Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post

mrsandman · 02-14-2005, 10:45 PM

I was a five-year veteran firefighter on a major city fire department with plenty of experience with inner city fires. This particular incident was just a routine mattress fire. It was simply an old smoldering mattress in an abandoned apartment building. Most likely, some junkies had started the fire.

Our engine company was dispatched to the scene and me and another firefighter quickly determined to just carry the mattress out the back door instead of dragging a line in and hosing it down in the apartment. I picked up the front end of the mattress and my partner picked up the rear as we headed towards the back porch to dump it in the back yard.

This particular back porch was wooden and was about 4 feet by four feet. To get downstairs, you turned right and headed down the wide wooden stairs. The porch and stairs were outside of the building, and below those wooden stairs, was a set of cement stairs that led to the basement. From the top of the wooden porch to the bottom of the cement stairs was about 30 feet.

Carrying the front of the mattress, I intended to just turn right and walk down the stairs and dump the mattress in the back yard. We didn’t have any protective gear on as there appeared to be no need for it.

As I passed through the doorway onto the small wooden porch, I decided, at the last second to just toss the mattress over the railing straight ahead and not turn right onto the stairway. As I started to lift the mattress over the railing to heave it over, I stepped with my right foot onto the top wooden step. Immediately, the entire wooden staircase collapsed with a deafening roar, into the cement stairwell of the basement. I fell to the left onto the porch deck. As I peered cautiously over the edge of the still standing porch, which was independently supported by four, 4” x 4” vertical beams, I saw the tangled mass of splintered steps piled up in the basement stairwell. Had chance not intervened, I would have been entangled in that deadly pile of debris.

The sound of that collapsing staircase still echoes in my mind today. The very idea that I easily could have wound up under that woodpile made a lasting impression on me. I think that it was mostly due to the fact that we faced danger all the time, but this seemed so routine and harmless. I knew that I would have been badly hurt or killed and I’ve never forgotten that seemingly innocuous incident. A memory etched by fate.

02-14-2005, 10:45 PM	#13 (permalink)
mrsandman Addict Location: 3rd coast area	I was a five-year veteran firefighter on a major city fire department with plenty of experience with inner city fires. This particular incident was just a routine mattress fire. It was simply an old smoldering mattress in an abandoned apartment building. Most likely, some junkies had started the fire. Our engine company was dispatched to the scene and me and another firefighter quickly determined to just carry the mattress out the back door instead of dragging a line in and hosing it down in the apartment. I picked up the front end of the mattress and my partner picked up the rear as we headed towards the back porch to dump it in the back yard. This particular back porch was wooden and was about 4 feet by four feet. To get downstairs, you turned right and headed down the wide wooden stairs. The porch and stairs were outside of the building, and below those wooden stairs, was a set of cement stairs that led to the basement. From the top of the wooden porch to the bottom of the cement stairs was about 30 feet. Carrying the front of the mattress, I intended to just turn right and walk down the stairs and dump the mattress in the back yard. We didn’t have any protective gear on as there appeared to be no need for it. As I passed through the doorway onto the small wooden porch, I decided, at the last second to just toss the mattress over the railing straight ahead and not turn right onto the stairway. As I started to lift the mattress over the railing to heave it over, I stepped with my right foot onto the top wooden step. Immediately, the entire wooden staircase collapsed with a deafening roar, into the cement stairwell of the basement. I fell to the left onto the porch deck. As I peered cautiously over the edge of the still standing porch, which was independently supported by four, 4” x 4” vertical beams, I saw the tangled mass of splintered steps piled up in the basement stairwell. Had chance not intervened, I would have been entangled in that deadly pile of debris. The sound of that collapsing staircase still echoes in my mind today. The very idea that I easily could have wound up under that woodpile made a lasting impression on me. I think that it was mostly due to the fact that we faced danger all the time, but this seemed so routine and harmless. I knew that I would have been badly hurt or killed and I’ve never forgotten that seemingly innocuous incident. A memory etched by fate. __________________ Hail to ALL the troops and shadow warriors.