines 1 and 4's crews had two-and-three-quarter inch hand lines going into the front door of the house. Troy Police stayed with the burn victim while awaiting the arrival of Mohawk Ambulance Service coming from Samaritan Hospital as priority one.

As heavy fire pushed out the rear of the building and thick black turbulent smoke chugged from the third floor windows, Truck 1 quickly set up and made their way to the roof. Firefighters made their way up the stairs to the second floor landing where they had heavy black smoke and high heat banking down to the floor. Crews on the first hand line made their way into the second floor apartment while firefighters from the second hand line made their way to the third floor where the thick heavy smoke and heat pushed them back down the stairs. Firefighters on the truck company quickly created a vent hole in the roof and heavy fire blew 15-feet over the top of the building.

As firefighters attempted to make a push into the third floor, the entire third floor apartment instantly flashed over and heavy fire blew out the front windows of the structure, sending fire 20-feet into the morning sky, lighting up the neighborhood. Truck 2's crew quickly pulled the bucket back and firefighters pulled out of the second and third floors, as they now had a heavy fire condition throughout the structure.

Command had Truck 2 open up its master stream, sending a stream of water inside the third floor to drive the heavy fire back. After a quick knockdown of the heavy fire condition, firefighters on the third floor and second floor continued to make an aggressive interior attack. Firefighters still had a heavy black smoke condition coming from the second and third floors of the structure as well as a heavy fire condition in the rear of the structure. Firefighters from the first hand line crew came out of the structure, did a quick bottle change and went right back in to continue to fight the fire. Mohawk Ambulance Service arrived on scene and transported the burn victim to Albany Medical Center.

Firefighters from the truck company pulled a large portion of the front roof off, made their way into the third floor of the structure and deployed a hand line inside to begin an aggressive interior attack from the 'Delta' side. Additional resources arrived on scene and deployed a two-and-a-half inch hand line to the rear of the structure where firefighters continued to knock down the heavy fire condition.

With one of the battalion chiefs running command and another running operations, the chief of the department arrived on scene and was briefed. The chief noticed that his crews were attempting to pull a hand line up further into the third floor apartment and his other firefighters were exhausted. The chief immediately grabbed the hose and assisted his crews in making it in further into the structure. Firefighters on the second and third floors had the fire knocked down and under control at 4:28 A.M. Crews then began the extensive amount of overhaul needed to find all of the additional hotspots that were hiding throughout the structure.

Firefighters remained on scene until the late afternoon hours. The burn victim from the fire was stabilized at the hospital. The fire is currently under investigation. No firefighters were injured on scene. The home was deemed a total loss.