Quick takes

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Three-alarms in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania: A burger joint was on the ground floor of this building at 3rd Street & New Street with the second and third floors vacant. An ambulance crew spotted the fire at 3:30 Sunday morning. Newsworking.org wrote this to go along with their video -The fire was deep-seated on the second floor and spread quickly. It extended into the cockloft and spread horizontally to exposure 4 – a three-story multi-family-dwelling (O/M/D). The exposure on side 3 was threatened, only to be separated by a 3 foot alley. Tower Ladder 2 positioned on the #2 side (New Street) kept the fire from extended into those buildings. Ladder 1 positioned on the #1 – 2 corner of the building giving it access to both sides of the building. The fire burned out-of-control for more than 4 hours. This video shows a time frame of about 3 1/2 hours of activity.

UPDATE Two firefighters die in crash during Los Angeles County wildfire: Their vehicle overturned off the side of a mountain road on Sunday afternoon while fighting the “Station” fire. The two have been identified as Captain Tedmund Hall, 47, of San Bernardino County and Firefighter Specialist Arnaldo Quinones, 35, of Palmdale. Captain Hall had been a Los Angeles County firefighter for 25-years and Firefighter Quinones for eight. That fire was also threatening TV transmitters and other communications at Mt. Wilson. Click here for many links to local coverage and video.

Voice heard at deadly Buffalo fire was apparently from an unrelated street fight: Investigators now believe they know where the voice came from that lead neighbors to believe someone was trapped inside the fire on Genesee Street one week ago. According to WKBW-TV, “Fire investigators are now confirming that the ‘voice’ neighbors heard was actually an argument between people on the street and it had nothing to do with the fire.” Click here to read and watch the story.

In case you missed it, click here for the videos and coverage of Friday’s funerals and processions for Lt. Charles “Chip” McCarthy and Firefighter Jonathan Croom.

Bizarre story from Arkansas: Firegeezer has a lot of interesting stuff from over the weekend but none more so than the story from Jericho, Arkansas. I am not really sure how it got to this, even after reading the story, but a town police officer shot the assistant fire chief in the back. This was apparently over a judge dismissing traffic tickets. Very strange. Click here.

Very timely save: The discussion was budget cuts for Miami Beach Fire Rescue. Chairing the meeting of the Budget Advisory Committee was Antonio Hernandez. Shortly after speaking Hernandez keeled over in his chair Thursday. Guess who came to his rescue. Firehouse.com found this interesting story. Click here for the video.

120-pounds of dog, 30-feet down a well: That was the Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department’s dilemma on Friday. Firefighters made the rescue. We have pictures and the story. We also have some background on the decision to undertake this rescue. Click here for the coverage. Adding more about the risk analysis after our initial report, Major Jerry Lamoria made this point via PIO Mark Brady – “In addition to the safety of our own firefighters, we also had to be concerned about the safety and well-being of other people on the scene. If we had done nothing to get the dog out, someone would have tried a rescue themselves and gotten into trouble. We had to do a lot of talking to bystanders, and police officers who all thought we were taking too much time. The owner had actually tied himself onto a rope and was going to try it himself. To some this ‘rescue’ may seem fool hardy but one of the things we did consider was that by us removing the dog would ensure the safety of everyone else.”

Not a lot of good choices in Baltimore: Take 8 furlough days or increase the number of layoffs. That’s what the city has told firefighters and police. Read more.

The key to the 50-hour day: According to police it’s falsification of time sheets. A Jacksonville, Florida firefighter who has doubled (or is it tripled?) as a fire chief for two other jurisdictions is accused of having time sheets showing he has figured out how to be in two or three places at the same time. Here’s the story.

The tractor pull didn’t work so the heavy equipment was brought in: Video of a fire engine being extricated from the mud after a New York house fire. Check it out.

Early video from Michigan house fire: A basement fire in Saginaw. Click here.