Yesterdays Fire Calls

It was a busy day for many fire departments in Hancock County yesterday. Around 6:00pm Lamoine was toned out for mutual aid on a working fire in a large industrial building just outside of the Ellsworth city center. A half dozen Lamoine personnel and our rescue truck went directly to the scene and myself and a few others along with the tanker went to the Ellsworth station on stand-by. A few minutes after I arrived at the Ellsworth station another neighboring town (Trenton) was toned for a working fire. Also in an industrial building. Lamoine's reserve crews and our tanker at the Ellsworth station were re-tasked to assist Trenton.

















I was on scene in Trenton from 7:15pm to about 12:15am. Initially I worked an attack line on a crew of three from the front of the building but during this time the fire had fully involved the attic space. Smoke was pouring out all along the eves and half of the interior floor space was burning.

Our crew pulled out to swap bottles and I was asked to assist moving some hose lines to an engine that had just arrived. The driver of Mount Desert Engine 6 wasn't comfortable running the truck so for the next two and a half hours I ran that engine supplying a 2.5" and 1.5" line. Engine 6 pumped somewhere between 12,000 and 14,000 gals of water while I ran it.















Also on scene was Trenton's primary Engine and a ladder truck from Bar Harbor (Possible from Mount Desert). Lamoine Engine 401 was setup at a water source filling tankers for the water shuttle (no hydrants in the area of the fire). Stu (the person running 401) estimated over 100,000 gals of water was used throughout the night.

At some point Lamoine crews and equipment at the Ellsworth fire were released and came to Trenton to work that fire. All mutual aid departments were released from the Trenton scene about 12:30am. After clean up and restocking of the trucks we left the Lamoine station around 2:00.

The Ellsworth fire caused a lot of damage, but the building is still standing. The Trenton fire was a complete loss. The building fell in on itself and an excavator was called in to open up the debris pile to get at hot spots. Both places lost an enormous amount of machine tools, welding equipment and specialty machinery.

Here is a link to a local papers coverage of the fires:
http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/106085.html

Hudson is trying to murder us in our sleep.

This morning Hudson succumb to his baser instincts and managed to pull a 8oz tub of butter off the counter and some meat scraps out of a pan that was on the stove top. While going after the meat the little bastard turned on one of the gas burners. He didn't manage to ignite it though. Patty was assaulted by the pungent odor of LP gas as she came down the stairs. I don't think it had been on that long, but long enough to make the first floor an explosive hazard. Thankfully the gas didn't leak into the basement. Fifteen minutes with the doors and windows open flushed the gas out of the house. It would have been a very exciting way to wake up if the compressor motor under the fridge had lit it off though.

To his credit he did manage to get to the meat without pulling the Pyrex dish off the stove top, and the butter tub was licked clean. He leaves no mess when he steals food. This is the second tub of butter in about three weeks. His cholesterol numbers must be off the chart.

The face of a killer?

White powered fun stuff... (Not Coke)

We had a huge snow storm this weekend. Total snow fall was around 2 feet, maybe a bit less. When I plow out the drive way I try and push a bunch of snow next to the garage so the kids have a "mountain" of snow to play on.

Here's a bunch of photos of the little monsters playing.

Towering over the world.


That pile of snow is almost six feet tall.


I'm growling at Matthew to get him to smile.


A perspective shot. That car under all that snow is the green Jeep.


Madi and Hudson.


Matthew traumatized by the snow on his cheek.


The radio weather man said something about another system moving across the country that should hit us in ten days or so. If it hits as predicted we should see another large snow fall.