Friday, February 20, 2015

FIREFIGHTERS IN KINGSPORT, TN BATTLE MULTIPLE FIRES IN SINGLE DIGIT TEMPERATURES








FEBRUARY 19, 2015

KINGSPORT, TN (WJHL) -
As the winter weather hit the Tri-Cities this past week, it has caused travel concerns, school closures, and created extreme working conditions for firefighters. A number of structure fires have been reported throughout Sullivan County, the City of Kingsport, and Johnson City, TN.
Just after 4AM this morning, B-shift firefighters in Kingsport were notified of a working structure fire in the 500 block of Jersey Street. Engine 5 (Border Patrol) was already on the road after responding to an alarm in Downtown Kingsport. Engine 5 made a quick response to the fire to find a single family dwelling around 50% involved. An aggressive knockdown contributed to the fire being quickly brought under control. The residents were in the home at the time of the fire, but were alerted by a working smoke detector. With the temperatures continuing to be in the single digits, the overnight wind chill was well below zero.
Units Responded: C-3, Engine 5, Engine 4, Engine 1, Engine 2, Ladder 1
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A Kingsport family was displaced after their home on Jersey Street caught on fire early Thursday morning.
The full release from the Kingsport Fire Department is below:
Just after 4 am (February 19, 2015) a Kingsport family at 546 Jersey St was awakened by their smoke alarm. A fire had started near an in-wall heater. The Kingsport Fire Department responded to find the structure with heavy smoke and flames. The fire was extinguished with about a 50% loss in the structure, and smoke damage throughout the entire home. The family escaped without injury is attributable to the smoke alarm being in working order. The American Red Cross responded to help the family that was displaced.
The in-wall heater with large coils is a common type found in Kingsport homes built prior to 1970. The switch on many of these heaters is a thermostat. Many residents have turned the thermostat to the lowest position expecting it to be “off” when it is actually setting the thermostat to a very low temperature. When low temperatures occur, the heater will come on automatically.
If your home is equipped with and in wall heater make sure there is at least a three foot area around the heater where there are no combustible items. If you no longer use the heater have an electrician unhook and/or remove the heater.
The Kingsport Fire Department urges you to check your smoke alarms monthly. If your smoke alarms are over 10 years old they need to be replaced with a Dual Sensor Smoke Alarm.
Dual Sensor Smoke Alarms have an ionization sensor for fast burning fires and a photoelectric sensor for slow smoldering fires. Place long life lithium batteries in the alarms to last the life of the alarm.
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This evening, A-shift firefighters were again alerted of a working fire in Station 2’s zone just before 5PM. As Engine 2 arrived on-scene to report a single story residential structure with smoke and flames visible from the exterior. Engine 2 made the initial attack with a 1 3/4 inch crosslay. They were able to knockdown the fire inside the home, but the fire had spread to the attic prior to their arrival. Once the ceiling was opened up, crews were able to quickly extinguish the fire. Once again, the cold temperatures added an extra degree of difficulty with ice.