Fire Box 2110

At 17:41 hours on Sunday, September 20, 2015, the Union Fire Company No. 1 was alerted to the 300 block of Reedsville Road in Lower Oxford Township for a reported Mulch Fire. Chief 21 (Prettyman), Engine 21-1 (Kinsey), Ladder 21 (S. Terry), Tanker 21 (Gray), and Ambulance 21-2 marked up and received supplemental information from Chester County Fire Radio that the caller was reporting flames from a 20' tall mulch pile visible from both Baltimore Pike and Reedsville Rd.

Chief 21 went on location with a large mulch pile involved and established "Scotts Command". The 1st alarm tanker task force was also requested, bringing Tanker 22 (West Grove Fire Co), Tanker 27(Cochranville Fire Co), Tanker 23(Avondale Fire Co), and Cecil County Tanker 8(Community Fire Co of Rising Sun) to the scene.

Engine 21-1, arrived and staged to allow Ladder 21 to enter the scene 1st due to narrow roadways on the site. Ladder 21 arrived and set up for ladder pipe operations. Engine 21-1 proceeded to lay its entire hose bed (1300') from the dump site on Reedsville Rd to the incident, unable to complete the lay Engine 21-4 (Groseclose) arrived and completed the lay. The crew from Engine 21 then hand jacked 200' of 5" to supply the ladder.

Tanker 21 and Engine 21-2 (McCabe) arrived and set up a nurse tanker operation feeding Engine 21-1.

After completing the initial supply line, Engine 21-4 was relocated to the back side of the mulch fire, laying approximately 500' of 5" from Engine 21-1. Attack lines were pulled from Engine 21-4 to extinguish material being removed by Scotts Hyponex employees, utilizing 4 John Deere 624 Loaders and a John Deere 350G Excavator.

Engine 12 was directed to the Tanker Fill Site at Janes Lane & Conner Rd to set up a tanker fill site. Additionally, Lancaster County Tanker 57 was added to the incident to keep up with fire flow demands.

3 hours and 40 minutes into the incident, it was determined that a second 300 FT x 150 FT pile of a highly processed mulch material, with structural exposure concerns, was also involved. Attack lines where stretched approximately 600' from Engine 21-1 to control the surface fires developing across the pile.

During the incident Tanker 25 (Longwood Fire Co) and Cecil County Engine 813 stood by at the midtown station to cover the Union Fire Co #1's 1st due district.

The company cleared the incident at 00:37 hours, spending the next hour or so cleaning up equipment and repacking hose with the help of the standby companies.

Thanks to all the mutual aid fire companies and Scotts Hyponex for working together for over 7 hours to control this incident.