Watch 5:00 PM story from 9NEWS NOW

Watch 11:00 PM story from 9NEWS NOW

STATter 911 has learned details of how the Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department is planning to handle the furlough of career firefighters and medics. According to sources familiar with the plan, as many as seven different Prince George’s County fire stations could be without firefighters at various times during any 24-hour period.

Sources familiar with the plan tell STATter 911 the fire department is awaiting final approval from top county officials in Upper Marlboro. County spokesman James Keary says Director of Public Safety and Homeland Security Vernon Herron has not yet received a plan from the fire department.

In a conversation Tuesday evening, after this story was first reported on wusa9.com and 9NEWS NOW, Keary objected to the characterization that any station would not be staffed or would be closed. According to Keary, “there is no plan”, because nothing has been approved by Herron.

Based on recent conversations with career and volunteer officials, and an email sent to volunteers earlier in the process, it is clear the plan proposed by Prince George’s County Fire & EMS Chief Lawrence Sedgwick Jr. and his staff would completely strip some stations of career firefighters for 8-hours at a time. The sources have asked not to be identified because they are not authorized to speak for the department on this issue.

Public Safety Director Herron has said previously, and spokesman Keary reiterated, that the safety of citizens will not be impacted by the furloughs. The sources familiar with the current proposal said having fire stations that aren’t staffed will increase the department’s response times to some emergencies.

According to the sources, the department’s plan as of Tuesday afternoon, calls for keeping current staffing levels at all stations from 3:00 PM to 11:00 PM, because of the higher volume of calls during that time period. Career firefighters and medics would be furloughed only during the daytime (7:00 AM to 3:00 PM) and overnight periods (11:00 PM to 7:00 AM).

The furloughs would rotate through each of the 44 fire stations in Prince George’s County until at least June, 2009. Under the plan, at any one time, it is likely that no more than three or four stations currently with career staffing would be without those firefighters. Up to seven stations could be impacted during any one 24-hour period. The sources tell STATter 911 the department will spread the furloughs out geographically, to avoid stripping resources from any one area.

The furloughs for the fire department could begin as early as this Sunday. To meet contracted minimum staffing requirements, and for bookkeeping purposes, the plan is to remove entire crews from the stations during the eight-hour furlough periods.

Unless volunteer firefighters fill the gaps, those stations will effectively be closed. Not all stations have volunteer staffing and the volunteers are also being used to fill shifts due to overtime cut backs.

Career and volunteer sources tell STATter 911 they likely won’t know with certainty what volunteer resources will be available until the beginning of a shift.

The fire department has approximately 720 career firefighters and medics and about 80 civilian employees. Firefighters and medics assigned to office duty will be used to cover for some furloughed positions.

On September 18, Volunteer Major James McClelland sent an email to volunteers providing an overview of the furlough plan. The details are very similar to what county sources told STATter 911 on Tuesday. Here is what Major McClelland wrote:

Furlough Plan

1. Daywork stations will be furloughed for 8 hours once a month. This means for one shift per month you will not have staffing.

2. Shiftwork stations will be furloughed for 8 hours once a month for each specific shift (A thru D). This means that shift stations will not have staffing for 4 eight hour blocks per month. The eight hour blocks will be either the first 8 hours or the last 8 hours of the respective shift. Clearly this makes a difference, as to whether some stations will be able to fill the void with volunteer staffing.

3. Office staff may be utilized to help fill-in some gaps, but the feeling is that the office operations must still go on.

4. Stations that have 2 persons on daywork and 2 people on shift will use the shift work plan by assigning the 2 daywork personnel to one of the shifts for the purpose of the furlough. On other furlough days the two may be supplemented with office personnel or detailed out to avoid having just 2 personnel working.

5. For stations with a large first due or where a large service gap will occur, when that station is out of service another unit may be transferred in, leaving your station empty again.

The Prince George’s County Council approved the two week furloughs for all county employees to help bridge a $57 million budget shortfall. A coalition of five unions — including firefighters — is suing the county over the furloughs.

When asked for comment, Prince George’s County Fire & EMS Department Chief Spokesman Mark Brady said the furlough plans have been sent for review and have not been finalized.

Photo by Connie Perhach for the Chillicothe Gazette

Watch interview with mayor

Both FireGeezer.com and FirefightingNews.com have the story this morning of Mayor Chuck Taylor being led away in handcuffs from a fire in his town of Circleville, Ohio. Above, is a TV interview with the mayor and helicopter video of the fire.

Below, is an article from the Chillicothe Gazette:

Circleville Mayor Chuck Taylor was arrested while at the scene of Monday’s fire at the former American Hotel building.

Taylor won 43 percent of the vote in a four-way race last year and was sworn in January.

Catching up: My blogging output was a bit limited over the last week or so, while I was traveling. Now home, I am trying to play a little catch up.

