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Here's the description of this fire posted to YouTube by MenloParkFirefighter:
The first 15 minutes of Radio Traffic in 10 minutes as heard by Menlo Park Firefighters responding to a 2nd Alarm Apartment Fire at 1 Newell Ct, East Palo Alto, California on April 28th, 2011. Menlo Park Firefighters responded with Redwood City, Woodside and Belmont/San Carlos Firefighters.
Fire in Ireland: No date on this fire in Southill, Limerick.
No one's talking about possible career-volunteer dispute: A TV station in Philadelphia is reporting that a volunteer chief is under investigation for possibly failing to provide water at a fire to a career fire company because of a dispute. Click here. A follow-up story in a local newspaper trying to pin down Bensalem Township officials and others for some details found all remaining mum. But the article does have some background on the departments. Click here.
Orlando fire engine burns & more from FireTruckBlog.com: Glenn Usdin has the pictures and video from a fire engine that burned on a toll road in Florida yesterday morning. Click here. Plus a rundown of other fire apparatus news.
Commissioner says they are selling safety and not sex: An interesting story from Philadelphia where a charity calendar has brought an investigation of a male firefighter who posed topless. Commissioner Lloyd Ayers isn't happy. Here are the details of Nipplegate.
Video from Camden fire: One of our readers sends along a brief but interesting video from a recent rowhouse fire in Camden, New Jersey. If you haven't seen it, take a minute.
Alderman admits that firefighters are the enemy: A battle in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where Alderman Terry Witkowski tells reporters he won't consult with union firefighters about downsizing and outsourcing because they are the "enemy". Read more.
Geezer dissects firehouse politics: Bill Schumm has a scorecard for those who want to keep track of a political dispute in Shohola, Pennsylvania (Pike County) that is impacting the leadership of the fire company. Check it out.
Layoffs & demotions: That's the story from Wildwood, New Jersey with the approval of a new budget. Here's more.
Training opportunity 1: Andy Fredericks Training Days will be held in Alexandria, Virginia May 9-11. Check out the website for the list of presentations. Some big names on hand. Click here.
Training opportunity 2: Brunacini's Hazard Zone Management Conference is headed to the University of Notre Dame in South Bend for a return trip. There were 400 participants last year. The dates are October 17-19. Click here to learn more.
Man may sue over ambulance bill for ride he says he didn't want: From Lehigh Acres, Florida a man is threatening court action because political leaders refused to drop the bill for an ambulance ride he says he did not want. Here's the story.
The picture above has Firefighter Jack Slivinski in a bit of trouble with Philadelphia Fire Department Commissioner Lloyd Ayers. Commissioner Ayers told Philadelphia Daily News reporter David Gambacorta, "We get letters from children. They look up to us. We cannot allow them to be showing nipples in photographs of Philadelphia firefighters."
According to the article, Firefighter Slivinski has been removed from his assignment to Engine 1 and is losing OT money while his role in a charity calendar is being investigated. New York photographer Katherine Kostreva came to Philly last week just to shoot Slivinski in front of the Logan Circle fountain. He is one of a dozen firefighters from around the country who are posing for this charity calendar. Bill Gault, who is president of IAFF Local 22, wanted Philadelphia's share to go to spouses of local firefighters.
But that has now become a problem. From Gambacorta's article:
The commissioner said he had good reason to be fuming at Slivinski and Local 22.
For one thing, Ayers said, the department has long been opposed to its members posing for "beefcake calendars."
"We don't sell sex, we sell safety.," Ayers said. "That's been our mantra for the longest time."
The article says the policy of the department is permission must be granted by supervisors before posing for outside publications. Gault admits he screwed up by not running it by Ayers, but says everyone's intentions were good ones. Photographer Kostreva agrees and added, "I think the commissioner is just overreacting."
Joel Bain was kind enough to send along this brief video taken by off-duty Camden, New Jersey firefighter Dave Melendez. It shows some rapidly changing conditions at a rowhouse fire at 715 North 8th Street in Camden last Friday (April 22). PhillyFireNews.com has more pictures and video.
