Cell phone pictures above and below from neighbor Chris Shuman.

Watch 9NEWS NOW story (or click here).

WHAG-TV coverage.

Herald-Mail coverage.

The Maryland State Fire Marshal’s Office admits there are a lot of open questions about a fire in Hancock Monday night that killed two sisters, but investigators say they are not prepared to call the blaze suspicious.

Fifteen-year-old Nicole Gross and her 12-year-old sister Mary died on the second-floor of the home at 220 Old Route 40.

A neighbor tells 9NEWS NOW that he called 911 just before the fire broke out after hearing someone near the house yell, “I am going to kill you”. The neighbor, who asked not be identified, did not know who yelled those words.

Investigators say they have ruled out many accidental causes for the fire.

The mother of the girls, Melissa Lindemann, jumped naked through a first-floor window and ran two doors away to the home of Michael Hovermale, her boyfriend Clarence Meyer’s half-brother.

Hovermale says that he helped lift Meyers to a low hanging roof in an unsuccessful effort to get to the girls.

Hovermale says investigators were talking with Meyers Tuesday afternoon in an effort to learn more about how the fire started.

The Maryland State Fire Marshal’s Office say the fire began in the basement.

Investigators continued to work the scene through early Tuesday evening.

Asbury Park Press photo by Tanya Breen. Watch Breen’s video from the day of the fire (or click here).

For a fire department this can be a no win situation. A mother who lost her 12-year-old daughter in a Freehold, NJ house fire earlier in the month tells the local newspaper she believes the death was “from negligence, and the lack of education and ill-preparedness of the firefighters”.

When faced with this type of allegation I have witnessed a number of departments through the years that have circled the wagons and refused comment for reporters. I have seen others that refused official comment, but at the same time worked to discredit the person making the allegations.

In this case Freehold Borough Fire Chief Jack Reichman explained in detail to the reporter what his firefighters did and the obstacles they faced in trying to rescue Kaylee Ramos. It was followed-up by a statement from Mayor Michael Wilson supporting the firefighters and asking residents to support the family in their hour of need.

So, what would your department do? Is this the proper way to respond to this type of situation? Are you better off just saying nothing or trying to get out your message? Read the article and leave a comment below.

From the AP:

A jury determined Tuesday that four San Diego firefighters were sexually harassed for being ordered to participate in a gay pride parade and awarded them combined damages of $34,300.

Two girls dead in Western Maryland fire: Two sisters, 12 and 15-years-old, died in a house fire in Hancock, Maryland around 10:45 Monday night. The mother of the girls and her boyfriend escaped, but were injured. The sisters were found in a bedroom. The fire was at 220 Old Route 40. The image above is from WHAG-TV. Click here for more. Also, check out The Herald-Mail.

Firefighter who shared pictures and emotions is now a former firefighter: Some post plane crash controversy from Erie County, New York. A Buffalo TV station that showed a firefighter’s emotional interview and the pictures he took at the scene now reports the firefighter and his department have parted ways. First suspended for violating the rules, Wayne Michalak now says he quits. Read details and see the original story that caused the problem.

Disability pension for MD lieutenant who quit after conviction for assaulting female firefighter: The Examiner is reporting on some more issues involving how disability pensions are granted in Montgomery County, Maryland. This time the focus in on a fire lieutenant accused in an ugly 2005 incident. Read more.

7.55 percent raise for firefighters: Bucking the trend, some firefighters in Washington State are in line for a significant salary bump. Click here to read the story.

You light up my life (and the sky, too): The eyes of Texas were on the skies Sunday morning as a fireball streaked by. Still no definitive word on what it was, but there is video of where it likely ended up. Click here.

A fire, but not the winds, in Santa Ana: Blame this fire in a 120-year-old farmhouse on a chimney problem. We have two videos for you.

Over 20-billion served, but not here anymore: A McDonald’s with fire in every quadrant and firefighters surrounding it. But nobody is drowning it. Click here for an explanation of a YouTube video that has precious few details.

Fire truck rammed by hit and run driver: The car slammed into the outriggers of a ladder track and sped off. Read the details from Winnipeg.

Firehouse fire: Firegeezer has sad pictures from some pretty toasty equipment following a fire in Cambria, NY yesterday. Click here.

