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Security cameras caught the explosion Thursday night in Institute, West Virginia that killed one worker and critically burned a second person. The Kanawha County Commission and members of the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board have scheduled a press conference at 3 p.m. today to discuss the blast and fire at the Bayer CropScience plant.
From the Charleston Gazette:
Bayer officials said the explosion appears to have occurred in a chemical tank that was added during a recent routine maintenance shutdown of a pesticide unit.
The 4,000-gallon cylindrical tank was used to clean up wastes created during the production of the pesticide Larvin, said Bayer site manager Nick Crosby.
“It appears to have occurred right at the back end of the process where we treat process residues,” Crosby said. “[But] I can’t tell you today what caused the incident. We don’t know yet.”
WCHS-TV has video from a security camera that caught the initial blast. Also, watch coverage from WCHS-TV.
Click here for a long list of video links of this incident from WSAZ-TV. The top link has security camera video of the flash from the blast and the sound of the explosion. Just below it is raw video of the fire. Further down is video from the explosion and fire in the 1990s.
The plant has a long history of safety violations and a previous deadly fire and explosion. Read more from SundayGazetteMail.com.
The paper also reports that the possibility of a chemical disaster of major proportions has long worried residents in the Kanawha Valley. Click here.
Institute made news in 1985 and again in 1990 after a series of leaks at its Union Carbide plant. At least one of those leaks involved the chemical that killed 3500 people near a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India in 1984. Read details.
Fairfax County, Virginia’s Urban Search and Rescue Team (Virginia Task Force 1) is mobilizing from the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Academy. They’re expected to head out first to Atlanta. The team consists of 80 members.
Also, a medical ’strike team’ left Baltimore on Saturday to help Gulf Coast states deal with hurricane Gustav. The 26 paramedics are trained in advanced life-saving skills. They’re expected to be gone for seven to fourteen days.
Montgomery County (MD) is prepared to send a emergency workers to help with rescue efforts should the need arise.
The team of up to 70 firefighters is gearing up to make the trip. Earlier in the week a small number of firefighters headed south to make preparations and set up the incident management system in anticipation of the deployments.
From Florida, BradentonHerald.com has this:
A Miami-Dade Fire Rescue urban disaster team headed to Georgia on Saturday to help wherever Hurricane Gustav strikes.
The Rescue Urban Search and Rescue Team will wait there to see where Gustav does the most damage and then travel to help rescue efforts and treat victims.
The 34 firefighters are bringing four search dogs, medical supplies, digging equipment and pole-mounted cameras.
They’re trained to help set up command and control stations as well as provide technical assistance and structural assessment and stabilization. They also can help provide medical care, hazardous materials mitigation, tactical communications and logistics support.
The trip is funded by the federal government and could last two weeks or more, depending on the severity of the storm’s impact.
From the AP:
Rutland Township, MI – A man’s body was found in a burned car after firefighters extinguished the fire and cleared the scene.
Firefighters responded Friday to a burning Chevrolet Monte Carlo in a driveway in Barry County’s Rutland Township, about 30 miles southeast of Grand Rapids.
WOOD-TV and The Grand Rapids Press report the firefighters extinguished the blaze and left the scene. Residents of the house later called police to say there were human remains in the car.
Michigan State Police say the victim’s identity is being withheld until a positive identification can be made. An investigation is ongoing.
We have been hearing from Richmond, VA firefighters who recently received an order barring any on-duty solicitation for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. On Friday, STATter 911 contacted City of Richmond Department of Fire & Emergency Services Chief Robert Creecy and Lt. Mike Oprandy the department’s PIO about the situation. Here is the response received today from Lt. Oprandy:
The Fire Chief was notified by the City Attorney’s Office of a media inquiry in reference to the MDA “fill the boot” fund drive. In response to this inquiry, personnel rules and regulations and city ordinances were reviewed.
As a result of this research, it became evident that the Fire Department was in violation of Administrative Regulation 1.2, which prohibits on duty city employee’s from soliciting donations. On-duty MDA activities were immediately suspended.
This action only affects the participation of firefighters while they are on duty. Richmond’s Bravest continue to demonstrate their personal leadership and commitment to make this year’s “Fill the Boot” drive a success by volunteering to collect donations while off duty.
In the immediate Washington area the view on MDA solicitation is a little different. Read about the efforts underway this weekend.
"Browned–out" fire engine was closest to CA house fires. Did budget cuts effect handling of the fire?
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Image from KOVR-TV. Click here for fire video.
