| We want to begin this post with one thing in mind and the most important aspect of this entire event, NO INJURIES OR LOSS OF LIFE. With what the first arriving units pulled up to and unfolded that night, with over 30 agencies operating and the amount of moving parts and not one injury.
Many might have been wondering why you’ve seen nothing from the Department pertaining to Friday nights fire yet? How come we are the last to post about it or give any official information? Simply it’s the importance of making sure everything is factual, making sure those affected by the incident are taken care of, and we as a department ensure that everything we can do and must do is completed first.
In 20 minutes Friday night, we transitioned from an event of pride, joy, and happiness to one of still pride but also back to business with a lot of factors being added that would hinder what was ahead of us. Within a minute or two of dispatch you had Chief Officers responding and (4) full crews of firefighters geared up and responding. Over 5,500 gallons of water on the road, and many more assembling.
The quick thinking and actions of both the members of the OFD & Ossining Police Department evacuated 7 families that were still in the building when we arrived. Property can be rebuilt and belongs replaced, lives can’t. We want to stress the importance of what these members of both agencies did that night even before the arrival of a piece of fire apparatus.
We don’t want to go into grave detail about the operations of the incident as it’s pretty much explained in a press release previously posted, but we will hit a few key things we feel are necessary to highlight.
-The facility is a 24 unit building 3 stories in height and 16 of those 24 units were inhabited. The facility had both a fire alarm system and a sprinkler system. The fire alarm system was not activated when services arrived and it was attempted to be activated manually with no success, it was believed to have been compromised when the building was struck by lightning. Local alarms (smoke detectors, etc) were alarming/activated) in apartments.
-This incident was one of the biggest involving a mutual aid response in department history. This can we compared to the Main Street Fire of 1995 on which multiple buildings were lost and again in 1999 when a 7-Story Apartment building was destroyed shortly after Christmas at 71 Charter Circle. Over 30 Fire & EMS agencies responded Friday night spanning 3 County’s. These agencies professionalism, urgency, and dedication was shown and the OFD extends our gratitude and thanks for your actions. The Mutual Aid System works, it was proven that night. Some of these agencies we’ve never worked with in our 214 year history before.
-With the current water project ongoing within the fire district, (this is also covered in the press release) we have prepared ourselves and altered responses to reflect the needs necessary for a fire related incident. In doing so, we brought in more than usual coverage during our scheduled parade. 2 of these units are agencies from Rockland County. For a long standing tradition, the OFD has done the same for agencies in Rockland during their County Parade every September. We have ran a working fire in the past while doing such, not to the extent these units did this past week. We want to specifically thank the crews of the covering units (Mt. Kisco FD Engine 104 (Mutual E&H Co.), Katonah FD Tanker 6 and their Assistant Chief “2212”, Piermont FD of Rockland County Ladder 13-99 and their Assistant Chief “13-3”, and Spring Valley FD of Rockland County Engine 17-1500 and their Assistant Chief “17-2”).
-We cannot track the amount of water that was used to bring this fire under control, but we can estimate its number is astronomical. Rural water operations is that of finding and using alternative water sources to subsidize what you need and obviously don’t have. The 12 tankers that responded moved tremendous amounts of water, we are estimating that just (2) of these moved over 100,000 gallons of water. The expertise of these agencies doing such assisted us greatly. This combined with the drafting from a nearby pond and also the swimming pool is what firefighter training and ingenuity is all about.
-Every job on the fireground is of importance, from being an apparatus operator, being on a hose line, inside searching a hallway, directing traffic, or simply assisting with rehab handing out water or standing fast as an EMS crew. Everyone there that night made the end result happen. We thank all the members of the agencies operating that night in assisting the OFD.
-We need to express our gratitude to the community and our neighbors in the immediate
vicinity of the incident. Numerous residents offered and donated drinking water, food, snacks, use of bathrooms, moving of their vehicles to assist in making more room for operations and apparatus placement. This continued once again when we would return the next day for a small area of the building that once again began to burn. It was reported by neighbors at approximately 1500hrs onSaturday the 8th of August. We cannot express our appreciation for our communities continued support for YOUR Volunteer Fire Department.
-Our local government, the mission cannot be executed without support and logistics. We want to thank both our Village Mayor Rika Levin & our Town Supervisor Elizabeth Feldman for both coming to the scene Friday night. Simply coming and seeing the incident first hand and the compassion for us as your Fire Department and the tragedy your residents are going through expresses your level of care for our community.
-What happens next, as you can see from the posts we’ve recently shared today our community is always there for our neighbors. The outpouring of support is evident and we could not be more proud of Ossining. Please, if you are able to assist in anyway it’s greatly appreciated.
-We also must express our thanks to the building owner and management for working so closely with our chiefs staff literally within 25 minutes after this incident began.
**The pictures attached in this post are not to be reused without permission from the OFD. Many were taken that night by members of the Department and many were also provided to us. Some were from social media that we feel expresses exactly what the incidents magnitude was. |
