This is from a fire overnight at an Afghan Market in the 3700 block of South Grand Boulevard in St. Louis. At 1:34 in the video above you will hear the switch from offensive to defensive operations and the call for a second alarm.
Flames and smoke have virtually destroyed a south St. Louis business. It was a fire that went to three alarms and required the efforts of nearly two dozen firefighters overnight.
The first bell was sounded around 12:30 a.m. at the Afghan Market in the 3700 block of South Grand Boulevard near Chippewa.
Fire officials arrived to a structure heavily involved in fire and began an immediate knockdown of the growing flames. Buildings to the north and south of the burning structure were slightly affected by the intense heat, but were otherwise undamaged.
A cause for the blaze has not been pinpointed in the ongoing investigation.
Fire damage to the Afghan Market is extensive with the contents appearing to be a total loss. The business was a multi-faceted operation selling a variety of groceries and baked goods.
Officials say the roof of the single story structure collapsed onto the interior of the store and a rear wall of the building also collapsed.
A fire department official say 15 different pieces of fire apparatus were deployed to the fire scene. There have been no reports of injuries to any firefighters or civilians at the fire scene.
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) – A federal investigation into a house fire last summer that killed two firefighters has determined that city fire officials failed to effectively respond to mayday calls.
The report Wednesday by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health concluded that several factors contributed to the deaths in Bridgeport. It notes that an incident safety officer and rapid intervention team were not readily available on scene, and that ineffective mayday procedures and training also were factors.
In February, the state Department of Labor cited the fire department for serious safety violations, determining that among other problems, the department failed to perform tests on firefighters' breathing gas tanks, failed to conduct medical evaluations and ensure firefighters were fit.
Fire Chief Brian Rooney wouldn't comment on the federal report because the state fire marshal's office is still investigating.
Lt. Steven Velasquez and firefighter Michael Baik died in the July 24 fire.
"This has been a trying and difficult time for everyone involved in the deaths of our two firefighters – their families and friends, their fellow firefighters and the entire city," Rooney said in a statement. "We continue to offer our heartfelt thoughts and prayers to the families of Lt. Steven Velasquez and Firefighter Michel Baik as we work our way through the process."
An incident commander had to monitor two different radio channels by using two different handheld radios, the new federal report said.
"At times, radio transmissions on one channel were missed or unanswered because the (incident commander) was transmitting on the opposite channel," the report states.
Fire officials thought they heard what sounded like a mayday sent by one of the firefighters, leading to a discussion among them, but the possible mayday transmission was not confirmed with dispatch, according to the report.
Mayday is an international distress signal firefighters send when they become lost, trapped or in other trouble.
The fire department had a mayday procedure but it did not test the ability of firefighters, dispatchers and incident commanders to manage such incidents, the report found.
"In this incident, mayday transmissions were missed and not acknowledged," the report said. "It is not known why the dispatch center did not hear or acknowledge the maydays or why the mayday tone was not used appropriately."
The report also said fire departments should train firefighters in air management techniques. Some firefighters had left the building to change their air bottles, but both victims were found with depleted cylinders, according to the report.
An incident safety officer arrived more than 20 minutes after the initial dispatch because the incident occurred after hours, the report found. Fire departments should ensure a separate incident safety officer is appointed at each structure fire with the initial dispatch, the agency said.
Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District crews responded shortly after 4 p.m. to the one-alarm fire west of Fair Oaks Boulevard and found a well-involved fire, said Batallion Chief Jeff Metzinger. A family inside the home noticed smoke coming through the ceiling and was able to get out.
Ten-days-ago one of the big local news stories in the Nation's Capital was the pregnancy light duty/leave policy for the DC Fire & EMS Department. Here is how WUSA9.com described it:
Female firefighters in the District used to be able to switch to a desk job during their pregnancy. But under a new policy, they're forced to use their own sick leave. It means some female D.C. firefighters have no money coming in months before their due date. They also don't have any maternity leave after they give birth.
