June 1, 2005

City honors Willow Glen Fire Station No. 6 for their service

By District 6 City Councilmember Ken Yeager
Special to the Times

I’m sure everyone remembers the fire in Willow Glen that occurred about two months ago on March 23 at the three-story, 84-unit apartment complex called Glen Willow Apartments on Willow Street.

Seventy-five firefighters fought the blaze with mutual aid from the city of Santa Clara. All total, 243 residents were displaced.

Fire Station 6 in Willow Glen was the first responder to the fire, arriving on the scene at 5:14 a.m. They immediately called a second alarm. As the fire spread, third and fourth alarms were requested, including one mutual aid alarm from the city of Santa Clara.

Eventually a fifth and sixth alarm of San Jose Fire Department units were called to provide relief. Additional mutual aid fire companies were requested to backfill vacated San Jose Fire Stations.

This backfill system of the fire stations is a result of mutual aid changes implemented after the Santana Row fires.

There was nothing easy about putting out the fire. It was very complex and hazardous due to the size of the building, the number of residents and the building’s design. All the apartment front doors opened into the hallway. Once the corridor was filled with smoke, firefighters had to maneuver through what was essentially a long horizontal chimney.

I am very proud of all the firefighters who fought the fire, but I am particularly proud of men and women of Fire Station 6. Once on the scene, they did the initial evaluation, planned the initial attack on the fire and began the initial evacuations.

My appreciation goes out to Capt. Charlotte Endicott, fire engineers Ed Powell and Rudy Gonzales and firefighters Bryan Wong and John Martinez, who were on duty that morning.

As we all know, putting out the fire is never the end of the story. For the victims, it is the start of a longer story.
There, too, the company of Station 6 performed admirably.

A Red Cross shelter was set up for the displaced tenants at Willow Glen Middle School. I am grateful to the Red Cross and to the school for opening up the gym.

When Fire Chief Jeff Clet and I visited the shelter later that morning, we found that the Red Cross would not allow Willow Glen residents to drop off clothes, food, toys and blankets for the tenants.

Fire Chief Clet and I huddled and concluded that there was no better place to have donations dropped off than at Fire Station 6.

Problem solved. Everyone at Station 6 was fantastic in accepting all the donations through the weekend. They had lots of training from Toys for Tots collections over the holidays.

There are many other city departments to thank as well. The Housing Department directed the Housing Services Partnership to assist families with housing referrals and financial assistance. Everyone in the city’s Housing Department did an outstanding job.

The Department of Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services (PRNS) provided assistance from recreation leaders through the Mobile Recreation Program. The program offered recreational activities to the children of the displaced families for several hours each day, and all day on Saturday.

PRNS also coordinated the use of the Willows Senior Center by the Red Cross, including 24-hour access to a classroom, the use of phones, photocopier and fax machine; and assistance of senior center staff as needed. Thank you PRNS staff.

Just like with the Santana Row fire, the city and the fire department is learning a lot from the fire. Part of this includes the inherent fire safety hazards in some of our larger, older apartment buildings. I will be bringing forth a policy memorandum on how the city can correct these fire safety issues.

At the City Council meeting on May 26, I presented a commendation to the company of Station 6. Included in the commendation was the fact that there were no major injuries to firefighters or civilians during the operation. This serves as a testament to San Jose’s extraordinary firefighters. We thank them for their service to the entire San Jose community.

If you have any questions regarding this or any other city issue of concern to you, please contact me at (408) 277-5166, or ken.yeager@sanjoseca.gov.