Green Motors Fire - The Attack (Part One)

OK, I think I’ve finally mustered the courage to start this particular story. It’s 3 parts so I think that the daunting task has discouraged me. So, here goes….

This story begins on a weekday evening, March of 1990 or possibly 1991. Honestly, I don’t remember the correct year, but because we were still living on Moffett Drive, it was before Alessandra was born.

This particularly beautiful spring day I had taken Charlotte and Cara skiing at Mammoth. We had returned home about 4:00 in the afternoon and things were just settling in for the day. About 5:30 as the sun was still shining brightly outside, my pager went off, “Attention Bishop Volunteers, Attention Bishop Volunteers, we have a report of a structure fire at Green Motors on Main St., please respond.”

Green Motors was a fairly large Chevy dealership in the middle of town. It had a showroom large enough for 2 or 3 new cars and a repair center that seemed to be able to hold 20 cars inside, 10 on each side the large garage portion of the building. It was owned by Joe & Jan Green whom we knew from town; in fact Melodie had worked for the dealership for a while when were first married.

Before the announcement was even finished I was heading out the front door to jump in my pickup and drive to the firehouse. From Moffett I could look about six blocks west and 2 blocks north and immediately saw a large thick column of black smoke. I took just a moment to stop and holler to Melodie and the girls to look outside, this was going to be a big one. In fact, little did I know then, but this fire would be the largest fire I would ever respond to.

I arrived at the Main Station to find that Engine 10 had already responded and the next truck to roll would be Engine 6, a 1959 American LaFrance with an incredibly low 6300 miles on it. It was in mint condition and was capable of pumping 1250 gallons per minute. It had room for a crew of 6 , 2 in the cab, 2 in the jump seats and 2 more on the tailboard. However on this particular day the Engineer rolled with just 2 in the cab and 2 on the tailboard, Alan Kendrick and me.

With full lights and siren and all the air horn we could muster we turned north onto Main Street only to see that the column of smoke had continued to increase in size and anger.

Alan and I knew that we would be “taking a hydrant” on this fire, it was going to be a long night. Note: Most fire apparatus carry between 250 and 1000 gallons of water and on large fires it is necessary to find a source, typically a hydrant. Pumping at ½ of its capacity Engine 6 would be out of water with in 120-180 seconds of arrival, but this should be enough time to connect the hydrant to the intake of the pump to continue the assault on the advancing fire.

The discussion on the tailboard was about who would take the hydrant while the other began donning a SCBA (Self Contained Breathing Apparatus), a tank that should last 30 minutes. It was pretty obvious that I would be closest to the hydrant and it made sense that I wrap the fireplug and send the truck down the road a bit while I worked to connect the source. I was disappointed because this meant it was likely that I would not be on the hose of the initial attack. It was my favorite place to be, on the tip of the nozzle, where the most action was to be had.

I completed my task and moved quickly back to Engine 6 that had pulled across the road closer to the structure. I noticed that the initial attack had not been launched so I quickly put on my SCBA, a task that I could do in less than 60 seconds. As I came up to the tip of the hose I realized that Chief Phil Moxley had decided to wait until we had multiple lines charged and ready before we opened the locked drive through door to the garage. This was my lucky day. Alan would be on the tip and I would get the chance to be right behind him after all.

The padlock was broken and we began to crawl our way in. The fire was raging in a fairly large but confined area about 75 feet beyond the doorway. It was dark and smoky as we moved forward. Within 5 feet of entering the smoke, Alan dropped the nozzle and motioned to me that we were backing out. Apparently he had not taken enough time to put on his mask properly and was taking smoke in through the seal. He was going back outside to adjust it. As I picked up the tip I really knew it was my lucky day. Before I reentered I felt the presence of a second firefighter and turned to see Battalion Chief Dick Weller behind me. Dick was the training officer for the department and with 25+ years of experience there was no one else that would give me more comfort in this situation.

We crawled our way into the building through heavy thick smoke. After about 60 feet we began our assault on the seat of the fire before us. In the meantime additional men and equipment began to arrive, setup and also make attacks.

We had been working on our knees for about 20-25 minutes when I felt a loud, heavy thump on my left shoulder. It was Weller and through his mask he told me to we were to drop the tip and get out as fast as possible. I knew that something was wrong because in a typical situation you back out with the tip in your hand as others pulled the slack from the outside. His instructions were very clear and he pointed to the ceiling of the building. I knew his point was that the roof was coming in and we were in danger.

Even though the smoke had cleared some it was still very difficult to see more than a foot or so in front of my face. I turned and immediately became disoriented. There was no way to find my bearings. Weller was there and calmly grabbed my hand and placed it on the hose. From that point my training kicked in and I simply crawled out to safety using the hose line as my guide.

Within a minute after our exit the entire roof did collapse as expected and from that point on the firefight went from “offensive” to “defensive”, in that we conceded that we had lost this building and our job now as to contain it so that no other neighboring buildings were also lost.

In less than one hour the Bishop Volunteer Fire Department was 100% committed to this fire. Of the 55 men on the department, 52 were on scene, 2 were out of town and one was home in bed with the flu. We were so committed that we asked an Engine Company from the neighboring town of Big Pine to come and sit at our station just in case a second call came in while we were mopping up at Green Motors.

TO BE CONTINUED: Green Motors Fire – The Investigation (Part Two)