Click here for more fire and EMS news from STATter911.com

Read and watch WIVB-TV’s original story with Wayne Michalak

Read the story about the controversy over the interview

That’s Wayne Michalak talking to a reporter from WIVB-TV in Buffalo. When that story aired Sunday, Michalak was a member of the Newstead Fire Company. A short time after being seen on television, Michalak was suspended by Newstead’s fire chief and an investigation was started. Now Michalak says he quits.

Michalak drove an ambulance to the scene of the crash Thursday night and returned for the recovery operations. Along the way he snapped some pictures. In the interview with reporter Gary Richert, Michalak talked about the pictures, the awful scenes he witnessed and shared his emotions. The firefighter said he is having nightmares and has sought counseling.

WIVB-TV updated the story this evening. Here is an excerpt:

Wayne Michalak may have violated one or more of the bylaws in the Newstead Fire Department’s code of conduct.

He tells News 4 he was told firefighters cannot have contact with the media without first notifying the fire chief.

Click here to read more on the story

We showed you this morning the lucky video of an Austin TV photographer who caught the fireball in the sky that shook the nerves and rattled the brains of many Texans Sunday morning. The event was accompanied by a loud boom.

There is a lot of thought the fire in the video above is connected to the flaming streak across the sky. The video takes you through the story of the various official answers, so far, about the apparent space debris.

I am guessing the fact that the FAA and the US Strategic Command provided different answers on what this was will provide plenty of ammunition for the conspiracy folks.

STATter911.com is hearing, before the fire department arrived, a little baby and a small rocket ship were discovered at the site by Martha and Jonathan Kent, a farm couple from Kansas. Or has that story already been taken?

Two videos from a fire Sunday evening in Santa Ana, California. An 1886 farmhouse owned by the pastor of a local church burned in the 200 block of East Santa Clara Avenue.

Fire officials confirm it started in a chimney. In interviews by the Orange County Register, in the video below, you will hear from two young men who spotted the blaze, alerted the pastor’s daughter who was home alone and then tried to put it out with a garden hose and a little improvised ventilation.

Read more about the fire here and here.

The headline on this YouTube video posted yesterday reads, “McDonald’s in Mooresville, North Carolina on fire”. The text with the clip says only, “McDonald’s in Mooresville, North Carolina burning”.

Watching the video armed only with that information you are likely to say to yourself, “What in the world are these firefighters doing?”. What they were doing was standing around watching the building go up in flames and doing nothing about it. Supply lines were charged and equipment was in place, but not a drop of water was being used on the fire.

Obviously there had to be more to this story. I figured it was some kind of training exercise. And it was. But not just for the firefighters.

The fire Sunday was the culmination of four days of drills at the abandoned hamburger joint. The University of North Carolina participated with its fire science program and with engineering students. It gave the students a close up view on how buildings react to fire.

Read more about the training here and here.

The Turn of River Fire Department’s Engine 62 from the department’s website.

The Turn of River Fire Department in Stamford, CT believes the City of Stamford is trying to force it out of business. Volunteers at Turn of River and other neighboring departments believe a merger in 2007 providing career firefighters at three stations, along with subsequent budget cuts, violate their contract and city Charter.

It is a somewhat complicated situation that I can’t say I completely understand. A Superior Court judge trying to figure it out has suggested both sides settle this out of court. Read the details from The Advocate.

On its website, Turn of River makes its case about attempts to force the volunteers out of business and raise taxes at the same time.

One of the interesting parts of all of this is the statement on the home page for TRFD: “We provided 80 years of continuous fire protection and received ZERO complaints in that time.”

I am impressed, because I can’t go 80-minutes without a complaint (and that doesn’t include my wife), much less 80-years.

Read more from News 8, Austin

Or was it space debris that streaked through the sky over Texas on Sunday morning? After Williamson County began getting calls about the event, it was originally thought a plane had crashed. No plane was found and the FAA indicated it might be the debris from a US-Russian satellite collision last week.

The US Strategic Command says no, it was not from the satellite crash.

What I do know from experience is that if you are trying to catch video of these fireballs in the sky, it is darn near impossible. On the way back from covering the Solomons Landing fire in Calvert County, Maryland (was it in 2000?), photographer Bill McKnight and I stopped on Route 4 to take in and try to shoot a spectacular meteor shower.

Very frequent streaks of fire all over the sky. Every time we would see one, by the time the camera started rolling, it was gone. So Bill set the camera up on a tripod and kept it rolling on a wide shot. Not wide enough. Still couldn’t get anything. We left empty handed.

