New York firefighters recall the rescue operation after a house explosion

Author: Jon Moss
syracuse.com

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Injured people everywhere. Children crying and screaming. Smoke rising from a collapsed house. A child trapped in a car under the rubble.

Syracuse emergency services rescued several members of two families, including a child trapped in a car

This was the scene first seen by Syracuse firefighters when they arrived on the scene Tuesday afternoon the explosion collapsed the house in the northern part of the city.

Victims and bystanders were dangerously close to downed power lines. The air was filled with the strong smell of natural gas.

“It was almost like taking 10 different alarms and putting them all into one,” said Syracuse Fire Department Lt. Chris Janus.

The seven firefighters who were the first to arrive at the house gathered on Thursday syracuse.com | The Post-Standard reported on the call that sent 12 people to Upstate University Hospital, including an infant and two toddlers in critical condition.

The injured were members two refugee families celebrating the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha at a house on Carbon St. 205. Firefighters believe that natural gas may have played a role in the explosionbut they are still investigating.

When firefighters arrived around 4 p.m., Janus and firefighter Zach Beebe of the Mini 2 saw so many people near the two-story home that it was difficult to tell who exactly was a victim needing help.

The duo ran towards the house after a witness told them it had collapsed onto a car with a child inside. They found the boy pinned between the car door and the car itself.

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Much of the home’s second floor and roof rested on the car, Janus said. He and Beebe had to be careful not to shift too much debris and destabilize what remained of the home. Other firefighters helped set up struts to strengthen the structure.

Janus added that after clearing the debris, the boy was able to free himself and jump over the seat to get out of the car.

More and more crews from all over the city descended on Carbon Street.

Engine 2 stopped with firefighter Wilford Stephens Jr. and Keyon Brown, center. Stephens was working on connecting an engine to a hydrant when he noticed a woman and a child with burns on her forehead. He ran to get a supervisor from the local ambulance company, AMR, who had sprained his ankle and needed help.

“It was chaos at first,” Stephens said. “We are trained to do this, but this is a pretty unique situation.”

Truck No. 2 pulled into the scene with Lt. Jeff Wisely and firefighters Jake Burns, Chris Kasperek and Gregory Henry. Burns said he grabbed a medical bag and began treating any victims he saw.

“It was difficult because the kids were crying,” he said, “and I didn’t know if they were hurt or scared.”

Burns said he later learned there were 13 people in the house.

“From the looks of the house, it’s hard to believe that no one died in it,” he said.

Crews soon began strengthening the remaining structure before Rescue Company firefighters went inside to search for trapped people. The unit is specially trained to rescue people from dangerous situations. They spent 45 minutes searching and found no one.

The state Office of Fire Prevention and Control brought search dogs from Albany to comb through the debris. New York State Police brought in a tracking dog.

The temperature was 93 degrees when the firefighters worked. They turned and went. They were given bottles of water and Gatorade, as well as electrolyte sodas and cool towels. The Centro bus was used as a refrigerated vehicle for the firefighters.

Crews from Mini 2, Engine 2 and Truck 2 returned to the fire station at Lodi and Danforth streets around 11:30 p.m., seven hours after withdrawing. And it was time for dinner.

Calls to several local pizzerias yielded no results—it was late enough that they were all closed. So they went to the kitchen and cooked chicken cordon bleu.

Around 1 a.m. Wednesday, another call came over the radio. A house was burning on the Near West Side and the people there needed help.