The video above is from Scioto Township, Ohio. A house fire reported at 118 Grubb Road at 3:05 on Sunday morning. As you will hear on the video it is the second time the house has burned.
This fire was at around 10:30 last Thursday evening near Romines Mills, West Virginia. Here’s part of the description:
Company 16 (Johnstown VFD), Engine 71 (Nutter Fort VFD), and Engine 121 (Stonewood VFD) were alerted for a Structure Fire on Rt. 20 just before Raccoon Run outside of Romines Mills. Engine 71 (w/7-DC Richards) hit the streets seconds later with Tanker 7 (w/2-FF/EMT Cockrell) not far behind. JTVFD E161 and E71 arrived on the scene to find a 2-story dwelling with heavy fire showing from the 2nd floor. Tanker 3 (Lost Creek VFD) and Upshur County Co. 6 (Warren District VFD) were then added to the BOX. E71 and E161′s crew placed a 1 ¾” cross lay in service and made entry through the front door while E71 laid the 3″ supply line to E161 and dropped the 4″ LDH for E122 to pick up for water supply. Upon entry, crews encountered heavy fire and heat conditions and a 2nd 1 ¾” cross lay was placed in service. Other crews assisted with fire attack and ventilation while the tankers supplied units on scene with water.
Two alarms in Rockland County, New York: Ed Gray’s usual close up videography from a fire last Tuesday at a building on Pascack Road in Chestnut Ridge, NY that housed a Russian-American social organization. It’s a place I have passed many times on the way to the Chestnut Ridge childhood home of Mrs. STATter911. You can read more about the fire here. There is much more video from this fire from Ed Gray. Click here.
A reality check – a pair of articles that sum up some serious image problems for both career & volunteer firefighters: A column from Las Vegas and an article from Northern New Jersey provide insight into how some people look at firefighters these days. While each of them might make you angry, there are some important lessons about perception. On the volunteer side click here for the article that points out some feel firefighters get a pass when it comes to discipline. For the career side, a columnist makes the case that Clark County, Nevada firefighters are no longer adored by the public and they have only themselves to blame. I look at how this relates to my recent trip to Phoenix for an IAFF & IAFC joint event. Check it out.
Will the mayor’s order stop the union from being involved in the next election?: It looks like there will be some interesting doings in Tulsa, Oklahoma now that the mayor has issued an executive order that tells firefighters they can’t campaign off-duty during the next election cycle. Here’s the story.
As has been the case with the other abusive practices, the runaway shift deficits accumulated by dozens of firefighters underscore a workplace ethos in which the personal needs of many firefighters appear to trump those of the fire service.
Fire chief gets the blog bug and Dave is glad: “It’s Not My Emergency” is the great title of a new fire service blog started by Chief Bill Boyd of Bellingham, Washington. In the past Chief Boyd has written a couple of columns that we have been happy to post. Now we are even happier that we can regularly read the chief’s thoughts. A former PIO, Chief Boyd is always thinking about how the fire service communicates with the people it serves. You will see a lot of discussion of the role of social media in public safety. Here’s the link again for “It’s Not My Emergency”. It’s one you will want to add to your favorites and check frequently (it is also in our links).
Two-alarms in Baltimore County, Maryland: Michael Schwartzberg video of a Saturday kitchen fire that got out of hand at a Towson restaurant and bar. Click here.
An eight hour delay in calling the fire department provides the expected results: Smelling a strange odor didn’t prompt a Muncie, Indiana muffler shop owner to call 911. More than eight hours later there was still delay after it was pretty clear that the odor was smoke. Firegeezer has the story of what happened next.
Hydrants fail: No water for firefighters in Taunton, Massachusetts handling a house fire on Sunday. Nearby hydrants failed to operate. Firefighters brought some residents down on ground ladders. Here’s the story.
What some people will do for a vote: I am very happy to say my friend Willie Wines looks like the runaway favorite for fire blog of the year honors with Ironfiremen.com. He’s up there with 300 plus votes almost double his closest competitor. The voting ends on Tuesday. Willie’s formula is simple. Some ramblings about the fire service and pictures of partially naked women and men. A real crowd pleaser for sure (we often show boobs here but no breasts). STATter911.com, which tried not be a part of this, is at the bottom rung of the ladder (as well we should be). Click here to get in your last minute vote.
