For Twin Valley's weekly drill night, a member of the Philadelphia Fire Department was invited to Station 69 to hold a case study class on church fires. Chief Vincent Mulray is a 24 year veteran of the fire service with a master’s degree in public safety from Saint Joseph’s University and an adjunt instructor with the Philadelphia Fire Academy, currently assigned to Battalion 10/Ladder 10/Engine 7 in the Kensington section of the city. Chief Mulray was the off going chief at his previous assignment at Battalion 3 the morning of April 30, 2008, when the "box alarm" was dispatched for the Prince of Peace Baptist Church building fire in Strawberry Mansion. This was a four-story public school constructed in 1905 that was converted to a church in the late 1970's. The original fire was reported on the first floor rear of the building, and quickly spread to all floors, resulting in a total loss of the building. Numerous nearby house fires were also handled that day due to radiant heat and flying embers. This fire grew very rapidly, forcing firefighters to abandon an interior fire attack and move to an outside defensive attack within minutes of arriving on location. The rapid fire development, changes in the wind, and issues with water pressure caused the fire to go to 6 alarms and become a complex incident for PFD firefighter and officers. The cause was determined to be an electrical issue in the basement that went undetected for several hours due to the time of day and brick sealed basement windows for security reasons.

Chief Mulray shared valuable lessons learned that day including: concerns in battling church/school fires, remodeled structures, unified command at large incidents, the time needed to develop a successful defensive fire attack, multi tasking of separate incidents at the scene, apparatus placement, water supply issues, teamwork, and the importance of pre-planning target hazards.

TVFD officers and members thank Chief Mulray for sharing his time and experiences, and look forward to future presentations!