Monday, March 31, 2008
More OC fire pictures; Vision 20/20 - part of a busy week in Washington; Stadium duty
(Updated at 1:44 PM)
Even more pictures and video from OC 9-alarm fire and a blogger looks at a home response
Click the image above to take you to a dramatic series of photos by Allen Sklar as the fire flashes on the first floor, Side A of the Dough Roller on the Ocean City Boardwalk on Sunday. Sklar has some time references listed on the pictures showing how quickly the fire comes out to meet the firefighters.
Since about 25 minutes after the fire started on Sunday we have been collecting videos, images and links for the fire on the Boardwalk and posting them. We have gathered the various elements on one page, including OCVFC's run down of the units involved in the operation. Click here to get to that page.
The blog Salisbury News has an entry by Joe Albero that is drawing some comments. Albero expressed concern as he followed a firefighter from Salisbury to OC for the fire:
Just follow this truck! This time I'm not going to claim to be an expert but my GUESS would be that this guy was hitting speeds of up to 90 mph on Rt. 50 to get to the Fire in Ocean City.
Oh, he was cool all right. He had those emergency strobe lights in the front windshield AND the back windshield, letting everyone know, GET THE F OUT OF MY WAY, I'M A FIREMAN!
No, I do not believe this was an official Fire Station Vehicle. I believe this was a personal vehicle and while we pulled away from the light at the Shorebirds Stadium, he was able to get everyone out of his way eventually with his flashy lights and take off like his Wife and Children were on the roof of the burning building and he was going to get there to save them.
Mind you, some Fire Trucks passed me along the way and I was very cool with that. However, I watched them STOP at red lights before they continued through. I will check with Sheriff Lewis today to see if in fact the lights on this vehicle are even legal? Does anyone out there know if it is or not?
There is also a still picture that the author apparently took. Was he driving when he took it (not that I haven't done that)? Interesting topic.
Vision 20/20's attempt to see through the smoke, part of a busy week for the fire service in and around Washington
Not as dramatic as pictures like those from Ocean City above, but extremely important to the safety of the public and firefighters is Vision 20/20. Fire prevention and safety leaders are meeting in Washington right now in an attempt to save lives and reduce fire injuries across the country. This is how Vision 20/20 describes itself:
The Institute of Fire Engineers US Branch was awarded a Fire Prevention and Safety Grant by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to develop a comprehensive national strategy for fire prevention. This is a project with the goal of helping to bring together fire prevention efforts and focus everyone's efforts collectively to effectively address the fire problem in the United States.
Here is another description of the gathering from a press release by Pete Piringer of the Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service:
Fire safety experts from across the nation will convene in Washington, DC, on March 31 and April 1, 2008, to develop a national strategic agenda to reduce the loss of life and property from fire, which claims an average of almost 4,000 lives and $12.7 billion in property damage each year. This meeting is a key part of a year-long project and Division Chief and County Fire Marshal Mike Love, and others from the Montgomery County (MD) Fire and Rescue Service will be taking part in this landmark meeting.
"This project is unprecedented in scope and depth," said project manager Jim Crawford, fire marshal for the city of Vancouver, Washington. "We have assembled an incredible array of experts from a diversity of fields to help craft a national plan to reduce the loss of life and property from fire. Through our collective efforts we will develop strategies that will save lives, now and for the future."
Many of the groups involved in this project issued a press release under the headline Deadly Fires Prompt National Warning. Read the warning here.
The press release talks about some of the same issues United States Fire Administrator Greg Cade did in Emmitsburg on Friday at the National Fire Academy’s Executive Fire Officer seminar. Chief Cade announced the USFA is officially behind residential sprinklers. Read more.
Also this week is the 20th Annual National Fire and Emergency Services Dinner and Seminars . A new event this year is the Showcase of the Fire and Emergency Services on the National Mall on Wednesday. Demonstrations, fire trucks and ambulances surrounded by cherry blossoms. Go to CFSI.org for more information.
I am planning to spend some time at each of these events.
STATter 911 -- probably the only people in the stadium looking at fire engines and ambulances instead of the ball game
You may have noticed that STATter 911 is a little light this morning (unfortunately its editor isn't). We were assigned to cover opening day at Nationals Park. DC Fire & EMS had a large contingent on hand. 9NEWS Now photographer Greg Guise snapped these pictures.
This is one of the First Aid stations. It is located at the left field gate.
The Gator assigned to the station staffed and ready to roll.
This an ATV with a DC Fire & EMS seal parked between the bullpens ready to handle an on-field emergency (from my cameraphone and obviously not a Guise photo).
The Special Events and Special Operations crews were led from the command post embedded in the outfield. One of the first emergencies of the day was a security person hit by a foul ball at batting practice.
During the game power went out on a portion of South Capitol Street near the Douglas Bridge. Some smoke filled the air from a blown transformer or circuit breaker. The DC Fire & EMS brush truck led the way, followed by a larger suppression assignment, in an effort to pin down the exact source of the smoke. It was traced to poles on Half Street Southwest.
By the way, Greg Guise has his own blog called On The Scene Now. It has some nice cherry blossom pictures that Greg snapped on Saturday.
Also, if you are interested in what I do besides fire and EMS, you can watch my stadium story here. No fire engines or ambulances included.
Videos and pictures from Ocean City, MD 9-alarm fire
Click the image above to see Allen Sklar's series of early photos as the fire flashes on Side A.
Photo courtesy Dave Coleman at fithp.net. Click here to see more pictures from Fire In The Hole Photography.
Click the image to see a video of a series of photos from the fire.
The account below from Lt. Robert Korb OCVFC. Click here to see pictures from OCVFC:
Ocean City units were alerted at 1203 PM for a report of a fire at the Dough Roller on the Boardwalk at South Division Street. First arriving units went on scene with fire showing from side D. An intense fire attack with numerous master streams took place. The fire was held to the building involved with minor extension into the arcade next door. One firefighter was transported to Atlantic General Hospital for an eye injury. The Ocean City Fire Marshal's Office was investigating. Here is a complete list of every fire department & unit the was mobilized for the fire. Either to the scene or transferred because of... Ocean City; Chiefs: 50,51,52,53 Engines: 1,2,3,4,9,12,16 Trucks: 5,11 Rescues: 7 EMS: Paramedic 1, Paramedic 1-1, Amb. 4, 41-D Worcester County; Engines: 505, 604, 608, 803, 804, 906, 907, 1101, 1102 Trucks: 6,11 Rescues: 11 EMS: Paramedic 1100-A-1 On Scene: Berlin, Showell, Bishopville, Ocean Pines Transfers: Newark Sussex County; Engines: 701, 702, 703, 719, 732, 742, 745, 758, 761, 763, 794, 802, 832, 844, 853, 901, 905 Trucks: 70, Quint70, 77, 80, 81, 82, 83, 86, 88, 90 Rescues: 77, 84, 87 EMS: Sussex County EMS Medic 105 Sussex County On Scene: Bethany Beach, Dagsboro, Frankford, Georgetown, Lewes, Millsboro, Millville, Rehoboth Beach, Selbyville, Roxana Transfers: Blades, Delmar, Ellendale, Gumboro, Indian River, Laurel, Milton, Seaford, Medic 105 Wicomico County On Scene: Parsonsburg, Pittsville, Willards Transfers: Salisbury Final transfers for OC stations after 9th alarm was struck; Headquarters: Parsonsburg Rescue/Engine 604 & Georgetown Truck 77 Station 3: Indian River Engine 802 & Seaford Rescue 87 Bethany Beach Fenwick Island Station: Sussex County Medic 105 Totals Mobilized Engines: 38 Trucks: 15 Rescues: 5 EMS: 6 Totals on Scene: Engines: 28 Trucks: 11 Rescues: 5 EMS: 5 Unit status update provided by Chad Hudson the OC fire/ems dispatcher assigned to the incident.