(Click here for more fire & EMS news from STATter 911, and here for an update on this story)
A roof collapse injured one firefighter. Three others were hurt in the the 3-alarm fire on a 100-degree day in the Del Paso Heights neighborhood of Sacramento. The blaze spread from one home to a second.
Rotating fire company closures left the closest fire station without an engine company and it took seven-minutes for the first pumper to arrive on the scene. The City of Sacramento Fire Department’s official press release about the fire includes information about the closed company. The department also lists its “brown-out” calender of closed companies on its website.
From KXTV-TV:
Fire response possibly slowed by a browned-out Sacramento fire station may have played a role in a three-alarm blaze that destroyed two homes in a Del Paso Heights neighborhood Friday afternoon.
Capt. Jim Doucette with the Sacramento Fire Department said the fire started on the 100 block of Redondo Avenue around 5 p.m. Friday.
Crews were able to get the fire under control, but not before two homes were burned to the ground.
Doucette said Sacramento Fire’s Rescue 20, a truck without water-pumping and hose capabilities, was the first unit on scene, but it wasn’t until Engine 17 arrived at 5:19 p.m. that efforts to battle the fire could get underway.
The engine at Fire Station 20, located on Rio Linda Boulevard, was out of service under the city’s new brownout policy.
Due to budget cuts, the city began rotating fire company closures throughout Sacramento last month, shutting down a single company for 48 hours at a time.
“It did throw us a little behind,” Doucette said. “Whenever that happens, the rescue company has to go into a completely separate mode.”
Doucette said Engine 17 arrived seven minutes after the initial fire call, just over the department’s preferred five-minute response time to emergency calls.
As for whether an on-duty Engine 20 would have made a difference or been able to save any portion of the burned homes, Doucette said simply, “I have no idea.”
Wendy Ayala lost everything but a dresser in the fire and said she didn’t know her neighborhood fire station was closed Friday.
“It’s too bad. If they could have gotten here sooner, maybe it could have been saved,” Ayala said. “It’s sad for everybody.”
The cause of the blaze was under investigation. Doucette said a partial roof collapse injured one firefighter and three others were transported to area hospitals for what appeared to be heat exhaustion. All the injuries were described as minor, Doucette said.
There have been so many cases in recent weeks of firefighters accused of starting fires that I’ve lost track. The most recent appears to be a 19-year-old volunteer in Aiken County, SC. Brandon Smith, who was also an Aiken Department of Public Safety cadet, is charged with three house fires and a woods fire. A sheriff’’s office spokesman says, “These fires were set, in part, out of boredom” and that Smith would head home after setting the blazes to gear up and respond on the calls. There is concern that someone tipped Smith that his arrest was coming. Click here for the story.
But it is the outcome of an older case that caught my attention.
In that one a volunteer firefighter from Peoria, IL area kept his hands clean by not setting the fires himself. Instead, former Limestone Township firefighter Donald Magner hired two friends to do the dirty work so Magner could put out the fires.
Magner was sentenced on Friday. Here are excerpts from an article on pjstar.com:
Donald C. Magner, 19, of 3303 W. Fremont St. sobbed at the end of the two-hour hearing. Peoria County Circuit Judge James Shadid allowed him in the audience portion of the courtroom to hug his family and friends who gathered for the hearing.
The judge also put him on three years probation with the first year on intensive probation. He will also have to do 200 public service hours.
Shadid told Magner he put himself and two other volunteers in danger when they responded to one of the fires in mid-September.
“Those two people volunteered for their community and unbeknownst to them, they walked into a situation there they could have been hurt or killed,” the judge said.
Shadid also, for the first time, had Magner recount how he asked Matthew A. Wilson, 19, of 3134 W. Fremont St. and Darrell W. O’Neal, 18, of 3204 W. Fremont St. to set the fires.
For many in the audience, it was the first time they had heard Magner, who had no criminal history and had 42 people write letters on his behalf, state what he did and how it happened. A few put their heads in the hands. Others cried.
Assistant State’s Attorney Jodi Hoos pushed for prison, saying that but for Magner, the fires would not have been set. His job was to put out fires, not start them, she said.
But defense attorney Charles Danner countered this wasn’t a case for prison. Such a move wouldn’t help his client and wouldn’t help with any restitution that would be paid. He said probation would allow Magner to be punished but also to work with others to explain what happened to him.
Firefighters at Montgomery County, Maryland’s 911 center took two calls about the pre-dawn fire on Friday that killed one woman and left her adult son critically injured.
