STATter 911

(Updated at 1:15 PM)

From the STATter 911 Archives: The Washington Post front Metro section front page on April 24, 1978. Scroll to the bottom of today's entry to read about this group of Fairfax County firefighters who were a self-described pain in the side of management.

Helicopter crash at MI hospital

From Grand Rapids, MI a helicopter crashed and burned on the roof top landing pad of Spectrum hospital. Reports are the tail hit a radio tower. WZZM-TV reports the pilot and passenger survived with minor injury.

The station has one of its remote cameras on the hospital roof top. It was knocked onto its side and didn't catch the crash, but provides a close-up of the smoke.

Click here for live coverage on wusa9.com.

Fundraiser for DC Firefighter's Burn Foundation

One of my colleagues at the TV station, Yvette Hess (get the picture now), is embarking on a journey, and in the process, is raising money for the DC Firefighter's Burn Foundation. Click here to read more.

I am very slow in getting this one out, so please, if you are so inclined, respond promptly (otherwise Yvette is going to kick my butt). Click here to make a donation.

Cardiac arrest survival rates in the Nation's Capital are a problem

"It's a clear indicator that the system in the District is not performing up to the [de facto national] standard of care."

"If you improve cardiac arrest survival rates," then the EMS system will have been improved.

Those are the words of Gregg C. Lord, associate director of the National Emergency Medical Services Preparedness Initiative at George Washington University from a front-page story in today's Washington Post.

Here are a few more excerpts from Elissa Silverman's article:

Only one in eight cardiac arrest patients transported by District ambulances make it to an emergency room with a pulse. Across the river in Arlington County and Alexandria, the rate is twice as high.

Michael Williams, chief medical officer for D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services, said that the District's rate is "too low" and that he has plans to boost the numbers, including training all D.C. government workers in CPR. But he said those plans are contingent on his department receiving supplemental funding. That money, which was approved by the D.C. Council this month but has not been disbursed, is also needed to address other shortcomings in the District's approach to emergency care.

NJ fire captain's home is a jail cell

When not working for the Paterson, NJ Fire Department, Captain Thomas Alala spends much of his off-duty time in jail in Pennsylvania. Here are excerpts from Newsday.com:

The 42-year-old Alala, who helped pull Sept. 11 victims out of the ruins of the World Trade Center, has been convicted of drunken driving three times.

The last conviction came after he crashed his motorcycle near Bethlehem, Pa., two years ago. Last month, he was sentenced to a year in prison but given 72 hours off every week so he keep working 24-hour shifts at the fire house some 70 miles away.

But acting Fire Director Glenn Brown says Alala never told the department about his conviction.

Brown says he could be disciplined, or fired, for that

And across the pond, a somewhat similar story

In this case, a police sergeant is trying to help a fire crew chief keep his job, despite the cop having to be hospitalized following a brawl with the drunken firefighter. Excerpts from an article on NEWS.scotsman.com:

Michael Goodman, who is the crew chief at Crewe Toll Fire Station in Edinburgh, faced the sack after admitting struggling violently with four police officers following a day's drinking at a rugby tournament. The 37-year-old was given 100 hours community service at Selkirk Sheriff Court earlier this month.

Passing sentence on Goodman, Sheriff Kevin Drummond said he hoped the police officer's generous response which was made public by the procurator fiscal would be taken into account by his bosses.

Goodman attended a disciplinary meeting of Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service in Edinburgh on Tuesday.

A spokeswoman said: "He's still employed with us at the moment and an inquiry is going on to discover what actually happened on the night in question."

I am not sure the officer will be speaking on this chief's behalf

And now comes the story from Memorial Day of a New Jersey fire chief arrested after a confrontation with a police corporal during a fire call. The officer didn't like how Penns Grove Chief Joseph Grasso was interacting with residents of a senior citizen high-rise during an alarm bells call.

Click here to read the story.

Council member wants to reverse Charleston chief's parting promotions & transfers

Some are suspiscious that promotions and transfers a month before he leaves, is a way for Chief Rusty Thomas to reward supporters and punish others. Excerpts from the Post & Courier:

A member of Charleston City Council plans to call an emergency meeting in an attempt to rescind a flurry of last-minute promotions and transfers made Wednesday by Fire Chief Rusty Thomas in his waning days in office.

The Rev. Jimmy Gallant, chairman of council's Public Safety Committee, said Thomas had no business messing with the Fire Department's pecking order and assignments so close to his planned June 27 departure.

Thomas promoted 16 firefighters, including three captains who rose to the rank of battalion chief.

Six engineers were promoted to captains, and seven men became engineers. A number of transfers also are planned, though city officials said a final list was still in the works late Wednesday.

Mayor Joe Riley and other city officials said the promotions process was fair and professional. The personnel changes had been in the works for several months and were needed to fill key vacancies and keep the Fire Department running until a new fire chief is hired, Riley said. City officials acknowledged that the new chief could reverse these moves, so the promotions were made on a one-year, probationary basis.

Gallant said such important decisions should have been left to the incoming chief, and that doing them now reeks of retribution. "It looks like (Thomas) is getting even. That is dead wrong. It is totally out of order."

Going topless, once again, in Durham

You may recall from last week a truck that didn't make it under the Gregson Street railroad overpass in Durham, NC. That happened on May 19.

The one above occurred on May 24. And if you click here you can see one from April 14.