On this page is some of today’s news, plus a compilation of things that piled up while attending a cousin’s wedding and doing a bit of touring in Southern California. In honor of the wedding, the material below is old, new, borrowed (possibly outright stolen) and blue (actually, much to my disappointment we have been ordered not to do blue material here at STATter 911).

See how I couldn’t escape fire & EMS by heading to higher ground.

New Zealand report: Pictures, videos, links to articles and the 155-page report into the April explosion and fire that took the life of a firefighter and injured seven others. Click here.

One council member ready to give Charleston job to Carr: As the seven finalists are still meeting and greeting in Charleston, Mayor Joseph Riley continues to claim there is no front runner for the chief’s job. But that message hasn’t gotten through to one council member. Click here for the Post & Courier story.

NAHB says fire officials lacked perspective: The National Association of Home Builders is a bit miffed that so many fire officials left after Sunday’s sprinkler vote. Read what they have to say.

Chief says radio system during Coupon fire was no bargain: A little dispute is brewing after fire destroyed a Coupon, PA church on Sunday, just short of its 100th birthday. The fire has the Ashville fire chief and the executive director of Cambria County Department of Emergency Services exchanging charges over whether a new radio system operated properly. The chief says the radios endangered firefighters when a chimney collapsed. Read the details.

The show must go on: I wasn’t much of a disc jockey, but I did that job early in my broadcasting career. Read how one of my radio experiences was similar to one caught on video of a DJ in Greece.

Former pro football player, current firefighter, hospitalized: 61-year-old Margene Adkins was a member of the 1971 Dallas Cowboy’s Super Bowl championship team. Adkins was also a Saint and a Jet. Now he is a firefighter with Lockheed Martin and suffered exhaustion at an apartment fire in White Settlement, TX. Read more.

Notes (and pictures) from underground: While he isn’t a Dostoevsky, Vito Maggiolo takes us deep into the under belly of The Nation’s Capital. Actually it is just a burning manhole or two. Read more here and here.

Smoke takes down shotgun wielding homeowner: FireGeezer has pictures and the story as firefighters in Tampa faced more than just flames yesterday morning. Here’s the story.

Read entire 155-page report

Click here to see a series of videos from the fire posted to YouTube

The New Zealand Fire Service Commission’s report into the April 5 explosion and fire that killed one firefighter and seriously injured seven others was released today. Senior Station Officer Derek Lovell was killed during the incident at the Icepak Coolstore in Tamahere. Firefighter Merv Neill remains hospitalized with burns over 71% of his body.

According to a press release about the report, “the explosion and fire was almost certainly caused by a leak of flammable refrigerant ignited by an electrical event, when the firefighters were in the plant room”.

A multi-gas detector on the first fire truck was away for servicing at the time of the call. Despite that, according to the release, the report did not find great fault with the New Zealand Fire Service:

Based on the information available at the time, the NZ Fire Service was adequately prepared for this incident. Operational instructions were in place and were followed. The only possible exception was that firefighters who enter a building where the atmosphere is potentially irrespirable should wear and use breathing apparatus; in this instance, it is not certain whether the firefighters had turned on their breathing apparatus. However, whether or not they had done so did not affect the outcome of the incident in this case.

Had the firefighters suspected a flammable atmosphere to be present, their training would have required them to withdraw at once.

Report caption: The fire as confronted by Pukete 431 when the appliance halted – 12 minutes after the explosion (Photo by Phillipa Stevenson.)

The firefighters had responded to the facility for a sounding smoke alarm. The report found the first arriving crews had no indication they were dealing with a gas leak until they entered a plant room where they apparently saw, but could not smell, leaking refrigerant. Within two-minutes the large explosion occurred, trapping some of the firefighters.

The report confirms fire officials did not know the facility was using propane as the refrigerant. Here are excerpts from the Waikato Times story:

The report debunks the theory firefighters unwittingly caused the fire by banging down a door, sparking the fire.

In the 155-page document investigators were unable to determine whether the Icepak facility complied with rules to do with the use of flammable refrigerants.

Investigators found that the fundamental cause of the incident may lie in part in “systemic defects” in the regulatory environment. They said the issue of fire safety regulations needed more investigation by the Government.

The report has high praise for the driver/operators of the two fire trucks that initially responded. Both firefighters were injured in the blast. Here are excerpts from an article at stuff.co.nz:

“In spite of having burn injuries, the driver of (appliance) 411 quickly assessed the situation and started to send priority and assistance messages, that followed best practice,” the report said.

“Despite this, for over 20 minutes he instinctively acted to operate the pump, alert rescuers to the advancing fire, collect equipment, and even direct the second alarm appliances.

Report caption: Aerial photograph from the east showing extent of fire spread at 17:55. The fence of the dwelling at 34 Devine Road, bottom left, is just starting to burn. Chartwell 427 in the foreground has been brought around to start a defence on the house. On the right, the roof of the forklift area has just caught fire. Throughout the incident smoke tended to rise straight up and disperse, minimising any airborne contamination in the locality. (Photo by Christine Cornege, Waikato Times.)

