Rookie firefighters douse blaze

BIG LAKE — Firefighters were able to stop a mobile home fire Friday before it completely destroyed the building, but one of their own wound up needing to be medically checked for heat exhaustion.

“Even though he thought he was OK, we always have them go to Mat-Su Regional just to get checked out,” said West Lakes Fire Chief Bill Gamble. “He was fine and released after just a short period of time.”

As for the fire, he said his team did great work.

“They did just an awesome job. All of my firefighters that went in last night were rookie firefighters,” Gamble said Saturday.

But they did exactly what they were trained to do and stopped the fire. Gamble estimated 25 percent of the mobile home was destroyed. That there was anything left is actually far from the norm when it comes to fires in mobile homes.

“They catch on fire and they burn quick and plus you’ve got all that metal on the roof and the sides that holds all the heat in,” Gamble said.

That makes for a pretty hot fire and a dangerous one to boot.

“Mobile homes are notorious for flashovers,” Gamble said, referencing a phenomenon wherein a fire gets so hot that everything in the room spontaneously catches fire.

He said his guys took their time and did it right. The mobile home was on Maplewood Drive, in neighborhoods south of Big Lake Road near Mile 2.

“There was a welder there that was trying to thaw the pipes out underneath the trailer and unfortunately caught the underside of the trailer on fire which then migrated into the living area,” he said.

The fire response drew in crews from the Central Mat-Su, Houston and Willow fire departments.

“We had all the support that we needed once we got the main part of the fire knocked down,” Gamble said.

As for the heat exhausted firefighter, Gamble said that there were plenty of contributing factors including how hot the fire was and that outside air temperatures are warmer now than they have been.

And if it sounds like the kind of thing that would happen to firefighters frequently, Gamble said part of the way he combats it is with his own fanaticism for fitness. That’s what inspired him to use grant money to install a gym in one of his stations.

“I’m constantly on these guys about staying in good physical condition, eating right, just taking care of themselves,” he said.

Gamble said that while the home on Friday wasn’t completely destroyed, a lot of the furniture and personal effects were lost. But, Gamble, noted they were able to save the resident’s purse, allowing her to continue conducting her business without a major interruption. Which, again, is rare for a mobile home.

“It was an excellent save,” Gamble said.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.