MFD Stands By at Races
On Friday, May 26, the Miller Fire Department was on hand at the Miller Speedway just in case there was a wreck or fire. This night, there were neither, just lots of good racing!
Tractor Fire
On Wednesday, May 24, at approximately 1500 hours, the Miller Fire Department was paged to a tractor fire. The location was 22 miles from Miller. I didn't hold out much hope for the tractor. We responded with two engines, two brush trucks, and a suburban.
The South Hand Fire Department was also paged. They responded with an engine and a brush truck.
The first unit to arrive was our brush truck F7. The tractor had a small amount of smoke showing, but no major damage. The brush truck was able to extinguish the fire without any trouble. Surprisingly, the tractor wasn't damaged too badly. A few repairs and it should be ready to go.
Photo courtesy of Hand County Emergency Management.
It shows our 1st assistant chief and treasurer, along with a South Hand firefighter inspecting the tractor to make sure the fire is out.
All units were back in service at the Miller fire hall by 1630 hours.
MFD at the Car Races
On Friday night, May 19, the Miller Fire Department was on hand to provide fire suppression at the Miller Speedway. No big wrecks, no fires, just lots of good racing!
Car Wrecks at the Races
The Miller Fire Department provided fire support at the Miller Speedway on Friday, May 12. I was on the crew this time so I got to watch the races this week.
Two major wrecks this week. The first happened when a car spun out on turn two and smacked into the guard rail that protects the pit area. The guardrail is made of railroad ties. The driver was OK, but the car wasn't. They were done racing for the night.
The second occurred right in front of the grandstand. The car turned sideways and rolled. It then hit the concrete wall. Not good. Luckily, the driver was OK, but I'm betting he was very sore the next day. They will have their work cut out for them in getting that car ready to race again.
No fires at either of the wrecks, but it got out blood pumping as we drove across the infield to respond.
I know it would be better if we had more pictures to accompany these reports, so I'll try to do a better job of getting some pictures.
Friday Night Races
The Miller Fire Department provided fire protection at the Miller Speedway on Friday evening, 05/05/2006. Our firefighters are starting to lose a little interest in attending so we only had four firefighters show up. They took a brush truck and an engine. There were no fires so the guys got to enjoy a great evening of racing.
Hay Bale Fire
On Saturday, 04/29, at around 1330 hours, the MFD was paged to a hay wagon on fire in St. Lawrence, a town about 2 miles away from Miller. We responded with two brush trucks, one engine, and about eight firefighters.
Apparently, a tire on the hay wagon was rubbing on the hay wagon frame. The heat ignited the hay bales in the wagon - eight large, round bales. The hay was fully involved when we arrived. The owner had disconnected their pickup from the wagon and left the wagon on a narrow road.
We had the owner pull the wagon into their corral and then tip over the wagon so that we could spread the hay bales out. You would think that hay bales would burn up quickly, but they are so compacted that they will burn for several hours unless you pull them apart so that the air and heat can get to the interior of the bale.
Usually, with a hay bale fire, there are so many bales, that we end up digging a hole and burying the hay bales instead of burning them up. Burning them up would just take too long and require a ton of effort.
In this case, we only had eight bales, so we thought we would go ahead and burn them up. We had the owner use his tractor to spread the bales out and we used pitchforks to pull apart the bales. Everything was going great until...it started to rain! Not just a sprinkle either, but it rained hard for 10 minutes. So much for burning up the hay bales.
The rain didn't put the bales out completely, but we weren't going to be able to finish what we started. The owner agreed to keep an eye on things and we headed back to the fire hall. We were back in service by around 1530.
Races at the Miller Speedway
The Miller Fire Department provided fire suppression services again at the races at the Miller Speedway on 04/28. So far this year at the track, we haven't had to do a thing except watch the races.
MFD Attends Races
Friday, April 21, the Miller FD was requested to attend the races at the Miller Speedway. There was only one wreck and no fires.
We will be at these races on a weekly basis providing fire suppression services. I'm going to continue to post these "incidents" because I'm using my blog to track our incidents for the year.
Miller Speedway
It's racing season here in Miller!
Last Friday, 04/14/2006, at 1800 hours, the Miller FD reported to the Miller Speedway to provide fire protection for the car races. We sent a brush truck, an engine, and the rescue truck, along with 5 firefighters.
There weren't any major wrecks and only one car got hot. We didn't have to do a thing except watch the races.