The first call was at 5:41 AM from a tenant who had a room in the basement of 11311 Gainsborough Road. He woke up to smell smoke and called 911 as he exited the house. The man calmly explained there were two people still trapped inside. The call-taker remained on the line until the first emergency personnel, police officers, arrived on the scene.
Also at 5:41 AM a neighbor called to report the house next door was on fire. This woman was quite excited and upset by the situation. The call-taker worked to calm her down and tried to elicit important information and provide instructions.
Arriving firefighter found Marilyn Ehrlich unresponsive in a second floor hallway. Attempts to revive her were unsuccessful. Moments later, her son was discovered near the kitchen on the first floor. They were able to revive him and at last word he was in critical, but stable condition.
From WXIA-TV:
Firefighter Matt Mosley is leaving the Atlanta Fire Department to become a firefighter in north suburban Johns Creek.
Mosley became famous over nine years ago when he rescued stranded crane operator Iver Sims from the middle of the Cotton Mill inferno. Mosley’s daring, dangling rescue was national news and made him into an overnight sensation.
In the years since, he has continued to work as an Atlanta firefighter, being shifted because his old squad was decommissioned in the recent cuts by Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin.
Mosley says he heard about the new fire department coming on line in Johns Creek in north Fulton County this fall and he pursued the opportunity. He has been offered a position as a lieutenant within the department. Mosley says he’s excited to be in a leadership position and that he looks forward to being able to share his knowledge with his fellow firefighters.
Mosley cites the recent cutbacks and the closure of historic Fire Station 7 as part of his reason to leave Atlanta. He said working for the city was a rollercoaster. “I’m getting older and roller coasters make me nauseous. I want to get off and be in a place that’s more like a carousel for a while.”
Mosley is married with two young daughters.
Firefighters in Montgomery County, MD found two lifeless bodies in a burning home in the 11,300 block of Gainsborough Rd. The house is across the street from Churchill High School, in a neighborhood off of Tuckerman Lane between Rockville and Potomac. The first 911 call came at 5:45 this morning from a tenant living in the basement. That man reported smoke in the house with two others still trapped inside.
According to spokesman Pete Piringer, the first arriving firefighters reported fire showing as they approached the scene. The bulk of the fire was in a one-story section that appears to have been a carport converted into a recreation room. Firefighters soon found an unresponsive woman in her 70s in a second floor hallway. Another crew then found the woman’s son, who appeared to be in his 40s, on the first floor, by the kitchen.
Medics worked both victims. The woman, Marilyn Ehrlich, was pronounced dead at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital. Her son, Ethan Ehrlich, is in critical but stable condition. He was originally taken to MedStar and has since been transferred to George Washington University Medical Center.
Three firefighters were hurt. One with an injured knee, another with a small burn to the hand and the third with smoke inhalation. All are expected to be treated and released.
Piringer reports there is no indication, so far, of smoke alarms in the home. The tenant was awakened by the smoke and not a detector.
It has been a busy morning for firefighters in Montgomery County. There was another house fire around 8:00 AM about ten-miles away in the 16,400 block of Riffle Ford Road, west of Gaithersburg.
Pittsburgh’s first female deputy chief is demoted: Fire Chief Darryl Jones told Colleen Walz he was making the move because of a court order. Chief Walz will retain the salary of a deputy chief, but her duties will be that of a battalion chief. This comes out of a 2006 lawsuit by Battalion Chief Michael Mullen who claimed he was unfairly passed over for the deputy slot. According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, “On Monday, Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Timothy P. O’Reilly ordered the city to install Mullen as deputy chief immediately”. Read more.
Fire commission rejects settlement in jumper case: Lawyers for the City of San Francisco reached a settlement with the family of a man who fell to his death after a failed rescue attempt by a fire lieutenant in 2006. But the city’s Fire Commission has unanimously rejected the settlement. Lt. Victor Wyrsch and Chief Joanne Hayes-White were sued after Wyrsch tried to grab Nick Torrico while Torrico was perched on the ledge of a four-story Nob Hill apartment building. Read the latest in the case. Read details from KGO-TV’s investigation into the incident.
Boise wildfire helmet-cam video: Boise Captain Tom Moor has his helmet-cam running when a wildfire fire broke out Monday that destroyed ten homes and damaged nine others. The fire killed a Boise State University professor. Short version of video. Full 34-minute raw video.
According to KTVB-TV, “Boise Fire investigators said Thursday that an electrical connection on a powerpole, called a hot tap stirrup, arched causing molten metal to fall to the dry grass below” igniting the fire. Read more.
Video roundup: Click here to see 6 new videos.
