At the request of EMS Company 22 dispatched class three to 600 Market Street to assist with forcible entry. The address was later corrected to 600 Main Street at the Union House Apartments for a cardiac arrest. Prior to response the Company was placed available by EMS, signal 12.
Companies 23, 22, 21 and 24 dispatched class one to 6690 Route 209 in Wiconisco Township at the Meadowbrook Coal Company for a structure fire. Workers inside were welding and a spark ignited the interior wall of the building. Chief 23-2 responded POV and assumed command on arrival. Engine 22 responded with 2, Truck 22 with 4, and Utility 22 with one. On arrival, Engine 22 laid a 5 inch supply line from Route 209 and they proceed back and up the hill to the C/D corner, where two 2 inch handlines were pulled, one to the top of the coal breaker and one inside through the D side. Truck 22 set up on the C side and sent their manpower to the top portion of the building and started opening up to get at the deep seated fire. Engine 23 arrived on the D/A corner, and using Tanker 21's dump tank, set up a supply to Engine 22. Tankers 21, 24, and 27 shuttled water. Rescue 27 and Engine 21 arrived and sent manpower to assist with extinguishment. Crews worked to vent and get to the fire which was in the walls between the first and second floor on the B side. Company 20 placed on standby for company 21. Crews continued with fire attack and gained control in about 45 minutes. Engine 21 was brought to side D behind Engine 22, and one of the 22 hand lines was redeployed from one of Engine 21's discharges, and foam was applied to the building. Crews continued with overhaul until released by Command 23.
Companies 22 and 23 were dispatched to 634 Main Street for alarm bells sounding in a day care center. Chief 22 responded to the location, which was across the street from his residence, and found alarm bells sounding on the first floor. Engine and Rescue 23 responded and took side-A/D. Engine 22 responded with a crew of six and staged on side-C, and Truck 22 responded with a crew of three and staged on side-A. The property owner was on scene and was able to provide access to the interior of the building. An investigation found alarms sounding, and after some checking, a faulty detector was found. The box was cleared and all crews went available.
Company 22 was dispatched to assist Company 23 on a reported structure fire at 1652 Pottsville Street in Wiconisco. A caller reported that there was smoke coming from the second floor and eaves. Chief 23 responded and confirmed the initial report. Truck 22 responded with a crew of seven, Engine 22 responded with a crew of four, and Tanker 22 responded with a crew of two. Engine 23, Rescue 23, and Tanker 23 each responded to the scene. On arrival, Truck 22 was set up on side-A and the bucket was sent to the roof. A quick knockdown by Company 23 had the fire out and all that was needed was PPV, which was set up on side-C. The Engine 22 and Tanker 22 crews assisted with salvage and overhaul. All crews assisted Company 23 until released by command.
Companies 22 and 23 were dispatched to a report of smoke coming from the basement of 613 Market Street in Lykens Borough. Engine 22 responded with a crew of six, and Truck 22 responded with a crew of five. Upon arrival, Chief 22 discovered that the smoke was actually steam coming from a dryer vent along the basement wall. Chief 22 placed the box in service.
On a Monday night as fire training was about to get underway, a box alarm assignment was dispatched for 199 Plane Street in Wiconisco for a house fire, bringing Companies 23, 22, and 24 along with EMS to the scene. Engine 22 responded with a crew of six, Tanker 22 responded with a crew of two, and later into the call Truck 22 was special called to the scene and responded with a crew of four. This call was about a half block up the street from Station 23, and members of company 24 were at station 23 giving a demonstration of their new thermal imaging camera. Companies 23 and 24 were on the scene quickly, with Company 22 not far behind. Crews found a small one and one half story bungalow type house with smoke and flames coming out of the first floor. A crew from Company 23 advanced into the structure and got a quick knockdown on the fire, and Companies 22 and 24 members assisted with suppression and overhaul. Heavy damage occurred to the building's interior. Company 22 remained on scene until released by Chief 23.
A chimney fire was discovered on the morning of Monday, January 15, 1935, in the residence of the Hoffman estate on South Street, tenanted by Mr. and Mrs. Donald Grell. A fire call was responded to by the Lykens firemen, who quickly extinguished the blaze. The little damage that resulted was covered by insurance.
The North End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts had a catastrophe on January 15, 1919, that has become known as the Boston Molasses Disaster. A 50 foot high and 90 foot in diamete tank containing 2.2 million gallons of molasses at the Purity Distilling Company facility ruptured and sent its contents flying out in a wave between 8 and 15 feet high moving at 35 miles per hour, with a force of 2 tons per square foot. The monstrous wave of molasses engulfed everything within a two-block area. The devastation was horrific: the buildings on the dock were flattened or swept off their foundations and crushed. Employees of the Public Works department, firemen on duty in a nearby station, and children playing in the street were knocked over and drowned or crushed by the sheer force of 26,000,000 pounds of molasses. The cause is believed to be a poorly constructed and maintained, possibly overfilled, tank. Fermentation could have occurred in the tank causeing a buildup of gas, and it is thought that the unusual increase in the local temperatures that occurred over the previous day had something to do with it; the air temperature rose from 2?F to 40?F. Twenty-one people were killed, and 150 were injured. Rescuers found it difficult to make their way through the knee-deep sticky mess to help the victims, and it was four days before they stopped searching for victims. It took over 87,000 man-hours to remove the molasses from the cobblestone streets, theaters, businesses, automobiles, and homes, and the harbor ran brown until the summer.
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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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The listing of other noteworthy incidents includes incidents from anywhere outside our local area (for which we were not dispatched). Also included in this section are historical events from our fire company, Lykens, or around the world. It is certainly not a complete listing, and is not intended to be. It is included here for your entertainment. Incidents and events listed here have been gathered from public sources.
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