An “un-newsworthy” event

EDITOR: The Fort Bragg Fire Department responded to a structure fire on Friday morning, March 26. The early morning fire will most likely not be front-page news. The reason being is that the fire was quickly extinguished and the small home suffered very little damage. There were no flames shooting into the air, or smoke columns you could see from anywhere in town.

Fires like this one are not huge events, but maybe they should be. The small home had Redwood shakes for siding and a shake roof as well. The fire had gotten behind the siding and was quickly climbing to the roof.

Quick action by a passerby (I didn’t get a name) got the occupants out and then hit the wall with a water hose. That was followed by our squad truck, which arrived within four minutes. The crew got to work tearing off shingles and extinguishing the fire. After checking the entire home, including using our Thermal imaging camera in the attic, the occupants were allowed to go back into their unaffected residence. The owner had fire insurance, no one was hurt and as a huge bonus the Fort Bragg Police Department caught the arsonist. No one wants to have a fire, but having one where everything clicks is not as much of a traumatic event.

It takes a team to make all this happen. It started with the alert bystander, who got things rolling in the right direction. Then the City Public Works crew that has volunteer firefighters working for them and allows us to stage our Squad at the Corp yard to use during the day jumped on it and made a world of difference. Other responders that were able to leave work brought in an engine and CAL Fire responded with their engine and crew. The FB Police department took care of ensuring our safety by blocking traffic. They then followed up by catching the person responsible.

As Fire Chief, I’m not only proud of the work from our responders but really everyone involved. A big thank you to all for keeping this incident “un-newsworthy.”

— Steve Orsi, Fort Bragg