Austin close call videos: Click here and you will see a group of videos from the Austin Fire Department. The four videos titled Lessons Learned are interviews with firefighters about two close call incidents in Austin.
House fire in Texas with a little surprise for one FF
From Paris, Texas around 11:00 Monday night. Look at 1:12 into the video when a firefighter operating alone on Side C is startled by a pop and a shower of sparks.
RI house fire
A 3-alarm house fire in Woonsocket on Thursday afternoon.
Oil rig fire
An oil rig burned in Rulison, CO Wednesday. Click here for the details.
House fire in Baton Rouge
No date on this fire on Cadillac St. with Engine 14. More helmet-cam videos from Engine 14.
Arsenal fire
An ammunition depot fire broke out Wednesday in eastern Ukraine. Read details.
Man sets car on fire. Is that all that burns?
The video shows it was shot early last Sunday morning, but doesn’t say where. If the man who set this car on fire escaped unscathed, he is very lucky.
Last part of series looking at young firefighter’s death: In Part 5 the editorial board of The Oregonian is asking for the U.S. Justice Department to look at the death five-years-ago of Shannon Halvorson. Read the latest installment. See the previous parts.
Apparently no one can fill naked assistant chief’s boots: Johnson City, NY lost its chief to a bit of a scandal last June and the assistant chief last November after he turned the firehouse into Camp Sunshine. Now there is a move to save money by not filling the AC slot. Read more.
Where they are filling the boots: Click here for a run down of efforts by IAFF locals in three DC jurisdictions to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
Blast video: CSB’s latest video looking at the November 22, 2006 explosion that rocked Danvers, MA. Click here.
Oil rig fire: A look at Wednesday’s oil rig fire that killed one in Oklahoma. Read the story.
Number of woman making claims against Boston deputy chief doubles: Peter Pearson’s problems are multiplying quickly. Read the latest.
When good news and no flames are the lead story: A sprinkler system save in Springfield, MO was the top news of the day on KOLR-TV on Wednesday. Watch the story.
Dollar beer: FireGeezer gives us a nice chuckle with his illustration for the story about Dollar General adding beer to the inventory. Look at it here.
Not sure I understand what’s going on here, but it does look interesting: A lcoal paper has the blow-by-blow account of some serious personnel problems at Montana’s Frenchtown Rural Fire District. The Clark Fork Chronicle reports that Chief Scott Waldron may be on his way out. But not before a very public battle with one employee. That former worker tells the paper, “Life after Waldron is a lot less stressful”. Read it for yourself.
Naked AC is apparently irreplaceable. Job is called an "unnecessary layer of upper management".
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Before we got earned reputation as Springer 911 with the video of the fireworks shot off the moon, we had already dipped our little toe in tabloid waters with the picture above. That’s Kenneth Roe, the now retired assistant chief of the Johnson City (NY) Fire Department. It shows how he celebrated his 20th and last anniversary with the department in November, 2007.
Apparently Chief Roe has some big shoes to fill (but I am guessing not in this picture). The Village of Johnson City is likely to keep the assistant fire chief’s position vacant. At least that’s the sense of the Village board at a meeting Wednesday night.
Currently the chief’s position is also vacant with the fire marshal acting as chief. Former Chief Henry Michalovic was forced to leave in June after a dispute over holiday pay resulted in Mihalovic having to pay back $12,000 on the way out the door. Reading excerpts from the article below off the WBNG-TV website, it isn’t just the assistant chief’s job, it appears everyone may not be so sure a fire chief is needed:
Trustee Dennis Hannon says under the new contract, the assistant fire chief makes close to 90 thousand dollars plus benefits.
The village would save over 100 thousand dollars by leaving the position unfilled.
“The assistant chief’s position is just an unnecessary layer of upper management. And if we do follow through with the promotions that will also deplete a firefighter from the street, from the rank and file, as everyone moves up and that’s not a good thing either.” said Hannon.
No decision was made Wednesday night.
The village attorney also found the village is not legally required to have a fire chief, although trustees don’t expect to even consider getting rid of that position.
The current list of chief officers according to the Johnson City Fire Department website
While it shows mostly aftermath and some spot fires, KOTV-TV seems to have the best video, so far, of this morning’s oil rig explosion in Creek County, OK. One man jumped to his death when workers, trying to cap a well, were suddenly facing a wall of flames as the oil ignited.
From KOTV-TV’s website (links to videos are on this page):
Investigators believe a truck back-fired and ignited the oil, causing an explosion and fire with flames that shot 60-feet into the air.