Early video. Click here for Part 2.
Four minutes of raw video. The fire rolls out of the first floor about a minute into this one.
From the later stages of the fire.
This video shows a variety of angles from around the fireground.
Photography from Chuck Snyder and others on the Bethany Beach VFC website
Series of short videos from fire
Sunday, March 30, 2008
OC Boardwalk 9-alarm fire; Pictures from Tom Clancy's fire; 2-week suspension over SCBA; MA tanker & other new videos; I left my horn in SF
Close Call Alert: Our friends at Firefighter Nation have a close call video from Mandaluyong City in the Philippines. News media reports indicate it was a fire in the apartment of media personality Angelica Jones on Wednesday morning. In the video a firefighter with partial PPE lowers himself down the outside of a building to be grabbed by fellow firefighters on the floor below the fire. Click the image above to see the video. Click here to read more about the fire. Scroll down for more new videos.
(Updated at 10:49 PM, Sunday)
9-alarms on Ocean City Boardwalk
Image from OC Live web cam
Ocean City VFC Engine 16 in position on the Boardwalk at a noon hour fire in the area of South Atlantic Avenue.
Here is what WBOC-TV is reporting at 4:52 PM:
According to fire officials, a fire on South Atlantic Avenue destoryed two businesses and temporarily closed Route 50 in Ocean City.
The Ocean City Volunteer Fire Department say the fire started in the same building where the Dough Roller restaurant and Sunset Beachwear clothing store are located. According to fire officials, both businesses were destroyed.
Capt. Stephen Price says there is a huge hole where the roof used to be in the Dough Roller.
Fire officials say the fire spread to the nearby Marty's Playland amusement park and also damaged nearby apartments. Fire companies from Sussex, Wicomico County and all of Worcester responded to the fire with more than 20 local fire departments responding to the scene.
Ocean City police officers say they responded to the area of the building, located on 604 South Atlantic Avenue, at approximately 12:04 pm for a reported assault in progress. Police say when officers arrived they observed smoke and flames coming from the building.
Fire marshals are investigating the fire. So far the cause is unknown.
Ocean City Police say one person was arrested at the fire scene for being too close to the blaze. Route 50 is now open.
Click here to see more YouTube clips from the fire
OCVFC has a photo gallery and an account of the 9-alarm fire
WBOC-TV video of OC Live web cam
Watch live steaming of fire on OC Live web cam
Alan Piñon photos from delmarvanow.com USFA takes position on sprinklers
There was news out of the National Fire Academy’s Executive Fire Officer program. No, it had nothing to do with my appearance on Saturday. The news came on Friday during United States Fire Administrator Greg Cade's opening remarks. Chief Cade stated very clearly the USFA's support for residential sprinklers.
Chief Cade seems to take the some of the same data being used by the National Association of Home Builders and looks at it very differently when it comes to sprinklers. Click here to see the contrast between these views.
A clear and present danger
The above photos, from the Prince Frederick VFD website, are the only ones I have seen of the fire at Tom Clancy's home. You can view the rest in the series by clicking here. This is what the folks at Company 2 wrote about the fire: At 1230 hours, the Prince Frederick Volunteers and surrounding Companies were alerted to Box 2-17 for a house. Units responded to the 5000 block of Camp Kaufmann Road as Capt. 2 arrived on side Alpha of a two story single family with nothing showing, establishing Command. E21 arrived, advanced a line to the second floor and found a fire that started on the rear porch and extended into the house. Tower 2 arrived and started opening up while the Squad arrived, controlled utilities and performed a primary search. Company 2 units operated for 90 minutes.Box Alarm - E2, E6, E1, TL2, RS6
WFD - E6, E7, E83, TL1
A clear and present danger is what firefighters found when they arrived Saturday afternoon at the Calvert County, MD home of thriller writer Tom Clancy. Firefighters found a blaze that started on the deck of the large 2-story house on the Chesapeake Bay. Here is what the AP is reporting:
A spokesman for the Maryland fire marshal's office says author Tom Clancy's home was damaged by a fire that burned a second-floor deck.
Spokesman Joe Zurolo said Clancy was home at the time, but was not injured in the blaze about noon Saturday. About 50 firefighters battled the fire for about 10 minutes before bringing it under control.
Zurolo said the cause of the fire, which caused about $10,000 in damage to the three-story stone home, has not been determined.
Clancy is the author of popular thrillers such as "The Hunt for Red October," ''Patriot Games," and "Clear and Present Danger."
This is the second time in a little more than a month that property owned by a famous Maryland writer has burned. On February 22 a hotel owned by romance novelist Nora Roberts was destroyed in Boonsboro, MD in Washington County.
Click the image above to see helicopter video from WBAL-TV. Sunday update: Sometimes you need to just trust your gut. When I saw the above video it didn't make sense to me. Too much fire for the amount of damage reported at Tom Clancy's home and there was clearly fire through the roof in the helicopter shots. Also, while the shots were very tight, from what I could see it didn't seem to be that big of a house. And I couldn't figure out how the chopper got there that fast. Stupid me ran it any way (Hey, it was on TV it must be true). It was pointed out to me that the video is actually of the vacant house fire on Saturday in Prince George's County Station 818's first due. Wrong tapes get rolled in my business. I should have known better. Sorry.
Captain loses 2 weeks over SCBA. 4-year-old training video and Schaitberger visit also make news in Charleston. Some SCBA questions for STATter 911 readers.
Grace Beahm in the Charleston Post & Courier A Charleston Fire Department captain has been given a two week suspension without pay and a firefighter has received a written warning after the picture above was published this week showing the pair without SCBA at an auto fire. The Post & Courier has the latest story.
In the same article the paper talks with J. Gordon Routley about the status of the upcoming report on the Sofa Super Store fire:
Routley said Friday that the panel is finalizing its report into what went wrong at the fatal June 18 blaze. He said rumors that the city had been provided an advance copy of the report are untrue. The panel is still writing the report and there are no plans at this point to provide the city with advance drafts to study and comment on, Routley said.
"The plan at this point is that they are not going to be reviewing the full document before it is released," he said.
