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Fire yesterday in the 13300 block of Query Mill Road in Potomac, Maryland. Montgomery County Fire Rescue Service Captain Oscar Garcia says firefighters received the call at 5:21 PM and found fire on both floors of the home. This is an area of the county without fire hydrants. Two people who were home at the time escaped unharmed.
What it looked like on arrival. Photo by Chief Larry Gaddis, Bethesda Fire Department.
A Bowie family was able to safely escape its home before it was destroyed by a raging fire late Wednesday night.
Officials tell 9 NEWS NOW firefighters were dispatched after receiving 911 calls reporting a house fire with people trapped in the 8600 block of Normal School Road around 10:45 p.m. Firefighters and paramedics responded to the scene found the home engulfed in flames.
Officials say firefighters were able to quickly account for all five family members when they arrived on scene.
Firefighters attacked the flames from outside the structure and were able to bring the fire under control by 11:20 p.m.
From PGFD Chief Spokesman Mark Brady:
Prince George’s County Firefighters battled a house fire in Bowie after being dispatched at about 10:45 pm, Wednesday, December 8, 2010. Firefighters and paramedics responded to the single family home in the 8600 block of Normal School Road after dispatchers received 911 calls reporting the fire. There was a 911 report that occupants were trapped inside the burning structure. Firefighters from Bowie Fire/EMS Station #819, Old Town, arrived with heavy fire showing. A family of six was soon safely accounted for as firefighters initiated an attack on the fire.
At 11:20 pm, incident commanders reported the bulk of the fire was knocked down.
No injuries reported and the cause of the fire is under investigation. The Fire/EMS Department Citizens Services Unit is on the scene offering assistance to the displaced family of 3 adults and 3 children.
In addition to Bowie #819, firefighters from Bowie (Free State), Northview, West Lanham Hills, Bowie (Pointer Ridge), Anne Arundel County, Glenn Dale and Greenbelt operated on the scene.–
Posted By PGFD to Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department at 12/08/2010 11:35:00 PM
Article by Mark Segraves, WTOP Radio & WTOP.com:
A D.C. firefighter has been paid for not showing up at work for more than two years, WTOP has learned.
The reason for the payments can be traced back to a 2008 corruption investigation.
According to documents obtained by WTOP, D.C. Fire Chief Dennis Rubin received a complaint from the NoMa Business Improvement District saying a firefighter had sent an invoice to the company for CPR training provided by the fire department.
The invoice was printed on D.C. Fire and EMS letterhead, but instructed that a $120 payment be made to an individual – Natalie O. Williams – rather than the department.
The complaint was received in July 2008.
D.C. Fire and EMS officials confirm Natalie Overton Williams has been a firefighter/EMT since November 1988 and was part of the unit that provided CPR and first aid training to the public.
D.C. Fire and EMS offers the training to the public for a nominal fee.
According to Fire and EMS spokesperson Pete Piringer, after an internal investigation, the matter was referred to the office of the D.C. Inspector General. Williams was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into possible misconduct.
Williams was placed on leave in September 2008. Since then, Williams has not been charged and has continued to receive her annual salary of $72,125.
As to why the investigation has taken so long, Piringer says once a case has been referred to an outside agency for investigation, it’s out of the department’s hands.
Ray Sneed, President of the Local 36 Firefighter’s Union, says Williams has not been brought before a trial board, as is called for in the union contract.
“This is a prime example of the attitude of this administration,” Sneed says. “This should have been resolved a long time ago.”
Williams did not return e-mails from WTOP.
Four people, including two small children, escaped a raging fire here Wednesday that destroyed two homes.
The blaze started at 820 Walnut St. about 9 a.m. It shot out all sides of the house, including the roof, and quickly spread to the home next door on the south side. It took five fire departments and more than two hours to contain.
Firefighters from five departments responded – Bellevue-Dayton, Southgate, Fort Thomas, Newport and Campbell County Central. (Bellevue-Dayton Fire Chief Denny) Lynn said they got a late start fighting the blaze because water in five hydrants closest to the house was frozen.
They finally found two – one about a block away, and one about three blocks away – that worked.
