Willingboro Firefighters Assist At New Years Day Warehouse Fire

Willingboro Fire Department's A Platoon spent the early parts of New Years Day assisting at a large warehouse fire in Mount Holly. Engine 1613 was initially called to the incident at 3:13 am to act as a Rapid Intervention Crew (RIC). As a RIC crew they are on stand-by in case a firefighter who is inside of a building has an emergency and needs help. Since no firefighters were in the building due to the volume of fire, the crew was assigned another task.

The fire was creating a large amount of radiant heat, and started to catch several home across the street from the warehouse on fire. Engine 1613's crew was assigned to start extinguishing the fire in a home that was vacant and under renovation. Captain Sitzenstock, along with Firefighters Bennett and Centrone used hand tools to start removing the homes exterior siding and soffit area. Firefighters Fresco and C. Clark entered the home with a 1 3/4" hoseline and hand tools to start extinguishing the fire, and to check the attic area for additional fire.

Once the crew finished extinguishing the fire in the house, they were put into service assisting with the warehouse fire. They pulled a 2 1/2" hoseline from a nearby fire apparatus and connected a ground monitor nozzle to the line. The hoseline and nozzle were delivering approximately 500 gallons of water per minute onto the fire. After manning this line for several hours, the crew was sent to the rehabilitation area to rest and rehydrate. Engine 1613's crew was released from the fire scene at 8 am.