Quick takes

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Fire chief and EMT wife are first on scene of daughter’s fatal crash: An awful story from Cashion, Oklahoma where Chief Danny Clark and his wife Stephanie responded to a report of an accident early Sunday morning. An SUV loaded with teens had hit a tree and overturned. A passenger dead on the scene was the Clark’s 16-year-old daughter Kalee Jo. Here’s the story.

Sprinkler study: Four of the eight living Prince George’s County fire chiefs were in attendance at yesterday’s sprinkler demo at MFRI. They included three former chiefs and the current one. At the demonstration they also officially released the study we showed you yesterday morning looking at the impact of the first sprinkler law for new single family homes enacted by a county. The ordinance was passed in 1987 and fully phased in by 1992. Click here for my talks with the chiefs about the study.

Did closed fire companies impact fatal fire?: That’s the question being asked in Vallejo, California where the closest station to a fire that killed two woman over the weekend was closed. Read the story. Vallejo’s problems have long been one of Firegeezer’s favorite subjects. Click here for the history.

Recruitment and retention in PA: According to the Post-Gazette there were 300,000 volunteers in Pennsylvania in 1975 and less than 50,000 today. Read about the issues.

Conshohocken conflagration leads to $36 million settlement: Do you remember that fire storm 14 months ago in Conshohocken, PA? A welder’s torch sparked the blaze. Tenants burned out are sharing in a large settlement of a lawsuit. Read the details. Watch the story.

Speaking of conflagrations, Geezer gives us a first hand account of one: Back when he was hawking his one page Firegeezer, walking firehouse to firehouse (printed on his press that came from Gutenberg), Bill Schumm apparently covered the Great Chicago Fire. Okay, he was a young geezer then. Here on the anniversary Bill recounts the story and some of his original coverage at the modern day version of his rag, Firegeezer.com.

Beach fire department expansion on hold: In Rehoboth Beach, Delaware the economy’s impact on fundraising is also slowing the fire department. Click here.

Massachusetts firefighters are stimulated back into jobs: Stimulus money is apparently allowing the rehiring of more than a hundred firefighters who have been laid off around the state. Check it out.

Driver of fire truck in Indonesia named as suspect in child’s death: It sounds like a runaway fire truck during a fire left a 9-year-old boy dead in Tangerang. Read the story.

If this is part of being an all-hazards department, I made the right decision to get out a long time ago: This is definitely an aspect of being a firefighter I would want nothing to do with. In Walnut Hills, Florida, firefighters handled rattlesnake removal. Here it is.