“That hampered our efforts big-time,” Lynn said. “In my 35 years, I have not seen that many hydrants frozen. We’re talking to the water company to try and figure out what happened.”
Lynn said one firefighter from Southgate was hit by some falling debris from one of the homes, but his helmet protected him and he was back on the job minutes later.
Read Glenn Usdin’s commentary at FireTruckBlog.com
Mayor Rick Gray from Lancaster, Pennsylvania says he is having the city prepare a lawsuit against IAFF Local 319 over what he says is harassment by union members against volunteer firefighters with companies that respond mutual aid into the city. Gray is also threatening disciplinary action. The mayor believes undermining mutual aid agreements impacts the safety of the citizens.
The chief of Manheim Township Fire Department says two of his volunteer, who are also career firefighters (we are told not in the City of Lancaster), have taken an indefinite leave of absence. Chief Rick Kane says he has suspended a mutual aid agreement with Lancaster because of the problem.
Plum Street fire photo by Glenn Usdin.
According to LancasterOnline.com the current and future union president say they are unaware of any harassment and point out they also did not know of any mutual aid agreements. Gray says those agreements aren’t in writing, but are verbal. Battalion Chief Ken Barton, president until the first of the year, believes the city is violating a 1997 arbitration ruling that says they can’t use volunteers unless they first call in off-duty firefighters.
Apparently what has brought this to a head is the breakdown of the city’s two ladder trucks with no replacements in sight. The truck work is now being handled by mutual aid companies.
FireTruckBlog.com’s Glenn Usdin, in looking at the dispute, the economic realities and the equipment issues brings up the point that it is important to have a “Plan B in place for emergency replacement of necessary apparatus”. Click here for Glenn’s commentary.
When fire raged in the first block of North Plum Street early Monday morning, four city firefighters were there in less than a minute.
The house was right behind the city’s fire Station 3. But after the first dozen on-duty city firefighters were at the scene, the next to arrive were firefighters from surrounding municipalities.
One woman died and two children were critically injured, but without the aid of firefighters from Lancaster Township, Lafayette and Millersville fire companies, the situation could have been worse, said city fire Chief Tim Gregg.
Without their help, the flames might have spread down the row of narrow homes, he said.
Which is why Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray was angry Tuesday at what he believes are efforts by some city firefighters to undermine mutual aid agreements between the city and surrounding municipalities.
Gray said some city firefighters have harassed volunteers who have come into the city.
Barton said he believes the city is overusing the volunteers to supplement the paid fire bureau.
“We’re being cut more and more and more, and they want to rely on somebody else come in and save our butt,” he said.
Kane said he believes the volunteers are caught in the middle of a labor dispute between the city administration and the union.
That I can tell there is no information on exactly when and where this fire occurred. Thanks to crack research by Bill Carey, we learn this fire occurred early Tuesday morning at 1115 St. Louis Street in West Plains, Missouri. The video was uploaded to YouTube in recent days by the West Plains Fire Department. The bottom video is the response to the house fire on board Engine 4622 from Station 2 and shows the arrival on the scene with smoke showing from the single-family home. The top video features the firefighting.
Fire on Monday at 73 Broadway in Hackensack. Investigators were looking at the possibility of careless smoking as the cause of the fire. An occupant was taken to the hospital with minor injuries and a cat was rescued. Read more.
A day after ”The Block” in Baltimore burns comes this video from Steve Redick. It’s a fire that was reported at 12:45 PM today in Northlake, Illinois (Leyden Township Fire Protection District). The business destroyed is the All Stars gentlemen’s club. This time there were no naked women running down the street. The business was empty (not like ”The Block” where the music never stops … or so I’m told). Click here to read more about the fire.
Speaking of Steve, if you are looking for a gift with a fire theme this holiday season, Steve has three books of his fire photography. Click here to check them out.
The 2008 crash of an overloaded Oregon-based helicopter, which killed nine firefighters, was the result of a cascade of failures by virtually everyone involved in assuring a safe flight, the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday as it presented findings into the accident.
NTSB member Robert Sumwalt pointed to false weight documents by the helicopter’s owner, Carson Helicopters of Grant Pass, and a lack of government oversight to catch the mistake.
