STATter 911

(Updated at 12:45 AM, Sunday. Scroll down for the latest videos)

Video of the day: This is surevillance camera video of the pipe bomb blast that damaged the federal courthouse in San Diego on Sunday. Scroll down for another pipe bomb. One that was found in time.

After 8 years FF gets $1.8 million for injury

Lawyers for Seattle argued Firefighter Kevin Locke didn't deserve the money because he already had workers' compensation for his serious training injury. Locke sued in 2004 and won, and now he has finally been paid. Excerpts from Seattlepi.com:

Firefighter Kevin Locke, now a department dispatcher, was badly hurt after passing out and falling from a ladder in a 2000 training accident. His attorneys argued successfully at trial that those running the training class were negligent for failing to provide adequate breaks, including water breaks, during the warm summer weather, leading to the heat stress that caused Locke to pass out on a ladder and fall.

Jurors awarded Locke $1.8 million at trial, but the city fought the judgment, appealing all the way to the Washington State Supreme Court.

The state Law Enforcement Officers' and Fire Fighters' Retirement System act provides a "right to sue" provision, allowing first responders to sue for damages over the amount they get under workers' compensation.

But lawyers for the city challenged this provision, arguing that it violated the state constitution, which grants sovereign immunity to cities.

In December, the state justices ruled against the city.

Ruth Bowman, a spokeswoman for the City Attorney's Office, said the city paid $113,697 last month and its insurer, American International Group Inc., paid the remaining amount of the judgment.

Florida deputy chief in helpless situation

Nassau County Fire Rescue Deputy Chief Roger West tells about getting to a fiery crash moments after it happened and feeling like he couldn't make a difference. This wreck occurred Wednesday, killing two people and injuring three. Chief West said for the first time in his 26-years on the job he understands why the public often asks, "What took you so long?"

Dry town's wet FD "social club" is raided - FFs quit

Pennsylvania State Police raided the Colwyn Borough Fire Department on Thursday night. They seized two illegal slot machines, 10 bottles of liquor purchased outside the state and $2100 in cash. Colwyn Borough is a dry town and the wet social club end of the fire department is a problem for the 17 active firefighters who have now resigned. Excerpts from Philly.com:

"The guys together have had it with what is going on inside the social club," Fire Chief Richard Guerra said of the mass resignation. He said the use of alcohol by social-club members has created an "unsafe environment" for the active firefighters.

The fire company, in the small Delaware County borough of about 2,000 residents, has almost 100 members, of which only 17 are active firefighters. The remaining members are social members and do not respond to fires.

For now, fire coverage for the borough will be provided by companies in Darby Borough and Collingdale, said Bill Smith, the borough manager. "It is a little bit of an additional distance but it will not jeopardize public safety."

John Fitzgerald, Colwyn mayor and vice president of the fire company, could not be reached for comment.

Colwyn Police Chief Bryan Hills did not return calls for comment.

Ed Bradley, borough solicitor, said the borough government is "100 percent supportive of the [active] volunteer firemen." He said the municipality is appalled by what the state police uncovered.

"The council wants to get an accounting of funds in the fire company," said Bradley.

Guerra said about 75 percent of the active volunteers live outside the borough. The facilities for the active department, a small room with two futon couches and a television, make it hard to recruit volunteers. The social-club bar includes a pool table and shuffleboard in a room the size of the fire-truck garage, he said.

"The borough needs to make a choice, either they want a social club or they want firefighters who are all trained and certified," said Geurra. "The community needs to step up and say they want the firefighters back."

Fairfax City has aerial waterway failure - no one hurt

We were starting to hear about this incident that happened Wednesday in Fairfax City, but Chief Billy Goldfeder got to it on The Secret List first:

In light of this weeks URGENT NIOSH SAFETY ADVISORY (link below) related to AERIAL WATERWAYS, there has been another aerial ladder waterway failure. While the Fairfax City (VA) FD was performing Driver/Operator training with the ladder truck, the nozzle, fly section of the waterway and associated metal structure separated from the aerial ladder and fell 70 to 80 feet to the ground. Fortunately, no one was in the vicinity and all of these components landed in a wooded area.

Their preliminary investigation indicates possible human error. The device used to secure the nozzle, after moving it from the "rescue position" to the "waterway position," was not correctly secured in either position. It was also determined that the gate valve for the waterway inlet was in the closed position when water was being pumped to the ladder. When it was opened, a significant force of water, under pressure, was introduced to the waterway. This likely provided the energy to eject the waterway and nozzle assembly. A representative from the manufacturer will be in Fairfax City next week to take a look at the device and vehicle. For further information, contact A/C Tim Butters at 703-385-7845.

