At 1:13 P.M. the tones dropped for a reported house fire at 19555 Three Notch Road which is just North of the Mattapany Road. As the Emergency Operations Communications (E.O.C.) made the announcement over the air they advised that there were possibly people trapped in the house. Well, as I have said before this just gets your emotions rolling and puts a quick step as you grab your gear and get on the apparatus and head out of the station. Now there were several units still on the scene of a working fire in the Patuxent Homes section of Company 3’s first due and they cleared right away from there and responded on this call.

The response was for Company 3(Bay District),4 (Ridge), 9 (Bay District,California), 6 (Second District),5 (Avenue-Water Supply) along with ambulances from Ridge and Lexington Park Rescue Squads. As units were responding a safety officer from Company 4 (Ridge) arrived on the scene and found a large split level house with heavy smoke showing. This is at the far end of our first due area so the units had a far distance to travel but as I said before you pick up the pace when you know that there is someone possibly trapped in the house.

Units started arriving on the scene with Engine 33 (Sgt. Martin) first arriving joined shortly thereafter with Engine 31 (Chief 3A Gould), Engine 44 (Ridge), Engine 91 (Firefighter Jassey) Truck 3 (Firefighter Briscoe), Tower 9 (Sgt. Yount), Engine 63 (Second District) and Water Supply 5 (Avenue) which went to the closest water source at St. Mary’s College and set up to supply all the tankers.

Chief 3A (Gould) assumed the command and the crew from Engine 33 (Sgt. Martin) made a heroic effort to rescue the lone occupant of the house who was bedridden. The care giver of the resident told Chief Gould as he was getting out of the cab that her patient was still in the house and just where she was located. Sgt. Jermaine Sewell and Firefighter Steve Vanness entered the front door of the house and located the resident on the floor of the living room. She was removed from the house to the front yard where efforts to revive her were unsuccessful. Now, let me tell you that the firefighters and the emergency medical personnel did all they possibly could to give the resident a chance for survival.

Chief Gould requested alarms for additional tankers from Company 7 (Hollywood), Company 2 (Mechanicsville), Calvert County Company 7 (St. Leonard), Company 5 (Avenue), and Company 4 (Ridge) brought up their tanker. After trying to move in on the fire it was determined by Chief 3A that the fire had such a head start on the structure it was too dangerous to try to move in further and it was time to sound the evacuation tones and mount an exterior attack. After there was an ample water supply set up by our Water Supply Officer Fairfax, crews from all units again moved in to extinguish the remaining fire.

Now in the end this was one of those fires that you never forget. Not because it was a large beautiful house that burned but that there was the loss of life of one of the finest ladies of our community. I have known this fine lady Mrs. Marion Wood Gatton for at least 50 years and her husband Aubrey at one time was a member of our board of directors. To her daughter Pam, the love of her life, and the rest of the family our deepest condolences.