That’s why I laugh when I see the video above and the shot of the fireball from photojournalist Eddie Garcia of News 8 in Austin. It was caught in the background of the race Garcia was shooting. If he had tried to shoot it, it most likely wouldn’t have happened.

Analyze this: Two-years-ago this week a man tried to rob a liquor store at Frederick, Maryland’s Antietam Village Center. Things didn’t go as planned and the hold-up man ended up firing shots and setting a fire. As you can imagine it was a hectic and tense afternoon. The City of Frederick Police Department had its post incident analysis of the incident completed in August, 2007. The Frederick News-Post recently obtained the report. You can read it here. Click here and here for 911 calls and police and fire department radio transmissions. The photo above is by Sam Yu.

A NY local enforces two-hat rule: The thrust by IAFF Local 1772 in Jamestown isn’t that its members are volunteering in a jurisdiction where the IAFF has a local. There are mostly all-volunteer departments around Jamestown. From two newspaper articles, the focus appears to be on the possibility firefighters could be hurt while volunteering and/or not being up to the demands needed to properly serve the citizens of Jamestown. As you can imagine, there is already a lively discussion in our comments section. Read more.

Ouch!!: Check out this video of a police officer, a fire extinguisher and a truck fire.

Helmet-cam on the loose after OK tornado: We have the raw video and a news story about an Edmond, Oklahoma firefighters who fired up the video camera following a tornado hitting his community. Click here.

Carter on NIOSH: It was a long time in the making, but Harry Carter is not disappointed with NIOSH’s efforts in its report on the Charleston Sofa Super Store tragedy. Click here for the commentary.

Staying cool under fire: An interesting study of soldiers in combat could have some meaning for firefighters. According to Reuters, “Soldiers who perform best under extreme stress have higher levels of chemicals that dampen the fear response, a finding that could lead to new drugs or training strategies to help others cope better … “. Read the article.

Looking back at 6-alarm Toronto propane facility fire and explosions: The radio traffic from last summer’s incident that sent fire balls into the sky and left a deputy chief and a worker dead. Click here.

A closer look at new fire chief: The Baltimore Sun profiles Bill Goddard as he takes over in Howard County, MD. Read the story.

So close, yet so far: The New York Times looks at a potential FDNY recruit who was supposed to start in January. Read the article.

You can’t blame this one on the Super Bowl: Atlanta closed six fire stations on Saturday after 13 firefighters called in sick. Less than half the number that were sick on Super Bowl Sunday. Click here to read the story. Watch video here and here. The second video is on the controversy over the Atlanta City Council’s discretionary fund and complaints that it could be used to keep fire companies open.

The politics of budget cuts: Los Angeles City Council candidates answer reporter questions on how they would handle cutting from pubic safety budgets and salaries. Read the interviews.

NY plane crash: Just in case you haven’t seen it by now, we have some early video from neighbors to the Erie County plane crash, along with links to the fireground radio transmissions. Click here.

Replacing a 44-year-old fire engine: The Honey Pot Active Volunteer Department of Nanticoke, PA is due for an upgrade. Read the details.

Moon over Anchorage: Beyond the hint I just gave you, I am not even going to begin to explain the bizarre set of circumstances faced by some firefighters in Alaska. I will let Firegeezer do that for you.

From the website of the Honey Pot Active Volunteer Fire Department.

I believe I last saw this fire engine in 1987 when I was sent to cover the evacuation of the City of Nanticoke, Pennsylvania following a fire at a chemical plant. It was 22-years-old then (I am not saying how old I was).

Engine 6 is now 44-years-old and the Honey Pot Active Volunteer Fire Department (motto: “there is nothing sweeter than honey) is finally able to replace it.

The FWD was manufactured in 1964 (it is officially a 1965 model) and has been through three major rehabs. Still, as much as the members wanted a new engine, the price was too much and they are settling for a used engine they are purchasing from Alpha Fire Company #1 of Littlestown in Adams County, PA.

Honey Pot still needs to raise cash for the $100,000 price tag on the pumper, along with the $20,000 in improvements that are needed. Click here to read the story.

Jamestown Fire Department

City Firefighters Who Volunteer Will Be Forced To Leave Union

City Not Influencing Ban On Volunteer Firefighting

It is a Labor Thing – Mike Ward’s tutorial on the history of the IAFF “two-hat” issue

In the far southwestern corner of New York State, the City of Jamestown has operated a career fire department for almost 100 years. Jamestown has four fire stations, with three engines and a ladder company.