Panel members were in town last week and met with two city attorneys to go over some facts in the report for accuracy and to discuss how some items will be presented, Routley said. For instance, they wanted to discuss whether the report should name individual firefighters or just refer to them by their job title for privacy reasons. No decision was reached, he said.
Click image above to see WCIV-TV video
Also in the news this week was a visit by IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger. The report above from WCIV-TV has remarks on the state of firefighting in the city from Schaitberger and Mayor Joe Riley.
But the bulk of the TV coverage focuses on the past. Specifically, 4-year-old videos of training academy practices caught on camera. The story indicates it was released by union officials who comment about what they believe was an unsafe environment that can be connected to the tragedy of last June 18th. One of the recurring issues in the video is the training academy staff at the time not enforcing the use of SCBA.
The Charleston Fire Department issued a statement indicating that this video does not reflect how it will operate in the future.
There are plenty of videos we run on STATter 911 from across the country, including from some of the most revered departments in the United States, where SCBA use appears to still be an option.
Even Chief Routley himself talks about a situation in a report released this week where firefighters faced a serious dilemma about the use of SCBA. In the 3-alarm high-rise fire in Alexandria, VA last summer that left 6 firefighters injured, the choice of not going on air in a hazardous environment very well might have been the only effective way to get the job done considering the resources available and the situation firefighters faced. Alexandria was cited by the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry because of the failure to use SCBA. Routley addresses the issue in a number of spots in the report including on page 18:
The decision making processes that allowed the firefighters to be exposed to the combination of respiratory hazards, heat stress and physical exhaustion were discussed with each crew. The firefighters and the company officers were all aware of the inherent risks that were involved in their actions. They were able to discuss IDLH conditions, their potential exposure to carbon monoxide, cyanide and other toxic gases, and the combined effects of heavy exertion and heat stress. The common rationale was that "they did what they had to do because it was necessary under the circumstances,'' not because they were ordered to take inappropriate risks. The crews also noted that, in retrospect, they could have worked more cautiously and deliberately, taking more time to plan their actions and pace the climb - particularly if they had had known that their back-up companies would be delayed.
And on page 41:
The firefighter injuries were a direct result of firefighters stretching their own limits of strength and endurance to perform their assigned tasks under unusually demanding circumstances. The firefighters had to operate outside the boundaries of standard operating procedures and challenge their own strength and endurance, because the circumstances undermined their ability to operate within a systematic structure. In simple terms, the system broke down because there were not enough resources available to operate according to the established plan for highrise operations and the firefighters compensated by improvising, working longer and harder, and accomplishing tasks with fewer people.
If the firefighters had not performed at that level, there is a significant possibility that the outcome could have involved additional civilian injuries or fatalities. Similarly, if the circumstances had been slightly different, the outcome could have involved more serious firefighter injuries or fatalities.
There is clearly a big distinction between what these Northern Virginia firefighters did and a training academy that apparently was not encouraging and enforcing the use of SCBA.
Still, I have some questions for STATter 911 readers. Why do we still see so many videos of firefighters failing to use SCBA, not four-years-ago, but today?
While I understand the outrage of a training academy allowing or even encouraging unsafe practices, I am often puzzled by the lack of comments to this site or other sites when we show videos of firefighters not properly using SCBA and other PPE. We will get scores of comments over the latest battle between career and volunteer forces in some jurisdictions, but practices that can shorten a firefighter's life barely draw comment.
Maybe, after having seen part of his road show recently, I am channeling Billy Goldfeder today, but as a reporter I am truly interested in the answers to these questions. Please don't be shy and feel free to let me know if this outsider is completely off his rocker.
MA tanker fire
This is video from Chicopee, MA on Friday. Here is what the AP is reporting:
A diesel tanker truck rolled over and exploded Friday on a western Massachusetts interstate in a wreck that sent fireballs and thick black smoke billowing up and shut down the highway.
The truck driver, who was initially trapped in the cab, was hospitalized with critical burns.
Witnesses said more than a dozen people tried to free the man, some carrying blankets and jackets to smother the blaze.
"They were trying to get him out of the cab, but everybody who tried would be stopped by the flames," Gregory Coleman told The Republican newspaper of Springfield. "There were just a bunch of people running towards the fire. It was crazy."
Coleman's sister, Rebecca Coleman, said the tanker then exploded.
"The explosion just rocked the whole bridge," she said. "The car bounced."
The fire engulfed three cars and pushed the truck partially off an Interstate 91 overpass, said Peter Judge, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.
State police said a car lost control on the highway and hit another car and the tanker. The tanker then veered off the road, striking a guardrail and sign post.
The trailer separated from the tanker, rolled over the guardrail and down an embankment as the cab and trailer burst into flames, police said.
Early video from Indiana house fire
No date on this video from Lake Station that has fire showing from two windows of a home as firefighters arrive. An interior attack apparently keeps the fire to the room it started.
Many from FDNY injured in 3-alarm high-rise fire
Image from WNBC-TV There are a varying numbers on casualties from a Manhattan apartment fire Thursday night. Newsday.com has an AP report of 17 injured with 9 of them being firefighters. WNYW-TV has much higher numbers in the article below:
Firefighters say a blaze that burst through windows in a Manhattan apartment building sent 45 people to hospitals, 30 of them firefighters.
The Fire Department says two civilians have life-threatening injuries, and a third is seriously hurt. All the other victims' injuries are considered minor.
Investigators are working to determine what started the three-alarm blaze Thursday evening. It began on the third floor of a 26-story apartment building on Grand Street, on the Lower East Side.
Firefighters and residents say dense, black smoke seeped through the building, making it hard to breathe. FDNY Deputy Chief James Daley says two firefighters became disoriented in a burning apartment, but they were able to escape.
Besides the people taken to hospitals, two other civilians were hurt but declined treatment.
911 recording from 5-alarm DC fire shows woman trapped for 16 minutes with little guidance. 911 center to improve procedures.
STATter 911 has the first 911 recording to surface from the March 12 fire at 3145 Mt. Pleasant Street. DC's Office of Unified Communications (OUC) defends a call taker who gives little direction to a woman trapped on the fourth floor. But the 911 operations director says they will improve pre-arrival instructions after training on new software. Click here for our coverage, including a links to hear the entire call and watch our 9NEWS NOW story.
One of L.A. firefighter's final acts saved woman. Saw may have been used at time of blast.
FF Brent A. Lovrien from LAFD.org
My old friend Miriam Hernandez at WABC-TV has a wonderful story on how LAFD Firefighter Brent Lovrien directed a woman out of harms way shortly before the blast that took Lovrien's life. Watch the story here.
The Los Angeles Times has a series of photographs sent in by Jon Blaze taken right after the explosion that took Lovrien's life and seriously injured Engineer Anthony Guzman. A warning that the pictures show, among other things, the firefighters being treated at the scene.