The problem was compounded by pilots who failed to account for the helicopter operating at the limit of its performance, NTSB Chairwoman Deborah A.P. Hersman said at the start of a day-long hearing that exposed serious shortcomings — even negligence — in meeting standards set to ensure safe operation.
The U.S. Forest Service, which hired Carson to help fight a wild fire in California, and the Federal Aviation Administration also failed to adequately review and monitor Carson and ensure safe operation,
Fireground audio from Monday’s five-alarm fire on “The Block”
Scroll down or click here for more of today’s news in our Quick Takes
UPDATE: At 8:37 AM Baltimore City Fire Department has another fire working in a two-story brick duplex at 603 East 41st Street. Listening to the link above, you could hear Howard County and Anne Arundel County units dispatched. (9:30 AM, fire on 41st Street under control.)
QUESTION FROM DAVE: Okay folks, help me on this one. It has been bugging me since just before 2:00 this morning when I went to bed (when this fire was at a second-alarm and they thought they had a handle on it). Was the building at 800 North Charles (Exposure B, on the corner) used for the exteriors of the 1987 movie, “The Bedroom Window”, or was it another Mt. Vernon address in the shadow of the Washington Monument? Let me know.
Chief Kevin Cartwright, spokesman for the Baltimore City Fire Department, says firefighters are battling the latest 5-alarm blaze in the 800 block of North Charles Street. Companies arrived on the scene early Tuesday morning and found a four story brick building fully engulfed in flames. Cartwright says the fifth alarm was called due to intense fire conditions, including flames shooting through the roof of the structure.
Cartwright says the building houses Donna’s Coffee Shop, a Tai Restaurant, and officers in the upper floors.
According to Cartwright, one firefighter suffered a minor knee injury while working to put out the flames. Another firefighter experienced chest pains at the scene. Both firefighters have been treated at the scene and transported to a local hospital for evaluation.
Baltimore County two-alarm apartment fire: Michael “FirePix1075″ Schwartzberg sent me this yesterday but it was so busy I never got around to posting it. This is from a fire at 5:00 Monday morning at 16 Warren Lodge Court in Cockeysville. Michael’s still pictures and account of the fire can be found here.
Fireground audio from Baltimore fifth alarm: Operations Chief Donald Heinbuch was first on the scene and asked for the box to be struck in the 400 block of East Baltimore Street yesterday. Thanks to AlertPage.net we posted the first 90-minutes of the fireground audio late last night. Click here to listen in.
Lots of videos from the fire on “The Block”: Sitting home sick yesterday with laryngitis, I stayed off the phone and went a little crazy posting a lot of videos from the fire that not only damaged Baltimore’s adult entertainment district, but seriously threatened Baltimore City Fire Department Headquarters. Click here for that coverage.
Fire apparatus on the fifth-alarm: Glenn Usdin’s FireTruckBlog.com has a series of photos from Stanley Jaworski focusing on the rigs surrounding “The Block”. Check them out.
Naked women & fire trucks. That’s how it all started for Dave: In case you missed it, the quote of the day on the Baltimore fireground came courtesy of veteran Baltimore TV reporter Jayne Miller. It came from a worker on ”The Block” – “We had to run to the back and grab anything we could and run out buck naked”. You can now watch that live TV interview for yourself. Click here.
Listening to the report and watching the coverage yesterday brought back fond memories of spending time in one of those buildings that burned. But it is not exactly what you think. At 16, when I was first driving, I would hang out in the 400 block of East Baltimore Street. In what is now a scorched Crazy Johns sub shop and used to be Polock Johnny’s (a much classier Polish sausage joint, I can assure you). I would play pinball with my friends Lee Caplan or Jeffrey Silberschlag and wait to hear the sirens from around the corner at Engine 32 and Truck 1 on South Gay Street. We would then hop in the car and turn the scanner on to find out where they went. And no, we were not completely oblivious to the other sights all around us. It was quite a place.
Also from Baltimore, lawsuit thrown out in recruit’s training death: A judge put a stop to the $15 million dollar federal lawsuit filed by the family of Racheal Wilson, who was killed in a live training fire in a Baltimore rowhouse in 2007. Read the details.
