Blaze destroys fire station

One of three firetrucks is believed to have started
the fire.

By ED RUNYAN

VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

BRACEVILLE — Braceville Fire Chief Don Mallitt felt fortunate he was able to help put out the fire that devastated the township fire house early Friday, destroyed one firetruck and heavily damaged five other vehicles.

Mallitt was working his regular job at the Champion Fire Station when the fire broke out. He responded with other Champion firefighters.

Braceville’s 21 other volunteer firefighters, many of whom came to the unoccupied station on Braceville-Robinson Road, could not assist because they couldn’t get inside the station to put on their firefighting clothes.

“Some of us came here to help, but we just had to stand here and watch because all of our stuff was in there,” said volunteer Raechelle Sanders, who left her job at Kraft Maid in Middlefield when she learned of the fire.

“There was absolutely nothing [they] could do,” Mallitt said of the volunteer firefighters.

He was glad that he had his Champion firefighting gear and was able to help, even though the thought of a fire at the fire house hit him hard.

“That’s a bad feeling,” Mallitt said.

Mallitt and other firefighters removed two of the department’s newer firetrucks from the building before they could be destroyed.

A third, an early 1990s firetruck, was removed, but only after it received extensive damage.

Investigators late Friday said they believe the truck was the source of the fire. The State Fire Marshall’s Office assisted members of the Trumbull County Fire Investigation Unit and determined that the fire probably started somewhere on or in the truck, said Matt Balut, a member of the unit and a Champion firefighter.

Lab results from the tests done on the truck should enable investigators to determine the cause of the fire by next week, Balut said.

The truck is believed to be unrepairable, Mallitt said.

No injuries were reported, and no one was inside the fire house when the fire started. It is staffed from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

What’s next

For now, the fire department will operate out of the township’s road department a short distance from the fire house down Braceville-Robinson Road. Fire calls will be routed by the county 911 center to Warren Township, and 911 will route ambulance calls to whatever area department normally takes the township’s overflow calls.

The first call to 911 came from a house near the station. The owners reported hearing an explosion in the station at 12:55 a.m. Balut said the explosion probably came from a firefighter’s air pack, but the air tank explosion probably occurred because of the fire and did not cause it.

It is too early to estimate a dollar amount for damage, Mallitt said, but he estimated the building will be a total loss.

“There’s nothing in that fire station that is not damaged,” he added.

Not only did part of the ceiling above the firetrucks collapse, but firefighters had to cut a 9- foot-square hole in the roof to allow the heat to escape. All of the walls inside are blackened from heat and smoke damage, he said.

An ambulance, which the station was leasing while it was having its own repaired, was also parked in front of the station, all of the plastic light covers melted off and its paint covered with soot.

Vehicles damaged

One 1995 tanker truck was parked in front of the station, too. It had been pulled from the burning building by a semi tow truck hastily called during the fire. Like all of the vehicles pulled from the building, it had smoke and heat damage. It had front-end damage from being pulled through a closed garage door, Mallitt said.

The township’s newest firetruck, a 2006 model, escaped with the least damage and was scrubbed down at the road department garage. Even it will require repairs before it can be used again, Mallitt said. In all, six vehicles and a boat were in the building.

These departments battled the fire: Warren Township, Champion, Newton Falls, Windham, Mecca, Mesopotamia, Bristol, Bloomfield and Farmington. The fire was under control by 3:16 a.m.

No damage has been noted to the buildings on either side of the fire hall.

“Nobody got hurt. That’s the main thing,” said township Trustee Dennis Kuchta. “We can replace equipment. We can’t replace lives.”

Kuchta said the township’s insurance on the vehicles should cover the replacement and repair of the vehicles, and the township had updated its insurance on the fire house not long ago.

runyan@vindy.com