The Times and other news organizations are reporting a power saw was being used when the blast occurred. Some excerpts from the report:
Los Angeles Fire Department officials investigating Wednesday's fatal explosion in Westchester are looking into several potential causes, including the presence of gas and the possibility that a firefighter's power saw ignited the blast that killed one firefighter and critically injured another, authorities said Thursday.
"Was it an electrical issue, was it a methane issue, was it something that sparked? All that takes looking at evidence to determine," said Los Angeles Fire Capt. Armando Hogan. "We can't rule anything out yet, and we have to rule out the other possible causes before we can say definitively where the problem lies."
As investigators searched for the cause of the blast Thursday, witnesses recounted hearing three distinct explosions, the last one being the fatal one, shortly before 2 p.m. Wednesday.
Charles Mordi said he watched as firefighters responded to a report of smoke coming from manhole covers. He then watched firefighters struggling to open the door to an electrical vault next to the Water and Power Community Credit Union in the 8800 block of Sepulveda Boulevard.
Mordi, who owns an employment testing business above the credit union, said he called 911 after hearing an explosion up the street. He also saw smoke coming from the utility room.
Within minutes of his call, he said, a firefighter arrived and tried to open the door to the utility room, which was locked. Moments later, an engine arrived with the two firefighters. They also tried without success to open the door. One went to the truck and returned with a yellow circular saw.
"As soon as he turned it on and put it by the door, that was when the explosion occurred," Mordi said. "It threw him almost six feet from where he was standing."
Impact from FF Kyle Wilson LODD report
The report into the April, 2007 death of Prince William County's Kyle Wilson is getting attention around the country. Both Fire Engineering and Firefighter Close Calls have reprinted an article from Mobile Radio Technology that begins this way:
On April 16, 2007, firefighter Kyle Wilson was part of a crew dispatched to fight a residential fire in Woodbridge, Va. He died in the line of duty.
A detailed report on the incident recently released by Prince William County Department of Fire and Rescue concluded that problems associated with the use of the county's Motorola digital trunked radio system contributed to the tragedy. Issues reported by other firefighters during that incident, which was further complicated by strong winds, ranged from signal distortion and transmission failure to radios displaying "out of range" signals.
Fire safety advocates now are encouraging fire departments across the country to study the incident in hopes that future tragedies could be avoided. Prince William County's fire department, through further tests, concluded that digital portable radios are "extremely vulnerable to poor environmental conditions and interference of digital noise from ambient sources, which negatively impact the ability of emergency personnel to effectively communicate."
In addition, Chief Billy Goldfeder on his "Through The Smoke" podcast at Firehouse.com talks with Prince William County Chief Kevin McGee and Battalion Chief Jennie Collins about the report.
Our previous coverage with links to the report
STATter 911 to Emmitsburg for webcast
I get to join people on Saturday who may actually know what they are talking about on the topic Politics, Policy, and Practice: What the Fire Service Needs to Know and Do. With luck Dr. Burton Clark, Chief Dennis Rubin, and Hal Bruno will carry me through on this one.
It is part of the Executive Fire Officer Graduate Symposium at the National Fire Academy.
Read details of the presentations on Saturday and how to watch the webcasts.
Horny FFs tick off neighbors
It isn't what you think, but I got your attention. It seems air horns and sirens on fire trucks are quite upsetting to many people in San Francisco. The fire chief, who already put some limits on air horn use, says she feels the pain of the citizenry. Still the chief admits to having limited options. Here are excerpts from the San Francisco Chronicle story:
If you live near a fire station - and if your home is in San Francisco, the odds are good, because there are 42 stations spread out over 49 square miles - you may have taken these periodic wails and honks as another given nuisance.
But a large group of citizens in the city's center - the Tenderloin, Polk Street, South of Market and central Market areas - have had enough. Three years ago, Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White signed a general work order saying that fire truck air horns should be limited to "high-risk" situations, but neighbors say little has changed and they are leaning on the chief to do more.
Some of the aggravated neighbors live near Station 3 on Post Street, believed to be the busiest fire station in the nation, with more than 7,000 engine runs every year. The air horns and sirens also tend to ricochet off taller buildings common in the area, amplifying the sound.
"It drives everybody nuts," said Ron Case, an architect who has lived and worked on the 1000 block of Polk Street for nearly a decade. "It happens six times a day ... if you're having a meeting, you just have to stop until they go by. They start honking the horns at the corner of Post and Polk streets and you have to wait to talk until they pass Geary (Street)".
At a community meeting last week organized by the Community Leadership Alliance, Hayes-White told a group of neighbors that she would work to mitigate the sound. But she can't stifle the noise entirely, she said Tuesday. Sirens, she said, are used to give people at a distance a warning, but the air horns are necessary to notify cars and pedestrians in a fire truck's path to get out of the way.
Part of the problem, firefighters and neighbors agree, is that the number of emergency calls has increased greatly since 1997, when the Fire Department took the city's paramedic division under its wings. The department now sends a fire engine and ambulance to all 911 calls, unless it is classified from the get-go as a non-emergency medical call. That change increased the yearly calls by the tens of thousands.
"Maybe we should re-evaluate how we send out fire engines," said John Hanley, president of the local firefighters union. "But if you're sick, you want us there, you're not worried about an air horn."
But every year, Hayes-White said, there more 911 calls than the year before - meaning more sirens and air horns are vexing people like Michael Pedersen.
"It's a very inefficient system," he said. "It's mind-boggling the number of calls. We can't have this every 10 or 15 minutes ... You see kids crying, mothers don't know what to do. It's completely wacko, uncivilized."
Pedersen wants the department to stop using air horns, and other neighbors have asked the department to lower the decibels of the sirens. Neither option seems feasible to firefighters.
USFA takes official position on residential sprinklers. Greg Cade's view of the data is very different than NAHB's.
Read full remarks from United States Fire Administrator Greg Cade
Read position of NAHB on its site Smoke Alarms Work
United States Fire Administrator Greg Cade's opening remarks at the National Fire Academy’s Executive Fire Officer program left little doubt on where the USFA stands on residential sprinklers. Here is the operative section:
We at USFA have carefully reviewed the data and the relevant research and it is our official position that all Americans should be protected against death, injury, and property loss resulting from fire in their residences. All homes should be equipped with smoke alarms and automatic fire sprinklers, and families should prepare and practice emergency escape plans. The Fire Administration fully supports all efforts to reduce the tragic toll of fire losses in this nation by advocating these actions, including the proposed changes to the International Residential Code that would require automatic sprinklers in all new residential construction.
Only fire sprinklers can detect fire AND automatically control it – affording families the time to make a safe escape and protect valuables and property. Please join with us in helping to save lives by supporting the installation of residential fire sprinklers in all American homes.
This is in sharp contrast to the official position of the National Association of Home Builders. Since our coverage of this issue a month ago, STATter 911 has been trying to get a representative from NAHB to sit down for an interview about sprinklers. So far that hasn't happened and we are left with the association's position from its website:
While they should remain an option for home owners who choose them, fire sprinklers in single-family homes are expensive to install, can be difficult to maintain and do not represent a cost-effective safety improvement over smoke alarm systems. For that reason, NAHB does not support measures to mandate their use.