IAFF Local 1772 represents the firefighters of Jamestown. The union is making news in Jamestown and surrounding Chautauqua County with its enforcement of IAFF’s “two hat” rule. The Jamestown Professional Firefighters Association has set April 1 as the deadline for firefighters to choose between volunteering and being an IAFF member.

There are two articles in The Post-Journal today by reporter Kristen Johnson. One is on the action by the union and the other focuses on city officials who say they are not involved in this internal union matter. Here are some relevant excerpts:

”This is just something that has been part of the IAFF for years,” said Brian Achterberg, a city firefighter and the president of the JPFA. ”We’re obligated to follow the bylaws of the IAFF.”

Achterberg, along with union treasurer Cris Dahlgren and union attorney Chuck DeAngelo, spoke with The Post-Journal recently to explain the local union’s new policy – a policy he said is merely an extension of the local union’s belief that city firefighters are an asset that should be carefully protected.

”(We) recognize our responsibility to (shield) the citizens and taxpayers of Jamestown from those costs associated with injuries due to the extinguishment of structure fires and those inherent risks,” Achterberg wrote. ”The catastrophic number of on-the-job injuries experienced by the Jamestown Fire Department last year is, without a doubt, the largest factor contributing to how and why the (union) members have chosen to approach this matter.”

”Say you’re a young guy and you’re volunteering while working for a paid department somewhere,” Dahlgren said. ”If you strain a muscle at a fire scene where you’re a volunteer firefighter, you’re bringing that strained muscle to a fire scene where you’re a paid firefighter. Part of our point is that if you’re a volunteer for a long period of time, it’s going to contribute to any injuries you get as a city firefighter.”

”We have no problem with our guys being involved in their communities. We encourage them to be members of volunteer departments in a social capacity. But they shouldn’t be doing the same work there that we do here. Don’t fight a fire as a volunteer on Sunday night and then show up to work here Monday morning beat up and hurt. The issue is not that we don’t want to be a good neighbor but that we have to protect the interests of Jamestown taxpayers.” (Quote from Brian Achterberg)

Lance Hedlund, the city’s deputy fire chief, said the decision to prohibit city firefighters from serving as firefighters in volunteer departments ”isn’t a city decision.”

”This type of issue is disappointing to me at a time when everyone is struggling,” he said. ”It appears to be more divisive than productive. It’s counterproductive to where the fire service needs to be. We have a good, open, working relationship with the surrounding volunteer departments, and I am disappointed the union would choose to go in this direction.”

Watch a clearer version of the story above

Watch some of the helmet-cam raw video

More raw video

More coverage from KWTV-TV

Listen to 911 calls

Oak Cliff Fire Protection District

Tuesday was a rough and deadly day weather wise in parts of Oklahoma. When the storm hit, Firefighter Jaye Bartles of the Oak Cliff Fire Protection District took along his helmet camera as fire crews began searching for victims.

No details, but the video of the tire explosion tells it all.

Listen to emergency calls and fireground radio traffic from the incident

Click here to see many more YouTube videos of the fire and explosions

Updates and press releases from the City of Toronto

Click here, here, here and here for articles on the fire and its aftermath

STATter911.com coverage of the incident

You likely will recall the 6-alarm fire with multiple explosions last August at the Sunrise propane facility in Toronto. This is the incident where Toronto Fire Services District Chief Bob Leek collapsed and died and a worker at the facility was killed.

While it has been out for a bit, I only just became aware of the clip above that has some of the emergency calls and early radio traffic. I have added other coverage of the incident and videos from some of the many cameras that captured this event.

Read The Barred Door by Gregory Beyer

Make sure you take a look at another aspect of the budget cutting sweeping fire departments across the country. The article above is the story of Drew Lebed, a 25-year-old man who was scheduled to start out 2009 as an FDNY recruit. That changed when Lebed’s class was deferred indefinitely as part of New York’s efforts to balance the budget.

Lebed has been focused in recent years on reaching that goal:

“Everything is about becoming a fireman,” he said. “I just have no idea if it’s ever going to happen.”

Read the excellent article by Gregory Beyer of the The New York Times to learn more about the frustration for Drew Lebed and many others.

Click here and scroll down for more fire and EMS news from STATter911.com

Very early home video as popping and explosions occur and neighbors attempt to account for each other. Also appears to be first hose line stretched and charged.