This video from a radio station in Athens, Greece is something I can relate to. In 1974, I was the mid-day disc jockey at WSMD AM-FM in La Plata, MD. The radio station, a little house with a half-dozen or so rooms, was located on Dump Road. Believe me, the setting lived up to its billing.

The morning jock was Steve Prentice (later known as Steve “More Music” Michaels). Steve smoked. I didn’t.

I had a habit of emptying the overflowing ash trays into the trash can that sat under the control board. I usually waited until well into my shift to dump the ash trays, in an effort to make sure everything had cooled off. Apparently one day I didn’t wait long enough.

In the middle of a newscast I began to smell smoke. I kept looking around as I was reading, but couldn’t see anything. It wasn’t long before smoke started pushing up under and through the board. I quickly went to a commercial or public service announcement (whatever was in the cart machine) and grabbed the trash can. With flames shooting out the top (oh, the humanity) I carried it out to the reception area, placed it on the floor and asked receptionist Joyce Berkebile, “Can you handle this?”.

I, of course, had about seven-seconds to get back in the studio before the cart ended. Yes, let the radio station burn down, but just make sure there is no dead air.

Joyce calmly took a coffee pot or two full of water and extinguished the inferno of wire copy and I sat down just in time to read the weather forecast.

My travels over the last week sent me to Southern California. We stayed in Santa Monica for a few days to attend a cousin’s wedding and the assorted celebrations.

The picture above is from the Ferris wheel at the Santa Monica Pier. Here it is a wonderful afternoon. The weather is gorgeous. My family is by my side. The Ferris wheel operator is giving us a few extra spins due to the very small crowd. The view looking north toward Malibu is absolutely spectacular.

Despite the beauty all around me, what is it that I notice?

How about that red vehicle with the white top in the center of the picture above?

Of course, I can’t get down fast enough to check out the paramedic squad that had driven onto the pier and, as a bonus, Truck 1 parked beside the pier. They had responded for a man who appeared to be having trouble breathing.

On Sunday morning, after the wedding, I woke up to the sounds of LAFD handling a building fire. Listening as the commander made the decision to go defensive on the fire in the printing company near Glendale, I briefly contemplated heading in that direction. Two obstacles were in my way. There was the 50-mile round-trip that would have made us late for our post-wedding brunch. More importantly, Mrs. STATter 911 already had the car. So you will have to settle for the pictures like the one below from LAFD and this account from LAFD’s d’Lisa Davies.

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) is critical of the singular focus on sprinklers shown by many who attended the International Code Council’s final action hearing in Minneapolis. Here are some excerpts from an article published today in Nation’s Building News, described as the official online weekly newspaper of NAHB:

Fire sprinkler mandates will be part of the 2009 International Residential Code and will be required in all one- and two-family homes and townhouses that build to the code as of Jan. 1, 2011.

The sudden – and controversial – arrival on Saturday of 900 fire officials eligible to vote at the International Code Council‘s final action hearings in Minneapolis swelled the number of sprinkler proponents and the measure was approved by a vote of 1,283 to 470 on Sunday morning.

NAHB had identified several concerns over residential fire sprinkler systems – among them, questioning whether most home owners are prepared to perform the maintenance required to ensure that the sprinklers remain operational.

Excerpts from a press release from the International Residential Code Fire Sprinkler Coalition:

Voting members of the leading building code body in the nation, the International Code Council (ICC), overwhelmingly supported a residential fire sprinkler requirement for all new one- and two-family homes and townhouses.

Fire service and building code officials united to approve the requirement and countered opposition. The code proposal, RB64, easily overcame a procedural requirement that mandated a super-majority of two-thirds approval. This represents an unprecedented step forward in advancing home fire safety in the United States.

The vote, held today in Minneapolis, was supported by 73 percent of the voting members in attendance.

The IRC Fire Sprinkler Coalition, an association of more than 100 fire service, building code official, and safety organizations representing 45 states, assumed a leadership position and secured unified support for this issue over the past 18 months.

“Our team worked hard to rally support throughout the United States for a residential fire sprinkler requirement, but our supporters deserve the recognition for showing up en masse in Minneapolis,” said Ronny J. Coleman, president of the IRC Fire Sprinkler Coalition. “They know from experience that sprinklers are the answer to the nation’s fire problem.”

Kaaren Mann, a fire safety advocate and the mother of a fire victim stated in her testimony, “the cost to put sprinklers into the home where my daughter died would have been less than what I had to pay for the flowers at her funeral.”

The sprinkler mandate will first appear in the 2009 International Residential Code(R) (IRC), which will be published by the end of the year. Forty-six states use the IRC as the basis of regulating new home construction.

Excerpts from a press release from the National Association of Home Builders last Wednesday:

As members of the International Code Council (ICC) prepare to vote on proposed changes to model building codes, Habitat for Humanity International and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) urge these members not to mandate fire sprinklers for all new homes.