Andrea Noble of The Washington Times is reporting that Chief Kenneth Ellerbe told her on Wednesday that "he is mulling a change in policy that would offer 90 days rather than 30 days of limited-duty assignments to all sick, injured or pregnant firefighters and paramedics."
At the same time the chief is mulling that over a department press release was issued saying the chief would announce changes:
At 11:00 a.m., on Thursday, June 30, the District of Columbia’s Chief of Fire and Emergency Medical Services (F&EMS), Kenneth B. Ellerbe, will outline key changes to the department’s limited leave policy for representatives of the local media at a press briefing that will be held at the Fire and EMS headquarters building, located at 1923 Vermont Ave., NW.
Chief Ellerbe will be available to discuss the current policy and what the changes will mean for all members of his Fire and EMS team. The briefing will be held in the F&EMS Headquarters second floor conference room.
DC Council member Phil Mendelson gave the department until July 12 to change the policy or he would try to do it for them through legislation. Mendelson believes the policy already in place with the Metropolitan Police Department is a good one:
The Metropolitan Police Department’s pregnancy policy allows women to stay on limited-duty assignments throughout their pregnancies, said Mr. Mendelson, at-large Democrat.
In an interview, Chief Ellerbe said he worried he would open the department up for discrimination lawsuits by creating separate distinctions for employees on limited-duty assignments. Instead, he said the department was more closely exploring the option of offering the 90-day limited-duty assignments. Even that change would not be without ramifications, he said.
“My concern is that overtime would increase,” he said of a change from the current policy of 30 days to a policy of 90 days.
A fire broke out Wednesday at about 12:45 p.m. in the 3200 block of M Street in the Georgetown section of the city.
According to DC Fire and EMS, the fire was at the Hook restaurant at 3241 M Street.
Units arrived on the scene with heavy fire and smoke showing from the building and fire coming from the roof. A second alarm was called as a precaution just before 1 p.m.
The fire was knocked down just after 1 p.m. and according to Pete Piringer there are no injuries.
Two neighboring restaurants, the Salon and the Tackle Box, suffered some damage.
If you can deal with the music, the video above was taken as the first companies went to work at the house fire on Saturday in Foutain Hill, Pennsylvania. Here are two other videos from the fire.
NEW YORK (AP) — A construction company supervisor was acquitted of manslaughter and all other charges Tuesday in a blaze that killed two firefighters at a condemned bank tower at ground zero.
Jurors delivered their verdict for Salvatore DePaola, but the panel was still deliberating for Jeffrey Melofchik. The judge hasn't yet rendered a verdict for a third defendant and the company.
"I haven't slept in four years," DePaola said after the verdict.
"There are people who didn't do their jobs and they should have been up here," he said, pointing a finger at the fire department.
A worker's careless smoking sparked an August 2007 blaze that tore through nine floors of the former bank building, which was being taken down after being damaged and contaminated with toxic debris in the Sept. 11 attacks.
Firefighters Robert Beddia, 53, and Joseph P. Graffagnino, 33, died after being trapped in black, choking smoke and running out of air in their oxygen tanks.
Prosecutors said the break in the firefighting pipe, called a standpipe, was the crucial factor in their deaths. With the standpipe useless, it took firefighters about an hour to get water on the flames, letting the blaze build into a lethal inferno, prosecutors said.
They said Alvo, DePaola and Melofchik knew the pipe had broken about eight months before, when workers took down some braces that were holding it to the basement ceiling. The supports were proving stubbornly hard to scrub of asbestos, and the bosses were under pressure to speed the cleanup to keep it from going over budget, prosecutors said.
So after the break, the men had a 42-foot section of standpipe cut up and carted away and did nothing to repair or flag it, though Melofchik continued to sign daily reports saying the building's fire-suppression system was working, prosecutors said.
"They did the thing that killed those firefighters," Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann told jurors in a closing argument. "The evidence … woven together, paints a mosaic of overwhelming guilt — that but for these wholly reckless acts, these firefighters would be alive today."
