At 1821 hours on 19 Feb 2019 members of the Danville Volunteer Fire Department, Van Volunteer Fire Department, Racine Volunteer Fire Department, and the Madison Volunteer Fire Department were dispatched to a fire on Main Street in Madison. A Main Street-style fire is very unique in the fire service, as ceilings and roofs don’t always coincide with each other, and sometimes only one wall separates a partially collapsed building from adjacent apartments. These factors exponentially increase the risk, complexity, and amount of personnel needed to control these situations.
Initial arriving units were met with a smokey, vague sense of what was going on. No flames were showing, and limited manpower was available. With the heaviest smoke coming from the
structure closest to the railroad tracks; an interior attack was started from the door located in the Odell Lodge side parking lot. With interior teams unable to get to the seat of the fire, and observable conditions quickly deteriorating, the call was made to evacuate the primary structure and focus on preventing it from spreading to the attached building.
Shortly after this call was made, the roof collapsed in, sending parts of the wall from the Main Street side and the parking lot side towards rescue workers and their apparatus.
Thankfully, Madison had already repositioned Engine 251 out of the collapse zone. Ladder 199 remained in place as a shield for members to get from the upper side of the fire to the lower side. A Safety Officer from the Racine Fire Department assisted in ensuring no one was entering into the collapse zone.
Two three-man crews were sent into the adjacent building, which was condemned following a prior main street fire a couple months ago. These teams were in search of extensions over or through the party wall. With the use of two hand lines, they were able to prevent the second structure from burning.
As of this writing, the cause of this fire is unknown and no injuries were reported. The members of the Danville VFD would like to extend a thank you to all other agencies on scene providing assistance, including but not limited to, the Boone County Ambulance Authority, Madison Police Department, Boone County Emergency Management Agency, West Virginia State Fire Marshall’s Office, Red Cross, and the City of Madison. Please use caution when traveling on Main Street in this area.
All rights reserved. Photos courtesy of Greg Hager and Google Maps.
