House fire in Modesto, California: Two firefighters were hurt fighting this fire yesterday at 1608 College Avenue. Shot by ModestoNews.org.
Looking back ten years: A long, chronological view of 9-11-2001 from my vantage point at the Pentagon. It concludes with a look at how the public perceives firefighters that, in hindsight, is still quite relevant. Here it is.
On that note. Click here to look at what happens when you put the word firefighter into the Google News search engine. The first 19 pages of articles (about a dozen to a page) are almost exclusively about firefighters and the tenth anniversary of September 11th. Many of the news items are about communities not only paying tribute to those who were lost in New York, but honoring or featuring local firefighters around the country with parades and other events. It isn't until the 20th page that other news about firefighters starts showing up alongside the 9-11 articles. So, are firefighters once again heroes after a couple of years of attacks on budgets, staffing and pensions? I am guessing the hero label will have a much shorter shelf life than a decade ago and likely has a September 12 sell by date.
From Tennessee to Harlem: FireTruckBlog.com looks at a rig donated to FDNY ten-years-ago that is still running in Harlem. Click here.
More on 9-11: At Firegeezer both Bill Schumm and Mike Ward give us their thoughts.
Lou Angeli's video from New York: Delaware's Lou Angeli, who has long combined his experience as a news videographer with his passion for the fire service, is featured in a story about his call to New York to chronicle the aftermath of the attacks. He spent 16 days with an up close and personal view through his lens. Check it out.
One more chance to say Statter sent you: You have until September 15th to get a nice discount for the Gateway Midwest Firefighter & Leadership Training event October 21-23 in St. Charles, MO. Put STATTER in the promo code. Here's the website. I hope to see you there.
Fairfax County Professional Fire & Rescue Officers Association: A reminder that the 9th Annual Professional Development Seminar is October 6 & 7 at the Marriott in Tysons Corner, VA. Still time to sign up. Click here for details.
Firefighters save City Hall: In some communities firefighters have been looking for City Hall to save them, but that was not the case on Saturday in Painesville, Ohio. Here's more.
2-11 in Chicago: Steve Redick video at an auto repair shop that burned yesterday in the 5600 block of Grand Avenue.
About a month after the events of September 11, 2001 I was asked by journalist Allison Gilbert to contribute my experiences at the Pentagon on that day to a book called Covering Catastrophe: Broadcast Journalists Report September 11. While I knew I was only one of many TV and radio reporters and anchors who would be contributing to the book, and Allison would only be using a couple of blurbs, it was an opportunity for me to write a chronology of the day and put a few thoughts down.
Below is that account. It is a view of September 11 through the eyes of a TV reporter who arrived on Washington Boulevard in front of the Pentagon helipad six-minutes after impact. YouTube has some of the TV coverage from that day broadcast by my colleagues at WUSA-TV in Washington. I have added those clips at the appropriate times.
I conclude with a postscript written 40-days after the attacks that looks at the public's perception of firefighters following the sacrifice made by 343 members of the Fire Department of New York.
September 11, 2001
8:52 AM: Spending time with my son is always the best way to start the day. Sam, almost two years old, is eating his breakfast. I bring my toast into the den to sit with him. The television is on so we can do what we usually do in the morning, watch my wife, Hillary Howard, Sam’s mom, do the weather on WUSA-TV. Instead of the “Early Show” ending to make way for local news, I see the open to a “CBS News Special Report”. I turn the sound up, but don’t need Bryant Gumbel to tell me that something is very wrong at one of the World Trade Center towers. The thick, black smoke pouring out of many windows and from the roof makes it very clear this is a major disaster in the making. Gumbel says there is a report that a plane hit the building. Those words send me out of the room and upstairs to quickly finish getting dressed.
9:03 AM: I occasionally glance at the TV upstairs. A little slow to comprehend some of what it going on, it dawns on me that this appears to be a crystal clear day. I am starting to wonder if this plane crash is really an accident. As I think about calling the newsroom to suggest we might be dealing with a terrorist attack of some sort, any doubts I had are immediately erased. My head quickly turns toward to the TV as I hear a woman say to Byrant Gumbel, “Oh, there is another one! Another plane just hit! Oh, my gosh! Another plane has hit! Another building! Flew right into the middle of it. Explosion.”
