The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Fire destroys home on city’s south side
A structure fire on Lorain’s south side July 4 destroyed a home.
About 4:21 p.m. Lorain firefighters were called to a residence in the 3700 block of Dallas Ave. in Lorain following reports of a fully involved structure fire.
“When we were dispatched and arrived the whole front of the house was fully involved,” said Lorain Assistant Chief Roy Cochran. “I don’t know how it got going that fast, that far, but no one was home and that’s what we’ve been told. It was too far gone and hot for us to get in and search. We’re hoping that that part’s true.”
Cochran said firefighters battled two substantial problems with water pressure due to poor fire hydrants, along with the high heat index, which resulted in one firefighter’s treatment by paramedics for possible heat stroke.
“The hydrants on this street are pretty poor. We didn’t have any water pressure. Trying to run two aerial devices off the hydrants sucked everything dry,” Cochran said. “And so, we had to make a decision of which one we were going to use. So that made things complicated as far as getting it extinguished.”
Support was requested from the Lorain County water shuttle to feed water into the tower so firefighters could run both of their aerial devices to attack the fire from above.
Cochran said the house caved in and blocked efforts to put out the fire.
“A substantial portion of the structure has caved in on itself. So there’s a bunch of fire underneath of that material that we really can’t get at unless it’s drug out and then we water everything down and then drag it out again.”
The department needs a truck from the Lorain Street Department to effectively move debris, he said.