And as you will see by the video below, this was caught by two video cameras. Thanks to Dave LeBlanc at BackstepFirefighter.com.
WTXF-TV is reporting an investigation over how the water supply was handled last week at a warehouse fire in Bensalem Township, Pennsylvania (Bucks County). According to the TV station, there is bad blood between volunteer and career firefighters over funding that was taken from the volunteers' budget and used for salaries of the career firefighters. Here is what the TV station is reporting about the specifics of the investigation:
Vincent Troisi is chief of the Union Fire Company in Bensalem and he told Fox 29 on the phone Tuesday that he's under orders not to talk while an investigation is happening.
Troisi would not say what he's being investigated for.
But a source tells Fox 29 that Troisi is being investigated for refusing to supply water to a paid fire company that arrived first on the scene of a ware house fire.
The source says instead Troisi supplied the water to the volunteer fire company that was the second to get there.
This is from a house fire on Monday morning around 7:30 in Fauquier County, Virginia. The video is from the Goldvein VFD. Click the image below for still pictures and details from the department's website..
Fireground audio for 74 Peck Street from Erie County Fire Wire
Firground audio for 268 Walden Avenue from Erie County Fire Wire
Fireground audio for 95 Titus Avenue from Erie County Fire Wire
This is video from Don Murtha III at 74 Peck Street in Buffalo. WGRZ-TV reports this is the last of three fires overnight in vacant structures not far from each other in the Broadway Fillmore neighborhood on Buffalo's east side. Here's more From Collin Bishop at WGRZ-TV:
The first started around 3:30 Wednesday morning in a vacant house on Titus Avenue.
Then around 5:30 a.m. the second fire started in another vacant home on Walden Avenue near Ivy.
The third fire was in a vacant home on Peck Street. It started around 6:30 a.m.
Glenn Usdin's FireTruckBlog.com has a look at the firefighting museum in Birmingham, Alabama. Click here.
Also, from Greenville County, South Carolina, a fire department uses a recent house fire to explain tanker operations to the press and the public. Check it out.
This is video from a resident during a March 9 fire at 754 Manida Street in the Bronx. He held the camera pretty steady even as he watched the fire came to his home. The fire eventually went to five alarms. Click here for the coverage on the day it occurred with the chopper view. Here's a summary from an article in The Hunts Point Express:
A fire that broke out in a 37-unit Manida Street apartment building on March 9 and quickly spread to the single-family home next door, left numerous people homeless and one resident critically injured.
The March 9 blaze was set by children playing with a lighter in the four-story building at 754 Manida St., according to the Fire Department, and quickly spread to the private residence at 748 Manida, destroying both. Fifteen firefighters suffered minor injuries and were taken to area hospitals. Two residents were injured, one critically.
Special thanks to Backstep Firefighter's Bill Carey for helping me recall which FDNY fire this was (the video had no date or location).
Pawtucket, Rhode Island firefighters seen in the video above removing a man from inside this burning multi-family residence around 5:00 this afternoon. The location is the 600 block of Broadway Street. The man was pronounced dead at the hospital. Here's information from WLNE-TV:
Fire officials confirm to ABC6 News that one man has died as a result of the Broadway St. Fire. Fire crews had a hard time reaching the man due to the amount of smoke in the building. When firefighters reached the man, he was unconscious.
The last time I brought up this topic, I was accused of supporting a nanny state right here in my home county. This time I really have nothing to say. The video speaks for itself.
Above is Part 1 of the April 1, 2009 hearing. Click for Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.
Above is the video from what I believe was one of the strangest DC City Council hearings I had covered in my 25 years as a TV reporter. The contentious April 1, 2009 hearing before Phil Mendelson's Committee for Public Safety and the Judiciary had then DC Fire & EMS Department Chief Dennis Rubin and his staff on the hot seat about a used city fire engine and ambulance that had been donated to the city of Sosua in the Dominican Republic. Trying to get to the bottom of this supposed good deed by the administration of Mayor Adrian Fenty was not an easy task. A series of reports were issued. Links for some of those reports are above.
