Firefighters battled a house fire on the 1400 block of Carl Bethlehem Road late Thursday night that continued throughout early Friday morning in Barrow County.
According to Lt. Scott Dakin, spokesman with Barrow County Emergency Services, communications officers received a 911 call at 10:42 p.m. Sept. 22 reporting the structure fire in the 1400 block of Carl Bethlehem Road.
Lt. Scott Dakin climbed a ladder to assess the fire from above the flames.
Friday morning house fire under investigation
The home, described as a long way off the road, was more than five thousand square feet and included a basement and two stories.
“First arriving firefighters found heavy fire conditions in the second floor of the structure,” said Dakin. “The fire had vented through the roof prior to the arrival of fire crews, therefore the decision was made to attack the fire from outside the structure.”
Ladder 7, Engine 4, Med 7 and Battalion 1 were originally dispatched from Barrow County. Engine 3 and Engine 6 came later with more water.
Deputy Chief John Skinner and Captain Bryan Bullock also came in from their homes to assist in firefighting efforts. West Jackson Fire Department and Jackson Trail Fire Department assisted in delivering water to the scene by utilizing their tanker trucks.
Due to the water issues firefighters were not able to contain the fire before it completely engulfed the first and second floors and started spreading to the basement.
The fire left one person displaced. The American Red Cross responded to the scene to assist them.
The cause of the fire is currently under investigation.
“First arriving firefighters found heavy fire conditions in the second floor of the structure,” said Dakin. “The fire had vented through the roof prior to the arrival of fire crews, therefore the decision was made to attack the fire from outside the structure.”
Ladder 7, Engine 4, Med 7 and Battalion 1 were originally dispatched from Barrow County. Engine 3 and Engine 6 came later with more water.
Deputy Chief John Skinner and Captain Bryan Bullock also came in from their homes to assist in firefighting efforts. West Jackson Fire Department and Jackson Trail Fire Department assisted in delivering water to the scene by utilizing their tanker trucks.
Due to the water issues firefighters were not able to contain the fire before it completely engulfed the first and second floors and started spreading to the basement.
The fire left one person displaced. The American Red Cross responded to the scene to assist them.
The cause of the fire is currently under investigation.
If you look at the pictures in this article you will see one that shows a lieutentant on the nozzle.thats not supposed to happen , he is the supervisor of his Engine crew.But the commisioners aparently took away his firefighters so he has to do all the work. Fine, but dont expect the same amount of work from one Firefighter that you get from 3 or 4.
It takes a certain number of guys to supply the truck with water on the fire scene, a fire doubles in size every minute, I dont know what barrow county has for an initial alarm on a residential structure fire but if you have one or two guys on the initial assignment and they have to do the work of 7 0r 8 you can see how they can quickly get behind the eight ball.Once behind , you cant catch up in a fire, about all you can do at that point is protect exposures.
If my house burns Im gonna sue those jack ass commisioners personaly and I encourage anyone to do the same.
Some people really need to get a different hobby, your just making yourselves look that much more idiotic, not to forget misinformed. It's very obvious some know NOTHING about responding too, or actually fighting fires. KEEP ON BLOGGING, very entertaining.
You , my friend have proven to all who read over the last week or two that you know absolutly nothing about the police business, do we really have to watch you show what you dont know about the fire dept.?
I would much prefer to pay more in taxes now to insure that if I had a fire the first on scene would be sufficient to knock down the fire.
But even more, I'd much rather that the EMS units were sufficiently staffed so that if a call came in that I needed medical help a unit would quickly be able to respond. Today, I'd probably be better off crawling into my truck and trying to get to the hospital on my own.
As a former volunteer firefighter in this county, you can blame the county for what we have now. Before the commission ran off all the volunteers, there was an average staff of about 20 well trained volunteers at all 4 of the county stations and the same in Winder. The response time was similar to the times we see now. The ISO ratings were about the same but we spent about a half million dollars a year on the fire service that could turn out 100 firefighters on a major fire or event. You could not turn out 25 today if you called every employee with the fire service in the county. By the way, I think the Fire budget is 5 million or better today vs. a half million when the volunteers staffed the departments. Each station had a full time day firefighter who kept the equipment in proper shape.
The major cost was an equipment replacement such as an engine or tanker. Manpower was only the daytime full time firefighters at each station. And don't forget the chicken BBQ at each station to raise money for equipment for the departments...don't see that anymore.
Don't tell me that they were not trained as well. That is hogwash. Each volunteer had 12 months to finish the basic firefighters training course and within 36 months to completed the advanced firefighters course. A large number of volunteer firemen were also EMT's and staffed certified "First Responder" medical units. Putting a medical personnel on a heart attack scene within minutes of the call. When the ambulance staff need addtional personnel, they either drove the ambulance to the hospital or assisted in the rear with a major patient or multiple patients. They also ran the rescue with the "Jaws of Life" in the case of entrapment. How long does it take to get a unit on the scene now for the 5 million you pay.
You say Barrow's too big for volunteers now...you might be right, however some counties like Jackson County who has an all volunteer department and Forsythe County, with a much larger population than Barrow still has a volunteer department. As a matter of fact, most of this country has volunteer service.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think you could go back to that system today, couldn't get the volunteers...and the ones that were run off would not likely come back. So, if you want more manpower at each fire station, you've got to pay the price...add another 5 million for the staffing.
The problem of the increased call volume wasnt in fires but in medical calls, not even serious medical calls but more on the order of convalescent calls, where you had a lot of new comers move into the area that needed a ambulance ride to the hospital everytime they had a stomach ache or a sore muscle.Probably if we had just stayed with only fire responsed and left off the medical we would still have a force for evenings and weekend responses.The trouble is trying to be all things for all people.
Anyway, back on topic. I agree that the high number of medical calls we responded to took a toll on each station. It is still going on but we don't hear about it too much any more. The useless trash that used the ambulance service as a taxi to the emergency room so they would not have to sit out in the waiting room to see a physician. Can't tell you how many times we responded to a government apartment to find 5 adults siting on their butts watching TV at 3 a.m. and each one having a car parked outside. The patient would be complaining of an ear ache or stomach cramps or time to see the baby doctor, we'd ask if no one here had a vehicle that could have taken you to the hospital...the answer was always no. Wonder who picked their sorry butts up after the free ride to the doctor. End of rant...that was years ago. Glad I don't have to put up with that crap anymore. Sorry there are those who still do.