And at the other end of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway there is a new fire chief: The B-W Parkway actually terminates in Prince George’s County, Maryland where Marc Bashoor is the new acting fire chief. Brought back to the department from a retirement gig as the emergency management guy in Mineral, West Virginia, Chief Bashoor is already busy with station visits and meetings. He also has a message out to the troops. Click here for our coverage.
Investigator says chief and supervisors are also to blame for Spalding County, Georgia cell phone incident: The man whose investigation into the video taken of a dead woman at a crash scene brought the firing of a firefighter says there should be more people going out the door. Check out these excerpts from AJC.com:
Attorney Christopher Balch said interim fire chief Kenny West’s lax supervision fostered “an atmosphere where Reid’s conduct seemed acceptable. His failures in leadership development, training and communication cannot be overstated.”
“There is little or no accountability in this department,” Balch said. “Instead, it seems that employees and supervisors are trying to protect themselves and avoid the next disciplinary write-up.”
Assault on the firehouse: Serious stuff in Paris, France where three armed men burst into a fire station, ransacked the place and roughed up a firefighter. Firegeezer has this story.
Two from Western Maryland: The Potomac Fire Company in Westernport posted some pictures from the double fatal fire in Frostburg, Maryland last week. They also have photos from a fire engine wreck from Sunday.
How to stretch a bad news story into multiple days of news coverage: You may recall that yesterday I pointed out the foolishness of the Carmel, Indiana government for telling reporters that a group of firefighters had been disciplined, but not saying what they were punished for. Instead of getting the bad news over with, Carmel has now had to come clean about the transgressions. And they get another day of publicity out of the story for their efforts. In the end, it doesn’t even seem all that interesting. Judge for yourself.
Dog saved. Firefighter wet and cold: Firefighter Close Calls has the story of an Orland, Indiana firefighter who fell through the ice while trying to rescue a dog.
Man bites man: A Charlotte, North Carolina firefighter on an abdominal pains call was bitten by a man in the apartment of the woman they were treating. I am not really sure why. Here’s the story.
I wrote in the name of IronFiremen.com’s Captain Willie Wines: This year’s Robert Goulet Memorial Mustached American of the Year honor goes to Florida firefighter Brian Sheets. I know we have all been on the edge of our seats over this. Click here for the details. Better luck next year Willie.
AlertPage.net’s recording of the first 90 minutes of fire at 404 East Baltimore Street
Click here for our earlier coverage including more videos from the fire
Fire apparatus photos from the fifth-alarm
AlertPage.net has captured the first 90 minutes of the five-alarm fire today on “The Block” in Baltimore. The fire broke out in a building across a narrow alley from Baltimore City Fire Department Headquarters at 401 East Fayette Street. On the audio you can hear Car 2, Operations Chief Donald Heinbuch initially call for the box to be struck in the 400 block of East Baltimore Street and reporting people trapped.
Photo by Stanley J. Jaworski. See more of Stanley’s photos of apparatus on the fifth-alarm at FireTruckBlog.com.
There is a five-alarm fire in the 400 block of East Baltimore Street in Downtown Baltimore. The location includes what is left of Baltimore’s famed “Block”, a legendary row of adult entertainment businesses. The fire spread to at least four buildings including the Gayety Show World, a well-known Baltimore strip club.
The quotes of the day about this fire come from WBAL-TV I-Team reporter Jayne Miller who chatted with two people very familiar with “The Block”:
“We had basically nothing on. We only had our outfits on. We had to run to the back and grab anything we could and run out buck naked. Anything we had on — we just had to go outside,” she said.
“They were pretty much naked as can be. Girls were running out with things jiggling, and they ran across the street to get dressed. Some of them were getting dressed right out front real fast.”
The brown high-rise building to the left is 401 East Fayette Street. That is the home of city offices including the Baltimore City Fire Department. It is separated from the fire building by a narrow alley.
At the height of the fire there was also a working house fire in the 900 block of Poplar Grove Street.
The city is now getting a good deal of mutual aid from Anne Arundel County, Baltimore County and Howard County.
