At 2223 hours the Special Operations Division was requested by the Lyons Fire Company Officer to assist a partial building collapse in the unit block of Clay Valley Road in Rockland Township. The report from command was a partial collapse of a basement foundation wall with water and soil in the basement around the main electrical panel for the residence. They did not want to enter the area until the arrival of the Collapse Team. Collapse 95, Collapse 95-1, and Traffic 95 made the response with 11 personnel. Numerous other personnel remained back at the stations to cover any incidents in our first due area.
The area had received several inches of rain over the past several days which created pressure against the rear foundation wall under a poured concrete patio. Upon arrival of the first due companies, they discovered the roof downspout which had the sump pump pipe attached was shooting water out of the pipe connection and appeared to cause even more water to enter that area contributing to the pressure. The foundation wall gave way at the alpha-bravo corner and approximately 8-10 lineal feet of wall completely failed and pushed into the basement along with soil and stone from around the wall and under the patio. An additional 15 feet of wall had bulged inward. There was several inches of water also in the basement.
Crews from Lyons and Fleetwood Fire Companies setup a pump and hose to allow for the removal of the water. The Special Operations Division personnel entered the residence and determined to setup a series of supports using lumber and the Paratech struts. Access to the basement was gained through an outside entrance doorway to the rear yard at the other end of the residence.
Crews worked together from the three fire companies to construct the supports which took several hours and extreme caution to assure the safety of the crews and no further collapse. Air monitoring was also put into place to assure a safe working environment. After this was completed the Officers from the companies met to finalize and contact of a restoration company to assist the homeowner with the construction of a temporary support wall to facilitate the possible rebuild of the foundation wall.
When all these tasks were completed Command released the companies and the assignment was placed available at 0134 hours.
