Custom Bookcase

You are dispatched to a reported dwelling fire. When you arrive you find a one and a half story home with fire coming from the second floor window. As your crew stretches in they report that they cannot find the stairs to the second floor. Where could they be?

Maybe it’s behind that nice bookcase?

Who would have thought?

Mike Kiernan from Hamilton (NJ) sent in this interesting find he, and his Truck 13 crew led by Lieutenant Keith Greene recently came across. They were in an elderly woman’s home doing a smoke detector install when the lady started telling them about her departed husband. Apparently her husband was quite handy with wood and built this nice bookcase. The bookcase blocked the entrance to the second floor stairwell. In order to access the second floor, a small wooden dowel behind the bookcase's glass door had to be pulled out for the door to open.

Special thanks go out to Firefighter Mike Kiernan, Lieutenant Keith Greene and the rest of the crew from Hamilton (NJ) Truck 13 for sharing this find. And Champ, thanks for the heads-up email on this.