On June 6, 2005 at 5:44 pm, the City of Henderson Fire department responded to a reported structure fire inside a large home that was under construction in the Roma Hills Development.
Upon arrival, Captain Mike Wood (E-97) reported a large two-story home, approximately 5000 square feet, under construction with the entire second story totally involved. He further reported that there were serious exposure hazards on the "D" side as well as the "A" side. The "D" side exposure consisted of a home of equal size that was occupied, the "A" side exposure consisted of two occupied homes of equal size that were across a 32' street.
Flames were extending at least 50' into the air and at times a 15 - 20 mph South wind was pushing the flames across the street impinging on the two exposures on the "A" side. Engine 97 immediately began attacking the fire with its deck gun rotating the deck gun between the fire building, the "A" exposures and the "D" exposure until other units arrived. Once on scene, Engine 98 under the command of Captain Marty Nelsen attacked the fire from the "B" side with great success. Truck 82 under the command of Captain Wally Linge set up exposure protection on the two "A" exposures with the help of Engine 94 (Captain Sean McKeon).
The home was totally consumed by flames, but the three exposures were saved, suffering only minor heat damage that included broken windows and damaged shrubbery. Engine 97 sustained significant radiant heat damage due to there location on the fire ground. It was later determined that had Engine 97 not placed itself in the location it did, the exposures would have sustained much greater damage.
In all, 28 firefighters manning 6 engines, 1 truck, 1 truck tender and 2 rescues along with 1 Battalion Chief and 1 Fire Investigator responded to the blaze.
It was determined that a construction worker, carelessly discarding cigarettes while working inside the house, caused the massive blaze. Damage to the home and the surrounding exposures equaled $900,000.00.