There is a column in yesterday’s Las Vegas Review-Journal by John L. Smith that is well worth reading. Some of it may be true, none of it may be true, or all of it may be true. It really doesn’t matter at this point and I am not here to argue those issues. Why I think you should read it is because it sums up the perception many political leaders and a portion of the public have of firefighters today. The column gives Smith’s view of where the image of Clark County firefighters currently sits following a long, ugly battle over wages and benefits.
Ten-days-ago I was in Phoenix speaking at the IAFF and IAFC Labor-Management Initiative (LMI). Besides my talks on building reputation equity, I did a lot of listening. I was quite impressed with the group there. A lot of fire chiefs and union leaders who realize they need to be working together as much as possible to deal with the continuing assaults on their budgets and ultimately their safety. At the same time firefighters are looking at what this movement attacking pensions means for their economic future. And fire chiefs are concerned that pension losses could reduce their ability to hold on to people they’ve spent a lot of time and money to train. I encourage you attend LMI next year.
But back to this column. It will be easy for many of you to read it and be angry. Some will say screw John Smith for being anti-firefighter. That visceral reaction is understandable. Unfortunately this isn’t just Smith’s impression and it isn’t just isolated to one county in Nevada. Hopefully after you calm down you will realize this is what you are up against and you need to do something about it.
I am hoping smart fire service leaders across the country are looking at this and trying to prevent it from happening in their communities. Working together as labor and management, as those in Phoenix were doing, is a probably a good way to start.
The real challenge is figuring out how to connect with your community to help them see that firefighters are still the same people who were their heroes almost ten-years-ago when the unthinkable happened.
In fact, Smith starts out his column by saying, ”It wasn’t so long ago that just about everyone adored local firefighters.” Here are some other excerpts (but make sure you click here to read the whole thing):
Consider that love affair a thing of the past. County firefighters and their union representatives have only themselves to blame. By their arrogance and greed, they invited the scrutiny and criticism of their hog-fat contract that haunts them now that an arbitrator has sided with Clark County in its contract negotiations with International Association of Firefighters Local 1908. (The new contract calls for $7.4 million in wage and benefit cuts. The union had offered $6.1 million in cuts.)
The department fiddled while Southern Nevada’s economy burned. Union president Ryan Beaman has the unenviable task of trying to spin an embarrassing defeat in a positive light. Good luck, pal.
If they’re ever going to repair their badly damaged image, county fire representatives should start by accepting responsibility for their own mistakes. The greed and arrogance hang heavy in the air.
County firefighters are forfeiting more than salary and benefits. They’re throwing away the trust and respect of the public.
A New Jersey newspaper, The Record, is looking into that issue after a pair of high profile incidents at two separate departments left firefighters expelled or suspended.
In a Secaucus case, involving harassment of a gay couple that were neighbors of the fire station, the current mayor, who is the former chief, has a town lawyer looking into the possibility of reinstating three firefighters who had to resign. There was a civil rights judgment against Secaucus for almost $5 million.
In Ridgefield, a drunken firefighter playing Santa Claus could soon be reinstated following a suspension after he went on a rampage at the firehouse.
Reporter Matthew Van Dusen also found a story from Wallington where the fire department issued a swift expulsion they say is final for a firefighter who lit a firecracker during a New Year’s party that went into a home and set a baby’s nursery on fire.
The Secaucus firefighters agreed to leave the department in 2008, but the Town Council has authorized a legal review of the incident that could result in them rejoining the force.
The Ridgefield firefighter, Brian Kettler, faced a suspension and sanctions, but at least one councilman argued that he would have been kicked off the force altogether if it wasn’t for his political connections.
The separate events have prompted critics to question if towns can make punishments of volunteer firefighters stick, especially when council members are often firefighters, too.
Volunteer fire departments are generally non-profit corporations with independent constitutions and rules administered by the members, said Lisa Ryan, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Community Affairs.
“We actually cleaned up our image,” said David Popek, a longtime Wallington firefighter who previously served as the business president of Hose Company 3, where the New Year’s party was held. “We respond harshly and are pretty stern with any wrongdoing since we’re in the public eye.”
“If you do 500 great things, one lapse in judgment will capture everybody’s attention,” Popek said.
It is also interesting to read some of the comments with the article. From it you will find two sharply points of view. Here are two of the comments:
WOW, what a shame to listen to all the people bash Volunteer Firefighters. I hope that one day you don’t need an ambulance or firetruck coming to your needs. You people should be ashamed of yourselves. I guess the good news is, there is nothing else to report on, so let’s pull some old news on good serving Public Volunteer Servants.