Elizabeth Blake, senior vice president of advocacy, government affairs and legal with Habitat for Humanity echoed this concern, “Our affiliates build all across the country and around the world. Mandating fire sprinklers fails to recognize their varying needs, and runs the risk of requiring something that may be impractical for some of our partner families.”

Chief Peter Skerry from Brookline web site

In Brookline, MA, Chief Peter Skerry recently had to do some dancing trying to hold on to what he’s got. For Skerry one of the most important thing he has is minimum staffing of four firefighters. A pretty extensive article by Andreae Downs in The Boston Globe shows the chief trying to justify something that not all of his neighbors have. This is very likely an exercise, in one form or another, going on with departments around the country. Here are excerpts as Downs describes watching Chief Skerry testify before the Public Safety Subcommittee:

Possibly the most controversial Fire Department issue was minimum manning. Brookline has four firefighters for each pumper and ladder truck while other Massachusetts municipalities use as few as three. The town has a total of seven pumpers and trucks.

In 2007, Skerry said, the department responded to five multi-alarm fires. So far this year there have been two.

From jpost.com

The battle over beards in DC Fire & EMS Department has been fought a number of times and should be back in court next month as the city appeals the most recent decision. Among those who took the city to court to keep his beard on religious grounds is Steve Chasin. Chasin’s story is featured on The Jerusalem Post website today (and it has generated quite a few comments). Here are excerpts:

“I’m not the perfect Jew,” is how Chasin, a 40-year-old Fire Department paramedic from Virginia, puts it. But he has always strongly identified as one, and used outward symbols to reinforce the point, including the Star of David pendant that hangs around his neck and the full, brown beard that has graced his face for the past two decades.

“You cannot have facial hair and expect to have a quality seal on your facemask,” says DC Fire and EMS Department spokesman Alan Etter. “We’re certainly not trying to suppress anyone’s right to express themselves religiously. We have to keep people safe.”

In early September, after Hurricane Gustav came through, someone started a thread in the Firefighter Forums of Firehouse.com that hit very close to home for me. It was about TV news people doing what we have seen them do so often, reporting live from the middle of hurricanes as the wind blows them sideways.

In the Firehouse.com forum, those writing had questions about safety and about the sanity of the people doing this. Legitimate questions. It isn’t just firefighters who have been critical of the way the news media handles storm coverage, the story above is from Friday’s CBS Evening News.

On STATter 911, we are regularly bringing you stories where people are critical of work done by firefighters and EMS crews. While the subject matter of our forum isn’t normally the news media, in the interest of fairness, I want to give you a chance to have at us. Particularly since someone has already pointed out to me, toward the end of the CBS story by Steve Hartman, there is a quick shot of one of those idiots not smart enough to come in out of the rain who looks very familiar.

As for my own views on this type of news coverage, I probably come down somewhere in the middle of the arguments. I will almost always advocate getting access to cover a story. Reporters put themselves in harms way all over the world to get the story and try to bring that story to the public.

That said, I will agree it is a lot more noble standing beside troops in a war zone than trying to keep your feet planted on the beach as the wind blows.

I covered my first storm for TV in 1985 and have been live or on tape standing in the middle of a hurricane or nor’easter many times since. I would agree in many cases this type of news coverage has evolved from getting important information to the public (something that many times can only be done from the scene) to “look at me”.

In fact, I have recently started calling this the “look at me era” or “look at me generation”. The evidence of it might be something as simple as a group of young people at a bar or restaurant holding their digital cameras at arms length taking picture after picture of themselves throughout the evening. Just how many of those pictures do you really need?

Then just look at some of the YouTube firefighter videos we post on STATter 911. While some of them can be viewed as legitimate for training, how many of the clips show nothing more than “look at me ride the fire truck” or “look at me climb the ladder”? (Maybe I am just jealous this stuff wasn’t around to show me riding fire trucks 30-years-ago.)

The technology is wonderful. But all of us, including the news media, should constantly evaluate how we use that technology. Are we using it to relay important information and to increase knowledge, or are we doing it solely for ego gratification?

Have at me.

Charleston press release announcing finalists for chief’s position

As we told you earlier in the week, today is the day for the announcement of the seven finalists for the fire chief’s job in Charleston, SC. Here are the names released this afternoon:

Richard Brannon , Deputy Chief of Operations, Mobile (AL) Fire-Rescue Department

Thomas Carr, Chief, Montgomery County (MD) Fire and Rescue Service

Larry Collins, Director and Chief (Ret.), Dayton (OH) Fire Department

Jamie Geer, Chief, Clearwater (FL) Fire and Rescue

William Goodwin, Chief (Ret.) Baltimore (MD) Fire Department

John Rukavina, Director of Public Safety (Ret.), Wake County (NC)

Thomas Solberg, Chief, Lee’s Summit (MO) Fire Department

Not having any real inside information on the process, here are a few things to keep in mind if you are trying to handicap this race.

