Updated Friday March 26, 2010

Photos, Videos and Stories

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This was a total loss house fire. Operations went defensive within two minutes after arrival.	One of our own playing Santa for District's 2009 Christmas Party.	Driver-Apparatus Operator course, pumping practical test	Raytown Fire VS Raytown Police in Basketball 2009	Raytown Fire VS Raytown Police in Softball 2009	Smoke mask training	Raytown Fire Honor Guard Royals game 2009	Propane tank training with "Bob Tail" simulator	The KC area major case squad used fire headquarters for a quadruple homicide investigation	Emergency services working a motor vehicle accident roll over into a ditch
Our Fire Marshal doing duty as Public Information Officer after a house fire	Emergency crews helping a victim of a motorcycle accident	A multi-car accident on 350 highway	Vehicle accident at night	Propane tank training	Passenger truck hit station one and severely damaged the bay door	Honor Guard presentation	Fire crews, ambulance crews and police were pinned down by gunfire for over two hours	Another view. All together, this vehicle alone was hit 27 times by rifle fire	Car fire attack
See story below for people in need	Honor Guard presentation at groundbreaking ceremony	Heavy rescue with a concrete truck roll over onto a passenger vehicle	Panoramic of the same incident	Medical helicopter took off hot with the patient extricated  from the extrication	Decontamination training with Kansas City Haz-Mat crews	Late night house fire.	Driver training course test	Driver training pumping test	Driver training course test, diminishing lane
Funeral procession for retired fire chief	After the fire	Getting ready to go in	This porch was totally consumed before firefighters arrived.	Directions	Bedroom fire that breached the attic	Honor Guard leads the way in local parade	Reflections in stone Missouri Fallen Firefighters Memorial Kingdom City	Room in contents with extension	Sprinkler head control training
Propane tank training	Honor Guard at Fallen Firefighters Memorial	Propane tank training	Decontamination training with Kansas City Fire Haz-Mat crews	Decontamination training with Kansas City Fire Haz-Mat crews	Table top exercise training	Smoke detector installation	Honor Guard	Heavy smoke and fire showing before first arrival	Fourth of July wood shingle roof fire. Hottest day of the year
House fire in the winter.	Same fire, second event from a set fire	Same fire, getting ready to go defensive	Elevated master stream applied	Table top testing for Captains exam	Aftermath of Taco Bell fire. A total loss	Vehicle accident on the highway	Ventilation a roof	Ladder evolution from a house fire	Fourth of July fire (see above)
Vehicle roll over	Christmas Day fire in a business	Getting ready	Second hand line deployed in defensive operation	Extrication training	Landing zone stand-by	Car fire	Car fire	Car fire	Doc-u-drama (See story and video link below)
Response to central Missouri for brush fires	Competition in public venue	Drafting from a static source	Ladder 2 (Quint)	Car fire	Fatality car wreck	House fire	house fire	Trench rescue training	Rappelling training
On the ladder	Enroute to smoke in a bank	Stained glass of department's logo	Honor Guard presentation at awards dinner	Truck fire	Catching a hydrant	Stick in the air	Haz-Mat training, extrication of a simulated victim	Rappelling training	High Angle training
Taking a patient to the ambulance	Table top training	Extrication training			North House drawing		Rappelling off the roof at station 1	Communication	Sprinkler activation
Santa being delivered by fire truck to the Christmas tree lighting ceremony	Highway wreck	Inspection by a interested citizen	Taking a child to a waiting Life flight helicopter from a traffic accident	Radiator shop fire, late at night	Crew waiting for start of parade, a few days after 9/11	Propane tank training	Propane tank training	Mini van trough the bridge guard rail	Mini van trough the bridge guard rail
House fire	A shift at retired Captain's funeral	Outside of an apartment fire	Backboard application from a vehicle accident	Car fire at night	Car into a house with extrication	Captain eligibility testing at fireground simulator	Large Area Search Team (LAST) drill Training	Driver testing Aerial operations	Driver testing drafting from a static source

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These are but a few pictures taken during a multi-jurisdictional training exercise. The class was delivered by instructors from the Missouri Fire and Rescue Institute. "Propane Emergencies -Bobtail" Personnel from nearby fire service agencies participated, including several companies from Kansas City Fire and Haz Mat 71. The simulator represents the control valve assembly of a small propane delivery truck. The pressure relief  and operational valves work as they normally would.