But defense lawyers said the men didn't recognize the pipe's importance, and the disaster was a product of a web of shortsighted regulating and hazards beyond their control.
"This was a horrible, perfect storm of bad circumstance," defense lawyer Edward J.M. Little said in a closing argument. The two firefighters, he said, "died horrible deaths, but it wasn't because of anything the defendants did."
After the blaze, it emerged that the fire department hadn't inspected the building for more than a year, though it was required to do so every 15 days.
Meanwhile, building, environmental and labor inspectors hadn't realized that some measures meant to contain toxins could thwart firefighting. Plywood stairwell barriers slowed firefighters' progress, and a fan system kept smoke in and pulled it down, instead of letting it rise and escape.
The city and Melofchik's employer, general contractor Bovis Lend Lease, acknowledged errors. In response, the Fire Department created dozens of inspection and auditing jobs, and Bovis agreed to finance a $10 million memorial fund for slain firefighters' families, among other responses.
Meanwhile, the building lingered for almost a decade as a grim reminder of the attacks. The last of it was finally removed in February..
Firefighters rescued one man off the second-story roof of a filter manufacturing plant after a fire erupted Monday afternoon.
More than 25 people evacuated Metchem Inc., a manufacturer of purifying filters and other pollution-control devices in the 700 block of East 82nd Street.
The fire was reported at 1:45 p.m. by an employee who noticed flames coming through the second-floor ceiling of the white brick building. He yelled, "Fire," and the building was quickly evacuated, according to Cleveland fire officials.
Fire officials have given residents the all-clear to leave their homes following a large fire at Twin Village Recycling (Monday afternoon).
Officials originally requested residents to stay in their homes until the smoke cleared.
The fire sent massive plumes of smoke into the air that could be seen across much of Western New York.
The facility is located at 4153 Broadway in the Village of Depew.
The fire started before 4 p.m. Monday. Broadway was closed from Dick Road to Borden Road, causing massive traffic headaches during the busy evening rush.
The owner tells 2 On Your Side that two of his workers were using blow torches to repair a door, and somehow the fire started. He said the building the workers were in housed scrap metal. Although the workers tried to use fire extinguishers to put out the flames, they spread quickly.
Nobody was hurt by the actual fire, but Depew's fire chief says two firefighters were taken to the hospital due to heat exhaustion.
Check this video out that popped up on YouTube. It is titled "Automobiles (1920s)". I am not sure why I watched it, but I am glad I did. At the 16 second mark you will see a response by DCFD as the they dump the house at 3522 Connecticut Avenue, NW. Out the door are Engine 28 (wagon & pumper), Truck 14 and Battalion Chief 5.
I have seen a fair amount of DCFD archival footage but this is one I don't recall viewing prior to today. I am sure some DCFD historian has spotted this in the past, but two of the experts I call on (one is older than dirt) are like me and hadn't seen it before. Enjoy.
Fountain Hill, Pennsylvania house fire: Newsworking.org reports two alarms were needed for this duplex fire at 603 Lechauweki Avenue on Saturday morning. Here's more video that shows a sledge hammer becoming a casualty of the fire (at the 2:54 mark).
Police say Philly firefighter who made news with charity calendar took his own life: News reports from Philadelphia indicate that Jack Slivinski of Rescue 1 committed suicide on Saturday. Firefighter Slivinski got into trouble in April when Commissioner Lloyd Ayers publicly admonished him after he posed shirtless for a charity calendar. Click here for details on Slivinski's death and here for details on the calendar controversy.
Georgia firefighter's cell phone video of dead woman still making news: ABC's 20/20 had a report on Friday night about the Spalding County, Georgia incident that had many departments reevaluating camera policies. This story included an apology from the captain of the firefighter who took the video of Dayna Kempson. Kempson's family said that this was the first official apology they've received since this story surfaced in October. Here's more.
Passenger video from fiery Amtrak crash: If you haven't seen it, there is close up video of the moments after a truck hit a passenger car on the California Zephyr as it passed through Nevada on Friday. Click here.
