Watch Your Step

We responded on a second alarm fire a couple of districts over. We were the second in truck to this two story residential structure. Most of the truck work was already done so I helped another engineer get some lighting set up while the rest of my crew went to back up the upstairs hose team. It was pretty much mop up work at this point but still very smoky. I masked up and went upstairs to help out my crew. I found my firefighter in the middle of the large upstairs bedroom. He had the hoseline now and was still soaking down hotspots. Visibility was still pretty low. A fact I discovered when I walked past my firefighter and almost fell out of the house and down to the driveway.

You see, the house was built with a second story balcony over the garage (not uncommon).


This balcony had burned up pretty good in the fire (spread from the garage to the upstairs) and had actually been pulled down by one of the crews earlier in the fire so it wouldn't fall on anyone. The sliding glass door was open (for ventilation) and it was just smoky enough that I didn't realize there wasn't anything out there to step onto until I had walked right up to the edge. Only the wind clearing the smoke around outside the slider kept me from walking right out into open space.


Assuming the fall wouldn't have crippled or killed me, I would have had a hard time living that one down. Although, I later learned that my Captain almost stepped out of the same slider when he came upstairs.

Lessons learned: don't take anything for granted and never let your guard down, even during mop-up and overhaul.