Bricker Road Barn Fire

Upper Tulpehocken Township

Tuesday, June 14, 2006 at 7:49 PM

Company #27 was dispatched with Company #50 (Strausstown), Company #29 (Bernville), and Quint #30 (Mount Pleasant) for a reported working barn fire in the 400 block of Bricker Road.  Upon leaving station a column of smoke was visible from the area.  50-10 (Chief Bentz) arrived and confirmed that this was at the East Coast Erosion Blanket facility at 443 Bricker Road (the former Reed farm).   This is approximately 1.5 miles south of Strausstown's fire station.

Engine #50 was out of service at the time of the call so Engines 27 & 29, along with Quint 30 provided the attack operations at the scene.  The picture below was taken from the front of Engine 27 on arrival.  The tan building in the foreground is the office complex which sat less than 50 feet away from the barn.  Initial efforts were to protect this exposure.

After the water supply was established by a tanker shuttle from Anthony's Mill, the Quint's master stream was placed into service to knock down all visible fire.  A track loader was requested to the scene and the remaining debris was pulled apart, with the final evolution being Engine 29 applying compressed air foam to the entire area. 

     Units dispatched:

          Strausstown Tanker 50 and Squad 50

          Rehrersburg E27, E27-1, T27, and R27

          Bernville E29, T29, and R29

          Mount Pleasant Q30 and T30

          Shartlesville E41-1, T41, and T41-1

          Bethel T54

          Frystown T53

          Mount Aetna T28

          Shoemakersville T40

          Central Berks T38

          Summit Station (Schuylkill) T34-36

          Leesport T37

          Greenfields E55

          Bethel EMS A588