On one of the most bitter mornings in recent memory, crews from nearly a dozen departments rushed down Lake Road, in Rocky River, to a burning condo near Brandon Place.
And there, they discovered that the two nearest hydrants to the fire were both frozen.
“There's a hydrant back in the complex that we were able to utilize,” Lakewood Fire Chief Scott Gillman said.
Though the crews also utilized tankers from the airport and Lorain County, time was lost.
A woman in her 20's escaped with minor injuries, while an 87-year-old woman did not survive.
“The fire got up into the ceiling above the second floor, and the building started to collapse, so we pulled the crews out,” Chief Gillman said.
There were other challenges too. Ice formed on uniforms and helmets and covered the ground.
Investigators have not released a cause for the deadly fire or the names of those involved, while the wind and cold only continued to cause problems at other scenes throughout the day.
A firefighter in Old Brooklyn was taken to MetroHealth after debris fell on him outside a vacuum store on State Road near Tate Avenue.
No other injuries were reported from that fire.