It hit me instantly that our lives have suddenly changed.
9:05 AM: On the phone to the station, I talk to Dave Roberts, our news director. I am convinced that if the people who did this were organized enough to quickly hit two targets like the World Trade Center towers, Washington would be next. We decide I will head into town to start looking around for increased security measures and be ready if another attack occurs.
9:10 AM: No time for our normal goodbye ritual. I give Sam a quick kiss and hug. Sam says something about “Jay Jay”. “Jay Jay the Jet Plane”, Sam’s favorite TV show, comes on soon. Not knowing what he may have already seen on TV this morning, I tell him calmly that “Jay Jay” is having a bad day. With the uncertainty of what was ahead, I didn’t want to leave Sam. I knew, though, he was in good hands with Glenda, the woman who takes care of him while we are at work.
9:15 AM: Realizing my good friend, Dan Patrick, our night assignment manager, is probably asleep and has no idea what is going on, I wake him. Dan doesn’t believe me when I describe the events of the morning along with my concern that Washington is next. Certainly I would have thought this was one of his sick practical jokes if the situation were reversed. Hanging up, I’m not sure he is convinced that this is for real.
9:25 AM: My first stop, the State Department. I circle the block and notice some extra officers being deployed around the building. Other street activity appears normal. Checking out the Pentagon never enters my mind.
9:38 AM: East bound on Pennsylvania Avenue near the White House, I turn north on 17th Street. At that moment the scanners in my car come alive. On numerous police and fire radio frequencies, people are yelling that a plane hit the Pentagon. Making a fast U-turn, I see the smoke rising across the Potomac River. I get the assignment desk on the phone. It’s a bad connection. I yell into the phone, “Pentagon, Pentagon, Pentagon. Send everyone to the Pentagon. I should be there soon."
I carefully bust a few lights on southbound 17th Street. Making a right turn, traffic is light on westbound Independence Avenue.
9:41 AM: Anchors Mike Buchanan and Andrea Roane break into CBS coverage to report that there has been an apparent plane crash at the Pentagon. They have distant, but clear pictures of the Pentagon ablaze from our rooftop camera in Rosslyn.
9:43 AM: There is also little traffic heading outbound on the Memorial Bridge. Across the river, I now have a distant view of the Pentagon. The very black smoke I am seeing is surely caused by the fuel, now burning, that was in the plane’s tanks. I call the control room to try and get on the air, but the call cuts out as the anchors lead to me.
9:44 AM: Somehow I end up on southbound Washington Boulevard directly in front of the Pentagon helipad. That is good news, but for the moment it does me no good because there is wireless gridlock. I am unable to get a phone call out.
9:46 AM: I have my home video camera out and on the tripod, rolling off a few shots. The phone still isn’t working.
9:48 AM: Walking down Washington Boulevard is Heather Cabot a recently hired reporter for WUSA. She tells me her phone isn’t getting out either. I ask her to take over my camera and I will work on trying to get a phone call to the station. Heather tells me she is with photographer Mike Trammel. I look back to see Trammel and put my camera away.
9:52 AM: Heather’s phone finally gets through. I describe the scene as firefighters from Ft. Meyer and National Airport put the first water and foam on the burning Pentagon. Some people are looking at the sky, making sure another plane isn’t approaching. I suggest to Heather, that it is probably a good idea for us to do the same. Amazingly traffic on northbound Washington Boulevard has not been blocked and drivers are just whizzing by the burning Pentagon as they head to work.
A familiar red van pulls a few feet past us. It is one of our microwave vans with Bruce Bookholtz at the wheel. I am a bit amazed that, with no communication, we all end up at the same spot.
We hear a number of small pops and explosions. I am guessing those are tires popping from the vehicles that were parked against the building and are now burning, or possibly some small canisters exploding. Among the vehicles on fire is the new crash/rescue fire truck, belonging to the Ft. Meyer Fire Department. It is stationed at the Pentagon and is routinely on hand for helicopter landings and takeoffs, in case of an emergency. It is a fire truck designed for just this rare event, a plane crash, and it can’t be used.