The race track has worked out a pretty nice deal for the firefighters. All of the firefighters get in free and get free food at the concession stand. Each firefighter gets a pass for up to three family members to get in and watch the races for free too.
We were back at the fire hall by 2300 hours.
Car Fire
On 04/13/2006, at 1245 hours, the Miller Fire Department was dispatched to a car on fire in the armory parking lot. A couple of firefighters and I just happened to be at the fire hall when the page went out. That doesn't happen very often!
We got our gear on and were just pulling out of the fire hall when the Miller Police Department let us know that they had the fire under control. We let them know that we would go ahead and drive up to the armory just in case. We responded with one engine and one suburban with three firefighters.
Upon arrival, we found a car with some burned carpeting, but the fire was out. The driver of the car had dumped their ashtray into the little garbage can in the car. Then they left the car and went into the armory. A few minutes later, another person noticed smoke coming from the open window of the car and called 911. Lucky.
We were back at the fire hall and ready for the next call by 1300 hours.
Mutual Aid to a Grass Fire
On 04/10/2006, at 1720 hours, the Miller FD was paged to give mutual aid on a large grass fire.
The grass has just started to green up here, but last year's dead grass is dry and there was some wind on that day. If it had been a little warmer and earlier in the day, this fire could have been really big.
The fire was located 33 miles from Miller, near the town of Polo. That is a long haul when you are looking at a big smoke column from a fast moving grass fire.
We responded with three brush trucks and two engines with a total of 10 firefighters. The Polo Fire Department had all of their apparatus there. I think they had two engines and one brush truck. Some civilians responded with two ATVs outfitted with weed spraying equipment that they used to spray water. A 6,000 gallon water truck owned by a nearby farmer also was there to refill fire trucks. The Hand County Deputy Sheriff was there as well.
The fire was started by a rubbish pile that had been burned two weeks before the outbreak of the grass fire. The wind apparently blew embers from the remains of the rubbish pile into the dry grass. The fire was approximately 1.75 miles long and averaged somewhere around 400 yards wide. Total area is approximately 255 acres.
We were back in service in Miller by 2130 hours.
If I can get some pictures from some of the responding units, I'll post them.
Dynamite Disposal
A farmer south of Miller found some old dynamite on his farm. The dynamite was old and sweating nitroglycerin. The sherriff's office arranged for the disposal of the dynamite. They asked for the fire department to be present at the scene in case things went wrong.
The disposal took place on April 4, 2006, at 1200 hours. The ATF, South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation, Hand County Sheriff, Hand County Emergency Management, Hand County Ambulance, and Miller Fire Department were all present. We responded with an engine, a brush truck, and a suburban with a total of seven firefighters.
The DCI guys moved the 25 pounds of old dynamite to the corner of a field, wired up two pounds of their own explosives, and detonated it. Big bang! I felt the shock wave on my chest from about 200 yards away. I wasn't able to get a picture of the detonation, but here are some pictures from the scene.
The dynamite was found in an old, collapsed shed. The red arrow shows where the dynamite was located.
Here is the DCI Bomb Squad truck.
Here is the bomb robot in the back of the truck.
The DCI and ATF agents prepping the dynamite for detonation.
Brush truck F8.
Here is the aftermath of the explosion. They managed to get the hole filled back in before I could get a picture. The hole was about 2.5 feet in diameter and about 14 inches deep. The explosion threw dirt clods about 30 yards in every direction.
03/23/2006: Fire at Blow-In Insulation Plant
At 1205 hours, the Miller Fire Department was paged to a fire at a blow-in insulation manufacturer. The first real structure fire of the year.
We responded with 2 engines and 1 support vehicle along with a couple of firefighters in the personal vehicles. A total of eight firefighters were on scene. The sheriff, deputy sheriff, a police officer, and the emergency manager also responded (they are members of the fire department too, but they responded in their other capacities).
The bin above a grinding machine was full of partially ground-up insulation, some of which was smoldering. The employees had discharded a couple of fire extinguishers into the bin and put the flames out, but it was still hot.
The employees, working with some of the firefighters, shoveled out the bin and the smoldering insulation was taken outside. The insulation that had recently been run through the grinder was bagged and then taken outside as a precaution.
We were back at the fire hall and ready for the next call by 1315. Nobody was hurt and there was no property damage other than a few pounds of insulation. If the employees hadn't caught the fire early, this could have been ugly.