The same thing has happened more than 30 times since 2000. As this video shows, and I didn't see last time, there are warning lights and a sign. But obviously that just isn't working.

What was Albert Einstein's famous definition of insanity? Oh yes, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

That said, I am sure no matter how many bells, lights and whistles they put out there, some idiot will miss them.

"Chief in training" hopes to shape up Colorado department

David Anderson doesn't have much experience in being a chief. But he admits, at the moment, the Gateway Fire Department isn't much of a fire department. More from the Grand Junction Sentinel:

The Gateway Fire Department’s bunker gear and breathing apparatus are hand-me-downs from fire departments across the state.

One of the department’s fire engines lacks brakes and can not be driven safely to a shop for repair. Two others, a 500-gallon pumper truck and a well-worn brush truck, are machines used up and cast off by the Grand Junction Fire Department.
During a recent response to a vehicle crash along Colorado Highway 141, the only access road to the community of Gateway and the Gateway Canyons Resort, Fire Chief David Anderson had no other tools at his disposal than an old tire iron to pry out the trapped driver.

The department is staffed by a band of eight active volunteers with minimal skills. Last week, the troop had its first structure-fire training.

“Truthfully, at night if we were to have a structure fire, I don’t even know who would show up,” Anderson said.

A former employee of LifeCare Ambulance, the 50-year-old Anderson describes himself as a “fire chief in training.”

The department averages four and a half calls a month and is in need of rebuilding from the ground up.

“When I first got here, I scrounged parts off everything to put one good truck together,” he said while giving a tour of the department’s one station, which shares space with Gateway’s post office, community center and public library.

Mini-pumpers have volunteers taking issue to the max

As we reported earlier this month, volunteer firefighters in Prince George's County are in a big battle over some small fire engines. County Chief Lawrence Sedgwick told them the county will no longer maintain and provide fuel and insurance for mini-pumpers and some other vehicles.

In a meeting Tuesday night, the volunteers voted to ignore Chief Sedgwick's cost-cutting moves (as we previously reported some other cost-saving methods were dropped after protests by the volunteers and the municipal governments in the county).

According to sources we talked to yesterday, while the plan is to run the mini-pumpers anyway, using money controlled by the county fire commission, it is tempered by concerns that they avoid operational suspensions that could come for defying Chief Sedgwick's orders.

left">Here is more in excerpts from gazette.net:

‘‘We want to bring this to a head and take it to the county executive,” Donald Strine, president of the county’s fire commission, which oversees volunteer firefighters, told volunteers who voted Tuesday to ignore the plans.

Volunteers did not cite any specific risks posed by the loss of so-called mini-pumpers, which they say require less manpower and can be more efficient.

Fire service spokesman Mark E. Brady said the matter is under review and involves ‘‘policy that will be handled ‘internally’ and not played out in a public forum.”

Smaller pumper trucks were mothballed at stations in Accokeek, Bunker Hill, Kentland, Ritchie and West Lanham Hills, though each has larger fire engines in service.

Brady could not provide figures on fuel-cost savings.

Strine plans to discuss the matter with county officials at a meeting scheduled for today.

‘‘I’m confident that after this meeting, we will resolve some of these issues,” said Vernon Herron, deputy chief administrative officer for public safety.

‘‘The chief would not issue an order that would impact public safety,” Herron said. ‘‘Our volunteers provide a very valuable service, just as our paid members do.”

By the way, when we reported this on May 5, we told you about the strong public protest by the Accokeek VFD (PGFD Station 824) on its website. The station was concerned because of its need for the mini-pumper at a large area of federal property along the Potomac River with narrow access. What we failed to notice is the county's response a few days later that acknowledges these special circumstances and seems to have addressed part of Accokeek's issue. ory.php?65

Find out how many calls are run by mini-pumpers in PGFD annual report .com/news/columnist/blogs/uploaded_images/PGFD-Annual-report-783046.jpg">You know, on STATter 911 I have talked about the Prince George's County Fire/EMS Department in at least 213 different entries over the last year. You would think I would even get one mention in the department's 2007 Annual Report.

While I haven't had a chance to look closely at the content, it's a pretty slick looking, eye-catching product, designed by Jeff Callaway. If they won't mention me in their report, maybe they will let be borrow Jeff for a redesign of STATter 911.

One of the things you will find in the report are run statistics for 2007.

By the way, I do have a 1977 PGFD Annual Report that I will someday soon get around to scanning.

In the meantime, click here to see the latest effort.

If my ciphering is correct, there were 4018 responses by mini-pumpers last year. Accokeek had the least with 88 and, of course, Kentland (PGFD Station 833) had the most with 3255.

ign="left">rong>WV concerned about fewer volunteers

It may be almost heaven, but it has the same problem recruiting volunteer firefighters as you will find most everywhere else. Click here to read the concerns of the West Virginia State Fire Marshal.

Airport fire and EMS in the Czech Repulic

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This video shows off airport fire and EMS equipment in Prague.

STATter 911 Archives: A look back at staffing issues in Fairfax County 30-years-ago

You may recall last November we took a look back at labor issues in Fairfax County in 1978 that centered around staffing and training. The headline read "The members of this organization are totally fed up".

Now, we have found this April 24, 1978 article written by Jody Beck that is a companion piece involving many of the same players from the 1978 TV stories.

Double click the images for a larger size and click here to watch the videos from May 9 and August 10, 1978.

# posted by Dave Statter @ 1:15 PM