Now the latest report is out. It is from the DC Office of the Inspector General. Here's how the Washington Examiner's Freeman Klopott described the findings:
Top members of the Adrian Fenty administration violated District regulations when they developed plans to donate a used D.C.-owned fire truck to a Dominican Republic city, a D.C. inspector general investigation has concluded.
"The lack of proper oversight allowed private parties … inappropriately to influence the activities of District government employees," the inspector general wrote. "This further resulted in a waste of District government resources."
One of those cited for violating city rules is a deputy fire chief. Here's a summary from the report:
B. The Deputy Fire Chiefs Conduct
Fire truck #S-104 and ambulance #S-671, which ultimately were designated for donation to Sosua, were not identified for decommissioning and disposal until after the Nonprofit 2 Founder rejected fire truck #S-194 and the first ambulance. The Deputy Fire Chief, without regard to District decommission and disposal procedures, selected vehicles that had not yet been identified for decommission and disposal and expedited the process so that the vehicles were available for donation in less than 1 month, instead ofwithin 60-75 days as he initially indicated. 19
Accordingly, the OIG finds that he used his position as a FEMS employee to benefit a private interest and expedited the decommissioning and disposal of the vehicles without following proper procedure.
After being invited by the former DMPED DOD to a Super Bowl party in Sosua, the Deputy Fire: Chief informed FEMS that he had scheduled training for SosUa fire officials. This resulted in the • Deputy Fire Chief obtaining authorized paid leave from FEMS for his time in Sosua. He then traveled to Sosua, at District government expense (costing more than $800 for his airfare and per ' diem), accepted a free meal and transportation from Sosua officials, and accepted a plaque from Dajabon officials. Therefore, he violated the DPM by accepting gifts from prohibited sources because Sosa and Dajabon were attempting to obtain property from the District, specifically FEMS.
Accordingly, the issues of whether the Deputy Fire Chief violated DPM § 1803.1 (a)(1) (Using public office for private gain); § 1803.1 (a)(2) (Giving preferential treatment to any person); § 1803.1 (a)(3) (Impeding government efficiency or economy); § 1803.1 (a)(4) (Losing complete independence or impartiality); § 1803.1 (a)(5) (Making a government decision outside official . channels); § 1803.1 (a)(6) (Affecting adversely the confidence ofthe public in the integrity of government); § 1803.2 (A District government employee shall not solicit or accept, either directly or through the intercession ofothers, any gift from a prohibited source); and § 1803.6 (An employee shall not accept a gift, present, or decoration from a foreign government), are SUBSTANTIATED.
Click here & scroll down for previous West Plains Fire Department videos
This is the latest video from Missouri's West Plains Fire Department. This is from a helmet-cam during a house fire Saturday. The area was dealing with heavy rains and flooding, The first firefighters on the scene apparently had no supression piece, SCBA or water. But they did create their own bucket brigade.
Talk about spitting into the wind (I kept that clean). This is kind of a fascinating video of firefighters in Miami Beach, Florida trying to deal with a restaurant fire during Hurricane Wilma in October of 2005.
Two-alarm apartment fire in Concord, New Hampshire: This was a six-unit apartment building at 51 Perley Street. Read more.
If you still think you have the right to be editor-in-chief of the press or the public's on-scene videos you need to watch this: In the middle of our continuing discussion of first responders and the First Amendment, a video from a Las Vegas incident is making the news. The video pretty clearly shows a police officer beating and arresting a man for refusing to shut off a camera. Who do you think is in trouble now? This is one of those must see videos and must read stories with an important lesson. Click here.
Also, a couple dozen cameras at a UK chip store fire got me thinking of some positive suggestions for getting over photophobia. That story is here.
