Syracuse Fire Responds to Fire on Halloween

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – On October 31st, 2022 at 7:59 p.m., Syracuse firefighters were alerted by the 911 Center to a possible fire in the 100 block of Bradford Street, with neighbors reporting a family in the home. Firefighters, driving particularly carefully with Halloween trick-or-treaters around, arrived in four minutes to find a 2-story, wood-framed house with heavy fire engulfing the back of the structure. Crews stretched attack handlines into the front door and pushed through blinding smoke and high heat, extinguishing a large amount of fire on the first floor towards the rear of the house. Attack handlines were also stretched to the second floor to extinguish fire on that floor and in the attic.

During the fire attack, aggressive searches were performed by four teams-of-two, looking for the adults and children that multiple bystanders said were in the house. One of those teams, the Rescue Co. officer and driver, performed a vent-enter-search technique, using a ladder and climbing into a second-floor window to search the bedrooms. No victims were found in the house.

Firefighters remained on scene for over four hours ensuring complete extinguishment of stubborn, hidden fire in knee-walls, hidden void spaces and with smoldering insulation throughout the house. There were no injuries. No residents were home at the time of the fire. Two adults and three children are displaced from the home and are being assisted by the American Red Cross. The fire is under investigation by the Syracuse Fire Investigation Bureau.

We thank our partners at the 911 Center, Syracuse Police, AMR, National Grid, and the American Red Cross.

The above-mentioned ‘vent-enter-search,’ in general, is used if a victim is thought to be in a certain area, like a second-floor bedroom, and climbing into that room’s window would possibly save time compared to starting searches from the first floor that is impinged by extensive fire conditions. Seconds count when victims are in deadly smoke and high heat.