My friend Matt, a fire junkie, happened to be on the scene in lower Manhattan Saturday and just posted his photos of the 7 alarm fire at the Deutsche Bank building. Sadly, two firefighters were lost in the blaze.
UPDATE: Read Matt’s full on fire geek description of the scene below.
This was huge. 7th. Can’t remember last time Manhattan had one so big. Alarms are a group of units really. So, if they request enough additional units, it goes to the next alarm. So, if they know they need a certain amount of units, they’ll just transmit the next alarm. SO, that being said, this is what happened yesterday….
The battalion chief transmitted the 2nd alarm on arrival because of the volume of smoke. He knew it was big and he’d need additional untis. The 2nd alarm transmission brought in:
8 engines
5 ladders
4 battalion chiefs
1 rescue
1 squad
1 deputy chief
1 RAC unit
1 satellite
safety battalion
SOC battalion
1 tactical support unit
field comm
He also transmitted the 10-76 (high-rise fire) at the same time because the fire was on upper floors. I believe it was on the 13th floor originally and went up to 17th. The 10-76 brought in a response of 5 engines, 5 ladders, 4 battalion chiefs, 1 deputy, 1 rescue, Mask Service Unit, Hi-Rise Unit, Field Comm Unit, a Squad, a Tactical Support unit, a RAC unit, the Special Operations battalion chief, the Safety Operating battalion chief, a safety officer, and a lobby control unit. So, there was already all these units plus the first 10-75 (equivelent to a 1st alarm) units. That’s alot!
Then it went up to a 3rd alarm, then a 4th, and then a 10-66 was transmitted. So, with each additional alarm increase another 4 engines, 2 trucks, another rescue, another squad, another satellite <---(it's a super pumper) another tactical support unit, another safety officer, another SOC battalion, another RAC unit <---( Rest and Care units... have drinking water, towels, etc for firefighters) and another field comm. BUT, the 10-66.. wow... 10-66 Missing, lost, trapped, or seriously injured member requiring extrication (Increases response by transmission of the next higher alarm, 1 additional deputy chief, 2 battalion chiefs, the collapse unit from the borough of incident, a collapse rescue task force, an additional squad, a SOC Support ladder, a FAST unit, a CFR-D engine, SOC Logistics support van, SOC Compressor truck, SOC Dewartering unit, Public Information officer, EMS division captain, EMS Haz-Tac officer, a BLS ambulance, an ALS ambulance, an EMS Rescue Paramedic ambulance, OMA response physician and a medical officer.) If the cause of the 10-66 is due to a collapse, a signal 10-60 also must be transmitted. Nothing collapsed, so they never transmitted the 10-60.. The WTC was a 10-60. So, at this point there are about 28 engines 15 ladders 7 battalion chiefs ( i think chief of the department was there as well) 3 rescue 3 squad 3 deputy chiefs 3 RAC unit 3 satellite safety battalion SOC battalion 2 tactical support units 2 field comm (there may have been three) Air Recon Unit 5 FAST teams (also known at RIT) (Firefighter Assistance Teams) (usually it's just one of the ladder companies) 1 Hazmat unit 1 Hazmat battlion Mask Service Unit Hi-Rise Unit Special Operations battalion chief Safety Operating battalion chief, plus a few other odds and ends.