Listen to fireground audio of the incident from Monroe County Fire Wire

Interview with Chief Dave Case, Clarence Center VFC

Watch live coverage from WGRZ-TV

Raw video from crash site from WGRZ-TV (or here)

More raw video from WGRZ-TV

Photo gallery from wusa9.com

The latest from The Buffalo News

Listen to air traffic control transmissions as plane went off radar

Read an interview with one of the mutual aid chiefs who responded to the incident

YouTube video and previous coverage from STATter911.com

From the AP through wusa9.com:

A Continental commuter plane dropped out of the sky without warning and nose-dived into a suburban Buffalo house in a fiery crash that killed all 49 people aboard and one person in the home. It was the nation’s first deadly crash of a commercial airliner in 2 1/2 years.

Two others in the house escaped with minor injuries. The plane was carrying a four-member crew and an off-duty pilot. Among the 44 passengers killed was a woman whose husband died in the World Trade Center attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

This is the Google Street View of the impact site. Note the basketball net to the left of the image. As STATter911.com reader Gray points out it is seen in a number of pictures and videos including the AP photo below. Click the image to tour the area.

Click here to see more AP photos like the one above.

This shows you how close the Clarence Center VFC is to the crash site. That is Long Street in the foreground. Click the image for the full Google Street View and go to the right to approximately 6034 Long Street on the left hand side (west side) of the street.

The map below gives you an event better idea of the proximity of the fire station. According to Google Maps it is less than 400 feet from the firehouse to the scene.

Story of the day (above): A number of STATter911.com readers sent this one to us. Make sure you watch it. After more than 40-years a retired Boston firefighter finally meets the little girl he saved from a burning apartment. Click here to read more about William Carroll and Evangeline Harper. And for a similar reunion that came without the delay, scroll down to the triplets update from Bethesda, MD.

49 people killed as plane crashes around the corner from firehouse: The Clarence Center VFC in Erie County, NY outside of Buffalo was almost too close to last night’s deadly crash of a Continental Express commuter plane. We have early video, pictures, maps and news links. Click here.

Assistant chief involved in Maryland car wreck now put on administrative leave: Montgomery County Acting Chief Richard Bowers says he has placed Assistant Chief Gregory DeHaven on administrative leave with pay after receiving an outside consultant’s report about DeHaven’s November collision in a fire department vehicle. The fire vehicle crashed into 3 vehicles including a county police SUV stopped on I-270. The officer on the scene initially said he smelled alcohol on DeHaven’s breath. Read more from The Washington Post.

The return of Selby Jacobs: We first heard this yesterday morning but waited for confirmation from Chief Jacobs himself that Prince William County, Virginia’s first fire chief is taking over in Fauquier County on an interim basis. Chief Jacobs retired almost 15-years-ago. Read details.

Triplets and rescuers meet: Yesterday the young triplets saved from a burning home in Bethesda, Maryland in December were reunited with their rescuers. We have video and plenty of information about the fire. Click here.

Two views of the same department: We now have both recent magazine articles written about the EMS side of the DC Fire & EMS Department. The articles paint very different pictures of where the department currently is and where it is going. Our story is here.

Repair bill for DC fire boat: The John H. Glenn Jr. is headed to a shipyard in Baltimore next week for an almost $100,000 repair job. It is needed after a dinner cruise ship punctured the boats hull on January 1. Our update is here.

You need a scorecard to know the players: The Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department and a number of other sources have sent STATter911.com the new organizational chart for the department and yesterday’s memo from Acting Chief Eugene Jones explaining the changes. You will find all of it here.

NIOSH report: Click here for a link to NIOSH’s 107-page report on Charleston’s Sofa Super Store fire that killed 9 firefighters.

Selby C. Jacobs was Prince William County’s first fire chief, retiring from that post almost 15-years-ago. Now a man who already has one fire station named after him is taking on a new challenge.

Chief Jacobs confirms for STATter911.com that he will take over as chief of the Fauquier County Department of Fire and Emergency Services on February 23. According to Chief Jacobs he will hold that post on an interim basis “until such time as they employ a new full time Chief”.

As we first reported on Thursday morning, Chief Philip Myer suddenly announced he was leaving the department. In an email sent out to career staff and volunteer firefighters in the county late Wednesday, Myer simply wrote, ” … please be advised that I have resigned my position as Fire Chief effective February 27. It has been an honor to serve with you.”

In this month 43-years-ago, Selby Jacobs became the first fire marshal in Prince William County and later became the director of fire and rescue services.

