Firefighters battle Christmas night blaze

While families were at home recovering from Christmas activities, firefighters from Morning Star Fire Department and Lake Hamilton Fire and Rescue braved bitterly cold weather to fight a fully involved fire that consumed multiple structures Monday evening.

The departments responded to the blaze at 4027 Spring St. at around 8 p.m. Monday and, by 10 p.m., had extinguished the fire and gone back in service. The two structures engulfed in flames, a camping trailer and mobile home, were destroyed, but no one was injured, Morning Star Fire Chief Nathan Kew said Tuesday.

“As one unit, we were able to immediately stop fire spread and contain it to the

two structures that were initially reported,” he said in a posting on social media.

The structures were close to a third structure that firefighters were able to save. Aside from minor exterior damage, the structure remained intact.

“Our automatic aid from Lake Hamilton worked exactly as it should, and we successfully dealt with the fire as quickly and thoroughly as possible,” Kew told the Sentinel-Record on Tuesday.

Firefighters used a method called “drafting” to source water from a nearby pond, he said. In instances where a fire hydrant is not accessible, firefighters use the organic resources at their disposal and create what is called a dry hydrant.

“This was great work from an even better group of people who gave up time with their families on Christmas night. This call could have ended badly in multiple different ways, but through aggressive fire attack, water supply, and our training, we were able to save the other building and its contents,” Kew said on Facebook.