News On 6 was told that one person who jumped from the derrick died. Another person was taken by medical helicopter to a Tulsa hospital with burns. A third person was taken by ambulance to a Tulsa hospital, also with burns. A fourth person was treated at the scene for minor burns.
Matt Skinner with the Oklahoma Corporation Commission says his agency has an office in Bristow and was the first agency on the scene with investigative authority.
Skinner says the Corporation Commission investigation found no lasting environmental problems and that no issues with equipment were discovered.
This is the new safety video released by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board about the 2006 explosion in Danvers, MA at CAI ink manufacturing facility. Below is the press release from Monday:
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) today released a comprehensive safety video on the massive explosion which shook Danvers, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, on November 22, 2006.
The video, entitled “Blast Wave in Danvers,” is based on an 18-month CSB investigation into the accident at the CAI ink manufacturing facility, completed in May 2008. It is available for viewing and downloading at the Video Room of the CSB’s website, safetyvideos.gov, as well as on the CSB channel on YouTube (www.youtube.com/uscsb). DVDs can be requested free of charge at www.safetyvideos.gov.
The video features a computer-generated 3-D animation graphically depicting the sequence of events leading to the explosion and the subsequent blast wave that rolled over the Danversport residential area, destroying dozens of homes and businesses and causing extensive damage to many more. The animation shows how the blast blew entire window frames into the bedrooms of sleeping residents, who comment on the experience in the video. Remarkably, only a handful of residents were injured, none seriously.
“The safety video clearly illustrates how the lack of checklists, automatic shutoff systems, process controls, and hazard analyses can lead to a catastrophic chemical accident,” said CSB Chairman John Bresland. “Together with the Massachusetts state and local officials and residents who appeared in the video, we share the hope that this accident and the resulting investigations will pave the way for improved public safety in the future.”
The CSB found, and the video shows, how a critical steam valve used to control the temperature of a 2,000-gallon batch of flammable solvents inside an ink-making process vessel was likely left open inadvertently by a CAI production supervisor. The solvents boiled and flammable vapor escaped from the unsealed process vessel into the facility, which was not ventilated at night when the building was unoccupied. During the overnight hours, hundreds of pounds of flammable vapor were released into the building, eventually reaching an ignition source at 2:46 a.m. on the morning of November 22.
“We hope this video will encourage other communities, officials, and local emergency planning committees to improve awareness of industrial hazards, review the effectiveness of codes and inspections, and minimize the potential for future disasters involving flammable materials close to residential neighborhoods,” Chairman Bresland said.
The 20-minute video expands on a previous version which was shown at a CSB public meeting on May 13, 2008, in Danvers. The new video includes interviews and commentary from James Tutko, Danvers Fire Chief; Wayne Marquis, Danvers Town Manager; Stephen Coan, the Massachusetts State Fire Marshal; State Representative Theodore Speliotis; Michael Powers, member of the Danvers Board of Selectmen; Kenneth Willette, Concord Fire Chief and former president of the Fire Chiefs Association of Massachusetts; and numerous Danvers residents including Susan Tropeano, a current member of the Danvers Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC), whose house was damaged in the blast.
The video also includes commentary by CSB Board Member William E. Wright and CSB investigators who conducted the 18-month probe, discussing the CSB’s findings and recommendations. More information on the CSB investigation of the explosion at CAI Inc. can be found at CSB.gov in the “Completed Investigations” section.
The CSB is an independent federal agency charged with investigating industrial chemical accidents. The agency’s board members are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. CSB investigations look into all aspects of chemical accidents, including physical causes such as equipment failure as well as inadequacies in regulations, industry standards, and safety management systems.
The Board does not issue citations or fines but does make safety recommendations to plants, industry organizations, labor groups, and regulatory agencies such as OSHA and EPA. Visit our website at http://www.csb.gov/.
In 2007 the Fairfax County Professional Fire Fighters & Paramedics – IAFF Local 2068 took top honors in the nation raising $536,000 for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Of course, they are at it again starting tomorrow. Click here and scroll down to read details from Joel Kobersteen, the 2008 Fill the Boot Coordinator.
The video above, about the efforts in Fairfax County, was produced last year by Captain Paul Beardmore.
Montgomery County IAFF Local 1664 has a similar large effort. Click here to read details, including locations where the public can contribute. More from coordinator Donnie Simmons at IAFF Local 1664’s website.
Of course in Prince George’s County, IAFF Local 1619 has its 35th Annual International MDA Softball Tournament at Watkins Regional Park beginning on September 4. Click here to read the press release and click here to read the rich history of this event. (I contend the event peaked the year I got in the dunk tank with Chief Jim Estepp.)