Chief Jacobs retired in October, 1994, but has remained active in the Virginia Fire Chiefs Association.

Two months ago, the new Selby Jacobs Station, Prince William County Department of Fire & Rescue Service Station 24, began operating. It had been part of the Gainesville District Volunteer Fire Department until January 16 when the Prince William County Board of Supervisors ordered current Chief Kevin McGee to take over operations of Gainesville’s two stations.

Updated links, maps and new early video can be found here

Early video from a resident of the neighborhood where the crash occurred.

Above and at the bottom of the page are some of the first images from our sister station WGRZ-TV of the crash of Continental Express Flight 3407 in Erie County, NY.

Tragedy late Thursday in Clarence Center, NY near Buffalo as a Continental Express plane crashed into a neighborhood killing 48 people on the plane and one on the ground. The crash site is less than two blocks from the Clarence Center VFC (see map below). Below are links to news coverage and video:

The Buffalo News

WGRZ-TV

Video from WKBW-TV

Video from WIVB-TV

Clarence Center VFC message about the crash

FireRescue & Firefighter Nation

Slideshow from wusa9.com’s Emily Cyr

Here is some of the latest at 1:52 AM from reporters Dale Anderson and Phil Fairbanks with The Buffalo News:

Forty-nine people died when a Continental Express airplane crashed into a house in Clarence Center shortly after 10 p.m. Thursday, setting off a huge fire that could be seen miles away.

“I was told by the tower the plane simply dropped off the radar screen,” Hartmayer said.

On this map A is the Clarence Center VFC at 9415 Clarence Center Road. The crash site, B on the map, is reported to be 6050 Long Street, around the corner from the firehouse. Click the image for more.

This is apparently the block of Long Street in Clarence Center where the crash occurred. Click the image for the full Google Street View.

One of the Petricelli triplets steals the show from Chief Bowers

Watch the story from 9NEWS NOW reporter Audrey Barnes (or here)

Listen to 911 calls and fireground audio and read the MCFRS account of the fire and rescues

A touching scene in Rockville, Maryland this morning. Three little boys running around in front of the people who helped save their lives.

The boys are the Petricelli triplets, Aidan, Bryson and Colson, who were rescued from their burning Bethesda, Maryland home on the afternoon of December 3.

Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service Acting Chief Richard Bowers joined County Executive Isiah Leggett in welcoming the Petricellis and honoring the rescuers.

“Obviously the father was very distraught, and I related to him right away because I have kids also,”Captain Kimonti Oglesby of the Glen Echo station said.

“You are not simply everyday heroes, you are heroes every day,” the triplets’ mom Amy Susan Petricelli said.

The triplets’ dad, Michael, and two firefighters were hurt during the rescue.

Colson was the last triplet pulled from his crib. Meeting the firefighter who rescued him was a special moment for both.

“Stay safe okay,” firefighter John Kalvon told the tiny toddler cradled against his mother’s chest, much like he was cradled against his during the rescue.

The boys are still getting treatment for breathing problems related to the smoke but their energy is coming back.

“It’s very heartwarming to see them relate so well to the very folks who saved their lives,” the triplets’ dad Michael said.

Mrs. Petricelli gave out gifts to those who have already given her the greatest gift of all– her family. “They were our miracle babies when they were born. They’re our miracle boys again.”

Lt. Curtis Warfield Jr. said, “It’s nice to see ‘em today and know we did something good.”

The final words from the couple as they corralled their bundles of energy: “Thank you for the rest of our lives.”

9NEWS NOW reporter Audrey Barnes contributed to this report.

STATter911.com’s previous coverage of the crash

The estimate for repairing DC Fire Boat John H. Glenn Jr. is currently at $93,000. DC Fire & EMS Department spokesman Alan Etter says the insurance company for Spirit Cruises will cover the repair bill.

Etter says that next week the 72-foot boat will take the trip down the Potomac and up the Chesapeake Bay to the Baltimore Harbor. According to Etter, repairs should take about two weeks at a Baltimore shipyard.

The Glenn and an FBI boat were struck on January 31 by the 160-foot Spirit of Washington as the dinner cruise ship performed docking maneuvers at the Spirit Cruises’ pier adjacent to the police and fire boat facility.

The John Glenn received a 15-foot gash above the water line on the starboard side. Welders temporarily repaired the large hole.

The accident is under investigation by the US Coast Guard.

Read NIOSH report

Read more at FirefighterNation.com

Read more at Firehouse.com