A very different video of a police officer: No one stopped this videographer from shooting a Modesto, California cop saving a woman from a burning building and trying to put out a bedroom fire with a garden hose. Check it out.
Maintenance problems in Cape Coral, Florida: Out of service rigs has the fire chief looking for someone other than two city mechanics to work on fire trucks. Glenn Usdin's FireTruckBlog.com has the story.
Emergency radio traffic from St. Louis tornadoes: Plus raw video from security cameras as the airport gets slammed. Here's our coverage.
New Castle County, Delaware house fire: Raw video from a house fire on Friday is bringing in a lot of comments.
Who ya gonna call?: In this case it's San Quentin prison. Firegeezer has the story of a water rescue by the prison fire brigade.
Basement fire full of surprises in Progress, Pennsylvania: Someone ran to the firehouse to tell them about the fire nearby on Schoohouse Lane. What they didn't tell the firefighters about is the man in the basement waiting to beat them with a stick. CentralPABravest.com has details, plus pictures & video from the fire.
Training opportunity 1: Andy Fredericks Training Days will be held in Alexandria, Virginia May 9-11. Check out the website for the list of presentations. Some big names on hand. Click here.
Training opportunity 2: Brunacini's Hazard Zone Management Conference is headed to the University of Notre Dame in South Bend for a return trip. There were 400 participants last year. The dates are October 17-19. Click here to learn more.
A response time everyone hopes for: Yesterday evening the firefighters from Charlotte, North Carolina's Station 3 didn't have far to go to catch some fire. It was out their front door. Here's the story.
Raw video from Berwyn, Illinois apartment fire: Our friends at ChicagoAreaFire.com have more videos and lots of still pictures from this 2-11 on Saturday. Just click here and scroll down.
Glenn Usdin digs way back for this Antique of the Week. A 137-year-old rig. Click here for the video.
Also, two fire departments use different ways to get the word out to the public about driving while performing a self-colonoscopy. Click here.
On Friday night Modesto, California police officer Larry Meyer, with the help of an unidentified man, rescued a woman from her home that officials say she set on fire. Meyer also grabbed a garden hose in an attempt to deal with the fire while waiting for the arrival of firefighters. The fire was contained to a bedroom. The video above is from ModestoNews.org. Here's more from Erin Tracy in the Modesto Bee:
About 10:20 p.m., dispatch received a report of smoke coming from a home in the 1400 block of East Rumble Road, according to police Lt. Gary Watts.
Officer Larry Meyer arrived on the scene before the Fire Department and saw a man standing near the home's open front door. It's unclear who the man was, but he and Meyer entered the smoke-filled home to rescue the combative 56-year-old woman, Watts said.
The video above is from St. Louis Airport as it was heavily damaged in an apparent tornado on Friday. Below is emergency radio traffic from Radioman911.com via Justin.TV as the storm went through North St. Louis County.
St. Louis' main airport is closed for business today as crews clean up after a tornado tore through the main terminal yesterday.
Several people were injured when the storm ripped away a large section of the terminal roof, sending people scurrying for shelter as plated glass shattered around them.
The National Weather Service has confirmed it was a tornado.
The weather service also says it's possible that a tornado that touched down in St. Charles County was the same one that ripped into the airport and apparently other parts of St. Louis County. If that was the case, the tornado sustained itself for roughly 30 miles.
High winds, possibly from the same tornado, damaged an estimated 50 homes in Maryland Heights, not far from the airport, and a 45-foot-tall steeple fell during evening Mass at Holy Spirit Catholic Church.
Video by Joey St. Pierre.
A house fire on Friday in the Chelsea Estates community in New Castle County, Delaware. No further information.