Our Taco Bell was destroyed in 1994. The fire went undiscovered for at least an hour after the business closed. The sign in the front of the building takes on new meaning. The store was demolished to the ground and replaced with a combination Taco Bell and Long John Silver's .

This is a video of the training mentioned above. To view the video, move your mouse over the picture and click the left mouse button. This file is a Windows Media File (wmf) and should open up in compatible viewers. There are a few more videos below that operate in the same manner.

This was a fatality accident involving a concrete truck that rolled over a passenger vehicle. The driver of the concrete truck died on the scene before we arrived. This was an prolonged extrication, with diesel fuel leaking into the ditch where the vehicle was. The person in the passenger vehicle was seriously injured and flown to a local trauma center.

This is one of the table top exercises that was performed in a Captain's assessment Center. This product has an advantage of three dimensional view of what the candidate did, what he ordered, where vehicles were placed. In addition to this, from a practical point, is that this simulation represents a real neighborhood in our city. Color photographs were laid out on this table to further illustrate the tactical and strategic issued that need to be addressed

Another training exercise was delivered from Kansas City Haz Mat team. Raytown Fire has trained personnel to assist with decontamination of established Haz Mat Teams. Since this training, Raytown Fire participated in this role at the latest Mid America Regional Council's Haz Mat drill. Eight Haz Mat teams, support teams and all levels of federal, multi state, and multi state local emergency responders participated in this two day event.

This is a link to another video (click on the picture). The video is of a large three story wood frame structure that had been started to be built, but was abandoned for several years after financial problems cause the owner to leave the structure in a unfinished condition. The fire was fast and extremely hot. Four juveniles were arrested and charged. The court record was sealed due to the suspects being juvenile. The building was completely destroyed. There were some unique challenges in fighting this fire: High winds, with a nursing home immediately downwind, reduced water pressure due to the large demand needed to fight the amount of fire while protecting the nursing home as an exposure, the project faced a state highway that was not able to be completely shut down, the date of the fire was July 31st with high temperatures even at 9 in the morning. Five master streams (two elevated) and 2 two and a half inch lines were set up on the only two sides available. No paved areas were on the other two sides.  Overhead power lines burned and fell as far as three hundred feet away from the building.
The property was resold after the court ordered the previous owner to pay for the clean up. A convenience store and a  retirement townhouse complex was constructed in its place. The video is about five minutes long. To view a larger picture of the button icon for this video, click here.

These pictures were taken during the practical evolutions of a Driver's promotional exam.

 

This is another video link. Click on the picture to activate it. This is a combination editing of a police unit video cam and actual dispatch radio traffic. At this time, the two are not in sync. It looks worse than it actually was. The fire occurred on a second story deck and caught the wood shingle siding on fire. No interior fire damage occurred.

The department reaches out to people in need.
During the Christmas season of 2005, firefighters initiated and helped a family in Raytown. KMBC TV 9  television station heard from this single mother who adopted three boys; about getting ripped off by two different construction contractors. The contractors were hired to finish off a garage for a bedroom and a family room. They took her money and never returned. After hearing this story on the news, the Raytown firefighters came in, arranged for the work to get done by local business men and other Raytown firefighters, finished the project right before Christmas. The  television station heard of this, and joined in by putting the mother  and the boys as guest in the Great Wolf Lodge for the weekend. Radio Station KFKF also helped out with getting a new furnace. One of the Raytown Firemen played Santa, who was delivered to the home by fire truck within a hour after the family returned  from the weekend stay at the Great Wolf Lodge. Firemen's wives put together time and their own money and went shopping for gifts for the three boys. A Christmas tree was purchased and decorated. Furniture, and entertainment center, carpeting and tile were all donated. I' m sure this is one Christmas that everyone involved will not soon forget.

