Address: 79 North Oakmont Drive Northfield Center – Time of call: 02:17
During the early morning hours of Tuesday, December 10, 2019 we responded to a single family home for a reported fire in the house. The first call came into our dispatch center through 911 and was called in by the home owner. Shortly after the initial call from the home owner, a neighbor’s dog franticly barked and awoke its owners. As they got up to see why the dog was barking they noticed that their neighbors house was on fire and called 911. The family of four was home sleeping at the time of the fire and were awakened by their smoke detectors. The father of the family had gotten up to see what was causing the smoke detector beeping and as he opened his bedroom door he could smell something burning. It wasn’t until he started walking down the hallway that he noticed the hallway was filling with smoke. He immediately started waking up his son and daughter to get out of the house by yelling “the house is on Fire” as he ran back to the bedroom to tell his wife.
Quickly the young adults exited out of the home through the front door and the parents went out their back bedroom door. The family met in the front yard where they saw fire going up the front of their house by their dining room and into the roof. As the family called 911 the father started using the garden hose to put water on the fire. There was so much fire that the garden hose barely darkened the fire down as he applied it.
Our first vehicle on scene was our command vehicle. He confirmed to our incoming units that he had a single family home with fire showing at the front of the house and that everyone was out of the house. Our Northfield Center station was the first engine on scene. They stretched a hose line and started to extinguish the fire on the exterior of the house, while they awaited the arrival of other units. On all confirmed fires Northfield Village Fire is automatically dispatched with our units.
Shortly after command arrived on scene he requested mutual aid from Valley Fire District for a rescue squad to evaluate the family for smoke inhalation. The father was evaluated on scene, but not transported to a hospital. Upon our arrival the fire was already into the attic space above the living room and garage and smoke had filled the house. Firefighters pulled the ceiling in the living room and garage to make sure they had the fire in the attic area out before reporting that the fire was out at 2:57 by the OIC. After the fire was extinguished our fire investigators were called out to determine the fire cause. At this time the fire is still under investigation. The estimated damage is to be approximately 70,000 thousand dollars.
The call came into our department at 02:17; we were en route at 02:19, on scene at 02:24. Our department responded to the incident with a command vehicle and three engines, with a total of seven firefighters, Mutual aid was received by Northfield Village Fire for an engine, and Valley Fire District for a rescue squad.
The number of firefighters at the scene totaled 12. We are reporting no injuries to any firefighter’s and that the rescue squad on scene did evaluate a female resident for smoke inhalation, but they did not transport.