9:55 AM: Heather tells me to look down on the street around us. I was so intent on watching the burning Pentagon, I hadn’t noticed there are what appear to be small pieces from the airplane at my feet. I had already seen the large amount of debris scattered on the Pentagon lawn, but so far no piece is large enough to be easily identified as an airplane part.
9:57 AM: Our first live video is on the air. You see flames crawling up the familiar face of the Pentagon along with some of the first victims as they are carried away from the building.
9:59 AM: I am on the air with Michael Kelly, an eyewitness Heather pulled out of the crowd. Kelly was driving on nearby I-395 when he saw the plane take aim on the Pentagon.
10:00 AM: Anchor Andrea Roane interrupts me, “Dave, Dave, Dave. We want to break in, because we want to go back to New York, where Dan Rather is anchoring our coverage, where one of the towers at the World Trade Center has collapsed”.
These words stop me in my tracks for a moment. I have no TV monitor to see this for myself. Just Andrea’s words. It doesn’t compute in my brain. I had been a firefighter. I had studied high-rise firefighting. There had been a number of major high-rise fires throughout the world that burned for many hours. To my knowledge there had never been a catastrophic collapse of an entire building. This was just one of many things happening today that no one has ever had to deal with.
Knowing how aggressive New York firefighters are, I realize there must be scores of dead rescuers. The last pictures I saw out of New York were from an hour ago. Even then it was pretty apparent, from the amount of fire, that anyone at the impact points and above had little chance of survival.
10:05 AM: They come back to me for our first interview with someone who was in the Pentagon at the time of the attack. Two or three men on stretchers pass by us. It is our first close-up look at the injured and they are severely, if not critically burned over a good portion of their bodies. These victims are flown out by helicopter to a hospital burn unit. Their lives will never be the same.
10:10 AM: A Virginia State Trooper starts moving everyone back. There is concern another plane is coming toward the Pentagon. We don’t move.
10:15 AM: As they come back to our live shot, five floors suddenly collapse around the jet's impact point. There is now a large gash on the west side of the Pentagon.
10:18 AM: People start running away from the Pentagon. This time, FBI agents are telling us another plane is just minutes out. They order us to move immediately. I am able to get in a few quick words, attempting to explain to Mike and Andrea what is happening, before the transmitter is turned off and the live truck’s mast starts coming down.
10:28 AM: We move just a short distance off Washington Boulevard and down the ramp to Columbia Pike. As Bruce tries to re-establish a signal, I hear through my earpiece that the second tower in New York has collapsed. I just can’t imagine what it going on in Manhattan. The death toll must be staggering. I recall my wife once telling me her grandfather hauled truckloads of steel used to build the Twin Towers. Now those buildings don’t exist.
10:32 AM: We are again feeding live pictures of the burning Pentagon.
10:36 AM: Witnesses are giving different descriptions of the plane that hit the building. Some say it is an American Airlines 757, while others believe it was a business jet. The fire is still burning out of control.
10:38 AM: Mike Buchanan asks me if I have seen any large pieces of an airplane at the scene. As I answer this question, he interrupts me,“Hold on Dave. Hold on just a second. We’ve got a bulletin from AP. A large plane has just crashed in Western Pennsylvania.”
Mike also reads an AP report about a car bomb going off at the State Department. We are just across the river from State and we didn’t hear an explosion.
10:42 AM: An F-16 makes a low pass near the Pentagon. That, along with the plane crash in Pennsylvania, makes me think there was something to the threats that forced us move away from the building. I notice a large group of people huddled under the Washington Boulevard overpass.
10:52 AM: A Lt. Colonel with Air Force Public Affairs passes our location. We snag him. He urges people to keep far away from the Pentagon. If you have loved ones you can’t account for, he asks that you not come to the Pentagon. He has no idea of the number of dead or injured. Not much in the way of information, but it is the first official word.
WUSA anchorman Gordon Peterson, who was originally sent to nearby National Airport for a flight to New York, arrives at our location.