The NAHB and Greg Cade interpret the available data very differently. Here is what Chief Cade has to say:
Much has been written about the reduction of residential fire deaths due to improvements in building codes and the installation of smoke alarms. Without a doubt, these have had a substantial impact on the home fire problem. The annual number of fire deaths in residential occupancies continues to decline. The trend in fire death data, however, shows that the number of residential fire deaths is declining at a slower rate over the past 10 years than it did in the period 1977 through 1995.
Full-scale fire tests in residential settings suggest one explanation for this slowing in the rate of decline in residential fire deaths. The research shows that the available time to escape a flaming fire in a home has decreased significantly from 17 minutes in 1975 to only 3 minutes in 2003. This decrease in time to escape has been attributed to the difference in fire growth rates of home furnishings. In short, a fire involving modern furnishings grows faster than a fire involving older furnishings. The practical impact of this finding is clear – smoke alarms alone may not provide a warning in time for occupants to escape a home fire.
The NAHB's view:
In 1960, 7,645 Americans died as the result of fires. By 2001, the total had dropped 56 percent to 3,326 in 2001.
Even more dramatic is the drop in the actual fire death rate per million persons (FDMP) from house fires. In fact, from 1979-2001, the rate dropped by 58 percent, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control. That trend will continue as new housing stock replaces old and maintenance of smoke alarms by home occupants is improved.
Why? Building and fire codes are effective. Technological innovations in building techniques introduced in recent decades include advanced heating and electrical systems, fire-resistant building materials and features like escape windows and interconnected smoke alarm systems. When homeowners combine these advances with proper maintenance, homes stay safer.
We will attempt again this week to have get someone from the NAHB to talk about its position.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
STATter 911 obtains 911 call from DC's Mt. Pleasant fire. Woman trapped for 16 minutes with little instruction. DC 911 plans changes.
For more than 16 minutes an unidentified woman told a 911 call taker that she needed help after becoming trapped in her burning Mt. Pleasant apartment building. Only once during the entire call did the 911 worker offer instructions on what the woman should do to protect herself from the choking smoke filling the fourth floor apartment.
Kenneth Mallory, the 911 operations director at DC's Office of Unified Communications (OUC), says the call taker deserves credit for staying on the line the entire time and helping to direct fire crews to the woman's apartment. Mallory admits there was little in the way of pre-arrival instructions offered to the woman, but says OUC is working to change its procedures.
The 911 center has bought software from Priority Dispatch to help call takers provide information to those in fire and other hazardous situations. The center already uses the firm's software for EMS calls.
Until training can be done, Mallory says liaison officers for the DC Fire & EMS Department assigned to OUC will help train civilian 911 workers on what to tell callers trapped in a fire.
On the 911 call from the March 12 fire the trapped woman repeatedly asked what she should do. Only at more than 6 minutes into the call does the 911 worker suggest using towels to block the door and around her face. Later requests for instructions are not answered by the call taker.
The woman eventually decides to go to a kitchen window herself to get air and call for help. The best information from Mallory and other sources is that the woman and the 911 worker's efforts eventually led firefighters to the woman's apartment.
STATter 911 and 9NEWS NOW had asked for the entire 911 and fireground recordings from the incident through a Freedom of Information Act request. So far OUC has not supplied any recordings. This call was obtained from a source who has asked to be kept anonymous.
LAFD FF dead & 2nd FF injured in blast; More on Alexandria report; Chesapeake Bay rescue
One FF dead, one serious in L.A. explosion
From FF/Specialist Brian Humphrey, an LAFD spokesman, on LAFD.org:
It is with great sadness that the men and women of the Los Angeles Fire Department share word of one City of Los Angeles Firefighter dying today in the line of duty.
On Wednesday, March 26, 2008 at 1:57 PM Los Angeles Firefighters were summoned to investigate smoke in the 8800 block of South Sepulveda Boulevard in the Westchester area of Los Angeles - not far from Los Angeles International Airport.
At approximately 2:20 PM, an explosion occurred at a nearby building, causing injury to two male Firefighters and one civilian.
FF Brent A. Lovrien from LAFD.org
Firefighter Brent A. Lovrien, age 35, a 10 year veteran of the LAFD assigned to the 'A' Platoon at Fire Station 95 since October 2005, died shortly after arrival at the Centinela Freeman Regional Medical Center, Marina Campus.
Engineer Anthony J. Guzman from LAFD.org
Engineer Anthony J. Guzman, age 48, an 18 year veteran of the LAFD assigned to the 'A' Platoon at Fire Station 95 since February 2002, suffered multiple fractures and facial trauma. He was transported to the UCLA Medical Center in Westwood, where he remains in serious but stable condition following surgery.
KCBS-TV Thursday morning report
KNBC-TV Wednesday evening report
The firefighters were called to Sepulveda and La Tijera boulevards at 1:57 p.m. after a report of smoke from a possible fire. After they arrived, there was a larger explosion that sent several manhole covers flying, said Ron Myers, spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department. Firefighters called in a rescue helicopter to transport the injured individuals to a nearby hospital, Myers said.
Another KTLA image
A source close to the investigation told The Times that the blast was so powerful it sent one of the firefighters through a wall and into a parking lot. The investigation into the bast is focusing on a possible electrical malfunction, the source said.
The blast also significantly damaged a bank building on Sepulveda Boulevard.
Deputy Fire Chief Mario Rueda said the firefighters were investigating a report of smoke and entering the building when the final explosion occurred.
"They were making entry into a metal clad door" on an electrical equipment room, he said.
Stucco and other materials flew out, hitting a nearby fire engine, Rueda said.
Optometrist Kent Ashcraft, who was working in a nearby office, said he heard two blasts. The second was "like a sonic boom. The walls shook," he said.
From the AP:
When the firefighters arrived around 2 p.m., they saw smoke coming from several manholes that cover an underground electrical vault, Deputy Fire Chief Mario Rueda said.
Two covers were off when they arrived at a two-story building near Los Angeles International Airport. They saw smoke coming from the back of the building and, when they approached, another blast blew the covers off, he said.
"It appeared to be at least electrical in nature because of the substations that are underneath Sepulveda (Boulevard), but we don't have a cause of the explosion at this point," Rueda said.
Rueda said there was "no indication, no evidence, that natural gas was involved."
More on Alexandria, VA high-rise fire report
Alexandria's fire chief and union president react as we take a closer look into the report by Gordon Routley into a high-rise fire that injured 6 firefighters. The communications and staffing issues cited in the report will require money to fix at a time when governments are concerned about the economy. Read our coverage.
MD fireboat to the rescue
Anne Arundel County Fireboat 61 in action near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge on Tuesday. Click the image above to see the raw video from WBAL-TV. Below are excerpts from the TV station's story:
Two people were rescued Tuesday evening after the boat they were using to work on a bridge in the Chesapeake Bay began sinking.