Corey Welch on the scene of a fire early this morning in Providence, Rhode Island. As I have mentioned before, for those looking for tips on how to shoot video of a fire (or anything else), watch Corey's work. You can find more of Corey's work at his website, here. Here are Corey's details on the fire:
Providence Firefighters were called out on a "Still/Box" of a reported structure fire in an occupied home around 4:30am on Friday, April 22nd. They arrived on O'Connnor St to find heavy fire showing from floor three of the three story wood frame structure. Command requested an additional ladder and engine to the scene before calling a second alarm as fire quickly spread through the home. Firefighters were only in the building for a short amount of time before everyone was called out of the structure for defensive operations. At that time, fire was visible from the second floor, third floor, and through the roof. Four ladder trucks were in operation as well as several hand lines. It took about an hour before the flames were knocked down. At least one tenant of the home was being treated on scene with unknown injuries. There was no word of any other injuries as of 5:30am.
Previous coverage & discussion of cameras at incident scenes can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here & here
Fire broke out Thursday afternoon at Beach Break Fish and Chip in the King’s Road Arches at Great Britain's Brighton Seafront. There were lots of cameras rolling before and after firefighters arrived. Here are some details from The Argus:
Eight fire engines have been called to the scene among fears that the fire could spread to neighbouring shops and because there are fears that there maybe people trapped inside.
The fire was put out around two hours later and three people were led to safety from the blaze.
We have had some discussions of late about cameras at emergency scenes. One of the issues was over law enforcement not wanting a news photographer to take pictures of the cops doing their jobs out in the open on a public street. Watch the first video on this page and count how many cameras are out. In the still frame above there are at least six people taking pictures or videos. There are plenty more on all sides of this incident.
The genie has long been out of the bottle. It's a fact of life. Maybe time is better spent teaching fire, EMS and police how to do their jobs professionally and efficiently while being photographed. A few months back I read a column by Dr. James Augustine in EMS World about the successful outcome in a tricky, life-threatening medical case that happened to be caught in video from start to finish by a bystanders cell phone camera. Here's what Dr. Augustine wrote in reference to the camera on the scene:
There are cases where EMTs must provide immediate lifesaving actions with little time for explanation to the patient or significant others. There are also incidents that occur in front of audiences of intensely impacted bystanders who in these days record the action on cameras and cell phones.
It is also important that the EMT be prepared to function in front of a camera, and not develop stage fright at a critical time. Some agencies now film providers in training doing critical EMS evolutions, so the members are aware of what an interaction looks like on film. In all cases, timely patient care is the critical priority.
Seems like a real smart way to deal with this issue and make sure EMTs and paramedics are comfortable and not distracted when bystanders or the press starts shooting. And it probably will work much better and result in fewer first responders having to make up laws that just don't exist.
I have witnessed police civil disturbance training where they teach officers to ignore extremely nasty taunts and other provocation by demonstrators. Couldn't the same thing be done with cameras?
The video above was shot on Wednesday by DC Fire & EMS Department photographer Vito Maggiolo.
From Susan Phillips at WUSA9.com:
DC Firefighters and EMS personnel responded to an unusual call for help at a Northwest restaurant overnight.
Fire officials say rescue crews responded to Capital Pizza and Subs on 18th Street for a report of a man pinned. Officials say the victim became trapped by a large dough rolling machine when it fell on one of his legs.
Firefighters were able to extricate the man and EMS transported him to a local hospital for treatment.
Glenn Usdin has the story on FireTruckBlog.com of a Missouri department that has major insurance issues with its first new pumper in forty years. Click here.
Also, details on the wreck in Ohio of a ladder truck and a tractor trailer. Click here.
Watch raw video of rescue
From Matt Jablow at WUSA9.com:
Montgomery County Fire and Rescue have released the 9-1-1 call from Monday's amazing river rescue after a woman was thrown from her kayak on the Potomac.
We still don't know a lot about the woman, except for the fact that she's 31-years-old and lives in Woodbridge.
But Wednesday, we have a much better idea what she was going through when she was suddenly separated from her kayak on a fast-moving stretch of the Potomac near Dickerson, Md.
The call was made by a bird watcher who was standing on the banks of the river and saw the whole thing happen.
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