Our friend Steve Redick had a busy night chasing after the firefighters of Chicago. Two extra-alarm fires broke out about two hours apart.
The first was a 3-11 church fire where a parishoner has been arrested for arson. It was reported around 9:30 PM at Edgebrook Evangelical Lutheran Church in the 6400 block of N. Hiawatha Avenue.
At 11:45 PM a fire in a Greektown restaurant was reported. The restaurant was destroyed and a grocery store and other businesses heavily damaged during the 4-11 alarm response .
James Deichman, 61, of the 6200 block of North Cicero is charged with felony arson at a place of worship.
Interim Pastor Rev. John Holm said during a phone interview that Deichman is a member of the church. Just yesterday morning, Holm said he and other church leaders discussed ways to get the man help because of an obvious deterioration in his mental health.
Holm said Deichman lit some garbage cans on fire outside the church and then broke a window and started a fire in the lobby. Police responding to the scene found him inside and were able to get him out safely, Holm said.
The church building is “absolutely devastated”, Holm said. An adjacent educational center is unusable due to smoke and water damage.
The church was built in 1943 and expanded in 1953. The church web site describes the architecture as a “slightly modern adaptation of the English Village Church.”
“We’re going to say some prayers and sing some hymns and just try to hold each other up,” Holm said.
A deep fat-fryer may be the cause for an extra-alarm fire that left a Greektown restaurant a total loss and heavily damaged an adjacent building, fire officials said.
Firefighters were called out to the 2-story building that houses Costas Greek Dining & Bar at 340 S. Halsted St., about 11:35 p.m., said Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford. The fire was initially struck out shortly after 3 a.m. but officials said they were still on the scene as they worked to shut gas service off.
The restaurant manager told firefighters arriving on the scene that the fire started in the kitchen and a deep fat fryer may have sparked the blaze, fire officials said. A fire department spokesman said while they suspect the deep fryer as a cause an investigation will determine a final cause of the blaze.
The fire quickly rose from 3-alarm status to 4 when it spread to the building to the north. That building houses three businesses — Athens Grocery, the Pan Hellenic Pastry Shop and Greektown Gift and Music Shop.
5th alarm in New Jersey: A fire in an industrial building just before 6:00 PM on Saturday at 1275 Bloomfield Avenue in Fairfield. There are four more parts to this video. Click here. Details can be found here. More video is here.
The information flow in your Nation’s Capital: We have two stories for you this morning with connections to the DC Fire & EMS Department and how the District of Columbia government communicates with reporters and, in turn, the public. Both cases seem to follow the same pattern: a reporter uncovers something that on the surface doesn’t seem right; the fire chief or his spokesman provides very limited answers, shedding little light on what actually happened; more information is uncovered by reporters; the initial action is reversed; and in the end the department never fully answers what this was all about.
A Steve Skipton photo from a four-alarm fire in Burlington, New Jersey Sunday afternoon that damaged seven homes. Click the image for more pictures and details from PhillyFireNews.com.
In one of these cases, the aborted donation of a fire truck and ambulance to a resort town in the Dominican Republic, it took ten months before reports from two DC City Council committees provided some transparency. The council determined policies were ignored, but no laws broken. The DC Fire & EMS Department, which appears to have had a secondary role in all of this, continues to refer all questions to Attorney General Peter Nickles. According to the Washington Examiner, Nickles believes the investigation was a “waste of time and a waste of government resources in what became a very political series of actions”. Despite this case now seeming to be closed, Chief Dennis Rubin still faces a little scrutiny by at least two reporters who have compared emails released in the reports with his sworn testimony at a council hearing last April. Click here for that story.
Then there is the story of the Sarasota County, Florida fire chief who remained an employee of the DC Fire & EMS Department while in his new job. In this one, there is no council investigation shedding light on the issue and there is still no indication anyone in the DC government is willing to explain why this arrangement was made, other than to allow Kenneth Ellerbe to be eligible to take home a more favorable retirement package. Through sources, we learned that Ellerbe, who was a deputy chief, resigned from his DC position on January 15. A department spokesman then confirmed that information on Friday. Click here for the latest.
No delay on information here - a battalion chief & two captains are among those fired in Georgia: Pretty quick action in DeKalb County. A report issued in a botched response to what ultimately became a fatal fire and four firefighters were let go. All of this happened within about five days of the fire. Click here for the latest.
Chaplain who is friends with fired top PGFD official quits: Alvin Graham didn’t like some of the policy issues he was dealing with involving the chaplain corps even before Lt. Col. Victor Stagnaro received his walking papers a week ago. But it is clear Stagnaro’s firing was involved in Graham’s decision making process. It was Stagnaro who recruited Graham for the volunteer post nine-years-ago and the men are close friends. On Friday, Chaplain Graham turned in his car and other Prince George’s County property. Here are the details.
Firefighter detained in Haiti: Drew Culberth is a Topeka firefighter who went to Haiti on a different kind of rescue mission. Culberth and nine members of his church are now being held over issues surrounding the group’s efforts to bring 33 children back to the United States. Here’s the story.
Fireground audio from mayday at deadly Brooklyn fire: Five residents died at a fire early Saturday in Bensonhurst. Thirteen firefighters were hurt, including one who became entangled in a collapsing stairwell. Click here for our coverage.
Tulsa firefighters vote to stop job layoffs: Concessions that include a more than five-percent pay cut and furlough days were agreed to by Tulsa firefighters in an effort to prevent 147 from losing their jobs. Here’s the latest.
Racist graffiti, threats, profanity and a noose hanging in a locker; claims of harassment and a culture of accepted sexism, evidenced in part by a topless female firefighter posing in panties on a widely distributed calendar.
It seems the firefighter protest in Belgium was a bit kinder and gentler than the one in Spain. I guess it is hard to get angry in the middle of a foam fight. Photo from the Daily Mail.
Cop mixes up pepper spray and fire extinguisher containers - plus much more from Firegeezer: Bill takes a look at the awful story from Portland, Oregon as a police officer tries to snuff out the flames of a man who set himself on fire. Click here. (I saw this story and was certain I used it in Quick Takes on Thursday or Friday, but I can’t find it. Now which one’s the geezer?)
Fire truck hit by flying object, Part 1: In this case it was a bullet as a St. Louis crew returned from the repair shop. Here’s the story.
Fire truck hit by flying object, Part 2: In this case it was shrapnel from dozens of exploding acetylene and propane tanks at a Flint, Michigan auto salvage business. We have video, pictures and details. Click here.
And more explosions from another Michigan auto salvage firm: The Flint fire was on Saturday. In Detroit, 24-hours earlier, there was a similar fire at an auto salvage and parts business. It went to three-alarms. Click here for fireground audio, video and pictures.
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