Too many volunteer fire departments have an Animal House mentality. Why is that? It’s been my observation that volunteer fire and ambulance positions are used as resume padding by people (usually connected to someone in the town) who are applying for paid positions with the municipality…police, DPW, etc. Many of these people have an attitude of entitlement, like they own the town. Maybe it’s time to do away with volunteer departments in every town and go to paid regional Fire/EMS in Bergen County.
Video from Michael “FirePix1075” Schwartzberg in Towson, Maryland last night at the Charles Village Pub. Baltimore County firefighters brought in two alarms to handle the fire in a popular gathering spot for Towson University students. The building is at 19 West Pennsylvania Avenue. One firefighter suffered a minor injury. Here’s Michael’s description of the fire:
The fire reportedly began in the kitchen and quickly spread to the building’s second floor, with flames coming through the roof. Firefighters were dispatched around 730 p.m., found heavy smoke and fire showing on arrival, with exposure buildings threatened, and quickly called for a second alarm. More than 100 firefighters fought the fire for 3 hours until it was put under control.
Click the image for Michael Schwartzberg’s photos from the fire.
Glenn Usdin’s FireTruckBlog.com takes a look at the impact of the recent East Coast snowstorm. It includes stories from two areas I know well. One is a video from Virginia of Arlington County Fire Department’s Engine 102 trying to deal with an icy hill. The other is from Shohola, Pennsylvania where a pumper ended up in a snow covered ditch. Plus, there is lots of other apparatus news. Check it out.
This video has now been removed by the person posting it.
I am assuming that the reason this was posted is solely for educational purposes and not to make fun of a Southern Maryland firefighter who had the misfortune of not only falling off of a ladder, but doing so in front of an operating video camera. The caption says the firefighter was not hurt.
While my assumption about the motivation for the posting of the video may be in error, my very dusty recollection from fire school is there is an important lesson to be learned from the clip. Something tells me this video will now be used by many to illustrate that lesson.
In Tulsa, Oklahoma, Mayor Dewy Bartlett has issued an executive order that apparently prohibits city workers from campaigning in local elections on duty or off. This comes after a 2009 campaign where off-duty firefighters going door to door apparently had a great impact on city council elections. IAFF Local 176 and the police union say they are now researching options. Both unions are holding off on any detailed comments at the moment.
“It states very specifically that city employees are not to be involved with campaigning,” said Mayor Bartlett.
Before the order, city employees could campaign as long as they did not do so on the clock or in city attire. The mayor, along with city councilors, says this was an oversight by a previous city attorney.
“In this case, state law says city charter position is superior to state law, if they were to conflict,” Bartlett said.
“Let me say I don’t have any disrespect for the firefighters who campaigned years ago,” said councilor Rick Westcott. “They were acting in compliance with what then city attorney Deirdre Dexter said. But I think that she was clearly wrong, and therefore their activities were wrong.”
“There are also federal laws that are at issue. The federal Hatch Act comes into play if city employees receive federal grants and federal funding, and ours do,” he said.
The Hatch Act states government employees can campaign on their own time. Councilors say when a union takes a stance, it crosses that line.
“Anytime you receive federal dollars there are strings attached,” said former city councilor Eric Gomez. “It should’ve been the policy of the city of Tulsa all along.”
Some city councilors agree with the executive order, but they believe it goes too far. They fear the order can be easily misconstrued.
While we focus almost exclusively on fire and EMS here, this is one of those days that dramatic video involving law enforcement from two separate parts of the country is front and center.
The video above is today’s botched bank robbery in Maryland. Police from Prince George’s County and Takoma Park quickly found themselves face to face with the gunman walking out the door of the bank holding a female hostage. She was able to break free when the robber was tripped up by a snow bank. It gave police a chance to shoot the gunman. He died. A Prince George’s County Police officer was wounded in the leg, apparently from a bullet that ricocheted.
TV stations in the Washington area were in the breaking news mode as this all happened. It was one of those moments where someone being shot and killed was seen live on television. Since then the news operations, as far as we can tell, are only showing the edited chopper video on the air. It stops before the gunman falls to the ground. The exception is WTTG-TV, which has put the complete raw video on its website. Click here for that video.
The other video is from the shootout inside a Detroit police station five days ago. It shows Lamar Moore entering the Northwest District on January 23 and ambushing the officers. Moore was killed in this gun battle and four police officers are recovering from their wounds. The 68 second video, showing two camera angles, was released today by the Detroit Police Department.