10:54 AM: Mike and Andrea confirm there was no car bomb at the State Department. A little bit of good news.
11:06 AM: Gordon interviews Mike Walter, a television reporter for “USA Today Live”. Mike, on his way to work in Rosslyn, witnessed the Pentagon crash and offers the most vivid description so far.
11:10 AM: We are again ordered to move our live truck further away from the Pentagon.
11:31 AM: Our shot is back up. This time, from a hill in front of the Quick Mart. This Citgo, looks like a normal service station, but it is exclusively for use by military personnel.
11:39 AM: The fire is spreading. Suddenly there are flames showing in a number of windows far from the point of impact.
People again start moving quickly from the Pentagon. There is more talk of another hijacked plane heading our way.
11:52 AM: Again, more people rush from the Pentagon.
12:16 PM: I listen to Dan Patrick, with a phone report, describe his attempts to get from Northern Virginia to the TV station in Northwest Washington. Dan says he had to show identification to a police officer and explain his business in the city. Only then was he allowed to cross Key Bridge into Georgetown. The city is in lockdown.
12:18 PM: Gordon notices an ambulance convoy from the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad pull up along Columbia Pike. It was a repeat of a scene I had witnessed, just on the other side of the Pentagon, almost 20 years earlier. The same Maryland squad sent a similar contingent after Air Florida Flight 90 crashed into the 14th Street Bridge on January 13th, 1982.
12:20 PM: If I am not convinced how much turmoil there is in the country from these attacks, this does it. Mike and Andrea announce Disney World is being evacuated.
12:28 PM: A Navy public affairs officer officially confirms what has been painfully obvious. Besides the dead on the aircraft, Pentagon workers are dead inside the building. He has no idea how many people didn’t get out.
12:32 PM: Talking on the air with Mike and Andrea, it still isn’t clear which of the four hijacked jets smashed into the Pentagon. Right now, American Airlines believes the hijacked flight from Dulles crashed into one of the towers in New York.
Police move everyone, including the news media, off the hillside. Bruce pulls the truck around to the other end of the service station lot. This fourth move winds up being our last. It becomes home for the better part of two weeks.
1:19 PM: The first official briefing from the Pentagon. Rear Admiral Craig Quigley, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, announces that this was “a full assault on the United States of America”. The admiral says there was no way to prepare for an attack like this. I am shaking my head at the fact that the spokesman for the military headquarters of the United States of America is forced to talk to the world from a service station parking lot.
1:30 PM: CNN Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre joins me on the air for a few minutes. Our first time working together was at WTOP radio, 20 years ago, covering the Air Florida plane crash. Jamie says they always anticipated a terrorist attack at the Pentagon, but figured it would be on the other side of the building where all the top brass is located.
Off camera, Jamie tells me that just yesterday his son’s class in middle school had a discussion about the bombing in Oklahoma City. Jamie’s son told the class he always worries about his dad being hurt by an attack like this, because his dad works at the Pentagon. Jamie tried getting word to the school to let his son know he was okay.
1:50 PM: Andrea announces that the Urban Search and Rescue Team from Fairfax County, known as Virginia Task Force 1, has been activated and will be at the Pentagon shortly.
American Airlines now says they aren’t sure where Flight 77 ended up.
WUSA-TV's Mike Trammel's shot of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (third from the right) helping carry one of the injured from the Pentagon to a waiting ambulance.
1:56 PM: Admiral Quigley sets the tone for his second briefing by saying “you are going to have a lot more questions than I have answers.” Quigley doesn’t have an answer to the one question all of us are asking. He can only say, “we know there are casualties.”
He tells us Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was among the Pentagon workers hurrying from the building after the explosion. Rumsfeld helped the injured for about 15 minutes, getting several people onto stretchers. Then he went back inside to the National Military Command Center. The command center is reportedly smoky, but not damaged. (NOTE: Approaching the one-year anniversary of the attack, CNN's Vito Maggiolo contacted me after looking at the raw video from September 11 shot by WUSA-TV photojournalist Mike Trammel. While many people had viewed that video, and all of it played out in front my own eyes, Vito was the only person to notice that one of the men carrying a stretcher with one of the first victims removed from the Pentagon was Secretary Rumsfeld.)