Click here for the NIOSH safety advisory issued Thursday, one month after the LODD of Lawrence Park VFD Deputy Chief Michael Crotty.

EF 2 tornado in Stafford County, VA

Overnight, Fairfax County, Prince William County and the District of Columbia were among departments that sent crews to assist Stafford County in dealing with the damage from Thursday evening's thunderstorms and a confirmed tornado. About 25 homes were damaged. Some destroyed. Only one minor injury.

9NEWS NOW photographer Kurt Brooks was there shooting, reporting and running the satellite uplink truck hours before other news crews arrived.

Here is some raw video from Kurt

An update this morning from Stafford County Chief Rob Brown and PIO Lt. Mark Stone

Report from 5:00 PM

Click here for a slide show of some of the images from Stafford County

My storm chasing friend Jeff Piotrowski was in the area Thursday night and went for a chase. Jeff lives in Oklahoma, so it is not a good sign that he is chasing here. He told me about watching the transformers pop and arc in Stafford as the tornado hit. If you ever see Jeff driving through your home town and there are dark clouds on the horizon, it is a good idea to go the opposite way.

NIOSH draft report on Sofa Super Store

Click here to read draft report from NIOSH on June 18 Sofa Super Store fire that killed 9 Charleston firefighters.

WCSC-TV report

WCIV-TV report

As we first told you last night, its release came as a bit of a surprise. The City of Charleston received a draft of the NIOSH report and very quickly Mayor Joseph Riley made it public. Here are excerpts from today's story by Glenn Smith and Ron Menchaca of the Post & Courier:

Firefighters who battled the Sofa Super Store blaze lacked enough water and proper equipment to effectively do their jobs, and were undermined by a series of tactical errors that allowed the fire to spiral into an inferno that killed nine men, according to a draft federal report the city released Thursday.

The 54-page document from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health describes a dire scene with moments of anguish, chaos, courage and heroism as firefighters struggled to control the fire and find the men who perished in the flames.

Along the way, crews violated a cardinal rule of firefighting: pour on enough water to gain the upper hand on a blaze and protect firefighters.

"Adequate water supply for the size of the structure and fuel loads inside was never established and adequate hose lines capable of attacking the fire with adequate fire streams were not deployed," the report says. "Water supply was a critical factor in the sequence of events leading up to the nine fatalities."

Among the report's key findings:

-- The fire came close to claiming the lives of at least six other firefighters.

-- The first firefighters inside had to wait nearly 15 minutes until other firefighters got them water from a hydrant. They instead fought the blaze with a limited supply of water aboard their truck.

-- The department relied on water hoses that were too small.

-- Firefighters inside the store noticed the roof trusses in the main showroom "glowing red from the intense heat." For years, federal reports have warned firefighters that truss-supported roofs exposed to extreme heat can collapse within minutes.

-- One of the first fire crews stopped to hook up to a fire hydrant that had been removed in 2004 after it was damaged in a traffic accident.

-- Fire Chief Rusty Thomas initially refused a neighboring department's offer of larger hoses and more modern equipment.

-- One of the hoses carried by firefighters standing at the face of the fire went limp and dry.

-- Several of the firefighters reported running out of air in their tanks. The city has since purchased airpacks that provide firefighters with larger oxygen supplies.

Cascading problems

Lack of water wasn't the only problem that night. The report lists many other significant issues that contributed to what happened.

-- The sprawling sofa store did not meet city codes, lacked sprinklers and routinely stored trash and broken furniture near its loading dock, where investigators have said the fire originated. The fire department's "pre-plan" for the store did not note any unusual hazards.

-- The crew of one fire engine that was designated as rescue crew was ordered into the fight instead.

-- Investigators discovered 28 one-gallon cans of extremely flammable solvents inside the loading dock, which the report says may have fueled a vapor fire. "The flames appeared to float in the air and burned floor to ceiling. The water didn't appear to have any effect on the fire so the crew started to retreat."

--Firefighters from different departments couldn't communicate at the fire because they used different radio dispatch systems.

-- After lost firefighters began calling for help over the radio, Thomas ordered the front windows of the store broken out to improve visibility inside. "The firefighters noted that air rushed inside the showroom after the windows were knocked out." Within a minute, turbulent dark, smoke was seen rolling from the windows, and the conditions deteriorated quickly.

