Wall collapse caught on video: It looks like Martin Grube and his FireRescueTV.com got the best video from yesterday morning’s two-alarm fire at the Grand Furniture warehouse in the 6300 block of Virginia Beach Boulevard in Norfolk, Virginia. At :55 into this video (about 35-minutes after the fire was reported) the wall on Side C collapsed. Firegeezer has additional video and more details about the fire. Here is the Google Maps Street View of the building.
Lots of new videos from around the country (look over here >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>) - Emily Cyr has been busy loading up our player in the right hand column. The latest entries include another version of the Norfolk, Virginia furniture store fire, a Lexington, South Carolina house fire caused by someone’s (un)controlled burn (read more), the riverboat Robert E. Lee that burned in St. Louis (more here) and a concrete plant that burned in Sacramento, California. If you want to beat the editor of this blog to the news check the player on a regular basis. Emily often gets video loaded there (like the DC rowhouse fire on Peabody Street, NW) well before I have a chance to write about it.
You will definitely want to see this one: I figured it was just a matter of time before we saw the video from a camera from the locomotive of the Amtrak train that hit Detroit’s Ladder 13 earlier this month. That time is here. Check it out.
Some DC fire action: Broadcast engineer and historian Tom Buckley had his camera at the ready when the DC Fire & EMS Department showed up in his neighborhood yesterday morning. Here are the results.
Rosenbaum son-in-law gives view on latest DC EMS problems: Toby Halliday sat on the task force formed to reform EMS in the Nation’s Capital after the serious problems noted about the care provided to Halliday’s father-in-law, David Rosenbaum. With new, high-profile incidents receiving a lot of attention, Halliday provided The Washington Post his thoughts on the progress made since the task force made its final report. Click here.
Accused firefighter/arsonist doesn’t fit the usual pattern: The stories we find about firefighters setting fires tend to be about younger, newer members of a department. That is not the case with 43-year-old Stark Liedtke who has now been fired after 22-years as an on-call firefighter with New Hampshire’s Alton Fire Department. Investigators say Liedtke admits to setting 11 fires over four years. Here’s the story.
Firefighter reinstated after firing: This is a rather complex sexual harassment case from Westbrook, Maine that we first mentioned in October. The allegations were rather graphic. Now, a state labor board has told the fire department to reinstate Firefighter Matthew Lamontagne. Here is the latest.
Parity means pay up: The City of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania has once again been told to live up to its promise that firefighters are to get pay parity with the cops. It could mean 13k for each firefighter. Read about the court ruling.
Aw chute: This is a really stupid story (but if it weren’t for things like this many of you would find the work much more boring). A 20-year-old man, acting on a dare from some children, wanted to show that he could make it down a home’s laundry chute. You can guess the rest and who had to come save the guy. The rescue apparently traumatized a young girl. Read more from Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin.
Also on STATter911 …
- Quick Takes: February 20, 2012. – February 20, 2012
- Quick Takes: January 9, 2012 – January 9, 2012
- Helmet-cam & still pictures: More from Highland Park, MI. – April 25, 2013
- Helmet-cam video: House burns twice, a year apart, in East. St. Louis, IL. – May 4, 2013
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I’m surprised. When I first saw the heading for the Rosenbaum family member who made some comments about the DCFD, I thought it was going to be a slam on the DCFD. He actually gave credit for the progress that has been made, and is supportive of seeing further progress be made.
As for some of the recommendations he had:
“Unify operations and eliminate unfair pay disparities.”
This is a budget issue, and currently the city is facing some tight financial times. Also, one of the reasons that the DCFD is over budget is due to the fire chief implementing many of the Rosenbaum committee recommendations. He was required to make the recommendations ASAP, which caused them to be done in the middle of the year when these items had yet to be budgeted for. Thus, support to get the mayor/council to provide the necessary funding to the DCFD as these recommendations are being made will help the DCFD make the necessary changes without creating a budget problem.
Improve training and supervision of medical skills.
This is being done, or has already been done to a large extent. All EMT’s are now required to certify to the National Registry level, and any of the paramedics wanting to promote to EMS captain have to obtain National Registry for paramedic. The new EMS protocols have just been introduced to the department, and all members are currently going thru the training on them.
As for supervision, they have implemented the 7 EMS battalion supervisor positions along with having an EMS BFC on duty at all times.
Review shift schedules and staffing to improve performance.
The members who handled the EMS run where the little girl ended up dying both worked a 12 hour shift. And, in another reply on this forum, Brooks pointed out that there is some information that the shorter shifts are being shown to not be more effective than the 24 hour shift that the uniformed members of the DCFD currently work.
DCFD being used even though it is DCFEMS.
This is not an issue. DCFD is actually a positive morale item for the uniformed members, thus changing that will only lessen morale. Plus, DCFD is synonymous with the agency which is readily recognized by the citizens. The citizens even refer to us as the ‘fire department’, and not the ‘fire and EMS department’. The citizens are conditioned to knowing what to expect when the see ‘DCFD’, and that is reassuring to them. Since they also know that the DCFD is there to help them, they are usually very accepting of us which helps to create a safer working environment for our members.
Remember Alton is where they lost 50 cottages last Easter.
Think the investigators are going through this guy’s alibi for that day with a fine tooth comb now?
The DCFEMS is over its overtime budget because of Paramedic Overtime, plain and simple. This is because of the Rosenbaum task force.
The DCFEMS wants to be able to send a paramedic on each fire truck. It doesn’t have the right number of paramedics to do this, so it must work a bunch of paramedics overtime to fill the daily positions.
The DCFEMS gets into the newspaper every few months because some paramedic makes a bad decision. I don’t see any cities in the news for not having a paramedic to send.
National standards require two paramedics going to critical calls. Paramedics like having another paramedic to work with. Paramedics listen to other paramedics when they are making mistakes. Paramedics should work together as a team. If Paramedics work together, they are less likely to make the mistakes that put the DCFEMS in the news.
DCFEMS doesn’t have the number of paramedics to put paramedics on each firetruck. Putting paramedics, alone, on each firetruck or ambulance, is a bad idea, because of the number of mistakes they make. These mistakes put DCFEMS in the news.
Paramedics in the DCFEMS are part-time paramedics. If they are on a firetruck, they are part time firefighters and part time paramedics. If they are on an ambulance, they are part time paramedics and part time EMTs. Paramedics on ambulances have to treat and transport patients that only need an EMT. This is more than half of their patients.
If DCFEMS used full-time paramedics, they would have enough paramedics to do the job in pairs. If DCFEMS used paramedics in pairs, DCFEMS wouldn’t be in the news so much.
DCFD is actually a positive morale item for the uniformed members, thus changing that will only lessen morale.
If the members of “DCFD” considered EMS a job they actually WANTED to do, they wouldn’t mind having the letters “EMS” in their name.
Instead, what we see is that a majority of the department doesn’t want anything to do with EMS, in name or otherwise. And it shows in the care patients receive.
If having “EMS” in the name is such a panacaea, why have we been the example of how *not* to do EMS for the last 20 years?
It really is a new department, why not name it as such.