STATter 911

Former Kentland FF faces the camera (this time): Click here for our interview with Jerry Engle the author of a book about Kentland. Engle is also the man seen on the recently released videos doing a rather unique fireworks demonstration (beats the usual watermelon being blown up). You will also find links there to our previous coverage, including the videos, comments from Gordon Routley and STATter 911 readers.

Read this account of a fire response in Detroit: Below is the conclusion from Detroit Free Press columnist Bill McGraw after arriving well before the fire department at a burning house Monday morning.

An abandoned house on fire. Missing street signs. Slow fire response. A broken rig. Another morning in the under-served neighborhoods of Detroit.

Click here to read what's in front of that final paragraph.

Not a battle where you will likely to win the hearts and minds of the public: In Nassau County, FL a Jacksonville Fire-Rescue captain is accused of hitting a 75-year-old man and pulling him out of his car. It is being described by police as a road-rage incident while the captain was off-duty. The physical part of the event took place in the parking lot of Nassau County Fire Station 20. Firefighters there confronted 44-year-old Michael Braddock who then drove away. Captain Braddock is now on paid administrative leave. Click here for the story and video.

Things go boom in Baltimore: A flying manhole cover left a pedestrian injured after an explosion followed by a fire that last for five hours underneath North Charles Street. Click here for the print version and here for the TV story.

Duck soup: The mystery at the U.S. Capitol Reflecting Pool is still ongoing as the FBI tries to find out how a bunch of ducks died. Our wildlife bureau chief (reassigned stateside after a recent international assignment) has the story of Saturday's hazmat deployment. Check in on Vito Maggiolo's posting on DCFD.com (scroll down).

Baltimore County 4th alarm: With so much Kentland news, we are very late on this one. Pikesville VFC's photographer Michael Schwartzberg has some nice photos from Friday's four-alarm warehouse fire in Baltimore County's Woodlawn section. Click here for pictures and Michael's account.

What's it all about ALF(ie)?: FireGeezer has a look at American LaFrance's decision to pull its fire truck manufacturing out of South Carolina.

FFs' accounts from the front lines of a wildfire: The San Jose Mercury News is putting the news gathering in the hands of firefighters. From the Santa Cruz Mountains they have details of the Martin fire in the words of firefighters from Bonny Doon Fire & Rescue Company 32. Company engineer Steph Marr did the editing. Click here for the story.

Gearing up in Texas: An article on the Beaumont Fire Department making the case for new gear.

Got gear, but need bodies in Louisiana: Lafayette's fire chief says people aren't lining up like they used to for a job as a firefighter. Read the story.

And I'm sure no one got lost on the way to this call: In the UK at 2:00 this morning, a lap-dancing club was destroyed by fire. Pictures (of the fire only) and the story are here. The club sparked controversy when it opened just three weeks ago. The owner suspects arson. Click here for more.

# posted by Dave Statter @ 7:01 AM