A massive fire, compounded with a lack of a nearby and reliable water source, saw many northern Westchester fire companies working for several hours together in the Mount Kisco fire district on Friday night.

At about 6:20 PM, 60 Control alerted the MKFD - along with Tankers from Millwood and Yorktown Heights - to a reported structure fire at the Yeshiva of Nitra complex in New Castle. The first arriving Chief from Mount Kisco confirmed heavy smoke showing and transmitted a 10-75, which brought additional Engines from Mount Kisco and Millwood, as well as a Tanker and FAST from Bedford Hills and a Tanker from Katonah to the scene.

About 20 minutes after arrival, an additional FASTeam from Ossining was called, followed by Engines from Bedford, Bedford Hills and Chappaqua. Minutes later, two additional Tankers - Banksville and Goldens Bridge - were called into the scene, followed by Briarcliff Manor's Rescue for SCBA refilling purposes - equating to a 2nd Alarm.

Roughly 20 minutes after that, around 7:55 PM, a 3rd Alarm was transmitted. This brought to the scene an Engine from Armonk, a Tower Ladder from Pleasantville, Tankers from Somers and our Tanker 10. As this was dispatched, our Engine 119 was returning from Yorktown, where they were operating at smoke in the building at the Turco's Market on Downing Drive in Yorktown. E119 returned to Station 2 and staffed T10, while maintaining a crew for E119 in quarters as well.

Working with the other Tankers, T10 shuttled water to the scene a total of 10 times, bringing over 30,000 gallons to the fire fight. T10 - along with Car 2082 (A/C Colombo) - also provided equipment and hose to help improve the water relay operation. T10 was returned to service roughly four hours later, getting back into Croton shortly after Midnight.

With the fire building having collapsed upon itself, hidden pockets of fire were unreachable. At 5:00 AM, Mount Kisco FD was called back to the scene for a flare-up of the original blaze. About an hour later, additional Tankers - including our T10 and Somers T16 - were called back to assist. T10 once again made about 10 relays of water before returning to Croton around 11:15.

Even with T10 operating at the fire the second time, Croton FD managed to adequately staff our E119, E120 & TL44 for a commercial alarm in Croton around 11:00 AM.

Thanks to R. Bancroft, F. Becerra Jr. (Lohud.com) and Captain J. Ferguson for their photos.