And while the residents jumped in to try to save the other houses, there were lots of complaints flying around. As with any fire, there are some who say the truck didn't have enough water, and the firefighters weren't moving with urgency. And in this particular case there was another complaint: the firefighters were trying to extinguish the house that was already lost, rather than try and save the one that was starting to catch.
But these residents aren't fire officials, and today, the station supervisor explained why the team did what they did. He also added that the wind played a role in them having to re-strategize mid-fight.
Kenneth Mortis, Station Supervisor, NFS
"I'll keep saying that, "unu late and unu come without water," that will be a stigma that will stay with the fire department long after I've gone. It's unfortunate we have to keep hearing that and it's no secret, it's no rocket science that regardless of the size of these trucks, these trucks have a water tank in them, our truck carry anywhere from 400 gallons to 1,000 gallons of water. Once that water is exhausted from the tank, we need to go and find supplementary supply. To refill these trucks from a hydrant it will take 15 minutes on a minimum average to refill and then relocate back to the fire scene. Of course while all that is happening there isn't anything the fire fighters on the scene can do but wait."
"As far as our strategic position is concerned, because of the magnitude of that fire our defensive had to primarily semi-focus on what was being burnt and effort to cool it down to allow our team to put up a defensive attack between the 2 structures. As you can see once that was done, the damage was then contained to its minimal."
"You look at it and you wonder we are doing things the way we are doing things. Its just so that we can have a clearer path as to where the fire is heading versus putting my fire men in between 2 buildings directly in the path of the fire travel. That would then danger the lives of my people."
"First the wind was blowing in direction towards Chon Saan Palace. That was where the gentleman whose house and 3 cars were damaged. From that perspective everything almost seemed fine in observation with the school. In the blink of an eye the wind change direction and then blew direction across the street towards the school and then that's where it got a little bit chaotic. The vision was heavily blurred due to the black smoke. But it really had us setting up our line of attack, relocate our line of attack, moving from front to back, from side to front and then again to the back. So, it really had us going today. Nevertheless, these are factors that we will face and we just have to see how best we can always be ready to reposition our line of attack when these obstacles, in terms of the wind is concerned do happen."
We'll wait and see if any charges are levied.
