Unadilla Fire Chief Steve Vodicka was on the fire hose with his son and wife suppressing a fire in a Unadilla trailer Saturday when a neighbor gave arriving firefighters alarming news.
The house owner, Ron Stock, was seen leaving earlier that morning, but the neighbor said his wife might still be inside.
Vodicka, fire chief since 1986, arrived at the trailer house at 12:56 p.m. to see flames in a bedroom that had been added on the corner of the house. They immediately ran a hose from the Unadilla pumper truck with his 21-year-old son Daniel and his wife Betty handling the hose.
“The whole trailer was too hot to get into, but we were able to suppress the fire okay from the outside. Our initial concern was ammunition. It was popping sort of like the Fourth of July,” he said.
When a neighbor said someone might still be inside, Vodicka said the eight Unadilla firefighters continued to work outside of the home. Syracuse firefighters knocked down a door and a rapid intervention team went inside. Vodicka said the intervention team was joined by an interior firefighting squad, but they found no one.
Ken Johnson, who lives across from the Seventh Street trailer, was the first to dial 911 with the house fire report. He said another neighbor, Keith Liesemeyer had knocked on the door to see if anyone was inside before firefighters arrived.
“Thankfully, both occupants left that morning,” Vodicka said.
He credited Unadilla firefighter Bill Davis for a quick response and the Syracuse Fire Department for leaving its planned Germanfest events to arrive at Unadilla within 10 minutes.
“It is greatly appreciated. I can’t tell you the relief for us when the Syracuse firefighters were able to go in and there was no one inside,” he said.
