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Three London firefighters were taken to hospital with burn injuries Saturday, after the residential blaze they were battling erupted into a flashover.
Crews were called to 104 Clarence Street at noon Saturday to a report of a structure fire. The building is a row house with four units inside, and officials say the fire originated in an end unit.
The first crew arrived at the scene in about three minutes. There they found smoke coming from the right side of the building.
“They advanced a line, once they opened the door up, they realized it was fully involved,” said Fire Platoon Chief Doug Shannon. “All the other units, including myself, arrived within 30 seconds of each other, and we were all on scene pretty much at the same time.”
Shannon says the initial crew hadn’t even been inside the structure 45 seconds when they were confronted by extremely high temperatures, an indication of a flashover.
A flashover is when most of the combustible materials in a closed room simultaneously ignite.
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“There’s the fire, it’s just building, and everything is at its ignition temperature, and all it needs is something, which is oxygen,” Shannon said.
As crews went inside and opened the door, oxygen was fed to the room.
“It just gave those guys enough time to get in far enough and it flashed, setting everything on fire, like a huge fireball,” Shannon said.
The force of the flashover sent the three, a captain and two firefighters, tumbling over each other back out the door.
The heat was so intense, portions of the crew’s helmets, pictured at right, began to melt while they were wearing them.
“They received burns around their neck, face, and one on the top of his head, because of the pressure, it knocked his helmet off,” Shannon said.
The three suffered first and second degree burns, and were taken to hospital for treatment. The London Professional Firefighters Association said in a Facebook post Saturday afternoon that the three had been released.
Shannon says no one was inside the unit at the time of the blaze, and the unit’s occupants came home while they were at the scene. Crews managed to get the fire under control in around half an hour.
A dog belonging to the resident was rescued, and is ok, Shannon said. Neighbours living in the same building have told AM980 that a cat belonging to the resident could not be located.
Shannon says the apartment and the items inside were all destroyed by fire. Luckily, no neighbouring units suffered significant damage, as crews managed to keep it contained in the end unit.
A damage estimate has been pegged at $100,000; $75,000 for the structure, and $25,000 for the contents inside.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation, and Shannon said inspectors remained at the scene early Saturday evening.
There is no word whether the Ontario Fire Marshal will be called in, but the Ministry of Labour attended the scene as a result of the injuries sustained to the firefighters.
“They’ll be making sure that everybody was doing their jobs, and doing them properly,” Shannon said. “There’s also an incident stress debriefing that we do too, because of the exposure those guys had, and other crews that were with them. They get a debriefing, making sure everyone is ok mentally.”
Source: Clarence Street Blaze Sends Three Firefighters To Hospital | (CFPL AM) AM 980