Montgomery’s Chief Carr already has a fairly well established relationship with the folks in Charleston. Carr opened up his department’s Command Development Center to the Charleston Fire Department after the Sofa Super Store tragedy. Much of Charleston’s command staff, including former Chief Rusty Thomas, made the trip to Rockville, MD. Chief Carr’s PIO, Pete Piringer is part of the group that wrote the report on the fire and has been advising Mayor Riley on the future of the department.

A number of reports from Charleston have indicated a much better relationship between the IAFF and Mayor Riley since the spring. Among other signs, you may recall IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger issued a May press release praising Riley after the mayor reversed himself on ordering a much criticized delay on the release of the report looking at the Sofa Super Store fire.

The reason I write this is that it wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine the IAFF having problems with some of the candidates and letting the objections be known to the mayor. I have no clue how that will fit in to Mayor Riley’s selection process.

We know that battling the union is something that can go with the territory when you are a fire chief. At least two of the candidates have had very serious public disputes with their IAFF locals. Chief Geer is one of them. The IAFF in Florida voted in June to boycott Clearwater, urging firefighters not to vacation in the city. The St. Petersburg Times, two years ago, wrote an editorial giving an outsider’s view of these problems, finding fault with the chief and the union. Note: I originally and inadvertently wrote this article was from two weeks ago instead of two year ago.

Baltimore’s former chief, William Goodwin, has another factor to contend with. One of the big issues behind IAFF’s problems with Chief Goodwin was the LODD of a recruit during a training fire in an abandoned row house. That could prove to be just a little too much baggage in a city that just rid itself of a fire chief who was loudly criticized over the deaths of nine firefighters.

All of the finalists are expected in Charleston on Monday and Tuesday for a giant meet and greet, along with formal interviews.

Picture of the day: This is not how Halifax firefighters expected to see their new fire boat. It was during a check ride Wednesday morning that the 28-foot vessel flipped over in what is being described as calm water. The good news, possibly, is that the representatives from the manufacturer and the supplier were on board when it happened. Five firefighters were also along for the ride. Only minor injuries reported. The picture is by Tim Krochak at the Chronicle Herald, where you can read more details.

Union president and chief’s stories are at odds over firehouse cutting: The chief says it was horseplay and that the victim doesn’t want to press charges. The EMS union president says it wasn’t horseplay and the victim, his union member, is going to swear out a warrant against the fire lieutenant who cut him. Read the latest on the incident at DC’s Engine 5.

Montgomery County, MD chief among those mentioned in Charleston: Did Post & Courier reporter Ron Menchaca’s fishing expedition trying to find out who the seven finalists are for the fire chief’s job nab the big one, or will they all have to be thrown back? We should learn the answer Friday from Charleston Mayor Joe Riley. That’s when the mayor is expected to announce the names of the finalists he will interview. Among those Menchaca’s sources say are possible finalists are Montgomery County, MD Chief Tom Carr and Clearwater, FL chief Jamie Geer. To get those names, and a few others, Menchaca reports he was burning up the phone lines talking to chiefs and deputy chiefs in about two dozen cities. Those cities were in six states cited by Menchaca’s sources as being the current locations of the finalists. They are Florida, North Carolina, Maryland, Alabama, Missouri and Ohio. Read the story.

London’s black cabs are pulled because of fires: For the eighth time in three months the engine of a specific type taxi used in London has caught fire. All TX4-type with a 56 registration have been ordered off the streets for inspections. Click here.

DC fire officials insist there is nothing more to the stabbing at the Georgetown firehouse Tuesday night than “negligent horseplay”. Now, Kenneth Lyons, president of the union representing civilian EMS workers in the District of Columbia tells STATter 911 he isn’t buying the official explanation of the incident that was outlined in a statement by DC Fire & EMS Department Chief Dennis Rubin.

Lyons identifies the injured man as Ed McLaughlin, an 18-year member of the department, who is currently an EMT-Advanced. Lyons says McLaughlin was not participating in horseplay before or after Lt. Lawrence Clark pulled out a knife. Clark was at the quarters of Engine 5 to pick up his gear for an overtime shift at Truck 5, stationed at the Palisades firehouse.

Whatever the motive, no one disputes that it was Clark who was swinging the knife in McLaughlin’s direction on the front ramp of the station. McLaughlin needed ten stitches to close a wound on the top of one of his hands.

DC Fire & EMS Department spokesman Alan Etter said that McLaughlin did not wish to press charges and that police did not arrest Lt. Clark. Lyons claims that McLaughlin is likely to swear out a warrant for assault on Friday.

Lyons is upset over what he says was a delay by Lt. Clark’s bosses in placing Clark on administrative leave. According to Lyons, Clark was still working at Truck 5 for a few hours after the incident.

In Wednesday’s statement Chief Rubin wrote, “two of our employees were involved in what has been characterized at this point as ‘negligent horseplay’ by investigating law enforcement”. He continued, “One of the employees, both of whom were on-duty, brandished a small knife and in the course of this ‘playing around’, cut the other individual across the hand”.

