Gordon Fire Hall Burns Down

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N9NRA

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Just up the road from me, Gordon's Fire Hall burned down. Lost all of their stuff too.

WDIO.com - Gordon Fire Hall, Vehicles Destroyed by Fire

Wow, now THAT`S defenitely news! I know i could read the link ya posted, but just wondering, any idea of what caused it? That`s not really far from where my folks live (just north in Solon Springs). Man! That`s really gonna hurt for a while. Hope they get things rebuilt fast. N9NRA
 

geotornadic

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It was a lightning strike around mid-day on Thursday (Sep 19th) as a series of storms rolled through, nothing severe when the storms moved through Gordon, but it only takes one strike in the wrong place.
 
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sfd119

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Actually, it wasn't. The fire chief said on another interview that there was no storms in the area yet. I was watching radar when the page went out and there wasn't anything even close to it.
 

R8000

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Wow, how sad. Hopefully they get back on their feet soon.
 

N9NRA

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No kidding, anyone know if they have any type of agreement for mutual aid untill they get the fire hall rebuilt? I could see them having Solon or mabey even Spooner cover any calls that normally would be for Gordon. Wow, what a mess. N9NRA
 

geotornadic

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Curious that there's mis-information being reported on, sorry for passing on bad info. From the Spooner Advocate & the Sawyer County Record both report the same thing (pasted below). If not lightning, I hope they find the cause of the fire.



Lightning hits Gordon-Wascott Fire Hall
Posted: Thursday, September 19, 2013 1:42 pm

Lightning struck the Gordon-Wascott Fire Hall early this afternoon (Thursday) during the heavy rain and electrical storm that passed through the area.

Firefighters and other units responded from Barnes, Solon Springs, and Minong, in addition to Gordon-Wascott.

Douglas County deputies were on the scene and said a press conference will be held at 4 p.m. today. More information will be available at that time.

Lightning hits Gordon-Wascott Fire Hall - Spooner Advocate: Local
 

N9NRA

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Curious that there's mis-information being reported on, sorry for passing on bad info. From the Spooner Advocate & the Sawyer County Record both report the same thing (pasted below). If not lightning, I hope they find the cause of the fire.



Lightning hits Gordon-Wascott Fire Hall
Posted: Thursday, September 19, 2013 1:42 pm

Lightning struck the Gordon-Wascott Fire Hall early this afternoon (Thursday) during the heavy rain and electrical storm that passed through the area.

Firefighters and other units responded from Barnes, Solon Springs, and Minong, in addition to Gordon-Wascott.

Douglas County deputies were on the scene and said a press conference will be held at 4 p.m. today. More information will be available at that time.

Lightning hits Gordon-Wascott Fire Hall - Spooner Advocate: Local

My guess is the media just didn`t get (or probably weren`t given) the whole story and went out on their own looking for info. As to my other question about assistance agreements, well, the post i`m quoting just answered that `un :). N9NRA P.S. Guess there`ll be something to talk about when i`m up there.
 

nyemt774

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I have looked at the pics, read the articles, watched the videos. A couple pf things stand out...ALL equipment was destroyed. There was a tremendous amount of heat and flames inside that hall. Trucks Basically melted from the heat. It was reported to be fully involved upon arrival of the Fire chief. In order to build up that much heat to MELT equipment, the fire had to be burning for quite awhile. I'm hazarding a guess that it's more likely the result of a electrical short in a charging system on one of the trucks. If one thinks about it, It would have taken HOURS to build up that much heat to melt and destroy 6 pieces of apparatus and cause the hall to become fully involved. Sad...Hoping they can regroup and rebuild.
 

sfd119

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No kidding, anyone know if they have any type of agreement for mutual aid untill they get the fire hall rebuilt? I could see them having Solon or mabey even Spooner cover any calls that normally would be for Gordon. Wow, what a mess. N9NRA

Spooner wouldn't cover them, that's almost 40 minutes away. Barnes, Solon Springs, Wascott, and maybe Minong would cover their district--basically the same ones that responded to their scene.

