On Monday August 4 at approximately 11:00 PM, Station 25 was alerted for an unknown type fire in the area of the Chadds Ford Knoll development. An alert resident called 911 to report that they could see flames in the woods to the east of their house and that they could hear explosions. Within a minute, the company was alerted to assist the Concordville Fire and Protection Association (Delco 59) on the dwelling fire at 6 Camly Lane along with Tankers from the Kennett Fire Co (Sta 24), Po-Mar-Lin Fire Company (Sta 36) and the Goodwill Fire Company of West Chester (Sta 52).

It was quickly determined that the flames the original 911 caller saw were coming from a very large, fully involved house at the top of Camly Lane. The Longwood units immediately diverted their resources to Concordville with Ladder 25 (LaBare), Engine 25-1 (Ruoss), Utility 25, Chief 25, Traffic 25 and MICU 25 responding. Upon arrival, Delco Engine 59-2 laid all 1500' of their 5 inch supply line from the entrance to Camly Lane and Creek Road to as far up the driveway as they could go. Ladder 25 pulled in behind them and used 700' of their supply line to complete the lay for a total of 2200 feet. Engine 25-1 dropped their crew at the bottom of the road to set up a water supply and then moved halfway up the road to boost the water pressure to the D59-2 and Ladder 25.

Deputy Chief Matt Ruoss ran the water supply operation which resulted in tankers from as far away as East Whiteland Township being called in to haul water to 2 portable water tanks set up to establish a water supply. All of the incoming firefighters made the long trek up the hill to get to the fire scene, which was a task in and of itself. Incoming firefighters all arrived at the scene only to find that the house involved had been burning for so long, it had already collapsed into a large pile of burning wood with very little parts of the structure left.

Once the water supply was established, Delco Engine 59-3 supplied water to Engine 25-1 which pushed it further up the hill to Ladder 25 and Delco Engine 59-2. Ladder 25 used its master stream to put most of the fire out until hand lines could be used to hit the remaining hot spots. Crews operated on scene for almost three hours before declaring the situation resolved.

Special thanks to the Cochranville Fire Company (Sta 27) for covering our first due during the incident. All photos of the incident were taken by Nozzle Nut Photography. For more information on their services, visit www.nozzlenutphotography.com.