Lawrence Township – Bolivar firefighters were dispatched to Speedy auto Salvage on Eberhart Road NW, in western Lawrence Township shortly after 2:30pm on Sunday, October 13th as a result of numerous calls to the Tuscarawas County 911 Center. Heavy smoke was visible for miles and Bolivar E-102 found piles of scrap metal and debris “the size of a house” fully involved and spreading. Bolivar was quickly joined by E-1203 from Strasburg and E-201 from Dover on the initial attack. Due to the location of the fire which was at the top of a hill in a non-hydranted area, tankers were dispatched early on into the incident and would provide the water used to fight the blaze.
Engine 1602 and crew of five from the Zoar Volunteer Fire Department was diverted in route by the Bolivar fire chief to establish a fill site at a large pond about a mile from the fire ground. E-1602 drafted from the pond and laid two 4 inch LDH tanker supply lines and received its first tankers shortly after 3pm. The fill site featured a large turnaround and solid bank which aided with the fill site operation for the seven tankers working the fire.
Bolivar T-104 (3000-gallons), Dover T-204 (2,000-gallons), Fairfield Twp. T-1504 (3,000-gallons), Mineral City T-1404 (3,000-gallons), Strasburg T-1204 (1,500-gallons) Sugarcreek T-1004 (3,000-gallons), and Wayne Twp. T-1104 (3,000-gallons) delivered a combined 35 loads of water from the fill site until the fire declared under control shortly before 7pm. The seven tanker shuttle delivered more than 111,000 gallons of water over the course of the incident. Firefighters worked into the evening extinguishing hot spots with hand lines and Dover’s Snozzle boom.