Curious that there's mis-information being reported on, sorry for passing on bad info. From the Spooner Advocate & the Sawyer County Record both report the same thing (pasted below). If not lightning, I hope they find the cause of the fire.

The advocate and Sawyer County Record are owned by the same place. The reporter that went up there first put out it was lightning, but the chief says it's not: Gordon Fire Station Destroyed by Fire/Explosions - Spooner Advocate: Community (1:50 mark). It's typical reporting of this paper to make things up before the facts come out.

I have looked at the pics, read the articles, watched the videos. A couple pf things stand out...ALL equipment was destroyed. There was a tremendous amount of heat and flames inside that hall. Trucks Basically melted from the heat. It was reported to be fully involved upon arrival of the Fire chief. In order to build up that much heat to MELT equipment, the fire had to be burning for quite awhile. I'm hazarding a guess that it's more likely the result of a electrical short in a charging system on one of the trucks. If one thinks about it, It would have taken HOURS to build up that much heat to melt and destroy 6 pieces of apparatus and cause the hall to become fully involved. Sad...Hoping they can regroup and rebuild.

Yeah, it had to have been going for a while. The only way someone found it was because a deputy drove by and called it in.
 

jim202

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Spooner wouldn't cover them, that's almost 40 minutes away. Barnes, Solon Springs, Wascott, and maybe Minong would cover their district--basically the same ones that responded to their scene.



The advocate and Sawyer County Record are owned by the same place. The reporter that went up there first put out it was lightning, but the chief says it's not: Gordon Fire Station Destroyed by Fire/Explosions - Spooner Advocate: Community (1:50 mark). It's typical reporting of this paper to make things up before the facts come out.



Yeah, it had to have been going for a while. The only way someone found it was because a deputy drove by and called it in.


I take it you have never been in a flash over training enclosure in real time. It doesn't take that much time for heat to build up. The explosions that have been mentioned would probably have come from both the truck tires and the SCBA tanks. The explosions that blew stuff out of the station were most likely caused by the air bottles letting go.

Once the truck tires caught fire, the fuel tanks would not be far behind. Once the fuel tanks were breached, the fire had all the makings for a very hot fire. Again let me stress that the time line would be rather short and not in the range of many hours. The building would not contain it that long.

As to the cause of the fire, we all will have to wait and hear what the experts come back with. It could have been such a simple thing as the power line down the road getting hit by lightning. That could have caused an over voltage in the station on something that was connected to the building power. Let us wait and see what comes out of the investigation.

The loss of the rolling stock is the greatest loss. Those trucks can not be replaced over night. Not knowing what insurance the department had, one can only hope that it will cover a good portion of what was lost. No matter what, it will take a number of years for the department to get back on it's feet.

Hopefully the department can find some loner trucks from the state or other departments to at least provide some protection for the district. This will take a great amount of effort from everyone to allow the department to get back on their feet.

You might be able to obtain new radios from several of the radio companies. They have been good to other departments in the past when they lost everything. Maybe even some of the radio shops around the country might have some radios sitting around that they might be willing to donate. You never know what will happen until you ask.
 
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sfd119

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I take it you have never been in a flash over training enclosure in real time. It doesn't take that much time for heat to build up. The explosions that have been mentioned would probably have come from both the truck tires and the SCBA tanks. The explosions that blew stuff out of the station were most likely caused by the air bottles letting go.

I understand that. What I'm trying to say is it wasn't hit by lightning (or just ignited) and the whole building was fully involved like some reports are. The fire had to have been burning for a little bit. Hours? No. I've been in their hall before, it is a big, metal fire station...nothing like a small house.
 

box23

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Spooner wouldn't cover them, that's almost 40 minutes away. Barnes, Solon Springs, Wascott, and maybe Minong would cover their district--basically the same ones that responded to their scene.

Right now Solon, Wascott, and Barnes are on automatic mutual aid to cover the area. Actual areas covered for first due by the departments aren't exactly known and appear to be changing daily. Luckily there has only been medical related calls since the fire.
 
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