Liverpool firefighters were surprised when a fire call came from their own hall on Tuesday.

Captain John Long was at the Liverpool Fire Hall that morning delivering first aid training when he heard the alarm go off around 8:30 a.m.

A fire had broken out in the apparatus bay at the back of the hall.

The fire knocked out power to the department’s paging system so the call went out by text to the member’s phones.

Despite the change in routine, the bulk of the Liverpool fire service were quick to respond.

“Every time a door opened, more crew came flooding in to see what they could do,” said Long.

He said the power was also cut to the automatic garage door openers which made moving the engines out of the bays difficult.

What really stood out for Long throughout the incident was the teamwork and camaraderie of the members.

“I’ve worked with this crew on how many structure fires before. Never have I been the first person on scene at ours,” said Long. “But just watching them come through, and everybody dug in. It was great to see and not surprising at all, but it was almost magic.”

Port Medway, North Queens and Greenfield fire services responded to the mutual aid call, but the fire was knocked down by the time they arrived.

Long said the damage to the hall and equipment was minimal. Crews had the water from the sprinklers mopped up and the soot from the fire cleaned by mid afternoon.

The department didn’t miss a beat as they turned out to fight a chimney fire that evening.

Because the situation turned out so well, Long said he can look at the lighter side.

“I can remember back when our teachers in school [were] teaching us the definition of irony, they always used the example, the fire hall catches on fire. That’s a great example of irony.”

The cause of the fire is still under investigation but Long said it appears to be electrical in nature.

Even though everything turned out well, Long expects members will discuss the fire at their meeting this week to determine what went right, and how they can be better prepared to deal with a fire in the hall.

“There’ll certainly be an evaluation of, is this the best we can do for preparedness? We now know it can happen. At the end of the day, nothing may change and that may not be a bad thing. Maybe this is the best that can be done.”

Reported by Ed Halverson 
E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

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