According to officials, the Coast Guard received a call at about 6:30 p.m. from the owner of a construction company that was working on a bridge project. He informed the Coast Guard that a 21-foot boat with two people on board was taking on water and sinking.
The boat was located about a quarter-mile south of the bay on the west side of the shipping channel, officials said.
An Anne Arundel County fireboat crew was able to rescue the two people on board. They were transported to Sandy Point State Park where medical crews were able to look at them. Neither person was taken to a hospital.
The Coast Guard dewatered the vessel and towed it to Station Annapolis. Maryland Natural Resource Police also responded to the scene.
Alexandria fire chief & union president talk about Routley report. Report cites communications & staffing issues that will need money to fix.
Read entire report on the August 25, 2007 fire at 6101 Edsall Road
Alexandria Fire Chief Adam Thiel tells STATter 911 he made the request for an outside report on the August 25, 2007 3-alarm fire at 6101 Edsall Road while still on the fireground. Chief Thiel says he wanted a truly independent view, so he did not view any drafts or have input into its contents. The chief says he viewed the document only after it was delivered to Alexandria City Manager James Hartmann.
Chief Thiel was just three week on the job in Alexandria, VA when a thunderstorm rolled in providing the lightning strike that hit the 18-story high-rise. It sparked small, smokey fires on multiple floors. Six firefighters were injured during the fire.
The report by J. Gordon Routley paints a picture of a smaller than usual first-alarm assignment put behind the eight-ball by a number of factors beyond their control. They included: a delayed dispatch for the first alarm and subsequent alarms; poor communications and misunderstandings about what units were actually responding; an overtaxed fire communications center due to staffing issues and the storm; a region somewhat depleted of resources due to the storm.
Reading the report I was left with the clear impression that many of the serious problems on this fireground were the result of system and infrastructure issues rather the failure of individuals. In fact, Chief Routley writes in his closing remarks that the firefighters efforts to overcome these shortcomings likely kept this from being a much worse situation, but also contributed to their own injuries:
The firefighter injuries were a direct result of firefighters stretching their own limits of strength and endurance to perform their assigned tasks under unusually demanding circumstances. The firefighters had to operate outside the boundaries of standard operating procedures and challenge their own strength and endurance, because the circumstances undermined their ability to operate within a systematic structure. In simple terms, the system broke down because there were not enough resources available to operate according to the established plan for highrise operations and the firefighters compensated by improvising, working longer and harder, and accomplishing tasks with fewer people.
If the firefighters had not performed at that level, there is a significant possibility that the outcome could have involved additional civilian injuries or fatalities. Similarly, if the circumstances had been slightly different, the outcome could have involved more serious firefighter injuries or fatalities.
Routley points out some major issues that will cost a good deal of money to fix. These include 4 person staffing on ladder trucks and improved training and staffing in the fire communications center.
Of course this doesn't come at a good time from an economic standpoint. Still, it is the city manager who makes note in his cover letter that, "Prince William County is considering a major budget proposal to implement four firefighters on a truck following the death of one of their firefighters in a major fire".
Chief Thiel says, "We are going more in depth with the City Council in a budget work session on April 1."
The chief believes the report will also be important for the department's strategic planning process that begins on April 7. He says. "This will drive a lot of our plans and planning for the next few years".
President John Vollmer of IAFF Local 2141 tells STATter 911 the report "is finally shifting light on some things we have been saying for a number of years".
Vollmer says, "Hopefully the council will heed this advice and start giving us safer staffing levels and give us the equipment and resources we need to move our department forward".
The report doesn't just talk about the Alexandria Fire Department. It also looks at SOP concerns and serious communications issues in the groundbreaking, decades-old automatic aide arrangement with Arlington and Fairfax Counties.
Chief Thiel says the report is being provided to the neighboring jurisdictions.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
FF reported dead in L.A.blast; Routley report on VA fire; New Baltimore chief steps right into the fire; Car rides through fireground
(Updated at 7:45 PM)
One FF reported killed, others injured near LAX
KTTV-TV image
KCBS-TV and KTLA-TV are reporting one firefighter died this afternoon after responding to an underground explosion near Los Angeles International Airport. The firefighter and others were apparently caught in a second explosion. Below is an earlier report from KNBC-TV:
At least two firefighters were injured Wednesday in an underground explosion just northeast of LAX, fire officials said.
Fire officials said both firefighters were in critical conditions.
At least one rescue helicopter was dispatched to the scene. The explosion happened at the southwest corner of Sepulveda Boulevard and La Tijera Boulevard.
The explosion was in an electrical vault, according to fire officials. Authorities said the blast appeared to be "electrical in nature."
Video from news helicopters showed damage to a credit union for Department of Water and Power employees, but it was unclear whether the blasts caused the damage.
Firefighters were called to the location to investigate dislodged manhole covers. During the investigation, several explosions occurred, according to fire officials.
Sepulveda Boulvard was closed during the investigation.
Ron Myers of the Los Angeles Fire Department said authorities did not have information regarding the cause of the explosions or the extent of the firefighters' injuries.
Routley report on Alexandria, VA high-rise fire
Consultant J. Gordon Routley's report on a 3-alarm fire at the Alexandria Knolls apartments on Edsall Road that injured 6 firefighters has been delivered to the mayor and council. The fire was caused by a lightning strike during a thunderstorm. There were numerous other emergencies throughout Alexandria during the storm.
I haven't had a chance to read the report yet. You can click here to see it.
In his cover letter, City Manager James Hartmann summarized the issues this way:
The incident analysis of the August 25th fire at Alexandria Knolls West details a number of serious issues that negatively affect the ability of the Alexandria Fire Department to safely and effectively address emergencies in our community. Issues noted by the consultant include: a shortage of qualifiedlexperienced personnel to adequately staffloperate the Fire Communications Center; the need for additional dispatcher training to handle 9-1 -1 calls; preparation for EMS personnel to operate safely at fire incidents; the need for additional Fire-EMS incident management resources, training, and practice; a shortage of command officer support for major incidents; limitations of existing high-rise operating procedures; Fire computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system and mobile data browser (MDB) limitations; the need for enhanced regional mutual-aid coordination; the need for additional firefighters (from 3-person to 4-person minimum staffing) on engine and truck companies; the need for a fully-staffed heavy rescue company; the need for an additional battalion aide to provide support for each on-duty battalion chief; the need for a full-time lightlair unit driverloperator to ensure 24171365 availability; and the need for three shift safety officers to provide round-the-clock, safety-focused oversight for employees involved in emergency incidents.
Click and Clack. Or is it click for Clack? New Baltimore chief checks into TWD to open dialogue.
It can be a place where you need might consider donning full hazmat gear before entering. If you are a big city fire chief (or even a small time fire & EMS reporter) you better have thick skin when reading what they have to say about you on thewatchdesk.com.
There is little doubt Chief Jim Clack already knows that. But he has made his presence known with a thread titled New Chief Checking In. It can be found in the Baltimore City section of TWD.
Skeptical at first, everyone now seems confident that they are actually conversing with the man about to take over their department.
