At 23:41 hours on Wednesday night the company was alerted for a fire alarm in the 400 Block of Old Wilmington Rd. Deputy 35 (Reber) made the response followed by Engine 35. While enroute the Chester County Fire Radio advised of unknown reason for activation but they were evacuating.

As one of the fire police officers from Wagontown was arriving, the homeowner advised there was smoke in the residence; he relayed this info to the Deputy who upgraded the assignment. At 23:50 hours the assignment was upgraded for a house fire response which brought Stations 31, 44, Ladder 41, Ambulance 144 and Engine 33-5 to the scene.

Deputy 35 arrived and assumed the Old Wilmington Rd command and confirmed a heavy smoke condition in the basement, Engine 35 arrived first followed by Engine 31-1 and the crews made their way to the basement to find a dryer involved in fire. Crews knocked the fire down and then removed the dryer from the basement to prevent further extension or fire damage to the residence.

Chief 35 (Ziegler) took operations and coordinated the ventilation and fire suppression efforts. At the same time this was taking place Station 49 was alerted to another fire on Horseshoe Pike, so with our fire under control units were released in case they were needed for that assignment. This assignment was scaled back to Stations 35 & 31 with the balance being returned.

Once the residence was ventilated the situation was under control, the residence was turned back over to the residents. Units cleared the scene just after 1 am.

Wagontown would like to stress that working smoke detectors do make a difference as did in this very situation and that you should check your lint traps to prevent fires.

This situation could have been a lot worse had it not been for the working smoke detectors.