According to Lyons, Ed McLaughlin told both the battalion chief and deputy chief who initially looked into the incident there was no horseplay.

Contacted Wednesday evening, department officials stood by the statement issued earlier in the day.

An incident Tuesday evening at DC Fire & EMS Department’s Engine 5 in Georgetown is the subject of an internal investigation after a civilian EMS worker was sent to the hospital for a laceration. Ten stitches were required to close the wound in the man’s hand after he was cut by a by a knife wielding fire lieutenant.

According to officials with the department, the two employees were “roughhousing” or “play fighting” in front of the firehouse when the firefighter pulled a knife with a blade approximately four-inches long. The officials believe the lieutenant meant it as a joke, but instead accidentally slashed the EMS worker across the top of his hand.

Police were called, but according to spokesman Alan Etter, the injured worker declined to press charges. The lieutenant is now on administrative leave while a department investigation continues.

In a statement, Chief Dennis Rubin wrote “this behavior is not acceptable by this department and will not be tolerated”. Rubin added, “It is important that the public understand that this sort of behavior is not condoned in our department, and anyone who engages in it will be dealt with severely”.

Picture of the day: From Tim Cavender, Cherokee County (GA) Fire & Emergency Services, of house fire that forced a couple to jump from the roof. Both were burned and neighbors reported hearing a loud explosion. Click here for more from AJC.com.

Competitive bidding, NJ style: An interesting article in the Burlington County Times about a New Jersey State Commission of Investigation report looking at how fire trucks are bought in the state. While the report is very critical of local fire districts in NJ (and names names), you will likely find practices that aren’t exclusive to the Garden State. The best part of this story is reading FireGeezer’s brief, but biting remarks on the subject.

But don’t just take a cynical old fire dog’s view on this topic, read the report yourself. Click here for the report Alarming Contracts -Fixed Bids, Conflicts of Interest, Big $ and Lax Transparency in the Purchase of Fire Trucks in New Jersey.

“We unions don’t forget”: That was the message to the Prince George’s County Council yesterday as unions representing county workers packed a hearing on County Executive Jack Johnson’s plan to cut two weeks pay from everyone in an effort to balance the budget. Watch the story.

Things are a little more amicable in Baltimore County: They are dealing with belt tightening in Towson. There, the union and the fire chief issued a joint statement about working together on the issue. So far, the plan is to cut OT by using headquarters personnel. Click here to watch the story from WJZ-TV.

Loudoun County report: On a plane ride last night I was able to read about half of the 210-page report into the May 25 fire on Meadowood Court. A couple of quick thoughts from what I have read so far.

To me the report makes very clear this was not one of those firegrounds where it seems everything went wrong. Besides finding some pretty clear issues that, taken together, might have prevented the injuries, it lists a whole bunch of things that worked well on the fireground. Particularly how these four firefighters were able to use their training to get themselves out of a very tough spot.

When this fire occurred a lot of people related it to the death of FF Kyle Wilson in Prince William County. There are certainly some similar issues. What I see, despite the difference in the structure, is a situation very similar to what four DC firefighters found themselves in last October, where an unchecked fire on the floor below suddenly took off and cut off a safe means of egress.

Read the report.

Expect the unexpected: A tragic situation in Galt, CA where a mother and child were killed. They were among seven people sleeping a warehouse that caught fire. Not normally a place where you would think the life hazard was that high in the middle of the night. Read the story.

From Galt, CA to the Galt Corporation: The name Galt is surfacing in another deadly fire. This time it is the John Galt Corporation. More about the firm’s past is coming to light, as is what New York officials knew before Galt was hired to help dismantle the Deutsche Bank Building. Of course, that’s where two FDNY firefighters died during a blaze last year. The city is pointing fingers at the state. Interesting reading from the New York Times.

High-rise sprinkler plan in NJ is dead: The Sierra Club is joining firefighters in strongly blasting the decision to drop the proposal. The environmental group says one of the people who made the decision to go for cost over safety should have to live in a high-rise without sprinklers. Read more.

Just a note to say I will be traveling a bit this week and my postings may be less frequent than normal. I know that will likely be a relief for some.

Don’t forget to check out our blogging and web colleagues including FireGeezer.com, FirefighterCloseCalls.com, Firefighter Spot, TheHouseWatch.com, Firefighter Nation, FireSpecialOps.com, Firehouse.com, FireRescue1.com, SConFire.com and VAFireNews.com.

And don’t forget FireNews.net (I did, in my haste to write something before boarding a plane).

Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service Chief Tom Carr is holding a 1:00 PM news conference to announce the arrest of a serial arsonist. A 21-year-old man from Silver Spring has been charged with setting fire last week to a portable classroom at the Woodlin Elementary School on Luzerne Avenue.

Investigators say the man is also involved in a series of car and dumpster fires in the area and are continuing the investigation into other open cases.

The fire at Woodlin school on the night of September 8 caused $70,000 in damages. Investigators reported that the fire began in a dumpster and spread to the temporary classroom used for music education.

