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Shortly before 1400, as a snowstorm started to pick up momentum, Phone Box 64 was dispatched for 837 Hampden Boulevard. E9-E11-E1-L3-R1-M560-E13 Safety-Cars 1,3,6,22,23, & FM10 responded on the Box as dispatch was receiving numerous calls, E11 reported a visual from 6th & Spring Streets.
Engine 9 arrived on the scene reporting heavy smoke & fire showing from a large garage attached to a dwelling and quickly went in service with an 1 3/4 handline into an apartment to the rear of the garage. Arriving companies pulled 2 more 1 3/4 lines, 1 to protect Exposure B and the other for fire attack from Side A.
The building involved was a 1 1/2 story oversized 2 bay garage with a small add-on apartment in the rear. Over the garage was a 4 foot addition over the existing roof, exposures C & D were alley ways. Exposure B was a 2 1/2 story single dwelling attached to the garage but not inter-connected.
Fire was well advanced in the large void area above the garage as crews manually removed the bay doors. A propane cylinder& gas cans were removed from the garage and trash was piled 3 feet high inside the garage areas. The void area had to be accessed by using saws on either side of the garage & rear roof area as the ceiling of the garage was 1 inch tongue and groove construction. A 2 1/2 handline was put into service as one of the ceilings in the south bay partially failed.
Crews contained & then controlled the fire within 20 minutes with a lot of overhaul to be done. Snow & ice made it tough going on the fire scene and crews finished up my saturating the garage with detergent foam.
All apparatus stayed on scene till after 1630 wrapping up icy equipment & hoselines. E13 needed the City Shop to assist in re-firing their apparatus at the scene as their alternator went bad.
FM10 & Car 23 determined the fire to have started by an electrical malfunction in a bathroom off the small apartment in the rear and quickly advanced into the large voids over the garages. There were no reported injuries and no damage report was available.
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