HOBBLE CREEK CANYON — Three firefighters were injured after being trapped for 15 minutes Friday when a ceiling collapsed on top of them as they were fighting a house fire.
“Incredibly scary. That was the longest 15 minutes of my year,” said Utah County Deputy Fire Marshal Randy Crowther, who was part of the team that went into the burning structure to rescue the three men.
But because of the heroic efforts of firefighters and police officers from several agencies who ran into the fire to free the men, all of them are expected to make full recoveries. One police officer was also injured during the rescue and was hospitalized.
“It took a lot of bravery, a lot of effort and a lot of courage to do what they did this morning,” Crowther said, praising the efforts of the rescuers.
Just before 4 a.m., a homeowner and his wife at 1526 S. Hobble Creek Haven Road were awakened by the sound of their overhead sprinklers turning on. Crowther said the sprinklers are required for homes in the remote, mountain area.
The sprinklers, he said, had turned on in the area of a wood stove used to heat the house.
Firefighters “found a fire in the chimney pathways associated with that stove and other utility flues that go all the way from the basement to the attic,” Crowther said.
The couple got out of the house safely. When fire crews arrived, they started attacking the fire from both the inside and outside of the structure.
The 7,000-square-foot home had a steel roof, which Crowther said is used to hold heavy snow loads and helps the roof maintain structural integrity longer than an asphalt roof.
“It is a very preferred roofing used in the backcountry. But it’s unique in that trusses can fail and the roof looks like it still has integrity for a little bit of time, and then it all kind of fails at once due to the steel finally giving way,” he said.
That’s what happened Friday while three firefighters went inside the garage to battle the flames.
“Due to the roof situation, we had an unknown scenario under the roofing, and we had a structural collapse of the roof while firefighters were in the garage,” Crowther said. “The ceiling of the garage under the weight of the collapsed roof fell onto the firefighters in the garage. Ended up with three firefighters in the garage who couldn’t get out.”
That’s when the “mayday call” went out, alerting others the three firefighters were in trouble.
Immediately, 12 to 15 people, including Springville police officers and Utah County sheriff’s deputies joined other firefighters from Springville and Provo in developing a plan to enter the burning home and get the trapped men out.
“We had to force entry through doors and windows. We had to add another hose attack to cool off that area so that rescuers could get in there without additional injuries. And then they had to kind of push and pull and cut and lift and unpin those firefighters from their situation and then drag them out to where they could be treated for their injuries,” Crowther said.
“For 15 minutes, I’m sure it seemed forever for us. For them being trapped, and being on bottled air with limited time frames, that was even longer for those fellows.”
When the three firefighters were freed, they were all conscious and alert.
One was initially thought to have significant smoke inhalation and was taken by medical helicopter to a local hospital, Crowther said. Another was taken to a local hospital with a leg injury. The third firefighter was treated at the scene. But a Springville police officer who was part of the rescue team also had to be transported to the hospital to be treated for cuts, bruises and smoke inhalation, he said.
According to the Springville Fire Department, all of its firefighters had been released from the hospital by midmorning except for the firefighter who was flown by medical helicopter. His injuries, however, were not critical, according to the department.
After the firefighters were rescued, crews went into a defensive mode, meaning they prevented the fire from spreading to other structures, but the house itself was a total loss. Crowther estimated the loss to the home to be about $1 million.
Although fires in stove pipes are common if they are not cleaned regularly, Crowther said, there are several reasons those type of fires can start, What started the fire Friday morning will likely never be known, he said.