Vehicle Into A Building

On February 14th at 1110 hours Rescue 1 was dispatched to 1602 Jennie Scher Road for a vehicle into an apartment building. A contractor that was cutting down trees indicated that they parked the truck and set the brake and was loading the truck when it rolled into the building. No one was injured. The building official did condemn the building. Rescue 1 cleared at 1340 hours.

Early Morning Fire Claims A Life

Richmond Fire units were dispatched to the 1800 block of Peter Paul Blvd at 12:13 a.m. for a reported house fire.  Quint 11 arrived on scene with smoke showing from a brick rancher.  Units forced the front door and found a victim a few feet inside the door.  The victim was removed and declared dead at the scene.  The fire was marked under control at 12:36 a.m.  The fire is under investigation.

3 Alarm Fire in Richmond's East End

On February 25th at 0323 hours; E-8, Q-11, Q-6, Q-13, Rescue 1, Safety 2, and BC 1 were dispatched to the 5200 block of Hatcher Road for the reported building fire with several explosions heard. E-8 arrived on scene to find a large industrial complex with heavy fire showing and explosions still being heard. BC-1 struck the second alarm and immediately requested the Hazardous Materials team to respond. As additional units arrived, they identified several compressed gas tanks near the fire and removed them to a safe area. Quints 11, 6, and 13 used elevated master stream devices to combat the fire. Once a working fire was declared, Q-5, Q-17, Air Light 11 and BC-2 were added to the assignment.


The second alarm brought in, E-12, Q-15, Rescue 3, Haz Mat 3, and BC-3 those units were utilized for a variety of operations, some of them being relay pumping. Two engines and a BC were requested from Henrico Fire to assist with relay pumping and fire ground operations. Resources quickly begin to be used and a third alarm was eventually struck bringing in Q-18, Q-23, Rescue 2, and a special request for E-24 and Tanker 24 to respond for water supply.



Units were able to remove several items before they sustained damage. Those items ranged from compressed gas cylinders to Port-A-Johns. CSX did have several cars located on nearby railroad tracks that contained several kinds of hazardous materials and they were about 50 to 60 yards away. The fire did extend to a pile of nearby tires, about 100 caught fire. Foam was used to suppress the tires that were on fire as the run off  was contained to a retention pond nearby. The Henrico Fire Hazardous Materials Team was added to the call and the EPA was notified as environmental concerns of the run off increased.

The fire was brought under control at 0613 hour. The investigation team and other units remained on scene well into the night. The fire is still under investigation.

Richmond Fire Battles House Fire with a Near Miss

On December 18, the City was busy with nearly 10 inches of snow at 2320 hours Q-1, Q-11, Q-8, Q-5, Q-6, R-1, Safety 2 and BC-1 were dispatched to the 500 block of N. 33rd Street for a reported house fire. BC-1 arrived on scene with heavy fire showing from the C side of a two story wood frame structure with fire spreading to the B and D exposure he immediately requested the 2nd alarm. Units did have some difficulty responding to this incident due to weather conditions. Units placed several 2½" lines in service to protect the exposures and the original fire structure. Units entered the house and begin fire attack. Chief 2 arrived on location and immediately did a walk around of the incident and discovered conditions on the C side had deteriorated and immediately ordered the evacuation of the structure. Emergency communications activated the evacuation tones and units quickly departed the structure, within 60 seconds there was partial collapse of the roof. This truly was a near miss for our personnel. The fire was marked under control shortly after midnight. Units remained on scene assisting the fire investigators well into the morning. The fire is under investigation.

Churchill fire sends 9 to the hospital.

On November 18, at 0831 Richmond Emergency Communications received numerous calls for an apartment fire in the 1300 block of Coalter Street. Initial calls indicated that several people were possibly trapped inside. Quint 11 arrived on scene with a 3-story apartment building with heavy smoke showing from the C side. Crews entered the building and discovered a downstairs apartment well involved in fire. 

Quint 11 launched an aggressive interior fire attack. The fire was contained to one unit of the building, although nine other units received smoke damage. The fire was marked under control in about 30 minutes. A total of 19 people were seen by Fire and EMS personnel, of those nine were transported to an area hospital. 

The fire caused $100,000 in damage and the investigation team has ruled it as accidental.