Firegeezer does the local beat: For a blog that has correspondents all around the world Bill Schumm sticks fairly close to home for this story about trying to keep the chief's position filled in two adjacent Virginia towns. Here's the story.
Get your hall pass: Once again I am sharing the booth with Firegeezer at Firehouse Expo in Baltimore on July 21, 22 & 23. In addition to Mike Ward and the Firegeezer Players, Bill has once again, despite my protestations, brought along John Mitchell and Rhett Fleitz of Firefighter Netcast fame. The duo will be transmitting their words of wisdom (such as they are) from booth #743, As an antidote to this inane babble I am bringing along author, firefighter and all around good guy Will Wyatt who will be selling and signing his book "And a Paycheck, Too". If you would like a pass to the convention floor and some of the events click here and us the promo code EX79.
You may recall the controversy that surfaced two months ago after a Philadelphia firefighter posed shirtless for a charity calendar. We are sad to report that the firefighter involved, 31-year-old John "Jack" Slivinski of Rescue 1, was found dead in his home in Lawndale yesterday morning. The death was confirmed for Philly.com's Joelle Farrell by Commissioner Lloyd Ayers:
"The Philadelphia Fire Department has lost a son," Ayers said. "As you may imagine, this is devastating to everybody."
Ayers would not say whether foul play is suspected. Slivinski was not on duty at the time of his death, he said.
Police were not immediately available to comment on the case.
Ayers, who was originally critical of Slivinski and IAFF Local 22 President Bill Gault for doing the photo shoot without approval from the commissioner's office, made a rare appearance at the trial board for Slivinski and recommended he be allowed to return to Rescue 1 with just an oral reprimand.
There are currently no further details on Firefighter Slivinski's death.
One thing the lawyers for the company that owned the TV station where I used to work drummed into our heads was what to do if you made a mistake in a story. The answer was pretty basic and pretty smart, clearly correct the record and apologize immediately. It won't always make all problems vanish but it sets you in the right direction for cutting your losses and getting the problem behind you. And more important, it's the right thing to do.
But too often organizations don't see that as an important first step when it is very clear someone has screwed up. Some lawyers or bosses will tell you to just shut up.
Spalding County, Georgia Captain Lee Slaughter told ABC's 20/20 that's exactly what happened when he learned one of his firefighters, Terrence Reid, had taken and distributed cell phone video of a dead woman who was in an automobile collision last July 17. The victim was Dayna Kempson and, as I am sure most of you know, that video eventually found its way to Kempson's father. Jeff Kempson went public with the story in October.
Reid was fired and Slaughter was one of seven firefighters disciplined because of Reid's actions. But according to Jeff Kempson, the apology from Captain Slaughter (in the video above) is the only official one the Kempsons have received. Congratulations to Captain Slaughter for doing what is right even when those above him couldn't find the decency to do the same much earlier in this process.
You have to ask yourself what were Slaughter's bosses and the Spalding County lawyers thinking. There was no doubt from the start that this was an enormous screw-up on the part of Firefighter Reid and the department. Knowing that, it seems to me that the one of the initial and most important steps in trying to make this right should have been to first privately and then publicly apologize to Dayna Kempson's family. Not doing so is a great insult on top of the injury the department already inflicted.
Slaughter, as acting scene commander, was chastised in the investigators' report for not properly supervising the scene and for being unaware Reid was taking the video.
Slaughter agreed to speak to "20/20" to apologize to the Kempsons on behalf of the fire department. During the investigation, he said, he was prohibited from contacting the couple.
"We never got an opportunity to tell the family," he said, "that we're very sorry that this happened and we did not, or do not condone what his young man did."
The Kempsons said that's the first official apology they've received. They're still waiting for one from Terrence Reid.
If you view the clips that follow Captain Slaughter's apology you will see 20/20 focused on an aspect of the story that is similar to what I brought up the other day about a problem in Pasadena, Texas. In that case the fire chief discovered, despite handling the issue three years ago when a firefighter took nude pictures of his wife inside the fire station and posted them on the Internet, the offending pictures are sill on the web haunting the department.
