As the sun began to set over the Green Mountains on May 2, 2025, Firefighter Doireann Chesbrough, a civilian firefighter for the Vermont Air National Guard Fire Department, found herself in the dayroom of the station, sitting next to the radio.
Her colleague, Firefighter Nathaniel Swasey, a civilian firefighter for the VTANG Fire Department, was on the second floor of the firehouse, doing his nightly routine getting ready for bed.
As the hands on the clock passed 10 p.m., a voice from the radio crackling “VTANG Engine 7” broke the silence of the evening.
Without a beat, Chesbrough stood up and ran to the fire truck, she said. As she made her way through the hallway, the voice echoed again through the halls, informing those on shift that the call was for a structure fire.
Swasey rushed out of the bathroom and hustled downstairs to meet Chesbrough and Captain Timothy Francis, the civilian shift captain, at the truck, he said.
After having been briefed about their roles earlier in the day, Chesbrough got into the driver's seat of Engine 7 without hesitation, followed by Francis in the passenger seat, and Swasey in the back.
Francis looked at his iPad and saw a note from the South Burlington Fire Department that the call was a confirmed fire.
While Engine 7 made its way down National Guard Ave., the crew of three, still unsure of the scale of the fire, began building a brief plan on how they wanted to tackle the incident.
As the team crested the hill, past the Army National Guard armory, Chesbrough said they could see a glow in the distance. “It was a big fire and at that point, we knew we had our work cut out for us.”
The firefighters from the VTANG fire department provided the first fire truck on the scene, ensuring fast and effective control of the fire.
Once the crew arrived on the scene of 327 Lime Kiln Road, they parked the truck next to the nearest fire hydrant, said Francis. They could see an exterior fire on the corner of the building on floors three and four and the fire was beginning to reach the roof.
After the crew exited the fire truck, they could see that evacuation was already in progress. Residents of the building were fleeing from the fire, but at that point, not everyone was accounted for.
“Since the apartments were primarily elderly individuals, I had a lot of families coming up to me asking where their loved ones were because we were the only ones on scene,” said Chesbrough.
She knew that she had a job to do, which was getting water to the lines to help put out the fire, she said.
The crew deployed their 2.5-inch hand line, which is one of their bigger lines, and Swasey began hauling it to the building. Swasey hauled the hose to the corner of the building while Chesbrough moved quickly, getting the hydrant ready to connect to the hose.
Chesbrough pulled out her hydrant bag, which was full of multiple adapters to properly fit the hose onto the hydrant. Once connected, she flushed out the muddy and rusty water at the top, to ensure the hose would not clog up. Within close to a minute, she had her hydrant dressed and sent water to Swasey.
Chesbrough was able to get the hydrant dressed and water to Swasey so fast that they did not need to use the water on the truck.
While Swasey was hitting the fire with the water that Chesbrough provided, Francis headed inside the building looking for anyone trapped.
“From what I could see through the windows, the apartments were still a livable space,” said Francis. “We relayed that information to the other stations, and I headed upstairs to do a quick search.”
Soon after Francis’ search, he met up with a South Burlington fire crew and did a more in-depth search of the building.
As they headed up to the third floor, Francis’ low air alarm went off, since he had been in the building longer, so he returned to the ground to swap out air tanks.
Once the crew finished the search, they got word that everyone in the building was accounted for.
When the Winooski Fire Department arrived, Chesbrough began supplying them with water. Once the Winooski tower truck began putting water on the fire, the VTANG fire crew began moving back.
The crew was then assigned to be the scenes rapid intervention team, which is a safety team put in place in case any firefighters get trapped or injured while inside the building.
The crew returned to the station around 3 a.m., but the night was still not over. The crew cleaned and broke down their gear and hoses, to prevent contaminants from entering the living quarters.
“We’re here to do our job,” said Francis. “It feels good to be able to do your job, and I am really proud of the guys and gals on the crew.”