Fire Investigation

I have chosen to write my paper on a fire that occurred on February 4th, 2007 and was initially reported at 0934 in a small town in Pennsylvania. The weather at the time of the incident included a high temperature of fourteen degrees, with a low of three degrees. Winds were between ten and twenty miles per hour and there were gusts up to thirty miles per hour. This fire killed one firefighter a 27 year old male with approximately thirteen total years experience twelve and a half of those being volunteer, it also injured another firefighter, a 38 year old male with a total of eighteen years of experience. A canopy collapsed upon the two of them trapping them under the debris. Initially two Engines and one command vehicle were dispatched to the fire. A total of five firefighters and one chief were initially on scene. Upon arrival the dispatch center was notified to request mutual aid RIT team and to initiate a recall of the departments off duty firefighters. The first to arrive was the departments own TS-2 vehicle with an additional 4 off-duty firefighters. The mutual aid RIT team arrives just as the canopy collapses trapping two firefighters. The RIT team consisted of four additional firefighters. Later a helicopter and two ambulances were requested. The structure involved in this incident included a residential two story house with an attached garage built in 1910, and last renovated in 1950. The house dimensions were approximately 48 feet long by 20 feet wide and the garage was approximately 24 feet long and 24 feet wide. The garage was of traditional wooden construction. The garage had a peaked gable roof with attic storage, and the floor was concrete. The garage was connected to the property’s 2-story house by a small vestibule room. The home was of balloon construction, was 1,316 square feet. The garage was also attached to an irregular-shaped concrete block structure that had been a commercial motorcycle shop at one time. A large canopy