 
This is one of the first videos taken in our department. Again, click the picture to activate the video. This was set up with the Kids Congress from one of our high schools, and funded through a tax initiative known as Combat Challenge. Its purpose was to educate high school age boys and girls about the real repercussions of drinking and driving. The video was used internally in the school. Students were allowed to witness this during regular class room hours. You may notice that the hill side is covered with students. The video was shown several times during class room hours right before the prom was scheduled.  This video is edited from its original version. The parts cut out showed what happens after the accident, including the process of being arrested and put in jail, what happens in the hospital and long term emotional affects within the family of the victims and survivors.  The realism portrayed here had a dramatic effect on most witnessing the events. Some students had an overwhelming emotional experience and felt that this actually happened. This was even more so with the students that played the actors parts. The video production was done by one of our firefighters, using four different cameras.
This edited version is exactly five minutes long.

Crews found heavy fire from the back side extending into the interior. Attack crews defensive mode (left photo). Right photo shows the remains of the covered deck on the back side. Photos taken ten minutes after arrival (86th and Pershing  04:30  08/17/2000) 

     A vacant single family dwelling was found to be near 100 percent involved upon arrival. The structure sits on the Raytown and Kansas City limits so both departments responded. Crews were withdrawn early due to floor and ceiling collapse. Defensive operations put the fire under control in a hour. The response equals two alarms. All together there were four pumpers, three trucks, a rescue and chiefs from both departments totaling 36 firefighters. (87th and Stark 15:45 01/01/2001) Photos by Scott Thomas Photography, Inc. Raytown, Mo. Copyrighted All rights reserved.       

"I Wish You Could See"

I wish you could know what it is like to search a burning bedroom for trapped children, flames rolling above your head, your palms and knees burning as you crawl, the floor sagging under your weight as the kitchen below you burns.

I wish you could comprehend a wife's horror at 3 in the morning as check her husband of 40 years for a pulse and find none. I start CPR anyway, hoping to bring him back, knowing intuitively it is too late. But wanting his wife and family to know everything possible was done to try to save his life. 

I wish you knew the unique smell of burning insulation, the taste of soot-filled mucus, the feeling of intense heat through your turnout gear, the sound of flames crackling, the eeriness of being able to see absolutely nothing in dense smoke-sensations that I've become too familiar with.

I wish you could understand how it feels to go to work in the morning after having spent most of the night, hot and soaking wet at a multiple alarm.

I wish you could read my mind as I respond to a building fire "Is this a false alarm or a working fire? How is the building constructed? What hazards await me? Is anyone trapped?" Or to an EMS call, "What is wrong with the patient? Is it minor or life-threatening? Is the caller really in distress or is he waiting for us with a 2x4 or a gun?"

I wish you could be in the emergency room, as a doctor pronounces dead the beautiful five-year old girl that I have been trying to save during the past 25 minutes. Who will never go on her first date or say the words, "I love you Mommy" again.

I wish you could know the frustration I feel in the cab of the engine squad, or my personal vehicle, the driver with his foot pressing down hard on the pedal, my arm tugging again and again at the air horn chain, as you fail to yield the right-of-way at an intersection or in traffic. When you need us however, your first comment upon our arrival will be, "It took you forever to get here!"

I wish you could know my thoughts as I help extricate a girl of teenage years from the remains of her automobile. "What if this was my sister, my girlfriend or a friend? What were her parents reaction going to be when they opened the door to find a police officer with hat in hand?"

I wish you could know how it feels to walk in the back door and greet my parents and family, not having the heart to tell them that I nearly did not come back from the last call.

I wish you could know how it feels dispatching officers, firemen and EMT's out, and when we call for them and our heart drops because no one answers back, or to hear a bone chilling 911 call of a child or wife needing assistance.

I wish you could feel the hurt as people verbally and sometimes physically, abuse us or belittle what I do, or as they express their attitudes of "It will never happen to me."

I wish you could realize the physical, emotional and mental drain or missed meals, lost sleep and forgone social activities, in addition to all the tragedy my eyes have seen.

I wish you could know the brotherhood and self-satisfaction of helping save a life or preserving someone's property, or being able to be there in a time of crisis, or creating order from total chaos.

I wish you could understand what it feels like to have a little boy tugging at your arm and asking, "Is Mommy okay?" Not even being able to look in his eyes without tears from your own and not knowing what to say. 

To have to hold back a long time friend who watches his buddy having rescue breathing done on him as they take him away in the ambulance. You know all along he did not have his seat belt on. A sensation that I have become too familiar with.

Unless you have lived with this kind of life, you will never truly understand or appreciate who I am, who we are, or what our job really means to us...I wish you could though.

-author unknown-