Chief Clack's initial post is below. Click the image see a larger version. Click here to view the entire thread.
Car drives through fire scene -- driver arrested
This is from a fire at a discount store in Crestwood, IL. At about :55 you will hear radio traffic about a car riding around the building as firefighters are going to work. The car travels through the fireground and then stops. Police arrive very soon and take the driver into custody.
More on the fire here (but nothing on the arrest).
Howard County, MD 2nd-alarm
This is raw video from the two-alarm fire Sunday morning at the Town & Country Apartments in Ellicott City, MD. Two firefighters were hurt by a falling air conditioning unit. Click the image above to see the video.
NJ 2nd-alarm
From Fay Avenue in Elizabeth, NJ on Tuesday around 12:30 AM. One woman suffered serious, but non-life threatening injuries.
Mississippi house fire
Here is the caption with this video: "Bruce and Chickenbone firemen worked to extinguish a fire that engulfed an old home on Hwy. 9 in Bruce Tuesday afternoon."
More from MA 4th-alarm
Better video from the fire Monday at a granite company in Taunton.
Citizen firefighters
A truck fire somewhere.
House fire
I think I saw the Punta-Gorda Fire Department on a coat. Don't know when.
Update: Just received (10:20 AM) this comment about the video-
You have a good eye, I took this video about a 3 weeks ago during a course for Light Technical Rescue Team Instructors. We were coming back from our luch break when two classmates and myself saw the column of smoke and the arriving units, so we followed. The incident commander on scene was a student in our class and is a Division Chief for Punta Gorda FD. You can check out more of my pictures and videos at www.myspace.com/wwesi or www.firefighternation.com/profile/wwesi
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Cyanide call sends 13 to hospital; Attorney doesn't want FF axed; PA oil tanker; Strip mall in MA; TN photo shop fire; Explaning the process
Video of the day: An EMS Storybook from the world of Steve Berry and John Dillon. See more at iamnotanambulancedriver.com.
Train wreck in MA
Since about 5:00 fire and rescue crews in Canton, MA have been on the scene of a communter train that was apparently hit by a runaway freight car. Here is what WBZ-TV is reporting so far:Several people were injured after a single box car collided with a commuter train in Canton Tuesday evening.
The accident happened on the Providence/Stoughton line.
According to MBTA officials, the box car rolled onto the main line and hit the train, which was traveling outbound toward Stoughton.
Officials say the commuter train was not moving at the time of the accident.
WBZ-TV helicopter video
Suicide sends 13 to the hospital in DC
Picture from Alan Etter, DC Fire & EMS Department A vial labeled cyanide was found next to a suicide victim in the 4300 block of 36th Street, NW Monday afternoon. This prompted a hazmat response and sent 13 people to the hospital as a precaution. They include 11 firefighters, a police officer and a neighbor. Read more.
Here is the press release from DC Fire & EMS:
When units responded to assist MPD for what was reported to be a suicide Monday afternoon, they could not imagine the call would evolve into a massive HazMat response that would end with 13 people hospitalized for observation.
Engine 20 and Ambulance 20 responded at 4:40 PM to assist on the scene of an apparent suicide in the 4300 block of 36th Street, Northwest. Firefighters found an obviously deceased male, but the means were unclear. While they were on the scene, police uncovered information that a dangerous substance might be in the two-story single family home. Police then summoned - through Special Operations - a hazardous materials response to investigate.
HazMat did discover the presence of a dangerous and potentially lethal substance in the home. Because of the on-going police investigation, the identity of the substance cannot be specified at this time. But officials were certain the community was never in any danger, and the substance was contained to the house. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will conduct an autopsy to determine how the man died.
Because several Fire & EMS employees were initially exposed to the material, they were all transported for observation only. No other civilians were injured. A female civilian and a police officer were also transported for evaluation.
Lawyer doesn't want CT FF charged or fired
New Haven Firefighter Matt Kennedy posted bail that was increased to $50,000 on Monday. Kennedy was arrested Friday night.
We first told you about Firefighter Kennedy yesterday. He is accused of jumping out of a moving ambulance to confront his wife and her divorce lawyer. Kennedy had a previous domestic violence arrest and a fight in the firehouse last year. The man he is now accused of attacking doesn't want to press charges or see Kennedy fired. Below are some excerpts from the latest article in the New Haven Register:
A Superior Court judge dramatically increased the bail for a firefighter accused of accosting, while on duty, his estranged wife and her divorce lawyer as they walked together downtown, amid insinuations in court that their relationship went deeper than conventional attorney and client.
“You’ve got to give him some consideration for the situation he found himself in,” argued attorney Joseph Chiarelli, a lawyer representing Matthew Kennedy, 41, a 13-year veteran of the fire service, in court Monday.
That situation, Chiarelli told Judge Richard A. Damiani, was that Kennedy was riding in his fire apparatus Friday evening when he claims he saw his soon-to-be ex-wife, Alison Kennedy, “hand-in-hand” with her lawyer, Tony Wallace, “walking down the street on date night” in New Haven.
Fire Chief Michael Grant said Monday that Kennedy remains on administrative leave, and he planned to confer with the city labor relations director and others to determine a course of action.
Wallace told police Friday he didn’t want to press charges and repeated that Monday. He said he faxed a letter to Grant indicating that he had no plans to sue the city and expressing his hope that Kennedy wouldn’t lose his job over the incident.
“He has a child to support,” Wallace said, adding, “I harbor no ill will to this man whatsoever. I just went through the same thing (a divorce) two years ago. It’s a powerful thing. He’s going through a lot and he lost it.”
Kennedy jumped out of a Fire Department emergency unit Friday just before 8 p.m. when he saw Wallace and his estranged wife at Temple and Crown streets. According to police and witnesses, Kennedy was so irate police had to separate him from Wallace. He was restrained by officers and other firefighters when he lunged toward Wallace again. His wife retreated into a restaurant when she saw Kennedy coming.
5-alarm strip mall fire in MA
Overnight a fire destroyed five businesses in a stip mall in Northborough, MA.
PA oil tanker crash and fire
A dump truck and home heating oil truck collided in Morrisville in Bucks County Monday morning. Everyone got out. The picture is from the Yardley Police Department. More details here.
4-alarms in MA
A fire in a granite storage company in Taunton on Monday. The scene is near a recent general alarm fire. Read more.
Pittsburgh fire history
An interesting history of the fire service in Pittsburgh has been posted here.
Helmet-cam in TN
Fire in a photography studio in Smithville, TN on Friday. Click the image to see the video.
Explaining it to those who hold the purse strings
Part of the job of the fire chief. It can be tedious and time consuming, but somebody has to do it. In this case Middletown, Ohio Chief Steven Botts describes to the City Council the process he'd like to follow for replacing an old Sutphin fire engine with a new one. Click the image to hear his testimony. If you would rather just read about it rather than listen, click here.
