Old County Road

Nitro and Saint Albans firefighters work to extinguish a house fire this morning on Old County Road in Nitro.  The house was fully involved when firefighters arrived.

A Few Of Saint Albans' Bravest

Cold Water Challenge

Saint Albans Firefighter Eric Tucker takes the "cold water challenge" to help raise money for the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation.

Firehouse Cookin'

A couple of the guys went to the store yesterday to buy stuff for dinner and they were having trouble deciding what to get.  They ran through a whole bunch of dinner combos and finally came up with this.  They just came up with the recipe while they were there in the store and to my knowledge this has never been made at the firehouse before.  I'm not 100% sure of all the ingredients, but I'll hit most of 'em.

Here goes;  Homemade mac & cheese with Velveeta queso blanco cheese on the bottom, a sloppy joe mix made with ground chicken for the middle layer, then a can of Pillsbury grands biscuits on top and then just for good measure, some shredded cheese on top of that.  Mama!!!

Cody Street

Saint Albans and Nitro firefighters take a break after battling a blaze on Cody Street Monday evening.  Photo by Molly Mitchell

Entanglement Simulator

Saint Albans firefighters, Eric Tucker, Mike Lively, Jeremy Roncaglione, Luke Adkins and Sean Lowe make their way through the entanglement simulator during some Rapid Intervention Team (RIT) training Monday morning.

They call it the entanglement "simulator", but when you're in the middle of the box the entanglement isn't simulated.  You're just plain ole tangled up!

Wednesday On The River

We spent all day Wednesday doing some water rescue training.  I made the first photo before we got started.  As you can see, the fog was super thick Wednesday morning. The second photo was in the afternoon when I was driving the boat on the Coal river headed toward the Kanawha.  In the bottom photo Saint Albans firefighter Sean Lowe (left) and training officer James Hill check the operation of the high line we made across the Coal. 

Saint Albans Fire Dept. Water Rescue

In the top photo, Saint Albans Firefighter Mike Lively waits for another diver to enter the water for some dive training Wednesday morning.  In the bottom photo, Firefighter Eric Tucker takes the Demaree Inflatable Boat (DIB) out for a training run on the Kanawha river

Truck 311

The guys on the rescue truck were on a call Sunday evening and I was in the garage by myself  and noticed the light on the ladder and just had to take a picture.

Capitol City Auto Auction

Saint Albans firefighters Mike Lively and Eric Tucker go to work Monday afternoon with West Side and Lakewood Volunteer firefighters to extinguish a car hauler and a couple of cars at the Capitol City Auto Auction.

Water Rescue Training

From left to right.  Saint Albans Firefighters Brandon Price, Luke Adkins and Eric Tucker.

Rescue 310

Our new rescue truck.

Nitro Fire Department

Nitro firefighters go to work Saturday afternoon at a structure fire on Elm St. 

Auto Extrication...

...training at night in the rain.  Not nearly as bad as it sounds.  It was actually pretty fun.

Nitro Fire Department

Nitro and Saint Albans firefighters worked to extinguish a fire in the 300 block of Main Ave. this morning.

B Shift

B Shift of the Saint Albans, WV Fire Department.

Beaufort / Port Royal

I think this is the only photo I've got of a Beaufort, SC fire engine.  I took it this summer on Bay St. as it was responding to a call.  Click here to read a tragic story about a stolen fire truck.

5th Avenue Vehicle Fire

Lieutenant Dan Taaffe, SAFD.

21st St.

I was on my way to Charleston this morning to have lunch with some friends of mine when I saw this huge header of smoke in Dunbar, so I hopped off the interstate and went to check it out.  It was apparently a vacant house that had been boarded up for a while.  When I got there, there were no firefighters inside attacking the fire and it looked as if they had it somewhat under control.  I stood around awhile and talked to a couple of people I knew and as I was leaving I could see that the fire had spread to the garage and was about ready to take off so I waited around 'til it did.

RIT Training

RIT stands for, Rapid Intervention Team.  The only purpose of the RIT is firefighter rescue.  There are a number of reasons a firefighter may need rescued, such as being lost, trapped, injured or out of air.  The past three shifts we have been doing the Saint Albans Fire Department version of the Pittsburgh Drill.  We did it with less than the specified team members.  The specs call for a team of at least 4 and no more than 5.  A time between 18 and 20 minutes is considered good.  My three man team completed the rescue in 19:56 and the two man team made up of two brutes on my shift did it in about 15:30.  By the way, that hole is 14.5" x 20".