We urge you support all of these efforts.
Burned FF tries to get her job back: Cindy Schuenke made an emotional appeal last night to the people who fire her at the Community Fire Protection District in Overland, MO. Critically burned in a fire in 2006, Schuenke believes she will eventually be able to go back to full duty. Click here for a very compelling story.
Firefighter impersonator?: Starting to hear word of a late night visitor to a Fairfax County firehouse who was found wearing and carrying around property belonging to local firefighters. Police are on the case and are looking for others who may have had contact with this man who failed to become a firefighter when he applied. More as we get it.
Part 4 of Oregon series: Today’s installment from The Oregonian’s editorial board look at the death five-years-ago of Firefighter Shannon Halvorson. Click here for Part 4. Click here for the previous parts. Chief Billy Goldfeder talks about the series on FirefighterCloseCalls.com.
Video roundup: Riding along with an assistant chief in Kentucky. Watching a hotel burn in Quebec. Listening in as a citizen armed with a camera interviews the fire chief of Fresno. An old fire from Shreveport and some history from Fresno and Madison. Plus a floor buffer rodeo. Click here to watch are latest group of videos.
Three with faces for radio: We told you last month about the Internet radio show we did with FireGeezer Bill Schumm and Billy Goldfeder. Now you can hear it for yourself. Click here.
A really cheap trick by Statter: My headline reads “Two new Kentland videos posted on the Internet”. Accurate, but highly misleading. Learn more by clicking here.
Marijuana mystery solved: Police say it was the Newton, MA fire chief’s grandson who left the pot in the police car last week. Click here for the update.
Chief’s job reopens two weeks after it was filled: They are once again looking for a chief in East Hartford, CT after the acting chief turns down the job because he can’t afford the pay cut. Read the story.
Image above is from KTVI-TV. Click here to watch the story about Cindy Schuenke.
“You guys all had your arms around me in the hospital saying you’d take care of her”. That’s what Cindy Schuenke told the board of directors of the Community Fire Protection District in Overland, MO last night. It is the same group that fired the burned firefighter on July 2. No word on whether her appeal will change any minds.
If you are unaware of Cindy Schuenke’s ordeal, click here to see the story Elizabeth Holland did for the St. Louis Dispatch last September. It talks about the battle back from burns that almost killed the firefighter. During the effort to save the mother of another firefighter trapped in a burning house, Schuenke fell through the floor with a basement fire burning below her. Fellow firefighters thought Schuenke was dead.
Here are excerpts from the St. Louis Dispatch report on Cindy Schuenke’s appeal to get her job back:
The board members — Leo Morrow, Dan Doerr and Fran Costello — and board attorney Neil Bruntrager told reporters they could not comment on Schuenke’s status after the meeting with Schuenke and her attorney, Michael Schaller.
Schaller, meanwhile, expressed outrage over the meeting and the reason for it: the board’s decision in July to terminate Schuenke. That decision, Schaller said, was “far too premature.” He said the directors didn’t let him know Tuesday whether Schuenke’s job status would change.
Community’s board met with Schuenke and Schaller due to a grievance against the board alleging that the directors had failed to give Schuenke a hearing, as district policy requires, before terminating her in July.
Schuenke learned she’d been fired in a letter from fire district Chief Fred Cain. “Given the nature and extent of your injuries, it is clear that you are unable to perform the duties required in that position,” the letter said.
Schuenke was fired despite a June 11 letter from her surgeon, Dr. Michael Smock, in which he wrote that Schuenke hadn’t reached a plateau in her recovery and that he believed it would take another year or more for her to reach a point of “maximum medical improvement.”
“I cannot rule out the possibility of Ms. Schuenke returning to work as a firefighter/paramedic,” Smock wrote.
Schaller said that while worker’s comp will continue to cover medical costs for injuries Schuenke suffered in the fire, the termination leaves her without coverage for other medical issues. It also strips her of $50,000 in annual salary and pension and other benefits, he said.
“Here’s somebody who risked her life to try to save the mother of a fire captain in this district and now, two years later, when all the smoke and dust has cleared, they’re going to cut her loose and make her live off Social Security disability, and that’s just not fair,” Schaller said.
In tears after the meeting, Schuenke said her career wasn’t over. “This is what I’ve always wanted to do with my life,” she said. “I’m not done yet.”