Similarly, the video of Dayna Kempson is still on the Internet and probably always will be. The other clips are interviews with experts about the legalities of the Internet and tips on how Kempson's grandparents can try to make sure Dayna's children don't stumble upon those images.
The NTSB has launched an investigation into today's deadly collision between an Amtrak train and a semi-truck on Highway 95 near the I-80 Trinity exit.
Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Dan Lopez says five or six people were killed in the 11:30am accident on U.S. Highway 95 about 70 miles east of Reno. The California Zephyr was en route 2,400 miles from Chicago to Emeryville, California.
Amtrak officials say there were about 204 passengers on the train and 14 crew members. It was Train 5, the westbound California Zephyr, heading from Chicago to Emeryville.
Nevada Highway Patrol told FOX40 witnesses told them the train’s crossing lights were working at the time of the collision. The semi collided with the 4th car of the train. The semi was empty at the time, and there was just the driver inside the cab.
Do yourself a favor and take a moment to read Neal Rubin's column at DetroitNews.com. It is the story of how a pair of Detroit police officers decided to deal with a one-armed, one-legged man in a wheelchair who was in the roadway at the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel.
It is also the story of Army veteran Mike Kozlowski and an anonymous company of Detroit firefighters who had the experience, judgment, compassion and wisdom to handle this situation in a much, much different way. According to the story, the cops used the police car loud speaker to publicly cuss out and berate the man while Kozlowski and the firefighters separately moved in to solve the problem and help someone in need.
Mike Kozlowski, who served two tours of duty in Afghanistan and one in Iraq, received a ticket from the cops for his troubles.
While I am sure some people will look at it as police bashing. I don't think of it as representing all cops, but just two who, if the column is accurate, clearly have lost their way.
It is another reminder about the image you present when wearing a uniform. And a reminder that there is almost always someone watching.
This is video from a fire last Thursday at the Monroe Professional Building at 450 Monroe Turnpike in Monroe, Connecticut. The Stepney Fire Department website reports the call was dispatched at 6:48 PM and that the fire was "mostly knocked down" by 7:30 PM.
Stepney Chief 151 was in the area at the time and immediately reported fire and smoke showing from the offices above All American Appliance. Monroe Chief 251 took command.
Stepney responded with Engines 101, 102 and 104. Also responding was Monroe’s Quint 200, Engines 203 and 205. Stevenson showed up with 302, 320 and 310. Trumbull was requested for their ladder and Shelton, Botsford, Nichols, Riverside (Oxford) provided local station coverage.
DCFD.com has details of two overnight fires in the Nation's Capital. Above is video of a vacant house on fire at 5019 Hayes Street, NE that occurred around 1:00 this morning. One firefighter received a laceration. About the same time there was a fire in a rowhome at 1709 Bay Street, SE that went to two alarms. Another firefighter was injured at that fire.
Here is a recent tweet from the DC Fire & EMS Department about a busy shift:
Busy 24 hr- transported over 250 people to hospitals-Tune Inn SE, Hayes St NE, Bay St SE fires- DC F&EMS – Anytime, Anywhere We'll Be There.
This is video from June 13 at 4205 Robins Ridge Drive in Las Vegas, Nevada. It shows Engine 42 arriving on the scene. Prior to the fire department getting there a police officer pulled up. He's the one taking his own pre-arrival picture.
Below is the media release from PIO Tim Szymanski with details about the fire.
Fire Starting In Garage Heavily Damages Las Vegas Home For The Second Time In One Week, Fire Extensively Damages Another Northwest House
Incident number: 1142670 Date: June 13, 2011 Time of call: 7:04 p.m.
Time of First Unit on Scene: 7:14 p.m. (E42) Time of Knockdown: 7:21 p.m.
Number of occupants: Adults: 2 Teens (18-13): 1 Children: 0
Any injuries: No How many: Type:
Damage estimate: $275,000
Description of damage: Garage, upstairs master bedroom and downstairs living room gutted by fire, rest of house heavy heat and smoke damage, two 2007 cars parked in the garage were completely destroyed.
