At approximately 2230 hrs. on December 12th 2004 a House assignment was dispatched to 205 69th Street for a reported house fire. The assignment included companies from the First and Third Battalions bringing Engine 331, Tower 33 and Volunteer Chief 33 (Riley) as Battalion Chief 1. Company 8 arrived on the scene with Volunteer Chief 8 with a two-story cape cod style home with light smoke showing. Engine 38 assisted 8 with the initial attack line, while Truck 5 arrived and started the search and ventilation. Command held the other units at Level I staging while these actions were in progress. The conditions in the house started to deteriorate rapidly as what was believed to be a first floor fire was now a basement fire with extension to the first floor. The balance of the companies were now put to work with assignments inside and outside the house. As fire presented itself from the small basement windows a transmission from Truck 5 indicated that a member from 8 was low on air in the basement. This was followed shortly thereafter by a MAYDAY for a lost firefighter. Tower 33's crew who was at the rear of the house was deployed with their Thermal Imager to asses the situation and to effect any rescues. From the rear where I was located Truck 17 and Truck 9 threw many ladders to all levels of the structure and opened all windows including center bars and the sashes. In the kitchen where the fire was rapidly progressing to, from the basement stairs and from the front room. Engine 331 with Volunteer Captain Tony Veith and Volunteer Firefighter Reggie Johnson found the member from Company 8 and assisted him from the structure. (these members are unsure of any other FD members assisting in this removal but they cannot be sure due to the confusion that was taking place) The member from 8 was transported to the Burn center and was in critical condition. His medical updates can be found on www.seatpleasantfire.com. Engine 331 returned to the basement which had no exterior entrance and extinguished the remaining fire while companies extinguished the first floor and searched the second floor. There were many lessons to be learned at this fire and I hope in the future we will be able to publish those for all firefighters to see. But for now we can only pray for the Member from Company 8 and assist the Seat Pleasant Volunteer Fire Department and its membership in any way that we can. Volunteer Chief 8 (McGill) was the Incident Commander while Volunteer Chief 33 (Riley) served as the Charlie Division. This brief account was solely written by Chief 33.

Command