Command vehicle ride along in KY
Assistant Chief Jason Long of the Milton Fire & Rescue has been running a camera in his command car, 8502, a Crown Victoria. Long, who also serves as the department’s public affairs officer, began posting the results on YouTube yesterday. It includes radio traffic, mixed in with a little country music playing very softly in the background. Above is Part 1 of a fire from earlier this month. Here’s how it is described on the department’s website:
ON 08-16-2008 AT 09:09a.m., MILTON FIRE & RESCUE WAS DISPATCHED TO 18 MILES RD FOR THE REPORT OF A FULLY ENGULFED TRAILER FIRE. FIRE UNITS ARRIVED ON SCENE AND FOUND THE TRAILER ON FIRE AND PROCEEDED TO EXTINGUISH THE FIRE. FIRE UNITS ON SCENE CONTAINED THE FIRE TO THE FRONT HALF OF THE MOBILE HOME. TWO YOUNG GIRLS RECEIVED INJURIES FROM SMOKE INHALATION AND ONE ALSO HAD A MINOR CUT. PATIENTS WERE TREATED ON SCENE AND RELEASED BACK TO THE MOTHER. THE HOME WAS OWNED BY MARK MULLINS AND WAS BEING RENTED TO CHRISTY TRIGG BOTH FROM BEDFORD KENTUCKY. FIRE WAS DETERMINED TO HAVE STARTED IN A FAULTY WINDOW A/C UNIT. BEDFORD FIRE & RESCUE AND TRIMBLE COUNTY EMS WERE ALSO ASSISTING ON SCENE.
Click here to watch Parts 2, 3 and 4, along with other videos posted by Chief Long.
Century old hotel burns
From Chapeau, Quebec, a fire that started at 3:00 AM on Tuesday at Fred’s hotel and restaurant. It was known for the largest T-bone steaks on Allumette Island. Click here to read more and see a picture from earlier in the fire.
Fire chiefs beware: Citizens armed with cameras
When you are the fire chief of a large department it isn’t just the Dave Statter’s of the world you have to look out for who may be running your way with a camera. Now it can be just about anyone. Fresno Chief Randy Bruegman found that out yesterday when he was confronted by a man who called himself the “Old Geezer” (not to be confused with FireGeezer). While the narration was interesting, the questioning was pretty benign. Something about it reminded me of the Ali G Show.
Speaking of Fresno
Attached to the video with Chief Bruegman as a related video was this interesting find. It is described as an 8-minute trailer for a documentary to be released in 2010 about the 130-year history of the Fresno Fire Department. It has some wonderful archival film mixed in. It is worth watching and listening to for the account of the rookie whose bed kept being thrown down the pole hole.
Another old one from Shreveport
On Tuesday evening, Norm “Doc” Zaffater of signal51group.com posted this 3-alarm school fire from July 15, 1987. Here is what he wrote about the blaze:
This video is of a elementary school which was almost finished with an extensive restoration that was set on fire by an arsonist. It occurred over 20 years ago, but is worth a look back at the firefighting operations that were used back then. Many of the firefighters that fought it went to school there and expressed how difficult it was to see it go up in smoke.
Firefighter Spot has also discovered this wonderful resource for old film and and old and new video. Jason recently posted a 1995 flashover video from Shreveport.
Since we are on the old stuff
This is a compilation of pictures from the 125-year history of the Madison, WI Fire Department.
Fireman funnies
A little floor buffer rodeo action from somewhere.
Got your attention, didn’t I? What, do you think there is only one Kentland? How about Kentland, Indiana? Why should the boys on Landover Road get all the attention?
These are two videos posted Monday from the Kentland (IN) Fire Department. Click on each image to watch the video.
Okay, I admit ahead of time the headline was really a cheap thing to do. Just remember, you looked.
Blowing smoke … I mean Through the Smoke. Getting blogged down with Billy, Bill and Dave.
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The nice pictures on this page that make us all look better than we have a right to look are by our friend Mike Legeros (www.legeros.com).
In a lame attempt to justify STATter 911’s existence on the Internet, I participated in Chief Billy Goldfeder’s Through the Smoke from Radio @ Firehouse.com last month during Firehouse Expo. Joining me is FireGeezer Bill Schumm (the guy in the middle, who may be older, but has the good sense, unlike the other two, to know when to push himself away from the dinner table).
It was actually a lot of fun. My wife, a radio professional, thought that Billy is really good at this stuff (she didn’t say that about me).
Now, for those who weren’t in the audience at the Baltimore Convention Center, here’s your first chance to hear for yourself what makes Bill and Dave tick.