Two weeks without pay in Prince George’s County: That’s Prince George’s County Executive Jack Johnson’s plan he’s taking to the county council today. It will effect all full-time employees including firefighters. As we had reported previously, part of the plan in the fire department is to try and get volunteers to take up the slack. Click here to read Jack Johnson’s letter to employees.

The Washington Post takes a look at the plan. Here are a couple of relevant quotes:

“If a citizen calls 911 for police or fire, they will respond as expeditiously as they have in the past,” said Vernon Herron, the county’s public safety director.

“There is no way you can send people home on furloughs and say it’s not going to have an impact,” said Doug “Bart” Bartholomew, president of the professional firefighters union. He called the proposal “a calculated risk with people’s lives.”

No change in status of PGFD official involved in FBI raid: When we checked on Monday there was no indication of any change in job status for Lt. Col. Karl Granzow of the Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department. We are starting to get quite a few comments about the story. Click here to join in.

In today’s Washington Post article they picked up on a few of the tidbits we had Sunday and added a few new ones themselves.

Rescue me: The next time you are at a fire where a civilian is in danger, you may want to take your own pulse. An Indiana University study did just that. Here are excerpts from the chicagotribune.com

At one fire, in which firefighters worked to rescue a mother and three children trapped in a burning house, five firefighters had heart rates at or above their predicted maximum for more than 30 minutes, project leader Jim Brown said.

“If I hadn’t seen the data myself, I would have a hard time — as a physiologist — believing it was true,” Brown said.

A feast while a man dies: An unusual EMS story, to say the least, from the UK. Click here.

Union says two guys are getting paid too much: You may recall the cheating scandal in Orlando. Two chiefs are now lieutenants because of it. Now the union says the pair makes too much money and it sends the wrong message. Read more.

Loudoun County, VA report: If you haven’t had a chance to look at it, the Loudoun County, VA report into the Mayday and injuries at a house fire May 25 is available online. Click here to read the report.

He may be Greedy, but he is also accused of being insensitive. Clive Greedy photo from The Daily Mail.

We have taken a number of looks recently at how difficult it can be to fire public safety employees in some cities and counties around the US even though the employee may have done some pretty outrageous things. It appears they look at it all a bit differently in the UK.

I bet it doesn’t say specifically in any employee manual that an EMS worker can’t munch on celery from the kitchen of a man being resuscitated. I also am pretty sure you won’t find it written down that you shouldn’t take a prawn and put it on the dying man’s chin to see if it will cook when you put the paddles to him.

Both Clive Greedy, the celery man, and John Jones, the prawn guy, were fired from an Isle of Wight ambulance service. Jones was gone right away. It took a little longer to decide to fire Greedy, but it held up through the appeals process.

Now Greedy has been trying to hold on to his certification. This is how some of the testimony went before the Health Professions Council (HPC) from Darren Claydon, an emergency care practitioner who witnessed the events. It is from a BBC News article:

“John Jones took my attention away from the monitor by jesting with a prawn that he had taken from a sink, in a colander, and said ‘Does anybody want a prawn?’ and held it out and gestured with it.”

Asked how he had felt about the incident, he said: “Disbelief, and feeling very uncomfortable about the situation. I said ‘How can you behave like this, what if the wife comes in?’.”

In the end, HPC gave Greedy a six-month suspension.

Letter to Prince George’s County employees from County Executive Jack Johnson

Prince George’s County Executive Jack Johnson is announcing plans at this hour for an 80-hour furlough effecting all full-time employees. This includes public safety and the Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department. Johnson has sent an email to all county employees outlining the plan he is sending to the Prince George’s County Council.

The county had hoped to have firefighters and EMS personnel use their furlough hours while they are on leave. Union officials say they will fight that plan.

As STATter 911 previously reported, a plan to increase volunteer coverage to reduce overtime costs is also expected to be used, where possible, to provide staffing of emergency equipment when career firefighters are off due to furloughs.

Watch story and listen to the 911 call

There was heavy breathing and then whimpering on the other end of the line, but 911 operators in Scottsdale, Arizona knew exactly who was calling. It was the third time that Buddy has called 911 and none were false alarms. Buddy is an 18-month-old German Shepherd.

Buddy doesn’t have to run for help like Lassie did when Timmy got into trouble. He just goes to the phone. He was trained to do this by his owner Joe Stalnaker. Stalnaker suffers seizures due to an injury he received in the military. Stalnaker feels if it wasn’t for Buddy, he’d be forced to move to a group home.

Here’s more from KPNX-TV:

An amazing story out of Scottsdale this week. On September 10th, 9-1-1 operator Chris Trott received a call from a dog.

Joe found his best friend thru a program called “Paws with a Cause.” An agency which offers assistance animals for adoption. Joe has had “Buddy” since he was eight weeks old.

Loudoun County, VA report: I haven’t had a chance to read it, but you can. Click here to see the full 210-page report on the May 25 fire that injured seven.

