Collyer Mansion: Detroit

Conditions inside the Winthrop Street dwelling (WDIV photo)

Detroit firefighters had to wade through a hoarder’s collection inside a small private dwelling before making a rescue Tuesday. Firefighters arrived at the structure and encountered ‘debris’ waist high in most places, floor to ceiling in others. They did not realize until later that they had located the 67-year old victim inside a bathroom, due to all of the contents. Fire, believed to have started in the kitchen, eventually burned through the roof.

Consider if your department encountered the same fire situation, with the same dwelling. It shouldn’t be too hard a stretch of the imagination, as the structure looks typical of any small town home. What are your initial resources on the alarm, on a weekday morning? What additional resources are available after a working fire is confirmed? Do you have enough staffing to devote to a lengthy, or inordinate, search as well as fight the fire (consider SCBA air time also)? Do you believe increasing horizontal ventilation would contribute to the fire’s spread?

Also on Backstep Firefighter …

• Collyer Mansion: Buffalo – January 12, 2011
• Collyer Mansion: Los Angeles Fatal – December 18, 2010
• Brooklyn Working: Ladder 102 Veteran Rescues Baby in Bedford-Stuyvesant Fire – December 23, 2010
• “Absolutely Not!” Rebuffing Refusing to Search for Occupants in Collyer Mansion Conditions
  Shared Post from CMD-FD – December 12, 2011