Bright flames erupted from the roof of a building at the corner of Holliday Street and Fayette, forcing firefighters who were breaking windows to climb down from ladders.
Firefighters said flames blew across the roofs of the four buildings on Baltimore Street and flames filled a narrow alley separating the buildings from fire headquarters. Firefighters could be see silhouetted in the windows of the fire dept headquarters, ready to take action if the fire spread.
The five alarm fire brought 125 firefighters, said fire department spokesman Chief Kevin Cartwright.
“The wind always plays a role in the intensity of the fire,” said Cartwright.
The city fire union, on its Twitter page, reported that the fire had reached a fifth alarm and that the two nearest truck companies were closed as part of the department’s rotating closures. (In a message sent around 7:00 PM IAFF Local 734 corrected the information to say the closest truck, Truck 1, was out of service because of mechanical issues. Truck 2, which would have been the next closest, was closed permanently in 2009. Above you will find a link to the complete message.)
The eight or nine story brown building to the right of the screen in this video houses Baltimore City Fire Department Headquarters.
“The fire is nearly under control,” said Chief Kevin Cartwright. “We believe at this point four to five buildings have suffered damage…soon as the conditions are safe to do so, we’ll have our investigators go inside and determine what caused the fire.”
Firefighters are attacking from the top, pouring water on the affected buildings. The fire began at 404 E. Baltimore Street, which contains two clubs and a bookstore. It’s spread down the block, as far as a restaurant named Crazy John’s.
Watch at the end of this video as the wind sends the smoke pushing down East Baltimore Street, “The Block”, catching the bystanders.
Another view from the window of a building.
This video, while sideways, shows part of the roof caving in.
Just a few master streams in operation.
From above, the view from the Baltimore Street side this evening.
Hooking up to the system at “Headquarters”.
Protecting headquarters and truck crews using fire escapes to open up the top floor.
If you look at the picture at the top of the page you will see people standing on top of about a five-story parking garage on Holliday Street who have a great view of this fire. This is a video from one of those people. This one catches the fireball as part of the roof collapses. You will find better quality video from this vantage point if you click here.
Click here for letter from Acting Chief Marc Bashoor to PGFD employees & volunteers (LINK NOW WORKING)
The new Prince George’s County Executive, Rushern Baker, has announced an acting fire chief. He is Marc Bashoor, who retired from the department in 2005 as a lieutenant colonel. Bashoor is a 23-year veteran of PGFD. More recently Bashoor has been the Director of Homeland Security for Mineral County, West Virginia.
Mineral County photo of Marc Bashoor.
We should also point out that, in his youth, Bashoor was an intern in the weather department at Channel 9, where I used to work. Luckily he decided on a more reputable career path.
You can read more about the new appointments at WUSA9.com.
Here are excerpts from a press release by PGFD Chief Spokesman Mark Brady:
“While the Transition Committee continues an extensive search for the best possible applicants, reviews the current state of county agencies, and seeks best practices to deliver a more effective and efficient county government, these experienced and talented individuals will be able provide the expertise and leadership needed during this interim period of transition,” stated County Executive Baker.
All of the announced appointments of County Executive Baker, besides Chief of Staff and Deputy Chief Administrative Officer, require County Council approval.
Photo of Marc Bashoor by PGFD's Mark Brady.
Prince George’s County Acting Chief Marc Bashoor is a retired 23 year veteran of the Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department. During his 23 years of service, Bashoor rose through the ranks of Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department receiving numerous citations and commendations including the Fire/EMS Department Silver Medal of Valor.
Concurrent to his emergency management duties in West Virginia, Bashoor has served as a consultant with the United States Veterans Administration, a fire service adjunct instructor with the Texas A&M University, and is a member of FEMA’s Technology Transfer Working Group. Furthermore, Bashoor has been recognized by the Maryland Police Training Commission as a National Incident Management System (NIMS) subject-matter-expert. These highlights merely touch the surface of Chief Bashoor’s experience and commitment to public safety.
A fire early this morning took the life of one adult and injured four other people at 14 N. Plum Street in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Glenn Usdin, who runs the new site FireTruckBlog.com, was on the scene and has provided photos and video. Here is an excerpt from WGAL-TV’s latest report:
When fire crews arrived, they found several residents of the home who had jumped or fallen from windows or were assisted from the roof by neighbors, Lancaster police said.