Top fire department official’s home and office targeted by FBI: Lt. Col. Karl Granzow Jr. is not the highest ranking or best known official who had his office and/or home raided on Saturday in Prince George’s County, MD, but he may be the most interesting. Granzow, a former firefighters union president, has been politically active for quite a while. Now a number of Granzow’s friends, family and business associates (some fit all three categories), like Granzow, have been visited by the FBI. It really isn’t clear what the FBI is going after other than deals surrounding a big development planned just inside the Beltway near Greenbelt. There are quite a few fire department connections to the story including a former council member who has been working for PGFD in a capacity that hasn’t been completely explained. Click here to read the fine print.

Good collapse video: Good, because no one was hurt. Also, very visual. Click here for the video form Philadelphia.

Tucson injuries double the state average: That’s for both police and fire departments. Read more.

A real fire house: Budget cuts forced one Florida town to abandon the idea of building a new fire station. Now a house has a fire engine parked in the driveway and firefighters sleeping inside. Read the details.

Prince George’s County photo of Lt. Col. Karl Granzow Jr.

STATter 911 has learned the home and office of Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department Lt. Col. Karl Granzow Jr. was searched by agents with the FBI. It was part of a series of raids conducted Saturday targeting the work places and homes of county officials, developers and others in an effort to uncover information about an investigation that appears to be centering on development and political influence in the county.

The Washington Post first reported some details about the raids on Sunday, including that a building housing fire department offices was targeted. Numerous sources familiar with the actions on Saturday tell STATter 911 the search warrant served at fire department headquarters was specifically for the fourth floor office occupied by Col. Granzow. Granzow’s Bowie home was also entered by a team of agents.

According to the sources, agents also gathered evidence from computers inside the Office of Information Technology in the same building at 9201 Basil Court in Largo. The office operates computer systems for county government.

Karl Granzow, reached by phone, referred all comments to the public information officer for the department. Chief Spokesman Mark Brady tells STATter 911 he is unable to comment on the developments. Granzow runs the department’s management services command, which includes fiscal affairs, fleet management, human resources, information technologies and occupational safety and health.

Sources familiar with the search warrants tell STATter 911 the information being gathered by agents is connected to lobbying, campaign finance and building construction projects. STATter 911 has no information to indicate criminal charges have been filed against any individuals mentioned in this story. Grand jury subpoenas have also been issued in the investigation.

According to sources, the home of developer Patrick Ricker was also searched. Ricker and Granzow have been long time associates. Granzow’s brother, Bernard, is married to Ricker’s daughter. Sources say their home was also searched.

The Post reports, and other sources confirm, a large development near the Greenbelt Metro station is part of the investigation. The project is called Greenbelt Station and is located on the old A.H. Smith Jr. property, a sand and gravel operation. The land is just inside the Capital Beltway, east of the CSX railroad tracks and north of Greenbelt Road.

Ricker and Daniel Colton have been involved in the project. According to The Post, Daniel Colton had served time in prison for bank fraud.

Sources say there had previously been concern within county government about Karl Granzow’s ownership of a small percentage of a firm connected to the development of the property. According to the sources, Granzow had properly disclosed his interest and his involvement was approved by ethics officials in the county.

One part of the development was to include a new fire station.

According to the sources, others connected to Saturday’s raids include lobbyist Michael Arrington, Office of Finance Director J. Michael Dougherty, Deputy Chief Administrative Officer for Government Operations/Environmental Services David Byrd and former council member Thomas Hendershot.

Hendershot was hired last December as a part-time employee of the fire department. Hendershot was initially assigned as a one-thousand hour employee to review case files for fire investigators. Sources say he was then moved to headquarters. While some in the department defend Hendershot’s hiring, others have viewed it as a political patronage job that does not require any heavy lifting.

In Monday’s paper, The Washington Post reports a lobbyist for the county council, David Jacobs, has also been mentioned in the subpoena. Jacobs is married to the chair of the Prince George’s County School Board, Verjeana Jacobs.

From the late 1990s until 2001, David Jacobs ran the Prince George’s County Office of Emergency Preparedness (OEP). At the same time, Karl Granzow was assigned by the fire department to work with Jacobs.

Jacobs was forced to leave OEP after a series of charges of driving county vehicles under the influence of alcohol. Jacobs has an extensive traffic record, including a 2007 ticket for driving on a suspended license. Jacobs has also served as the lobbyist the county firefighters union, IAFF Local 1619.

Contacted Sunday evening, James Keary, a spokesman for County Executive Jack Johnson, confirms FBI agents did not enter Johnson’s offices. Johnson, Dougherty and Byrd’s offices are all in the County Administration Building at 14741 Governor Oden Bowie Drive.

Keary stands by his statement to The Post that this is a fishing expedition. He says despite at least three attempts by the FBI, “They have not yet caught even a minnow”.

Attempts to get comments from Hendershot, Arrington, Ricker and Colton have not been successful.