Wednesday, January 11, 2012 Members of the Hamlin Fire Department were just clearing up from an EMS job on Monday afternoon, when the Morton Fire Department got toned out for a structure fire. Hearing this the Hamlin fire Department started crewing up Engine 243 to respond. The original dispatch location of the fire was on west side of Monroe - Orleans County Line Rd. The protocol for this is an engine with manpower from Kendall on original dispatch and a tanker from Hamlin. Luckily, newly minted 2C-74, Lt. Pat Doerrer read the Chiefs mind and crewed up the engine first. This was an excellent idea as the call to 911 came from the west side of the road, but the house on fire was on the east side. 243 with a crew of 5 arrived on location, followed closely by tanker 246.

The crew from 243 (Lt. Doerrer, Magovero, Cottorone and Deserto met Hamlin Chief Alan Smith and pulled a line from Morton Engine 215. They entered the front door and went upstairs to back-up a crew from Kendall that had taken over the original line brought up by a Morton crew. In a bedroom at the top of the stairs the fire had already caused a portion of the roof to collapse. The visible fire had been put out but more fire was discovered in the attic space after the Hamlin crew started pulling ceilings.

This fire proved difficult to control because it was fed from below in the balloon framed structure. The Hamlin crew turned over extinguishment and overhaul duties to relief crews when their air bottles got low. After a short rehab and bottle change the Hamlin crew went back in and relieved the crews on the second floor. After additional overhaul work the Hamlin crew used up their second bottle of air and were relieved for the rest of the incident.

The structure was in a non-hydrant area of Morton, so a three tanker shuttle (Hamlin, Kendall and Hulberton) fed the Morton base pumper. An engine from Kendall supplied the water from a hydrant near the Morton fire house. Other departments involved were from Holley, Brockport and Hilton. The Morton fire house was opened up for firefighter rehabilitation where they were well fed by the Morton Auxiliary out of the bitter cold single digit temperatures and wind.
 

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Story by John Deserto

Photo's by Jerry Clement.