Big Fire on A-Shift

Today I was ending my short four day run in Bellevue. I had Chapman covering for me tonight, and he was going to cover until I got back to Pullman. I knew it was going to be a long day at the office because of what I had to get done. Around six at night I checked the Daily News website. I saw that there was a big fire in Pullman at the grain bin on the Pullman-Moscow Highway. I was disappointed because I thought I missed a fire. But I also figured it might go on long enough for me to do something at.

The View of the Fire before I left Bellevue

A view of the fire from the backside

Another daytime view of the fire

I made the trip without trying to rush it too much. When I got back to Pullman I found that the bay was empty at Station Thirty-Two. I went my house changed and back to the fire station. Upon my arrival I found the ambulance was back. I went in and spoke with Chapman. He said I could probably go to Station One and get out to the scene. My only concern was if I would be able to get back in time for Ryan’s bachelor party.

I decided to go to the station and see if I could make it out to the scene. Within a few minutes of getting to the station I was sent out with Erickson to the scene in the ambulance. I got to go into the bucket with Nick. We were using the masterstream to help keep the side grain bin remain cool. The middle bin was burning. Brown gave me a camera to take some photos. While I was up there I noticed what appeared to be smoke coming from the eves of the side grain bin. I notified Brown. Later on D-Twelve said the same thing. It was not long that we received word that we were not going to stop it from burning.

I sat in the bucket for a while by myself waiting for the side bin to really get going. I had a camera and I had been taking photos of the whole thing. We moved a propane tank away from the building and used the masterstream from the PL to help protect the PL and the propane tank from the heat of the fire. Wilson showed back up and I used a handline to keep us cool in the PL bucket.

As the fire got roaring I got some action shots.

Hot grain flows from the middle bin like hot lava.

Beginning stages of the second bin burning

Second bin is full of fire, metal siding is red hot.

As the fire got rolling it was very hot in the bucket. We were the closest for the fire. We really didn’t do anything to slow down the fire progression. Once in a while I would stop flowing the handline, which I had in a fog pattern, to see the difference in the heat. It was pretty big. Around five in the morning the small bin had burnt to the ground.

Our replacements showed up and I got to go to the station. While I was there A. Wilcox was there. We talked about the fire and the response for the rest of the night. It was just him and I on Rescue should a call have come out. But by six in the morning nothing had come out. I got home finally and in bed.