Two adults and three young children live in the home, fire officials said. One of the adults and the children were taken to the hospital. One person was airlifted to Crozer-Chester Medical Center.
The cause of death for the person who was killed has not been determined and the victim’s name has not been released.
Lancaster’s Fire Station No. 3 is within a short walk of the scene. At the scene, heavy fire was showing on both the front and back of the home, said Lancaster Fire Chief Tim Gregg said.
Here is what Glenn wrote about the fire earlier this morning:
Fire was racing out the 2nd and third floor windows when firefighters arrived. 2 occupants had already jumped to safety and there were unconfirmed reports that others may not have gotten out. This quickly became a general alarm fire and units from Lancaster Township, Lafayette and Millersville Fire companies assisted at the scene. Firefighters were hampered from doing an aggressive search and fire attack because much of the interior floor had burned away, making exterior operations necessary.
And the wall came tumbling down: Fire Critic Rhett Fleitz is on a roll with videos. He found the one above that turned into a close call for one of those fire people who wear the white helmets. No details about where or when, but it sure is interesting. For Rhett’s other find, see the next story.
Should we run this video?: The truth be told, we are running it anyway. On the surface it is funny. But the video, recently posted on FireCritic.com, gave me pause after I did a little research. Do Dave’s questions and concerns show that the grizzled former journalist has become a wimp now that he’s left TV? Or, are they legitimate? You be the judge. Put yourself in the seat of the news director or fire service blogger and tell me your decision. Click here to read, watch and comment.
Jay Leno’s fire truck: If you’ve never seen the 1941 American LaFrance pumper owned by the Tonight Show”s Jay Leno here’s your chance. Glenn Usdin has a video tour by Leno posted at FireTruckBlog.com. Click here to ride along.
When the news chopper is live overhead someone down below needs to be providing good information: A series of videos from a house fire in Indiana gives us a good lesson for PIOs and fire chiefs. If you think it’s okay to deal with the press when you are good and ready and not before, this may help you to see that’s not a good policy. Check it out.
Dave takes you to new heights: In case you missed it, make sure you take a moment to watch this video of transmission tower workers climbing more than 1700 feet into the sky. While watching it think how you would rescue them if there was trouble. Click here.
Geezer goes off on Gary: Firegeezer Bill Schumm fails to hide his disdain for the continued gutting of the Gary Fire Department and the message to the citizens that all is okay now even though we have gone from 77 to 16 firefighters per shift.
Will Ann Arbor, Michigan move to a paid, on-call fire department?: Ann Arbor is already in negotiations to farm out EMS to the private sector. With a police chief as the public safety services administrator the city of 114,000 had a budget retreat where there was serious talk of reducing it’s 89 career firefighters and using a contingent of paid, on-call firefighters. It is interesting that the fire chief was not at that retreat. At AnnArbor.com there are already 54 comments with some asking why not paid, on-call cops? Read more.
The rest of a very interesting story from IronFiremen.com: We told you last week about Virginia’s Vinton Volunteer Fire Department failing to make it to nearby house fire in a timely fashion. A City of Roanoke fire engine got to the scene first. There’s a lot more to the story and Roanoke insider, Captain Willie Wines has the details.
All it took was a firefighter’s coat and a little charm: An interesting story of a probationary volunteer firefighter accused of taking advantage of business people in four different Indiana counties. There’s still a lot of good will out there toward firefighters but guys like this are screwing that up. Here’s the story.
Recent fire videos: Interior attack on Maryland boat fire; Taco Bell burns down in Albemarle County, Virginia; Levittown, New York house fire.
Transparency is a little cloudy in Carmel, Indiana: It was nice of the Carmel government to let the citizens know they have taken action against five firefighters with ”disciplinary sanctions of varying degrees for conduct unbecoming a Carmel firefighter”. But does it really matter if you refuse to tell the people you serve why they were disciplined? Maybe it would have been better not to say anything at all. Check it out for yourself.
