Hay Barn Fire

Sunday morning I got up at 0230 to get ready for work. Worked 10 hours in dispatch. Came home. Got K and Chris and we headed to East Canyon for dinner with the parents. Kickin back relaxing and enjoying the night. 

 We left there around 7. Had to come home and take Kennedy to Brigham where Liz was watching her for the night since the sitter needed Monday off. Chris and I were talking about how we were so excited to go home and get to bed before 9 that night. We were exhausted and ready to sleep. We were just in Perry on our way home when his pager went off for a structure fire in Willard. We had just crested the Hargus Hill in Willard when we could see the huge plume of smoke. Dark smoke. We made it to the station as the first truck was pulling out and we came in the second engine. I got the back seat, my favorite. Chris, Taylor and Rod were inside.

 The closer we got the more flames we could see. They had told us it was a hay barn on fire.

 We set up and started making a good perimeter and protecting structures. The thing with a hay barn fire is you really cant put it out quickly if its fully involved.  You just have to let it burn. Make sure nothing else catches on fire and protect any structures and just wait. There were 250 tons of hay inside, a tractor and trailer. You can only put out a hay fire once you can start breaking the bales of hay apart and with a fire like this its not going to happen for a long time. Maybe even days. So all of these pictures were taken AFTER we had put out the other fires around it and were just keeping an eye on the perimeter pretty much.

Chris

 Taylor and Chris

 Ryan, Randi and Lindsay

We were cooling down the barn next to the fire 

 The roof had collapsed by this point. It looks short but the poles that are standing had to be 20 feet tall

 Taking a drink break

 View from the top of the engine running the deck gun to cool the other barn

 Zack on the north end wetting down some weeds

Me

 Chris and Nic running the water monitor about 4 hours into the fire trying to knock out part of the south end that had finally burned down enough to put out

 Chris and I about 1am taking a drink and jerky break.

 It was HOT outside especially in structure gear. We all worked really hard on trying to stay hydrated. It was just Willard Fire fighting this. We had a Weber Fire engine respond for mutual aid and they helped us for a while. They were great! The first crew of us were finally released about 0230 that next morning. It was the first time Ive ever been glad I didnt make the first truck because they sent the 2nd truck home first. I was completely EXHAUSTED. I had been up for 24 hrs straight. Worked my normal job and then worked hard on this fire. I was supposed to be getting up for work when we were going home. I knew I couldnt do it so I had to call in. We went home, showered and fell into bed to sleep for a few hours. Chris went to work at 6 that morning and I went back out on the fire to relieve people about 830-9. 

That morning we had a 1/3 of the people to clean up and finish the fire. There were 5 of us there and that was all. We loaded up all the extra hose and got our trucks pulled back up.

We were worried about hot ashes starting another fire since we were going to have to leave it smoldering and check on it frequently. So we talked with the home owner and did a small control burn in one of the highest risk areas. I lit the fire.

 We burned half of it on one side and weed whacked the other to clear it away from the other barn there and then burned that side. We cleaned up everything and headed for the station.

 But we were far from done.

We had to wash all the hose we used. We rolled out over 700 feet of 5 inch hose alone.. plus 1 1/2 inch and 1 3/4  inch hose. We have to wash it all on and then load it back on the trucks. Clean up the trucks and make sure everything is back in place. Our Chiefs son was the cutest little hose washer. Such a good helper!

 One of our guys wife brought us burgers and root beer for lunch, which was great because I hadn't eaten since dinner that night. 

We got everything put back together and cleaned up. I got home about 230 that afternoon right as Kennedy was getting there. I took a shower, she made a TV dinner (God bless those things!!!) and I passed out for about 2 hours. She kept coming in while I was sleeping and kissing me on the forehead.

We were all pretty tired. Everyone did a great job and worked so hard.