Co 11 units were dispatched to 7911 Notes Dr for a fire alarm sounding. The building was a large warehouse used for intermediate processing of recycled material. On arrival, we found heavy smoke conditions from the street and asked dispatch to fill the box for a commercial structure fire. T511 cut the chain to the C side gate and drove through, noting light smoke conditions from the roof and B/C corner. After dropping off the officer and firefighter on side C, T511 drove around to side A to assess conditions there. E511 entered through the side C gate, connected to the hydrant near the C/D corner and deployed a 300 ft line to the door. T511 found several large rollup doors open on sides A and B and smoke rolling out of both. Further investigation revealed a massive pile of recyclable paper and cardboard that was burning inside the warehouse. Given the fuel load and sustained wind speeds of 20 mph providing ventilation, a second alarm was immediately requested.
T511's crew forced several doors and entered the A/D corner through a small office. Upon entry they found that a sprinkler was activated and was keeping the fire from spreading. Using the thermal imager, T511 also noted what appeared to be the seat of the fire. Since E511 was committed to side C, T511 had E525 deploy a handline through the office toward the seat of the fire. E504 arrived and connected to a second hydrant and supplied E525. C501 then established command and had TW525 position for master stream operations through the rollup door. T511 established roof access with their aerial while other crews placed ladders on other sides of the structure. While TW525's master stream operation was successful in knocking down the fire, the pile of paper was over 20 feet high. The only way to fully extinguish the fire was going to be via removal, sorting and soaking of the pile. TW525's officer assumed operation of Loader525 – a front-end loader located near the pile found with the keys inside. Loader 525 spent the next five hours hauling burning debris to the outside of the structure. E511 and T511 crews soaked the pile on the inside using a handline while E525 deployed a hoseline in the parking lot on the dumped material.
The fire was deemed out just over 5 hours after the call was initiated. Special thanks to those that supported this lengthy operation in the bitter cold and biting wind. Brush 504 arrived with a rear-mounted salt spreader to keep the wet parking lot from becoming dangerous. Chicken Man arrived and kept the hot chocolate and coffee flowing throughout as we worked through our first working fire of 2010. Nice work everyone!
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