3/9/2006: Mutual Aid to a Corn Stubble Fire
At around 1530 hours, the Wessington Fire Department was requested to respond to a corn stubble fire 1 mile south and 2 miles west of Wessington. Since it has been pretty dry, I drove down to the fire hall just in case they decided to call us for mutual aid.
When their first units arrived, they figured they could handle it on their own, so I went back out to the shop. No sooner had I arrived at the shop, they decided that they did need some assistance and we were paged (approximatly 1545 hours).
We responded with two brush trucks and two pumpers to the fire which was about 15 miles from Miller. Upon arrival, we assisted the Wessington FD with extinguishment. Fire behavior was minimal since the WFD had knocked most of it down already. There wasn't much wind and the temperature was cool too.
I'm guessing the size of the fire was 30 acres. The fire was originally a controlled burn by the occupant and it got away from him.
We were back in service in Miller by 1800 hours.
UPDATE: Added these pictures.
The corn stubble that was burning.
Wessington FD engine with the town of Wessington in the background.
Miller FD Brush Truck F10 with firefighters getting ready to pump some water. Why does this truck have "St. Lawrence Fire Deparment" on it? A few years ago the Miller FD and the St. Lawrence FD combined into one department. Miller and St. Lawrence are only 2 miles apart.
Miller FD Engine F2 flanked by engines from Wessington FD. Hand County Emergency Manager's truck is on the right.
UPDATE: All pictures courtesy of Hand County Emergency Management.
3/8/2006: Cows Escape From Sale Barn
At 1900 hours, I went down to the fire hall to attend my EMT-B class. Around 1920 hours, the sheriff's department was paged to a cow/vehicle accident on the highway south of town. They were also notified that there were several head of cattle on the highway. Shortly after that, there was a second accident. The sheriff then requested assistance from the Miller Fire Department (about 1930 hours).
Needless to say, there were more than "several" cows out. Approximately 237 head of cattle had escaped the pens at the sale barn and were running every which way from the south edge of Miller to several miles south of town.
The main concern was trying to get the cows off of the highway so that there weren't any more accidents.
These were Black Angus cattle. It was pitch dark. Try rounding up black cows on a dark night.
The MFD responded with two brush trucks and a suburban, along with multiple privately-owned vehicles. I believe we had around 10 firefighters. Also responding were the sheriff and deputy, four police officers, the emergency manager, and lots of volunteers.
By the time everyone got organized, the cows had divided up into several large groups and scattered to the four winds. All we had to do was locate them, and drive them into some type of pen or corral. Several holding locations were used including the sale barn, the Miller Thriller Bull Riding corral, a rancher's corral, and for a while, the baseball field.
Eventually, all of the cattle were rounded up. We headed back to the fire hall and were back in service by about 2300 hours.
Moo.
UPDATE: Added this picture.
Here are the culprits back at the sale barn the morning after the escape. They should be wearing orange jump suits (hehehe).
UPDATE2: All pictures courtesy of Hand County Emergency Management.
03/04/2006: False Alarm
At 15:30 hours, the MFD was paged to a fire alarm at the nursing home.
Enroute to the firehall, the sheriff notified us via radio that he was in contact with the nursing home staff and that it was a false alarm.
Imagine that, a false alarm at the nursing home.
I stopped by the nursing home to double check that everything was OK. Apparaently a resident had pulled one of the pull stations. They were having trouble resetting the pull station because the switch under the outer cover was broken.
02/05/2006: Fire Alarm at Nursing Home
At 1600 hours on Super Bowl Sunday, the MFD was paged to a general fire alarm at the nursing home. My first thought was that I hoped it wasn't a real fire. My second thought was that I hoped this call would not take too long because the Steelers were about to play in the big game!
On the way to the fire hall, the sheriff came over the radio and informed us that the nursing home was requesting a limited response, so we responded with one engine and one support vehicle.
Upon arrival at the nursing home, the firefighters were directed to the laundry room where a battery charger for a floor buffer smelled hot. It looked like the problem had been found, but the maintencance crew at the nursing home couldn't get the alarm system to reset so the alarm kept going off.
We checked everything in the vacinity of the offending battery charger, checked the walls and ceiling with the thermal imaging camera, and sniffed around like a pack of hounds trying to find the source of the problem.
