Behind the Lens
Maricopa House Fire Displaces Family of Four
Maricopa, ARIZ. (November 11, 2011) At approximately 2:00pm, Maricopa Fire Department crews responded to a report of a house fire in the 42000 block of West Kristal Lane. As crews arrived on scene, they found smoke coming from the top floor of a two story residential home. Crews entered the home and as they made their way upstairs they found thick smoke on the second floor and intense heat. The firefighters worked through zero visibility to try to find the location of the fire and after eight minutes conditions worsened and all the firefighters were pulled from the building for their safety. Shortly after the crews left the building the fire burned through the roof and the roof collapsed. Firefighters were able to safely remove some of the furniture from the home before the collapse.
The fire took one hour to put out and no injuries were reported for any of the residents or firefighters on the scene.
This fire was upgraded to a first alarm fire to being additional resources to the scene to prevent the fire from spreading to the two neighboring homes. Regional Automatic Aid partners from Phoenix, Sun Lakes, Tempe, and Gila River responded to the call.
The Maricopa Fire Department and the Professional Fire Firefighters of Maricopa Local 4361 assisted with the needs of residents for tonight.
A close call yesterday morning at the Fry’s Fuel Stop in Maricopa, when the driver of a white pickup truck had a medical emergency, lost control of the vehicle, and ran through construction fencing beside the fuel pumps, before coming to a stop in a hole.
Witnesses state that the driver came around the fuel island and accelerated, missing a car that was being fueled, crashed into the construction fence surrounding a neighboring lot, and ending nose down in a sink hole.
The driver was non-responsive to witnesses, and he still had his foot on the accelerator. Eventually the engine stalled and bystanders were able to reach the vehicle
Photo from today’s rollover accident. If you click the link, you’ll see the rest of them
I just walked in the door from a single-vehicle rollover on Smith-Enke in Maricopa. I’m working on the photos now.
If you’re nice, I’ll post a couple for you to look at.
Water Main break overnight in Phoenix
After work on Monday morning, I was out playing in the horrendous rush hour traffic. Due to the suicide closure of the I-10, the surface streets near the freeway were almost in gridlock.
Here are a couple of camera-phone photos I snapped along Buckeye Rd. It actually took my longer to get from 59th Ave & Van Buren to 51st Ave & Broadway than it did to get from Broadway to Maricopa.
Maricopa FD, along with Ak-Chin FD, responded to a house on fire, in the Alterra neighborhood of Maricopa, overnight.
When I left, a Fire Investigator was enroute. More info to come from the MFD PIO.
I stopped in Laveen this morning, as the sun was coming up. The tops of the Estrella Mountains were shrouded in cloud, but snow could be seen under the cloud bottoms. I’ll post pictures when I get home.
This injury accident occurred on Honeycutt at the Maricopa Groves Pkwy/Donithan Rd intersection.
The driver of the red SUV was transported to Chandler Regional Hospital for observation. Neither the driver of the silver pickup, nor her two child passengers, were injured.
The accident, which occurred around 8:30am, closed Eastbound Honeycutt for almost 90 minutes.
I arrived during the investigation phase, and stayed until one lane of Honeycutt was open again.
Been there, done that. Won’t do it again. Goliath at Six Flags Magic Mtn. What a ride.