The video opens with a message from Police Chief Ralph Godbee. Chief Godbee explains the decision to release this video. The chief called it a commitment to transparency and to show citizens the heroism of his officers. The chief also believes it will of help in the training of police officers.
Below is some of the police radio traffic during the shootout that was posted on YouTube by FirefighterDispatch.
In one view Cmdr. Brian Davis is seen walking up the the desk, where Modreci Draper, owner of a shoe repair business who had come to the station to shine officers’ shoes, is talking to Officer David Anderson.
In the camera view at the door, Moore is seen walking into the building, but a gun is not visible. Then you can see him walk close to the desk.
Davis is talking to Sgt. Ray Saati, with his back initially turned to Moore. Draper leans down, wiping salt from Anderson’s shoes, he told the Free Press Thursday. Suddenly, there is a blast and Anderson falls away into a corridor, with only his feet visible in the frame.
Moore shoots down another hallway, where Sgt. Carrie Schulz is shot in her bullet-proof vest. From that corridor, Sgts. Mike Ingels and James Kirkland begin shooting at Moore, who backs up, according to police.
Behind the desk, Davis takes Saati’s gun and he and Officer Theodore Jackson begin shooting over the desk at Moore, who hurls himself over the counter.
Moore moves toward Davis, who extends his right arm, shooting at point-blank range with the gunman. Moore shoots and hits Davis’ hand and Davis is also hit in the back. He takes cover, while Moore moves to the other side of the desk area. At this point, according to police, Moore is mortally wounded.
Davis throws a trash can at Moore, who staggers and falls into chairs.
The alarm was struck out at 11:25 p.m., Fire Department spokesman Kevin MacGregor said, but personnel remained on the scene for cleanup and investigation.
While fire officials believe the blaze was concentrated in the rear of the unused factory building, fire crews were cautious battling the fire because of the lightweight construction of the building, MacGregor said.
Firefighters had trained their hoses on the rear of the building and battled the fire defensively, MacGregor said, and kept the flames from spreading to other buildings.
The building apparently housed a couple or businesses, MacGregor said. A sign outside the building said “Eurosonic Blinds and Shutters.”
Click the image to see more of Steve Redick’s photos from the fire.
This is described as a fire at Dock 5 in Jayapura, West Papua. Though the title on the video describes this as funny, I am not sure I see it that way. Takes some guts to get up on the roof with the fire coming toward you and only a bucket in hand. No details on when this occurred or injuries to the would be firefighter.
The storm that hit the Washington, DC area yesterday kept fire departments busy. Roads were clogged with abandoned cars during what WTOP Radio reporter Bob Marbourg called an “unprecedented” evening rush hour Wednesday. Emergency crews were having difficulty not just with the snow and ice, but getting around the traffic and stalled vehicles. Wires down and power failures added to the work load for fire and EMS. In addition, there were a number of fires in homes without electricity.
The Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department had four such house fires between 10:30 last night and 5:30 this morning. In one, a fire at a Glenn Dale home, firefighters rescued a woman from a second floor window.
The video on this page is from a house fire in College Park. Here are details from a press release by PGFD’s Chief Spokesman Mark Brady:
At about 5:30 am, firefighters from the College Park area were alerted to a house fire in the 5000 block of Pierce Avenue. Fire/EMS units arrived quickly to find a 1-story single family home with fire showing from the basement. An interior attack by firefighters on the fire was in progress when a partial collapse of the first floor occurred. Personnel immediately evacuated the structure and were accounted for and deemed OK by incident commanders. An exterior attack continued on the fire which had now extended up to the first floor. The family was alerted to the basement fire by a working smoke alarm. All occupants escaped the home safely prior to the fire departments arrival. The cause of the fire is attributed to a fireplace in the basement, This home was without power due to the winter storm on Wednesday. Fire loss is estimated at $140,000.
We had posted an earlier video from this two-alarm apartment building fire on Tuesday at 1332 D Street in Southeast Washington. This one gives a close-up view of the operation.
Engine 1 struck by passenger vehicle while blocking for Engine 2 at accident scene. E1 personnel were inside apparatus at the time of collision and not injured. Driver of passenger vehicle transported by EMS 8 with reportedly non-life threatening injuries. Engine 3 dispatched to block scene of secondary accident.
Just as we saw in Stratford, Connecticut on I-95 in early January when two fire engines were hit by two different tractor-trailers at the same incident, using the big fire trucks as barriers works.
