Fire at Ira's wrecking yard

Ira's wrecking yard is almost a landmark in Madras, it has been here forever and I think everyone in town has been there at least once or twice.

On 3/22/13 the fire department was toned out for a fire at the wrecking yard and when they arrived it was already so hot in the attic that the roof was collapsing.

 As you can see in the photo below the dangers at a wrecking yard are numerous. They do a lot of cutting and welding of metal and you can see all the tanks on the left of the large oil barrel.  Most shops that do a lot of work on vehicles uses furnaces that use the used oil to heat the shop to save costs of heating and cost of disposing of the oil.

The dangers to firemen are extreme on any fire but some are more dangerous then others.

A lot of fire departments also run the ambulance service but in our area the ambulance is separate from the fire department but they always come to any structure fire to stand by just in case they are needed. 

Spraying water from the top of the ladder keeps the firefighters out of so much danger and this truck was a saving grace on this fire.

The power company was really quick to respond to this fire and get the electricity turned off to the building as it was during working hours.  This fire went really quick. Many agencies in Central Oregon responded to assist.

A firefighter heads up the ladder to get a visual on the fire.

The firefighter can do a better job of aiming the water and observing the fire once it is knocked down enough to be safe.  With the way the wind was blowing he got quite a ride.

It is still smoky and hot at the top of the ladder for the firefighter and a dangerous job but he has a safety strap hooked to the ladder.

The one building is a mess as you can see the roof structure collapsed. The was an expensive fire with all the tools and equipment inside.

 More dangers for the firefighters besides the fire in the building.

The roof of the building during mop up stage.

Any structure fire or storage shed has a lot of losses that we don't always think about. Just like most places they had numerous things stored in the attic like old photographs.  So many people I have talked to after a fire report the biggest loss is their memory things like photographs which is a good reason to have copies stored in two places or on line. You can replace material things even if it takes a while but that photo of your child's first birthday is not replaceable.  Please think about things like this, put some copies somewhere. Like have two copies made of all photos and have one of your children keep one copy at their place.  One lady I know after a fire keeps all her negatives now in a safe deposit box.  With todays digital photos you can store on line for a fee.

Another thing to make copies or store at a safety deposit box or make digital copies off too is your wedding certificate, death certificates, birth certificates, titles etc.  They have free programs on the internet that you can use the list to make digital photos of.  The idea I like is you start on one room and take a photo of anything of value, serial numbers etc. of everything in the room, then move to the next room.  Don't forget jewelry and little things.  This also helps when it is time for insurance payment.  Then store the photos by room on the internet site you have where it is always available.

They were able to save a lot of the stuff out of the attic in two of the buildings with only smoke damage. The middle one is the one that had most of the personal items and they used a fork lift to get them out as soon as it was safe.