2:10 PM: Virginia Task Force 1 arrives. Normally Fairfax County’s Urban Search and Rescue Team is sent to some far off land by way of military transport. This time it was just a quick drive down Interstate 66 to the county on its eastern border.
2:23 PM: WUSA Photographer Greg Guise is able to provide some details surrounding the hijacked jet that went down in Pennsylvania. Greg grew up a few miles from the crash site and has business interests in the community. Greg relays a description of the scene from a radio engineer friend in Somerset County.
2:43 PM: For the past few hours we’ve seen no ambulances leave the area with lights and siren. We’re pretty certain that anyone alive is already being treated. Now reporter Jennifer Ryan, at the Virginia Hospital Center, confirms no more victims are expected from the Pentagon.
2:49 PM: Mike and Andrea report it’s now fairly clear the plane wreckage at the Pentagon is from American Airlines Flight 77 out of Dulles.
2:55 PM: Rear Admiral Stephen Pietropaoli, U.S. Navy Office of Information, tells us that in the recently renovated wedge of the Pentagon, where the attack occurred, there is blast resistant glass on the windows. In the days to come we hear from many who believe that this very expensive glass saved lives.
3:53 PM: Now briefing us at the Citgo press center, Pentagon spokeswoman Torie Clark and Defense Protective Service Chief John Jester. Jester tells us the impact from the jet extends through to the C ring, the middle of the 5 rings of the Pentagon. All we see from our location, is that a portion of the E ring, the outer most portion of the Pentagon, has crumbled.
Clark admits she can’t confirm that all members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are accounted for. That news is a bit unsettling. We also hear about a Navy captain who burned his hands rescuing others. Clark says that man is already back from the hospital and wants to be put to work again, helping at the Pentagon.
4:12 PM: Rumors have been spreading that the U.S. military brought down the hijacked plane in Pennsylvania. Rear Admiral Craig Quigley says, “That didn’t happen. I cannot explain to you the cause of the crash of the airplane near Pittsburgh, but it was not engagement by a U.S. fighter aircraft.”
The Pentagon now confirms all the Joint Chiefs are accounted for.
4:54 PM: The second Urban Search and Rescue Team arrives. This one is from Montgomery County, Maryland.
5:04 PM: I see International Association of Firefighters General President, Harold Schaitberger and his press person, George Burke arrive at the Citgo. I grab Harold for a live interview. Harold has been in close touch with his people in New York. We learn for the first time that more than 200 New York firefighters probably perished when the towers collapsed. He calls firefighters “our domestic soldiers”. Schaitberger says the civilian death toll will be in the thousands. Off camera he lets me know that much of FDNY’s command staff was lost, including the Chief of the Department and the head of Special Operations.
5:36 PM: Harold Schaitberger joins me again with the story of two Ft. Meyer firefighters who were at the Pentagon when the crash occurred. They were standing near the fire truck we saw burning this morning. Both men were knocked down and injured by the force of the crash. They helped rescue a group of people through some of the office windows, before the firefighters themselves were hospitalized.
6:42 PM: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfield briefs the press. For the first time since the crash, the press conference is held inside the Pentagon. I watch it from our van. Pushed for a body count, Rumsfeld says, “It will not be a few”. The Pentagon “will be in business tomorrow”.
8:45 PM: New information has been slow in coming, but marching up Columbia Pike with the television lights reflecting off his orange vest is a member of Montgomery County’s Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) Team. Captain Scott Graham gives us the first solid information about the fire and rescue efforts. Scott becomes a lifeline for information in the days to come.
Despite the large fire still burning, Graham says the USAR team members are always optimistic about finding people alive. He says, “We have to look at it as a rescue effort for us. We have to look at it as a very unstable building. And our job, pretty much, is to take the name of the Pentagon off the outside of it and go in and rescue the people that are in there”.