Cause of incident: Accidental, appears to be careless smoking, starting in the garage. Door from garage to interior of the home was left open, draft pulled fire into the interior of the home, up the stairs to upstairs causing extensive damage to both floors of home.
American Red Cross: Yes Pets: Yes Status of pets: Escaped with occupants safely.
General information about the incident: Both adults were home watching TV when they heard loud noises coming from garage. When they went to investigate, they opened the door from interior of home into garage and were met with heavy flames and smoke. Woman left home to call 9-1-1 and took pet dog with her. Male went back to garage with fire extinguisher from kitchen, but was beaten back by thick smoke, he left the house. The door from the garage did not close and intense heat and thick black smoke spread throughout the house. Garage door on outside of house was partially open which allowed flames to lap out the door over front of house spreading fire on the front of the house. A column of thick black smoke could be seen ten miles away from the house as firefighters were responding. When firefighters arrived, the house was heavily involved with fire. It took firefighters less than ten minutes to bring the fire under control. Fire investigators believe the fire is the result of careless smoking in the garage. The same type of fire occurred one week ago in another northwest Las Vegas home. Ironically, the same crew that was first on the scene for tonight’s fire, was also the crew that was first on scene for last week’s house fire. Three people are displaced because of tonight’s fire. The American Red Cross and Las Vegas Fire & Rescue Foundation was providing assistance to the family tonight.
Former Providence, Rhode Island Chief George Farrell will not be getting more than $15,000 for sick he earned over the last four years. The chief, who says he retired due to a battle with leukemia, will still get more than $27,000 for vacation days he didn't use. A spokesman for Mayor Angel Taveras said the vacation payment is required under state law but that the administration was ending a longstanding practice of paying for the unused sick leave unless it is approved by the City Council.
Farrell previously retired from the department in 2006 as fire marshal and was paid $74,516 for sick and vacation time not used. He was brought back as chief a year later by Mayor David Cicilline.
Previously Chief Farrell defended the practice saying it has been in place for three decades and was not a special deal for him. But the union has opposed to the payout for the former chief.
At about the same time IAFF Local 799 reached a tentative agreement with the Taveras administration that is expected to prevent firefighter layoffs. WPRI-TV reports the firefighters will give up a scheduled three percent pay raise, allow for reduced minimum staffing, pay more for health care, receive less paid vacation and change retirement benefits for new employees. Watch that story below.
Paul Doughty, president of the city firefighters union, said Monday the city government does not have to let Farrell cash out his unused time off because he's not covered by the union's collective-bargaining agreement. "We'd ask the Taveras administration to follow the law and deny payment," he said.
Farrell said the fire department's leadership should get paid for accrued sick and vacation days since rank-and-file firefighters do.
"I and all the other chiefs in the Providence Fire Department simply believe that the benefits that we were entitled to for 25 years or more while we were members of the union should not be stripped away solely based on a promotion which takes us out of the union," he said.
Doughty disagreed, arguing the higher pay top officials receive should be enough to compensate them. Farrell "wants the best of both worlds – the astronomical salary and all the union benefits," Doughty said.
Why were pictures of three teenage girls posing in their underwear allegedly taken at the Bayside Park Volunteer Fire Department? Two of the girls were reportedly 16, the other was 14. And that, investigators say, is considered child exploitation.
Consequently, Assistant Fire Chief Clarence "Zeke" Hall and volunteer fireman Vincent Reiber have been arrested and accused of taking lewd pictures of three underage girls.
Authorities say the incident happened at the Bayside Park Volunteer Fire Department. They say following a boot shake to raise money for the department, firefighters gathered at the station, where the pictures were allegedly taken.
Glenn Usdin's FireTruckBlog.com has the story from Middletown, New York of an assistant chief's SUV and a town police officer's car colliding. They were responding to a fire at the fire chief's home. Click here.
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