Firefighter talks about saving two people and a liver from downed and burning airplane: An interesting story from the U.K. where a Birmingham Airport firefighter tells how he saved the pilot and co-pilot of a plane that had crashed and burned. And for good measure he grabbed their precious cargo, a human liver that safely made its way to the hospital for what is being called a successful transplant. Read more.
Rude awakening: Neighbors rolled out of bed along West 68th Street in Hialeah, Flordia early Sunday morning to see this. A power facility was burning. Click here to see a Google Maps Street View of the complex. Haven’t found anything written about it, but there are a number of videos on YouTube.
A fire yesterday evening destroyed a Taco Bell at Albemarle Square on Route 29 in Albemarle County, Virginia. Here is an excerpt from a story by Chris Stover at Newsplex.com:
Fire investigators say the call of a structure fire came in around 5:03 p.m. Upon arrival, smoke was gushing from the roof of the building.
Assistant Fire Marshal Mel Bishop tells CBS19 crews were working on the roof of the Taco Bell, replacing the veneer around the building’s exterior and reported smoke. Employees inside also reported smoke. They pushed up the ceiling tiles to find the source, leading to the smoke and fire to spread.
A store manager told CBS19 a handful of customers were inside when the fire broke out. Everyone, including all employees, made it out of the building safe.
A college student sleeping at his parent’s home jumped out of a second-floor window before firefighters arrived on Friday morning around 9:45 AM. He had minor injuries. The house is at 22 Crabtree Lane in Levittown, New York. East Meadow Patch reports the Levittown, East Meadow, Hicksville and North Bellmore fire departments responded to the alarm.
This is a fascinating video that doesn’t have a direct connection to fire and EMS, but definitely could. Climb a 1768-foot radio transmission tower with two people whose office is at the top. As you watch them go up, via a helmet-cam on the lead climber, think of the options if one of them became ill or injured at the top or along the way. I’d like to say I have experience in this, once bringing a man down from a radio tower after he had a seizure. But that was more than 30-years-ago and the tower was about 170o feet shorter than the one in this video.
Thanks to radio geek Greg Guise, who climbed a tower or two in his day, for passing this one on.
Click above to watch the story of 30-year-old Jeffrey Daughtery of Brazil, Indiana. WTHI-TV in Terre Haute reports Daughtery was arrested on Thursday. For the past four months Daughtery was a volunteer firefighter in training at Clay County’s Posey Township Fire Department. It’s over that same time period Clay County Sheriff Mike Heaton says Daughtery was scamming businesses in a four county area.
All it took was a turnout coat that he wasn’t even supposed to have and a few stories and the sheriff says Daughtery walked away with things like gas, medication and even a brand new car for a three day “test drive”. The car was used for a trip to Chicago.
Maybe the good news out of all of this is, despite recent concerns to the contrary, people really still do trust firefighters and hold them in high esteem. But it’s cases like this that make you worry.
Here’s some of what sugarbearvfd17 posted to YouTube about this fire:
ENGINE 123 ARRIVED ON SCENE WITH HEAVY SMOKE SHOWING AND INITIATED A AGGRESSIVE INTERIOR ATTACK. THE FIRE WAS IN THE CELING AND VENTED THROUGH THE ROOF. LADDER 176 FROM GRANVILLE WAS PLACED INTO SERVICE AND KNOCKED THE FIRE DOWN.
We’ve heard this tune many times before. Another town wrestles with the siren at the volunteer firehouse. This time a new fire station is being built in Graton, California. While many in the town say they are comforted by the siren, a small group is trying to prevent the old siren from being brought to the new building.
On Thursday I told you about the new site FireTruckBlog.com by Chief Glenn Usdin. The site has actually been up for a little bit and there are a couple of stories previously posted that I think you might be interested in.
My favorite is the video taking you inside the shop that makes and maintains the San Francisco Fire Department’s wooden ladders. If you have never seen this shop in operation you will probably find it quite interesting. Click here for the story.
Another is the story about the crowding out of FDNY fire trucks by the city’s bike lanes. Click here.
There was also a nice video from a North Carolina Thanksgiving Day parade that featured rigs from many different eras of the Charlotte Fire Department. Check it out.
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