Click here for Through the Smoke: Firefighters and Hot Blogs from Firehouse Expo
Watch what happens at :59 into the video. Here is the caption posted with the video on LiveLeak yesterday about a July 25 fire in Istanbul:
A group of firemen escaped a huge and unexpected blast while they were struggling with the blazes in a fire at a factory in Turkey’s largest city. Two firefighters escaped the explosion with slight burns on their hands and a worker was also slightly injured.
And now there are three: A third woman has come forward saying Boston Fire Department Deputy Fire Chief Peter Pearson posed as a state trooper and raped her. The victims have been described as prostitutes and vulnerable people. Click here for the latest.
Part 3 of Oregon editorial on FF death: Today’s installment of The Oregonian newspaper’s five-part look by its editorial board into the death of Shannon Halvorson is called Cleaning up the mess. Click here to read the paper’s view that firefighters tried to clean up evidence of drinking at a party involving those underage and also used a press release in an attempt to sanitize what happened to the 20-year-old woman.
The paper has also added a video. It includes an interview with Halvorson’s father. Dick Zimmerlee is also responding directly to some of the comments posted with the stories. Click here and here.
To read all parts of the series reviewing the five-year-old case, click here.
Response times questioned in PA: Bloggers making note that the Silver Spring Community Fire Company was having an all-day chicken bar-b-q at the time of a fatal fire has a Harrisburg TV station asking questions about response times. It took 11-minutes for the first engine to respond to the fire that called a 24-year-old man with cerebral palsy. The fire chief says the event had no impact on the fire. Read the story.
Still sparring over the Loudoun response times: The comments keep coming in over the delay in getting help to a man in cardiac arrest. Click here to read the latest.
Mayor backs chief over pot discovery: In a press conference Monday, Newton, MA Mayor David Cohen said he is standing behind his fire chief. Late last week marijuana was found in Chief Joseph LaCroix’s car and an investigation is trying to determine where the pot came from. Read the article. Watch raw video of mayor’s press conference.
Three alarms in VA: Monday afternoon a fire on floor 23 of an apartment building on South George Mason Drive in Bailey’s Crossroads had Fairfax County sounding three alarms. About 200 people were forced out of the high-rise as firefighters went to work. Greg Guise shot a little video after the fire was knocked down. Click here.
Just a little bit of interesting, but useless historical information. The “Bailey” in Bailey’s Crossroads came from the Bailey family that lived there beginning in 1837. The family ran traveling circuses. The Bailey’s eventually merged with the circus run by Phineas T. Barnum and later the Ringling Brothers.
Juniors make the news: A look at how junior members are trained at the Millville VFC in Sussex County, DE. Read the story.
A former junior FF making the news in not such a positive manner … a reminder to change the locks: A month ago FireGeezer had the story of a stolen fire truck in Connecticut. Now some more details about the former cadet accused in the theft and joy ride. Matthew Stevens had been removed from the A.A. Young Jr. Hose & Ladder Co. No. 1 three months before the incident, but he remembered the combination to get into the building. He had apparently been breaking into the building regularly before deciding to go for the ride. Read the details.
Hell hath no fury: Not sure what the man did or is accused of doing to deserve it, but Ocean City, MD fire marshals and police know what the man’s wife did. Barbara Waskey is accused of setting fire to her husband’s Harley Davidson motorcycle. Police arrived first Saturday evening to see Joseph Waskey using a garden hose on the bike. Police brought out fire extinguishers to finish the job. Click here for more details.
Who ya gonna call when there's a kitten in the wall. An international rescue operation for what has become an epidemic (of sorts) in one community.
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Photo from Broward County Sheriff’s Office
It was like déjà vu all over again for me when I saw the article today about firefighters rescuing a kitten from the wall of a Lauderdale Lakes, Florida home. It turned out I wasn’t having bad flashbacks. In fact, since April, Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue has handled two such incidents at homes about 10-blocks apart.
The most recent was Friday and involved an international rescue team. Broward County was joined by visiting firefighters from the Ecuadorian city of Cuenca as they dealt with the meowing coming from the wall of a home at 4431 NW 36th Street. Using a TIC and a stethoscope, firefighters made sure they knew the exact location of the kitten before the wall was cut open (otherwise it could have been very messy and PETA would have been very unhappy). An approximately three-week-old kitten was rescued (see picture above).
You can read more about this rescue, here.
Just one mile away on the next street to the north, 37th Street, firefighters had a similar call in April. In that case a kitten had been in the wall of a home for about three days. They used an open can of tuna to lure the feline to safety. (My father would tell you to use a can of peas. It’s an old joke that if you don’t know or can’t figure out, is probably not worth repeating.)
Picture below is from the Broward Sheriff’s Office of the April incident. Read the press release.
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