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
