Deployment Stories

Fire Interruption Technology Knocks Down Basement Fire and Saves NY Home from Total Loss

Newburgh, NY
February 2010

On February 28, with manpower exhausted, malfunctioning alerting devices, and stormy weather conditions, Assistant Chief James Leghorn of the Cronomer Valley Fire Department turned to Ara Safety’s Fire Interruption Technology® to knock down flames and buy time in response to a house fire in Newburgh, NY.

When Assistant Chief Leghorn arrived on scene of a fully involved basement fire, heavy smoke and flames were showing on the raised ranch wood frame residence. With a delay in the arrival of the first engine due to poor weather, and the fire extending to the second floor, Assistant Chief Leghorn grabbed Ara’s device from his command vehicle, deployed it in the room of origin, and shut the door.

Within a minute post the deployment, the fire was knocked down. The engine and the aerial pulled up on the scene shortly after and overhauled the fire before it could reignite. “Without the deployment of Fire Interruption Technology, the home would have definitely been a total loss”, said Assistant Chief Leghorn.

The fire was caused by the homeowner lighting his woodstove with gasoline. The department estimates to have used approximately 250 gallons of Compressed Air Foam to completely extinguish the flames. Had Ara’s device not been used, the department estimates that it would have required as much as 16 times that amount to extinguish the fire.

This fire was one of 80 calls within a 24-hour period that a busy Cronomer Valley Fire Department responded to following a snowstorm that covered the region with over 20” of snow. The Plattekill Fire Department provided mutual aid. Following this fire, The Plattekill Fire Department has added 5 Fire Interruption Technology devices to its fleets.

US Fire Tech, Ara Safety’s Fire Interruption Technology dealer in the region, provided the unit to the Cronomer Fire Department three months before the deployment.

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