Where I live, 2008 will always be remembered as the year that our downtown changed dramatically, due to fire loss.

On February 2^nd, we fought Van Getson’s fire to a stalemate. Our fire department held the fire to the building of origin, when the possibility existed that we could have lost the entire block.

Did we do everything right to achieve this outcome?

Hell no, but we did enough things the right way that Murphy’s Law did not beat us that day.

And I have always believed that, to achieve victory, you have to make the fewest mistakes!

I defy anyone to say that they would score a perfect “10” for their performance at a structural fire. I think that there could be a lot of 8s and 9s; maybe even a 9.5, but a 10? No way! And I would guarantee some low scores too. We could probably see some 4s and 5s. God help us if there are departments would “score” less!

Yesterday, November 23^rd, our downtown was struck again with a major commercial building fire. Van Getson’s “twin”, just north and across the street from where it once stood, Landuyt’s building caught fire. Wind was out of the south at 5-6 mph, meaning that a restaurant and a popular bar with apartments above were definitely in play.

So, at 1:30 pm on a Sunday afternoon, we have an empty, two-story, brick building that had no power to it catch fire. Weird, huh? I’ll let you chew on that for awhile.

It was quite an effort; just like last time. We’d had practice; remember?

As I stood there, watching (see photo), two things were on my mind: 1) the secretlist and 2) Paul Grimwood’s book Euro Firefighter. Why? Because BillyG had sent notification of yet another FDNY LODD from structural collapse and Grimwood’s newest book really zeroes in on, not only incident command, but incident CONTROL! And BOTH were heavy on my mind.

I will tell you that I have an unnatural love for my firefighters. I have deep admiration and respect for my officers. Every one of them has EARNED their bugles. The chief is the closest thing to a brother that I have known. In a word, we have a department that takes the services that we provide very seriously. And they/we don’t take criticism very well. And I don’t believe in discussing it in an open forum and especially without discussing it with them first. When the time is right, I will meet with them for a debriefing and I will ask them my questions.

Am I “armchair quarterbacking”? No; I was there.

When you look at the photo, look at where I am focusing my attention. I am in the stocking cap. My buddy, Matt, is in the wheelchair. Yes; Matt is a firefighter, who now suffers from MS.

If you notice, my eyes are fixed on the building, knowing that it has been under heavy fire load for over two hours, has been the recipient of several thousand gallons of water and is a building that is 100 years old. There has already been partial collapse of the parapet walls on the north and south sides. Bowing could be seen and smoke was pushing from the southeast corner, indicating separation at the corner joint.

You guessed it; I was watching for collapse. The collapse zone in this case was a minimum of 30 feet. Two stories equal 20 feet and I always add 10 feet for a parapet wall, so anyone in the street south and east are in the collapse zone. That made me very uneasy!

And I will be honest; Murphy showed up at some of my incidents, so I know that he was there yesterday, waiting for his chance.

But he didn’t get his chance. Fire was contained to the building of origin. The rest of our downtown is intact.

Both fires were fires that we have always practiced for, but thought that they would never happen. But they have…twice…and in the same year.

And I blame Murphy. He’s an SOB that, even though I am no longer an active firefighter, I am still looking for him and on the two, biggest fires in our department’s history; it is Clover 2 Murphy 0.

TCSS.