Wednesday, September 1, 2010
On a warm Thursday afternoon at around 12:30, what sounded like the shelling of Normandy on D-Day rocked the borough of Collingdale and the surrounding area. An incident at Scully's Welding Supply triggered a fire that resulted in a huge string of explosions as propane tanks ruptured and exploded sending shrapnel into the surrounding area. Incident command immediately began to stabilize the situation, calling the responding ladders to set up and hit the remaining bulk tanks with a heavy spray to keep them all cool. While the companies set up, the surrounding area was evacuated for about a half mile radius. After the trucks were in place, cooling the propane and liquid oxygen tanks, the responders were pulled back to a safe area to allow the remaining gas to burn off. Firefighters from all over Delaware County made the initial response, and most stayed on scene throughout the day and well into the night. Firefighters then closed in to douse the remaining small fires on the Scully property and the Kaiser Storage property. George Kaiser of Kaiser Storage is also the borough Fire Marshal and he reports he's never seen a fire or conditions as scary as this. George had some 80 patrons who lost all their possessions in the burned out storage facilities, and George himself suffered the loss of several of his antique vehicles including Collingdale No.1's 1948 Mack and the 1970 Hahn Pumper he kept as a memorial to not only the Collingdale firefighters, but to the members of New York's Engine-6 who gave their lives at the World Trade Center. We have been receiving the thanks of the area residents for a job well done, and they all expressed their appreciation to all the firefighters for coming to their aid. We responders would like to thank all the local businesses for their support to the police, EMT's, medics and firefighters during the day. Their generous donations of water, ice, burgers, snacks and everything was most appreciated by all the responders and helped us to keep going. The best news to be heard all day was that after a catastrophe like this, no firefighter injuries were reported, and only one serious civilian injury was reported to an employee from Scully's; whom we all wish well.
Click the link below for picture of the incident from the Feeney's
http://public.fotki.com/Firefoto3/fires__other_incidents/delco/7th__8th_district_delco/5-alarms-plus-301-w/
