Saturday night August 11, 2012 at 7:26pm, Orland Fire
received 911 calls reporting a house fire in the 15700 block of Chapel Hill Rd.
in Orland Park. A structure fire response (2 engines 2 trucks 1 ambulance 1
chief) was dispatched and first arriving units within 4 minutes reported smoke
showing from the second floor windows and fire on the first floor in the
kitchen area.
Prior to arrival dispatch upgraded the alarm to a working
fire response due to multiple 911 calls bringing in an additional Orland Engine
Ambulance and 2 Chiefs. A fire attack was started along with an aggressive
search for occupants as neighbors reported they may be home but could not be
accounted for. The search revealed there was no one home at the time of fire
and the family dog was located and removed to fresh air in good condition.
Strategic location of fire stations along with adequate
staffing provided personnel on the scene to control the fire within 20 minutes
and confined the damage the fire caused to the 1st floor kitchen
area. The Orland Park Police were successful at locating the homeowners who
arrived back home about two hours later. There were an additional 3 medical
incidents (tow of which were in the first few minutes of the fire) handled by
Orland personnel during this fire incident.
Due to multiple concurrent incidents , the fire was
escalated to the full still level to bring in neighboring fire departments to
cover the Orland Fire stations. There were no injuries and the family dog was
taken by family member to the emergency veterinarian in Mokena for evaluation.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
(Report from Battalion Chief Dan Smith, OFPD)
