Eielson forces respond to base fire

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Jasmine Campa
  • 354th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska (AFPN) --  Firefighters and security forces here contained a fire in base housing Sept. 7 at around 6 p.m.

The heating unit of an empty waterbed in the bedroom ignited the fire, according to officials.

“The fire crews did an awesome job. It was a textbook operation,” said Master Sgt. Shawn Ricchuito, 354th Civil Engineer Squadron assistant fire chief and incident commander at the fire.

Firefighters were on the scene within five minutes of receiving the 911 call.

“The caller said the smoke was coming from a housing unit but didn’t know exactly where, so we headed toward the black smoke. When we arrived we saw (the) smoke coming from the second-story windows,” Ricchuito said.

Security forces were already on-scene lending a hand where they could.

“We got to the scene within two to three minutes and began evacuating surrounding units,” said Staff Sgt. Thomas Clifford, 354th Security Forces Squadron flight sergeant. “We also handled crowd control so the fire department could get in and do their jobs without obstacles,”

From the time the firefighters arrived on scene, the fire was under control within six to eight minutes.

“The fire damage was contained within the master bedroom, but (there was) smoke damage throughout the entire house,” Ricchuito said.

There was no one in the residence except for the resident’s two dogs that were rescued.

When the firefighters entered the building they encountered extreme heat and smoke. One crew searched for people. They found two dogs in a pen upstairs in the second bedroom. The second crew extinguished the fire and ventilated the house to get heat and smoke out, Ricchuito said.