But still, not everyone is getting the message. Yesterday morning on Long Island, North Merrick Fire Chief Jimmy Allen understands the concept well. The chief also knows that it isn’t acceptable when an incident is in the center lane of a highway to have cars driving by in both the right and left lanes. But a New York State trooper apparently knows better. According to Chief Allen he was given a ticket and threatened with arrest when he failed to unblock the right lane while the scene was still active.
Joe Piccinini, the chief of the Central Calaveras Fire and Rescue Protection District in Calaveras County, California is under fire following a report that has been released about Piccinini’s handling of his previous job. On July 1, 2009 Piccinini resigned as chief of the Anderson Fire Protection District in Shasta County, a job he took in October, 2007. He had been placed on administrative leave before resigning.
The report, from the Shasta County District Attorney’s Office, makes numerous allegations about Chief Piccinini. But no criminal charges are being filed because the statute of limitations to file charges has expired. So far, his bosses in Calaveras County are sticking by him.
In a report released today (Monday), Shasta County Deputy District Attorney Erin Dervin wrote that there was evidence Joe Piccinini had given alcohol to minorsnumerous times, driven drunk in fire department vehicles and had also used them to remodel his home.
Piccinini’s Gold River attorney, Daniel Thompson, said he’s not surprised the charges weren’t filed.
He said the investigation was based on “hearsay and internal witness testimony” amid a “tide of bias or political agenda.”
Both the Shasta County Grand Jury and an investigator the department’s board hired to look into the allegations found that employees had accused Piccinini of watching pornography on his work computers.
He was also accused of getting publicly drunk in uniform, berating and sexually harassing employees, misusing district property, funds and staff for personal gain, purchasing items without authorization and knowingly furnishing alcohol to a minor.
Among the allegations was that Piccinini had forged a first responder certification from his former employer, the Tulsa, Okla., Fire Department to get a job in Anderson.
Tulsa authorities reported that records the department had were in “shambles” or “garbage” or a “mess,” Dervin wrote.
“We certainly couldn’t prove any fraud beyond a reasonable doubt,” Dervin said.
Deputy District Attorney Erin Dervin wrote in the report that numerous witnesses quoted Piccinini as saying to the minors: “If you’re old enough to die for your community, you’re old enough to drink.”
Piccinini did not immediately respond to a phone message left Tuesday afternoon at Central Calaveras Fire and Rescue Protection District headquarters.
Central Calaveras district board President Bill Schmiett said he had been aware of the allegations against Piccinini since before his district hired Piccinini.
“When we hired him, he told us all about his travails in Anderson Fire Department,” Schmiett said. “We had him super background investigated.”
By the time the Redding Police Department finished the criminal investigation at the request of Anderson police – to avoid an appearance of a conflict of interest – the one-year statute of limitations had expired, according to the report.
In Columbia, South Dakota a house fire was reported around 8:00 on Monday morning. It belonged to Steve Wander, a volunteer firefighter who helped fight the fire. No one was home when the fire broke out on the second floor of the home and there were no injuries. Here are details from AberdeenNews.com:
Steve Wander’s home on the northwest side of Columbia at 303 N. James St. is unlivable, said Columbia Fire Chief Corey Mitchell. Firefighters were able to save the first floor and some contents, but the second floor was destroyed, he said.
Four volunteer fire departments, including Wander and his Columbia teammates; Bath; Aberdeen Rural and Groton, fought the fire in temperatures in the high 20s with 20-mph winds.
This is an earlier clip from one of a pair of two alarm fires yesterday in Washington, DC. It is almost 11 minutes of raw video that starts as the first lines are stretched at 1666 Fort Davis Place, SE for a fire that began in the basement of a home. You can also hear fireground audio with this video.
Above is video by dcfdrescue on YouTube of a two-alarm fire around 2:00 PM today at 1666 Fort Davis Place, SE. The fire was in the basement and spread to the first floor. Spokesman Pete Piringer says on the department’s Twitter feed that the fire started because of an electrical problem and caused about $300,000 in damage.
Piringer said first arriving units had a significant amount of fire on the second floor of a two-story garden-style apartment building.
The fire quickly spread to the attic, Piringer said, and a second alarm was quickly sounded.
Just before 10:00 AM there was a fire in a commercial building in the 2100 block of P Street, NW. More from WUSA9.com’s Raul Rivero:
DC Fire and EMS officials say that a fire broke out at around 9:50 AM on the 3rd and 4th floors of a commercial building on the 2100 block of P Street NW.
