[Eug]

I used to live very near here. Luckily nobody was hurt. It was mostly commercial, with some residences. It didn't get my particular building as it was a couple of blocks away, but I used to shop here here all the time.

Photo gallery: Queen Street West 6 alarm fire





Article and video.

What does "6 alarm fire" mean anyway?

[residentEvil]

the number of departments to respond...

so, sounds like took 6 departments.

edit: guess that isn't always the case. depends on the fire company.

[Cipher13]

Damn, how the hell did it get that out of control before it was responded to? That's ludicrous.

[Eug]

Originally Posted by residentEvil 

the number of departments to respond...

so, sounds like took 6 departments.

edit: guess that isn't always the case. depends on the fire company.

Thanks. The "company" is the City of Toronto.

Originally Posted by Cipher13 

Damn, how the hell did it get that out of control before it was responded to? That's ludicrous.

Not sure, but I think all the buildings were physically attached to each other (or at least, very, very close), and I suspect the roofs were tar.

They were also really old probably with bad wiring, although that might explain why the fire started, and not why it spread so fast.

[Visnaut]

Originally Posted by Cipher13 

Damn, how the hell did it get that out of control before it was responded to? That's ludicrous.

They responded very quickly, by all accounts, and there were no injuries or deaths as a result.

Funny story actually, in the midst of the tragedy: Firefighters put a ladder up to a window of an adjacent building to rescue a guy who was trying to get away from the smoke in his apartment. As soon as the firefighter gets up to his window, the dude hands him his laptop and runs back for his stereo! The firefighter yelled some sense into him and right after he slinged the idiot over his shoulder, there was a flare-over that consumed his entire apartment in flames.

So yeah, they responded just in time if you ask me... like Eug said, those were old buildings, some over a century old. The high winds that night, and the crusty, dried-out joists made for a deadly combo.

[iranfromthezoo]

Originally Posted by Eug 

What does "6 alarm fire" mean anyway?

Actually in Toronto it is how many battalions are called out. A battalion is usually 3 engines, one ladder and a chief.

By the looks of it the fire dept. did a great job. I always hate responding to those houses like that, theres generally a lot of people in those type houses and the wiring is probably aluminum. And if a guy did that to me, I'd beat the crap out of that guy who was throwing that stuff to me and show him the flashover that he was just in. You meet some weird people at fires though....we even caught an arsonist masturbating to the house fire he set...kinda creepy.

[residentEvil]

Originally Posted by Eug 

Thanks. The "company" is the City of Toronto.

iranfromthezoo can answer for sure, i bet. since he is a fireman. that was just my understanding of the number in the alarm. but i did a quick google so i wouldn't look stupid and well...too late.

[residentEvil]

too late; iranfromthezoo answered

[iranfromthezoo]

Originally Posted by residentEvil 

too late; iranfromthezoo answered

haha well you were not entirely wrong. It varies by dept. like ours a 3 alarm fire would mean we have all 3 engines, ladder, rescue, and chief on scene and then the 4th alarm would strike and we would get help from neighboring cities.

Most volunteer dept's automatically start with 2 or 3 alarms (2 or 3 volly depts) and then everytime they request backup the alarm number grows. The biggest one I have been on is a 28th alarm.

[Oisín]

28th? Damn, what was that, a forest fire?

[iranfromthezoo]

Originally Posted by Oisín 

28th? Damn, what was that, a forest fire?

yeah it was actually. We were the first in engine and we quickly yelled for a mayday. We had over 200 acres on fire in a neighborhood packed with kids. Wasn't a fun ride, but we managed to only lose 5 houses, 12 cars and no humans or animals.

[ghporter]

One major thing to note is that it's "damn cold" in Toronto right now. That's not "foam" among the firefighters' feet, it's snow and ice. That makes the whole process of firefighting orders of magnitude harder. Just footing and movement issues become immensely difficult when you have ice that is constantly being thawed and refrozen...

Sorry to see a bit of Toronto go up in flames, but I'm very impressed by your firefighters, Eug. Even if they've been working in Toronto their whole careers, they have more challenges than my local guys-and my guys rock.