Shortly before 11:00 PM on Sunday night, December 8th, our FASTeam was dispatched to an active structure fire in the City of Peekskill. Units there were met with a four-story Senior Housing building under construction with heavy fire showing.

While the crew was filling out for Engine 119 as the Firefighter Assist & Search Team unit, Westchester County Fire Control added a Tanker Strike Team to the Box, which included our Tanker 10. Answering the request in only a few minutes with nearly two dozen of our members were Car 2081, Car 2082, Car 2083, Engine 119 and Tanker 10.

Upon arrival, Engine 119 was immediately reassigned to exposure protection and water supply from the west side of the fire building. 700 feet of Large-Diameter Hose was hand-stretched back to a hydrant, while personnel simultaneously stretched a 2 1/2" line with the portable monitor to help prevent the fire from spreading to nearby homes. While this was put into motion, we were asked to also supply water to the Montrose VA Engine 225 whom was supplying hose lines of their own for the fire fight, and to feed Montrose's Tower Ladder 8 - however due to inadequate pressure coming from the hydrant, we were unable to perform all of these tasks initially.

While members of the Engine crew worked on this task, Tanker 10 - along with Tankers 11 (Continental Village), Tanker 14 (Yorktown), Tanker 15 (Millwood) and Tanker 24-4-1 (Putnam Valley) began setting up water shuttle operations to feed the Peekskill units that were struggling to battle the flames, due to a lack of sufficient water.

Our units operated for nearly 6 hours before returning home just before 5:00 AM. The building was a total loss, however the efforts of firefighters on scene from numerous area departments prevented the fire from spreading to adjacent homes.

Thanks to D. Kempter, N. Melillo, S. Sniffen, G. Keesler and A. Grant for their photos.

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