Pete Piringer with DC Fire and EMS tells 9NEWS that the fire was on the walls and concealed spaces and that it caused considerable damage to the roof of the building.
Piringer said that the fire was possibly electrical in nature and described it as “labor intensive” requiring 60 firefighters to contain. The fire did not extend to nearby buildings.
Other fires today in DC included a basement utility room fire in a two-story apartment building at 1320 Bryant Street, NE around 8:00 AM and a law enforcement vehicle that caught fire in a garage in the 1200 block of 1st Street, NE around 9:00 AM. At the same time the DC Fire & EMS Department is involved in the logistics surrounding the State of the Union address by President Obama.
The video above and below are two firefighters from the Grape Creek VFD in San Angelo, Texas showing off the melted parts of their helmets after attacking a fire in a large metal shed yesterday behind a house in the Paradise Valley subdivison. The video all the way at the bottom is the response to that fire by the second unit.
Above is video from WMAR-TV of yesterday’s funeral for Lutherville VFC Firefighter Mark Falkenhan. Falkenhan’s 14-year-old son Christian rode on Lutherville’s 1954 Mack that took his father to Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens.
The word “hero” gets used too often to describe the most pedestrian of admirable behaviors, from the star quarterback who marches his team for a winning score to the kid who finds a missing wallet and turns it in. But exceptional bravery, special ability, exceptional deeds and noble qualities — those are what define an authentic hero, and Mr. Falkenhan lacked for none of them.
It was not by accidental circumstance or naiveté that he ended up on the third story of that Hillendale apartment complex in the midst of a fire, searching for missing residents. He knew the risks as well as anyone could. But his selfless desire to help others drove him forward into the flames.
That’s what made him exceptional. That’s why his legacy is important. That’s why the community is in his debt.
Over the weekend we brought you video from Paul Lof of Saturday morning’s townhouse fire on Clowser Court in Springfield, Virginia that critically injured a resident and left three firefighters with minor injuries. The firefighters were hurt in a flashover not seen in Lof’s video. It happened before Paul’s arrival and was caught on the video above by a neighbor from across the street.
In the video above, just before the two minute mark, you see fire in the windows on side D. It breaks through one of the windows and by 2:14 the first floor takes off. This started as a kitchen fire.
There was a time we would regularly bring you videos from Gary, Indiana that were shot by Edward Malik (AKA mabas21 on YouTube). Malik stopped his coverage of the Gary Fire Department and concentrated on the suburbs. But he made a return visit early Saturday morning with this fire at 24th and Wisconsin. He titled the clip, “I Am Sorry, Your House Is On Fire? We Will Be There Later Not Sooner”. In his description of the fire Malik talked about the layoff early this month of 34 Gary firefighters following a record number of fire runs last year. According to Malik, there were at least five working fires in three hours on Saturday morning. Here is an excerpt:
On arrival a fully involved frame house was found with a fireball blowing out the side of the house from the gas meter. It took an engine company over 15 minutes to get on scene to fight the fire because the entire fire department along with several mutual aid companies were working their asses off at 4 other fires burning at the same time.
Firefighters have discovered the body of a man after battling a house fire in Oxon Hill and overcoming complications from this morning’s massive water main break.
Mark Brady, spokesman for Prince George’s County Fire and EMS, says firefighters were called to a the fire at 305 Corla Drive around 8:20 a.m. Firefighters arriving on scene found low water pressure in the area when they went to work to put out the flames.
Brady says two extra tankers were automatically dispatched to the fire scene because of the potential for water pressure problems caused by a break in a 54 inch water main that serves areas south of Central Avenue.
Brady says extra tankers were moved into areas affected by the water main break earlier this morning. Each tanker carries 2,000 gallons of water. Each fire engine also carries 500 gallons of water, which the responding crews used to knock out most of the flames.
Right now firefighters are hitting hot spots using water from the extra tankers called to the scene.
The fire victim has not yet been identified. Brady says the fire victim was mobility challenged.
WUSA-TV in Washington, DC (with assistance from CNN & WBAL-TV), has been kind enough to provide live streaming of the pool camera inside Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Baltimore during the funeral this morning for Firefighter Mark Falkenhan of the Lutherville Volunteer Fire Company in Baltimore County. Firefighter Falkenhan was killed last Wednesday during an apartment fire. The funeral is scheduled for 11:00 AM EST.
You can find previous coverage of the death of Firefighter Falkenhan here, here, here and here
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