Well, needless to say, we were guilty of tunnel vision. The alarm zone that was going off was for the entire east wing. After looking through the east wing closely, we found a pull station that had been pulled. After the pull station was reset, the alarm reset just fine.
I even made it back home in plenty of time to catch the start of the game.
02/01/2006: Smoking Steak
At 1725 hours yesterday, the dispatcher contacted the Miller Police Department via radio to tell them that a general fire alarm had been activated at an apartment building in Miller. She then informed the police officer that she would page the Miller Fire Department. Question: Why didn't she page the fire department first? Hmmm.
I just happened to be at the fire hall when we were paged, so my response time was really quick!
By the time we had the first engine rolling and were halfway to the scene, the police called over the radio that the alarm was caused by lots of smoke from burned food. We continued with one engine to the incident, but canceled the rest of the fire response.
There was quite a bit of smoke in the hallways, and it smelled a little like burned steak. The police officer, several firefighters that responded directly to the scene, and some volunteers were ventilating the building by opening windows and using box fans.
When we arrived at the apartment where the smoke originated, the residents were just cutting into a delicious looking, medium-well steak. It sure caused a lot of smoke, but the steak looked fine. Too bad they didn't have enough for everybody.
01/19/2006: False Alarm at Nursing Home
At approximately 0715, we were paged to a fire alarm at the nursing home. Of course, I had just stepped into the shower - Sheesh! I had forgotten how hard it is to put clothes on when you are wet.
I did manage to get dressed, out to my vehicle, and about two blocks down the street before our response was canceled. It was a false alarm.
01/11/2006: Cattle Truck Tipped Over
At 9:30, the MFD was paged to an incident where a cattle truck had tipped over. We responded with our rescue unit, an engine, and two support suburbans. Other agencies responding included the Miller Police Department, Hand County Sheriff, SD Highway Patrol, SD Carrier Enforcement, Hand County Ambulance, Hand County Emergency Management, Miller Street Department, and SD Dept. of Transportation.
The driver was uninjured and was able to get out of the truck on his own by kicking out the windshield. The truck carried 73 head of cattle. Only one cow was killed which is amazing. Two cows escaped and were caught about 30 minutes later.
Luckily, it was sale day at the sale barn here in Miller, so there were lots of trailers in town which were used to haul the cattle away after the accident.
Two wreckers were used to set the truck upright and the truck was able to drive off of the highway under its own power.
Total time on the incident scene was about 2.5 hours.
Here is a picture of the cleanup - yes, that stuff on the road is exactly what you think it is. Seventy-three cows can leave a lot of that stuff behind when they get that scared :-)
Pictures courtesy of Hand County Emergency Management.
01/08/2006: MVA
There have been a few incidents at the Miller Fire Department that I haven't posted (I got behind and couldn't catch up). Anyway, we'll start the year off right with our first incident of the year.
At approximately 20:15, the MFD was paged to a one car accident south of Miller 15 or 16 miles. It had rained/snowed/sleeted off and on throughout the day. As the temperature dropped the roads started to ice up.
By the time the firefighters started arriving at the fire hall, it was determined that our services were not required. The dispatcher was talking to someone at the accident scene via cell phone. The only occupant of the vehicle was out and walking around. The sheriff and ambulance responded and took care of the incident.
So I got a quick drive down to the fire hall and back.
09/24/2005: MFD at the Races
I'm a little late on this one.
The Miller Speedway held their final races of the year and the MFD was on hand just in a case of a fire.
Well, there wasn't a fire, but there was a heck of a pile-up. One car ended up facing the wrong way and causing the rest of the wreck. Ten or eleven cars were taken out of the race they were so badly damaged; about half of the field.
The MFD personnel assisted the ambulance crew and help sort out the wreck. Luckily, nobody was seriously injured.
09/22/2005: False Alarm at Nursing Home
Yesterday, at 2:30 PM, we were paged to a fire alarm at the nursing home here in town. About 30 seconds later, the fire chief told us over the radio that it was a false alarm and that we were to stand down.
We have these false alarms to the nursing home several times every year.
09/21/2005: Dispatched to Controlled Burn
A little after 8 PM last night, the MFD was paged to a structure fire. It was about 9 miles east of Miller on Highway 14. The dispatcher mentioned that it was reported by a passing motorist.
The location of the fire actually placed it closer to the Wessington Fire Department so our emergency manager suggested that the dispatcher page them too.
