The first fire call in the history of Liberty Hose Company No. 2. Fire broke out at 11:30 AM in the double frame tenement house owned by Andrew Hoffman. The house was located on North Second Street near the West end. At the time of alarm, members of the company were in the carriage house. They were cleaning the hose and carriage for a parade on Saturday. There was only 350 feet of hose on the reel when the alarm sounded. Thinking that would be enough, they responded to the fire. Upon reaching the scene they discovered there wasn't enough hose to reach the fire. H. K. Myers hurried back to the hose house where he and Henry Ream loaded the rest of the hose onto Isaac Hoffman's coal wagon. Isaac drove, on the gallop, to the fire where the boys soon had two streams playing and put the fire out.
Fire damaged the home of James and Joanne Cessna in Big Run (Washington Twp.) Firefighters from Lykens and Elizabethville responded. The fire started as towels were placed against a heater in the second floor bathroom. Damage was listed at $8,000.
Engine-22 and Engine-23 were dispatched for a two vehicle head-on accident in the 700-Block of Main Street. Chief 22-2 on the scene was reporting several victims, with a driver semi-concious still in the vehicle but not trapped. Engine-22 responded with a crew of six. Engine-23 responded but was re-directed to the L & W Ballfield to set up an LZ for Life Lion. Engine-22 arrived on the scene, extricated patients, and performed initial patient assessments until the arrival of EMS, who had come from Elizabethville. One patient was taken to the landing zone for a flight to Hershey Medical Center. The remaining patients were transported by ambulance. The crew remained on the scene providing traffic control and scene cleanup until wreckers removed the vehicles.
Chief 22-2 requested assistance for an emergency work detail at Station 22, and the company was dispatched. Members responded to the station to assist the Chief on a detail and then went available.
Engine 22 dispatched class 1 to 330 Main Street for a report of CO in a house with a possible patient. Chief 22 responded POV and Engine 22 went enroute with 4. On arrival, readings were taken with no CO present in the house. Command cleared the box so that the crew could respond to an EMS call (see call #90).
After clearing the previous call (see call #89)Company 22 was requested to assist Medic 6 at 610 Laurel Lane in Lykens. Engine 22 went enroute with 4, Chiefs 22 and 22-1 went enroute POV, and 2 additional members responded from their residence across the street to the scene. On arrival, crew assisted Medic 6 with removing the patient from the residence and transferring her to their unit for transport, and then went available.
Truck 22 dispatched class one along with Tankers 21, 23, 24, 27 and Rescue 21 and Air 23 to 1700 East Grand Avenue in Porter Township Schuylkill County for a working structure fire. Porter companies Muir, Orwin, Sheridan, Joliet along with Tower City, Pine Grove, Donaldson, Tremont and Tremont EMS and Rehab 24 also on the call. Truck 22 responded with 5 and Utility 22 with one. On arrival side A of a 2 and one half story 30 by 50 foot wood frame multi family dwelling there was fire throughout the second floor extending into and through the roof. The boom was used to access the upper sections of the fire building and along with Pine Grove Truck 58-25 the visible fire was knocked down and exterior overhaul was begun while crews from the Engine companies worked the main body of fire throughout the building. Rescue 21 took the RIT assignment. Engine 22-15 set up to draft from 24s porta tank to supply Truck 22 using several tankers. Truck 58-25 was supplied by Engine 22-11 from a hydrant. Crews worked the scene for several hours until control was marked. Command began releasing units and Company 22 was eventually placed available.
A Barn fire occurred at 700 Luxemburg Road, Lykens Township, on December 17, 2002. Arriving fire companies found heavy fire showing on the lower portion of the barn, Sides 1 and 2. Using two 1?-inch lines, and one 3-inch line, the fire was held to the room of origin. The farmer had converted part of the barn into a workshop, using a woodstove for heat. The woodstove was the point of origin of the fire. Company 27, 26, 28, and 65 units responded to the fire scene, as well as Tanker 21 and Tanker 1430. This was an Amish farm, and the farmer's daughter happened to be getting married the next day. The workshop had been converted into a sort of game room for the kids who would be attending the wedding. The wedding did occurr the next day, as planned.
A disgruntled, recently dismissed, circus employee set fire to the tent at the North American Circuis in Niter?i, Brazil on December 17, 1961. The fire started during the 3 p.m. matinee performance. The waterproofed canvas tent burned rapidly. 323 people (mostly women and children) died in the fire, and 600 people were injured from burns, smoke inhalation, and trampling.
On a cold (10?F) December 17, 1972, a faulty high pressure gas regulator at Front and Division Streets in Harrisburg, probably damaged earlier in the year during the Hurricane Agnes Flood, caused ruptures in the gas meters at several locations up the line. One such location was the stores in the Uptown Shopping Center, an L-shaped strip mall on Division Street. The W.T. Grant Department Store filled with gas and exploded, wrecking the store and sending debris across the parking lot. What wasn't damaged in the blast was destroyed by the fire that followed. It was a Sunday morning and the store was closed at the time of the incident. At the same time of this incident, the Lakeside Lutheran Church on Division Street also had an explosion and fire, and another gas fire occurred at Central Storage on Industrial Road.
The Alca 20 Disco in the basement of a downtown building in Madrid, Spain, had an electrical short that ignited some plastic curtains, causing a fire that spread rapidly. The disco was crowded at the time the fire broke out, at 4:45 a.m. 83 people died from that fire, most of whom suffocated after breathing toxic smoke from burning plastic.
A fire sparked by a careless smoker tore through a hotel at 1345 Fifth Avenue in the Centre City district of San Diego, California on December 17, 2004, killing one person, injuring 17 others ? including a police officer ? and causing more than $1 million in damage. 125 firefighters from San Diego and Chula Vista battled the blaze. Arriving engine crews had to help several people escape the structure through windows and down ladders. Firefighters broke down a locked first-floor door and found residents in the hallway, who they then rescued.
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The section of calls we've responded to has been compiled from fire company records, newspapers, and other sources. Listings for years prior to 1981 might be incomplete.
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The listing of local incidents is for incidents that happened around our local area, including some from Lykens for which the fire company was not dispatched. It is certainly not a complete listing, and is not intended to be. It is included here for your entertainment. Incidents listed here have been gathered from public sources.
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