FULLY INVOLVED HOUSE FIRE IN PARKTON
 
By Matthew Burgan
March 30, 2013
 

Early on Saturday morning, just before 3:00AM, units were alerted for a house fire in the 2100 Block of Bulls Sawmill Road, in Parkton. In addition to numerous units from Baltimore County, several units from Carroll County, Harford County, and York County, PA also responded to the call. Crews, who were able to see the fire from several miles away, arrived on scene and advised that there was a large, new-construction home, fully involved with fire. Due to the extensiveness of the fire, a portion of the second floor of the home collapsed into the first floor. Due to the inherent nature of limited resources in a rural area, water supply was a primary concern. The primary water supply site was set up at Pretty Boy Elementary School, from a large capacity, underground water tank. A secondary water supply site was the setup at the Prettyboy Reservoir. From here, a tanker support piece from the Butler Volunteer Fire Company drafted several tens of thousands of gallons of water and pumped it into a number of tanker trucks from the various counties, to be transported to the fire ground. Included in this tanker truck shuttle was engine 431, which carried over 12,000 gallons of water over the course of the incident, at 2,500 gallons per trip to the fill site. The water was dumped into a portable, folding collection tank, which was then drafted and pumped to the scene of the fire. In total, the Engine-Tanker from Arcadia operated on the scene for over 6 hours.

 
Units: Engine-Tanker 431