Monday, March 24, 2008
CO2 1, snake 0; Mayday in MD; FF who jumped from ambo has anger history; Hidden cost of pest control; Cranky letters
(Updated at 6:31 PM)
Old video of the day: From June 10, 1991, a fire at the St. Peter & Paul Church in Mount Carmel, PA.
Snakes alive! Who are you going to call?
Arlington County, VA firefighters used a CO2 extinguisher this morning to take care of a rattlesnake. The snake hitched a ride in the luggage of a local high school rowing coach. The crew team had recently returned from a trip to South Carolina. When the coach opened his suitcase today a 10-inch rattlesnake bit him on the hand.
The snake is dead. The coach is in ICU for observation tonight. You can watch the story here.
MD firefighter okay after falling through floor of burning home
A Prince George's County firefighter received a small, second-degree burn after the kitchen floor of a home in Bowie gave way Monday morning. A mayday was called during the fire in the 6400 block of Gwinnett Lane just before 10:00 AM.
Major Rudy Thomas tells STATter 911 that injured member is a career firefighter assigned to the first-due engine out of Station 839. Major Thomas says the crew arrived on the scene with smoke showing from the eaves of the home. The firefighters advanced a line on the first floor and began attacking the fire in the kitchen. It was at that point the floor gave way and the firefighter fell into the basement.
According to Thomas, when crews entered the basement from side C the firefighter was already mobile and in the process of exiting the home. Major Thomas says the firefighter had a small second degree burn on his abdomen.
Investigators have determined the fire began in the kitchen and dropped down to the ceiling area of the basement through the kitchen island. Damage is estimated at $35,000.
Large home burns in Kent Island, MD
This view from WBAL-TV is from the 11:00 hour Monday morning near Broad Creek Drive in Kent Island. The fire took out the garage and extended into the main house. Click here to see the video.
They were flying at the Flying J
Please do yourself a favor and read Fireeezer's account of a series of events that began with someone lighting fireworks in the cab of a pickup truck. The Geeze thinks they should have been in the movie Dumb and Dumber. I think they just missed picking up a Darwin.
While you are there check out his ambulance chase video and my long lost relatives running a sports bar in Atlanta.
Major fire in Los Angeles
The image above from KNBC-TV of a fire in a 5-story condominium building under construction. The blaze was reported at 8:43 AM at the Warner Center in the San Fernando Valley. The TV station reported by 9:30 AM 200 firefighters were on the scene.
Divorce lawyer sighting prompts FF to bail out of ambulance -- FF has history of anger issues
The way authorities in New Haven, CT tell it, a city firefighter jumped out of a moving ambulance when he spotted his wife and her lawyer on the street. Fire Chief Michael Grant told the New Haven Register that Firefighter Michael Kennedy is due in this office Monday after Kennedy's court appearance. Kennedy is now on administrative leave.
According to the Register, Kennedy had an off-duty arrest last year in connection with a domestic disturbance. He received a short suspension.
Last August, records show he was involved in a firehouse fight. The New Haven Independent received the internal reports from that dispute. Read here.
There were also allegations of a double standard in the discipline from the August fight. Click here.
Below are excerpts from the Register's coverage of the latest incident:
Grant said he still didn’t have all the details, but he provided this account as he said he understood it: Kennedy was working on an emergency unit and was returning from a medical call when he saw his estranged wife and a man together. He left the vehicle and confronted the woman and man. By the time the battalion chief arrived, police had them separated and the battalion chief and Kennedy’s partner convinced him to get back in the rig and to the firehouse. There, when Kennedy remained visibly upset, a paramedic recommended he get checked out at the hospital.
He was arrested by police at the hospital for violating a protective or restraining order his wife had against him, Grant said.
“It was confrontational. I’m sure a million people saw it,” he said. “It’s disappointing to me and embarrassing to the department.”
Several sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press, filled out the story a bit. They said Kennedy “lost it” when he saw his estranged wife and her attorney, Tony Wallace, a politically active Westville lawyer, together. Kennedy jumped out of the still-moving ambulance and assaulted Wallace, pushing him and knocking his glasses from his face. It’s not clear if any punches were thrown. Then, after a crowd of spectators had gathered and as police spoke to Wallace, Kennedy allegedly broke free from police and firefighters who were restraining him and went after Wallace again, threatening him.
Some questions were raised when Kennedy was pushed back into his rig and driven off, instead of being arrested at the scene, although charges ultimately were filed.
I am guessing this guy doesn't volunteer on the canteen unit for the New London FD
Through the years I have seen a lot of letters to the editor critical of various fire departments. This one may be at the top of the list for the crankiest. It was on TheDay.com under the headline New London Should Trim The Fire Companies:
The city of New London, instead of hiring more relatives of firefighters to sleep at the firehouses, should close two of the three fire stations in the city and cut the size of the fire department to about 17 people.
The city needs to get rid of all the chiefs, battalion chiefs, assistant battalion chiefs, fire inspectors, assistant fire inspectors and so on. The city should also lay off all the emergency medical technicians and privatize the ambulance services, whose main functions are to ferry drunks and drug addicts to Lawrence & Memorial Hospital.
A city like New London, which measures about seven miles by two miles, can no longer afford this fire department. Many New London firefighters are well to do. They sleep at the firehouses and work two and sometimes three other jobs. They easily make more than $100,000 per year.
The firefighter's main duties are eating doughnuts, playing Parcheesi and watching television. They will always need a fire chief to oversee the Parcheesi tournaments, as they sometimes can get out of control.
Patrick Crowley
Quaker Hill
12 FFs hurt in Anaheim
From the Orange County Register:
A grass fire next to a commercial building at 500 E. Cerritos Ave. Sunday evening caused a chemical tank to burst, forcing the fire department to evacuate 35 businesses, shutting down a freeway off-ramp and sending 10 firefighters to the hospital, fire officials said.
Firefighters from Orange, Anaheim and Santa Ana responded to an outdoor fire near Alstyle Apparel & Active Wear, said Fire Marshal Jeff Lutz with the Anaheim Fire Department. The fire caused one of two 4,000 gallon tanks of hydrogen peroxide to rupture.
Ten (now 12 who have been treated & released) Anaheim firefighters were sent to various hospitals with minor to moderate injuries, Lutz said. It was not known whether the injuries were related to the fire or the chemical, often used as a bleaching agent.
Hazmat teams were sent in to assess the area as fire officials evacuated 35 businesses near the area. A Sigalert was issued at 5:22 p.m. on the northbound I-5 freeway Katella Avenue off ramp.
"We want to be very cautious and safe," Lutz said while on the site. "We want to clean this up to have the businesses back up and running as soon as possible."
Fire officials were still fighting small patches of the fire into the night, and were investigating the cause.
Gopher hunt sparks blaze
The picture above is from CTV of a large grass fire in Calgary on Saturday. The fire is being blamed on the Rodenator.
If you are like me, you are probably asking at this point, what is a Rodenator?
A good question that I think we can answer. It is described by Canada.com as a device that "pumps propane and oxygen into a rodent hole and then ignites the mixture to create an underground shock wave or concussion th