Firefighters in Barrhaven, Ottawa responded to a house fire on July 11th. The fire was caught on film from the very beginning by an amateur videographer and is reported to have been caused by a lightning strike. The series of videos are below.

The firefighters attempt an interior attack, however they aren’t too effective with it. More than likely this was due to trouble getting to the attic, but that is just a guess. I seriously doubt this was a walk up attic. Even with pulling ceilings, access would have been tough if the floor of the attic had a covering on it like plywood.

It is tough to tell if the exterior handline was put in place while the firefighters were still inside or not. We will error on the side of the firefighters having already been pulled out.

However, I did notice that once it was an exterior firefight, the firefighters battle it with a handline from the rear of the structure. The stream seems to be fairly ineffective at dousing the fire 2 and a half stories up. At the same time, a ladder truck is utilized to hose down the exposure. It seems to me as though they would have saved a lot of time and been a hell of a lot more effective if they had altered these roles. By placing the handline on the exposure I believe they would have given plenty of protection. The Ladder pipe would have done quick work with the fire which seemed to be mostly confined to above the second floor.

That is just my take as an armchair quarterback. All in all, the fire went out and it appears as though no one was hurt. What do you all think.

I believe I have these videos in order…