Today we had a brush fire in Station 56’s area.  They were out on another call (actually another brush fire). We arrived to find a large area that was burnt with many spot fires.  We requested a second engine for more water due to the distance from a hydrant. It took about 15 minutes to completely put out the fires and cool down the area.  Engine 56 had cleared their call and came over to our location.

Today Hampstead had two dwelling fires so E413 was requested to go to fill in at Hampstead’s fire house.  While there they were alerted for a 20′ by 20′ shed on fire as well as surround brush on fire.  E413 arrived first and pulled handlines off.  Numerous engines and tanker engines were required to put the fire out due to the lack of hydrants in the area.

S414 was alerted as a 2nd squad for a two car collision in Hamsptead Maryland.  Two people were trapped and a Maryland State helicopter transported the two people to hospital.  The crew from S414 helped with patient packaging and loading into the helicopter.

This morning started very early for some of us at the fire station.  The calls started coming in just before 5am due to the ice and rain.  In all we ran 29 suppression calls in Reisterstown, Owings Mills and down into Randallstown.  E413 was transferred to Station 18 in Randallstown as their station was out on a fire.  Most of the calls were to do with downed wires due to the weight of the ice on trees but there were a couple of medical calls as well.  The calls slowed down around 3pm this afternoon.

Early this morning stations were alerted for an apartment fire in Randallstown with people trapped.  S414 was on the initial assignment and as soon after the first engine arrived command called for a second alarm.  E412 and E413 were dispatched on the second alarm.  S414 crews searched the third floor and also setup exterior and interior lighting.  Engine crews helped with fire extinguishment.  Several hours afterward command requested multiple pickup trucks to take the frozen hose and equipment back to surrounding stations.  U419 was dispatched and two more firefighters went down to help with the equipment.  In all, 16 firefighters from Reisterstown were at the scene on four pieces of apparatus.

Pictures courtesy of B Barnes and C Jones.

Last night S414, SU418 and 4 other Baltimore County units were requested by Carroll County to respond to a second alarm building fire in Eldersburg.  Personnel from S414 and SU418 were requested to go to the roof of the building to assist with suppression and overhaul.  Station 41 equipment was onscene for approximately 2 hours before we were cleared.

Yesterday was very busy for RVFC. We ran 14 suppression (engine and/or squad) runs in our area and down to Owings Mills. There were many people and businesses that had issues with water flow alarms most likely due to the very cold weather the last few days.

Tonight a dwelling fire was put out for a vacant house in Glyndon’s first due.  Reisterstown’s E412 was enroute very quickly after the first tone and S414 followed shortly after (along with other apparatus from surrounding stations).  E412 arrived to find a vacant house with smoke coming up from the basement area.  They pulled a handline off the engine and went around to the back as it had open access.  S414 crew opened up the front door and then removed some of the plywood covering the windows for ventilation.  The fire ended up being a small basement fire and the fire investigators were called to determine the cause of the fire. Reisterstown’s crew were there for approximately 2 hours.

This afternoon we had a rescue box where a truck went into a ditch.  The driver was in the vehicle when we arrived.  We stabilized the vehicle with the winch cable from the squad and extricated the patient using the stokes basket. The patient was transported by M435 and the engine and squad cleared shortly after.

We are very happy to have Obie Belt back in town to drive the squad on the call.

Today our station and many surrounding companies were alerted for a dwelling fire in our first due area.  The engine arrived with fire in the back room on the second floor.  Engine 56 along with Engine 412 knocked the fire.  Engine 412 cleared the scene within an hour.

Pictures courtesy of D Potts (currently inactive due to recent knee surgery).