Lieutenant Chris Wells from Dunn’s Corners (RI) sent in this photo of something they recently ran into on a single story seaside residential structure fire. Upon arrival crews found the building heavily involved, but were able to knock it down within 10 minutes. The truck crew quickly went to work on the roof, opening up a vertical vent (shown by red arrow). When they tried punching through, they found a flat membrane roof underneath (shown by yellow arrow). The second roof was close enough to also be cut with the saw. Once the second roof was opened, the crew tried pushing through again to find ANOTHER separate asphalt flat roof (shown by green arrow.) They already had moderate smoke coming rom the hole, and decided to abandon the vent. Within minutes of abandoning the roof, fire was visible from the vent hole. Once the fire was out, it was found that the fire had gained access between roofs three and two, creating a cockloft effect. Crews were able to knock this fire down by making an attack from the gable end of the roof.

Another interesting part of this story is that the fire was started by POT on the stove. The occupant was cooking 4lbs of butter and mixing in marijuana buds. He passed out in his bedroom, and another occupant awoke to find the fire on the stove. While trying to remove the flaming POT from the stove, the occupant caught the living room on fire and received second and third degree burns on approximately 50% of his body.