At the same time, we had a crew out hose testing. Apparently, they had just finished, but still had lots of hose to load back on the truck. Some of them stayed to finish the job and others headed for the fire hall.
The land is fairly flat here and we could see the smoke and flames from about 7 miles away. We could tell it was a big fire. When we arrived, the structure had already collapsed. The Wessington FD arrived at the same time.
That was when we learned that the fire was actually a controlled burn. Usually, when a controlled burn is called in, the sheriff's office announces it over the radio so all emergency units know about it. Well, in this case there was a breakdown somewhere. Either the land owner didn't call it in, or the sheriff's office didn't announce it. I'm not sure which. I do know that the deputy sheriff and the police were busy last night with traffic stops. They may not have had time to announce the burn.
Oh well. On the bright side, I got to ride in the big red truck with the lights and sirens on.
09/09/2005: MFD At Miller Speedway
The Miller Speedway had their second set of races this year and the MFD was there to provide fire suppression services. Fortunately, there were no fires on this night.
One cool thing about this is the firefighters and their families get in free to the races!
09/08/2005: Controlled Burn at Landfill
The MFD was paged yesterday about 1 PM to a controlled burn at the landfill. Apparently, the landfill employees burned one of their rubbish piles, but it got a little too hot. That wasn't in itself a big problem, except that the rubbish pile was fairly close to a large pile of tires. Now that was a problem.
The landfill folks decided that they didn't want the tires to catch fire, so they called us out to help cool things off. We sprayed a little water and foam and then the landfill workers buried the rest of the rubbish with bulldozers. The tire pile was safe and sound :-)
The big excitement for the nozzle operator was trying to spray a rat that kept poking his head out of the rubbish pile. I was on the pump, so I didn't see if he was successful.
09/03/2005: MFD at Miller Speedway
Well, it was a big night last Saturday (September 3) in Miller. Races were held at the Miller Speedway for the first time in years. There was a good crowd of about 2,000 people (in a town of only 1,500), and around 75 cars.
The Miller Fire Department provided fire protection during the races. We will continue with providing this service for a few more races this year, and then every week during next year's race season.
There was only one car fire Saturday night, and the pit crews put it out before the fire trucks were able to get there.
08/29/2005: Grass Fire
Saturday afternoon, around 4:30 PM, we were paged for a grass fire about 12 miles outside of Miller. I wasn't as quick to get to the fire hall as I usually am, and I still was the second person there. I knew right away we were going to be short on firefighters.
When we arrived at the fire it was burning beneath a tree strip, out into a pasture, and into a corn field. The corn wasn't burning, but the dried leaves and stalks on the ground from previous years were burning. Luckily, the fire wasn't burning with much intensity. We didn't have any trouble getting a handle on it.
In the fenced in pasture that was burning, there was a very upset horse. The horse wasn't really in any danger since the fire wasn't burning very fast, but try telling that to a horse.
By the time we had it extinguished, we ended up with plenty of firefighters. They just weren't all able to respond immediately. We had three brush trucks and three pumpers.
Unfortunately, to put out the fire in the corn field, we had to drive out into the field and mash down a bunch of the corn.
The cause of the fire was a controlled burn (rubbish fire) that got out of control.
Rain Puts Out Grass Fire
We had big thunderstorms last night and along with that, lots of lightening. About 6:30 PM, we were paged to a grass fire that was sparked by the lightening. The fire was 14 miles out of town, near Lake Louise State Park. By the time we got there, rain from the thunderstorms had put the fire out. We didn't pump a drop of water.
This was a pretty typical fire for us. Mostly we have grass fires; however, this is the first one I've responded to that was totally extinguished by the rain. Fourteen miles is a fair piece, but it isn't the farthest we have to go.
Introducing the Miller Fire Department
Well, let's start a new feature of Firewhirl today.
I belong to the volunteer fire department in my hometown of Miller, SD. Going forward I'll post about the incidents that we respond to as well as any other news that affects our department.
Here is a little background info:
Firefighters: 36
Apparatus: 5 pumpers, 3 brush trucks, 1 light rescue, 3 brush trucks
Stations: 2
Primary coverage area: 546 square miles
Population served: 3,000
Our coverage area is rural farm and ranch land with two small towns. Miller has a population of 1,500 and St. Lawrence has a population of 250. We have a station in each town, although the towns are only 2 miles apart, which is something of an anomoly in South Dakota.
