STATter 911

(This entry is updated throughout the day, so please scroll down. The latest update was at 11:34 a.m.)

London fire causes a scare: The video at top is of this morning's vacant (or, as they say in the UK, disused) warehouse fire in East London. The fire is on the site that is being prepared for the 2012 Olympics. The plume, seen for miles around (photo via telegraph.co.uk), had people concerned that this was another terrorist attack. More details here. FireGeezer also has links, but I was alerted to this when my wife woke me up this morning to tell me London was burning. I think I said something like, thank you Edward R. Murrow, now let me go back to sleep.

The right to bare arms and everything else and the right of the news media to cover it

This is our lead story, and the question is, should it be? Thirty years ago, many of us would have laughed and did laugh when someone did something as outrageous or stupid as this. But it is 2007, and the man showing up for work, dressed only in a hat and tie, on his 20th anniversary with the fire department, is an assistant chief. The man is Kenneth Roe, currently on suspension from the Johnson City, NY Fire Department, after WBNG-TV broke the story.

I am sure it is a picture I would run on TV, if it were a local chief officer and it was offered to me. Clearly, this is not a good career move by Chief Roe, and I am sure there are plenty of people who find his actions offensive. But were his motives anything more than just being silly?

On this forum, people often discuss (some say second-guess) the tactics and actions of fire and EMS people making decisions in the middle of an emergency. Well, here is your chance to second-guess the actions of people like me, who make judgements each day about what is news. Should the TV station have run the picture and done this story? Should I have linked to this story on STATter 911? Is this story a big deal, or just a stupid, firehouse prank? Let us know in the comments section below.

It won't be just us discussing it. The Johnson City Board of Trustees will be bringing it up tonight.

I first saw this story on WithTheCommand.com, which has a link to the newspaper coverage of this story.

Get used to this picture

I don't think I ran a good picture from the north side of Friday's train wreck into the Anacostia. 9NEWS NOW photographer Frank McDermott, a bit of a train buff, climbed down to the water from the RFK Stadium lot on Sunday to get this. CSX blames the crash on an unsecured group of coal cars that wandered onto the track on the north bridge. That bridge had been closed because of needed repairs. Now it needs a lot more fixing. Late Sunday afternoon CSX issued a press release saying they wouldn't be pulling the cars out of the river until they get the proper permits.

Montreal's firefighters ordered to stop the pressure

The latest in an ongoing labor battle. Excerpts from The Gazette:

Quebec's Essential Services Council today ordered Montreal's firefighters to provide basic services to the city.

The council ruled that members of the Montreal firefighters union, in the middle of lagging contract negotiations, used pressure tactics that put the public's safety at risk.

The city complained that such pressure tactics as chronic absenteeism saw many of the city's fire stations without qualified first responders, the job of some staff who provide emergency medical care before an ambulance arrives.

The tactic left some fire stations without first responders for many hours in one week this month, said Francois Beaubien, a lawyer for the city.

PA fire

The video above from the Reynoldsville Fire Company in Jefferson County, PA of its response on Tuesday to two structures burning. A second video is here.


NJ fire

No information on the house fire above, other than it is on Penn Road and involves the Voorhees Fire Department. This appears to be the last of 8 parts. The rest can be found here.

Air Force firefighting

From the Daytona Daily News, a look at the Air Force's plans for cut backs and how it relates to firefighting. Here are excerpts:

The Air Force's ongoing effort to reduce its personnel totals, to save money for new aircraft and weapons, has reached into the firefighter ranks at its bases.

Firefighters' union officials say the reductions are falling too hard on their ranks and could hurt the ability to rescue crews from downed, burning planes. The Air Force said, however, that its study concluded the reductions can be safely made.

"A comprehensive risk assessment was conducted that led to the conclusion that excess capacity existed and 901 firefighter authorizations could be reduced without any quantifiable increased risk," said Vicki Stein, an Air Force spokeswoman at the Pentagon.

The Air Force is reducing its former authorization of 6,416 firefighter positions system-wide by 14 percent, or 901 positions, over several years. At Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, that has reduced the former authorization of 107 to 91 this year and, ultimately, 82 by Sept. 30, 2008.

Use your thumb to make the fog pattern

Above, a valiant effort using a garden hose on a car fire. No details with the video.

The fire across the street

In Fayetteville, Arkansas on Saturday, firefighters from Station 6 who might have normally walked across the street to the Taco Bell to grab lunch, responded across the street for a fire. The video above shows they still weren't able to get there fast enough to save this building. Details here.

Apartment fire in Ottawa

Click the image above to see a fire in August from Ottawa's Chinatown. Details here. A second video from the fire can be found here.

The latest walk down memory lawn

For some of us, it is now a slow crawl. In case you missed it over the weekend, click the image above to see video of two 1970s fires in DC. Details are here.

Firefighting in Poland

The house siren is still in operation in the video above from a firehouse in Poland.

Probably not the people you want teaching the next auto extrication class

If you haven't seen it before, this video probably speaks for itself. Watch it the whole way. Two questions. Was this real? Was there someone inside?