Firefighters also pulled at least two small red booster lines into the store to fight the fire. These small, 1-inch hoses are intended for nuisance trash fires and most experts say they should never be used in any type of structure fire, especially one the size of the sofa store.

One of the booster lines advanced into the fire proved useless against the flames and caused firefighters to retreat, the report says. "The booster line did not have any effect on the fire so they backed the line out."

Thomas has denied that his firefighters used booster lines in the early stage of the fire inside the store. "I don't want nobody to think that the Charleston Fire Department put boosters on the Sofa Super Store to put fire out at the start of the fire," Thomas told The Post and Courier in an earlier interview. "We did not."

Mayor who didn't want to issue a report that was complete, issues a report that isn't complete

That seems to be the odyssey of the past week in Charleston, SC. Last Friday, Mayor Joseph Riley announced he wouldn't be issuing the city funded review until after federal reports were completed. This, despite the review panel's leader, J. Gordon Routley, saying it was ready.

After an outcry, Riley reversed himself on Tuesday saying that report would be released on May 15.

Then the city receives a draft of the NIOSH report. This report isn't in its final form, yet it is quickly released. Chief Billy Goldfeder sent out a Secret List dispatch on this topic Thursday night. Here are some of his thoughts:

In a surprising (whadya expect?!) move this evening, the Mayor of Charleston decided to release the DRAFT version of the NIOSH report on the Super Store Fire where those 9 CFD Firefighters gave their lives. As we said, it's kinda hard to keep score as far as what will happen next from Charleston City Hall ...and the past week has more than proven that.

In almost every case, the NIOSH DRAFT report of any LODD is sent to the agency having jurisdiction and in many cases, the Union local. This allows the two to review and provide factual input for the NIOSH LODD Investigators to consider. It is simply input for consideration. Changes are not automatically made but it is a chance for factual verification. Then, once that input is provided, NIOSH generally provides the DRAFT report to outside fire service expert reviewers-for an outside technical perspective. Once that is done, the report is compiled and the final is released. There are other steps internally, but that's generally what happens.

Unless I missed something, this may be the first time any Mayor has decided to release a DRAFT NIOSH LODD Report, prior to the entire process being fulfilled, But, that's what's been done and now it is available for anyone to read. As you will see, the report identifies some very serious and significant facts. Either way-the DRAFT is out and as you will read, there are no recommendations for changes listed yet. The City of Charleston and the IAFF Local in Charleston will still have the chance to make suggestions before NIOSH releases their final report as a part of the above outlined process.

That's what some people are doing when it comes to their cars. Fire and insurance investigators say they are seeing more auto arsons because of the downturn in the economy. In Montgomery County, MD there' a 20% increase since last year. Click here to see my story.

Not easily startled

This is reported to be from Cheboksary, the capital of the Chuvash Republic, Russia. Watch the person watching the burning car.

Crash and burn and a dilemma

We have an auto fire theme show going on today. A police chase in Fort Worth that ends when the vehicle being chased crashes into a building. One cop, alone, with four potentially dangerous suspects in a vehicle that begins to burn. What would you do?

Also, it seems that not one of the four or so police officers eventually on the scene has a fire extinguisher.

A witnessed arrest

That headline is an understatement. This poor congressman in Colombia died on live TV. I hesitated before running this, even though it is from a TV news report. Watching people die is not my thing. But it does give us some good insight into how people react to emergency situations.

More reason to run this comes in a comment from a STATter 911 reader. Take it away Rich:

I figured I'd translate the Colombia video for those who aren't too versed in Spanish:

"The senator did not have time to do anything. He blacked out in front of the terrified eyes of those who were present for the debate. Two other senators with medical training quickly initiated CPR. After waiting 25 minutes for an ambulance that never arrived, the senator's bodyguards decided to transport him to the nearest hospital via POV. Since the elevators were not working, they had to carry him down four floors. Worse yet, the hospital did not even have an oxygen tank, much less a team that could have saved the congressman's life."

Having lived in Colombia for the first thirteen years of my life, I can attest to the unfortunate lack of any sort of emergency care. The equivalent to 911 changes every year or so (I think it was 112 for fire, 114 for police...I don't really remember), there is no real emergency infrastructure to serve the community, and the hospitals close down periodically for lack of funding and staffing.

Just a little perspective.

Regards,
Rich

Bomb squad handling pipe bomb

Live helicopter coverage from Gray's Harbor County in Washington as a pipe bomb found near is a school is euthanized.

Labels: fire

# posted by Dave Statter @ 12:45 AM