Fire was showing from the middle of the block of identical three-story rowhouses. The block contained over 60 dwellings with contiguous porch front roofs the length of the block. Engine 45 saw heavy fire blowing out of the first-floor front windows and attacking the underside of the wooden porch roof. The fire then mushroomed laterally to involve the undersides of the roofs of six properties. Window glass was breaking on the exposures and fire was starting to enter those properties. The captain of Engine 45 immediately struck a second alarm and ordered 2½-inch hoselines to be positioned on each side to stop any further spread of fire. Before the first two hoselines were operating, the fire had extended to four additional properties.

Once the water from the 2½-inch hoselines were flowing, they darkened down the exterior fire. One of the 2½-inch lines was then stretched into the original fire building to control the fire and search for the reported occupants. The fire had started near the first-floor front window and, as the windows broke, the additional supply of air allowed it to extend vertically via the open interior stairs to heavily involve all three floors. As the 2½-inch line knocked down the first-floor fire, 1¾-inch hoselines were stretched to the upper floors.

The only access to the rear of the rowhouses was through a narrow alley. Portable ladders were carried from the end of the blocks to place them for rescue, roof access and ventilation. Hoselines were stretched to the rear to control any extension of fire. These rear ladder placements and hoseline stretches were time consuming and took their toll on the firefighters.

With the fire knocked down on the exterior, the problem now became the spread of fire to the interior of the exposed dwellings. The firefighters knew that the underside of the porch roofs often interconnected with the second-floor wall partitions allowing fire to spread to those common areas. As companies were opening the porch roofs to expose hidden fire, thermal imaging cameras were used to check interior walls and ceilings. Fortunately, there were eight-inch masonry walls separating the dwellings and those walls created a parapet through the roof that acted as a barrier against fire spread in the cocklofts. The search for occupants proved negative.

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