9:52 PM: Another familiar face shows up at the Citgo. Ed Plaugher is the fire chief of Arlington County. The Pentagon is in Arlington County, Virginia and Chief Plaugher is the man in charge of the fire and rescue operations. None of the other reporters nearby seem to know who Plaugher is, or if they do, they don’t care. Ed joins me live at 10:00 PM with the first solid news about the loss of life at the Pentagon. There are no figures as of yet, but the Pentagon has given him a range to work with. Plaugher says it is believed that anywhere from 100 to 800 people work in the area where the impact occurred. While that is fairly large range, it lets us know that the death toll will likely be in the hundreds at the Pentagon, as compared to the thousands presumed dead in New York. Plaugher’s guess is, when it is over, the number at the Pentagon will be in the low hundreds.
Plaugher later receives some heat when his statements are taken out of context. Some news reports claim Plaugher estimated the death toll at 800. Days later we learn that 125 were killed on the ground and 64 perished aboard Flight 77.
On another topic Chief Plaugher says, “To be honest with you, we always were afraid of the Pentagon as being a target, but never in our wildest dreams to this extent. I am still in disbelief.”
11:03 PM: Fire has broken through in at least four places along the Pentagon roof. Chief Plaugher says aggressive interior firefighting operations will cease until daylight. But, crews overnight, will continue to pour in water from the outside to keep the fire from spreading further.
I relay a phone conversation with Scott Graham a few minutes before our 11:00 PM newscast. Scott and most of the USAR team members from Montgomery and Fairfax Counties worked very closely with Deputy Chief Ray Downey from the Fire Department of New York. Downey, commander of FDNY’s Special Operations, is unaccounted for after the towers collapsed. Scott says Downey commanded all the USAR teams in Oklahoma City after the bombing there. He says Downey wrote the book on urban search and rescue. Skills Downey taught will be utilized in New York and Arlington by hundreds of rescuers in the difficult days to come. His voice cracking, Scott tells me, “We lost a damn good man”.
We lost a lot of good men and women today.
October 27, 2001
11:15 PM: As I am looking back at September 11th, I have just spent a week covering the deaths of two Washington, D.C. postal workers, from inhalation anthrax. Others are hospitalized because of anthrax that was sent through the U.S. Mail. No one knows how this story will play out.
There is a lot of uncertainty since September 11th. Our war efforts, our security in public places, our ability to travel safely by air, our economic future. Like all parents, Hillary and I worry over what this will mean for our young son.
This much I’m sure of. Through the thick smoke hanging over New York and Washington, it became clear that some remarkable people walk among us.
Some are just ordinary citizens who put other people’s lives ahead of their own. Staying behind, trying to make sure everyone gets out.
Others are paid to protect us. But I don’t think anyone believes for a moment that a police officer, paramedic or firefighter’s modest salary is enough to encourage someone to walk into the places that these men and women did on September 11th. It takes much more than money. It takes heart, and courage, and a belief you can make a difference.
I know firefighters the best. Six years in a busy volunteer company during my youth, and almost 30 years making the fire service my beat as a reporter, have given me some perspective.
In many big cities, including our Nation’s Capital, the fire departments have long taken a back seat when it comes to funding. Citizens who can tell you how many times the police patrol car comes down their block, or how many officers are walking the beat, have no idea how many firefighters are on duty in the neighborhood fire station. Political leaders know this to be true and through the years have made drastic cuts in fire protection, often without protest from the public.
Through the years, I have reported many stories where citizens and firefighters have died because of these cuts. Just last week an understaffed ladder company became an issue in Houston, Texas, after a fire captain died in a high-rise apartment building fire.
Firefighters are can-do people. Their skills at making things work under adversity often hides from the public the shortcomings in their staffing, equipment and facilities.
Some of the good that has come from the sacrifices made by the 343 members of FDNY who died on September 11th, is the recognition, by the public, of what firefighters really do.
A recent trip to Arlington County Fire Station #2 brought this home. The firehouse is covered with cards and letters from all over the world. Many are from school children, with drawings of the firefighters in action at the Pentagon and World Trade Center. All say thanks.
Veterans of more than 20 years in the fire service are astounded by the reaction these days as they drive through local streets. People stop and wave. When the firefighters walk into a building in uniform, they are applauded.
On October 7th, I was at the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Just two hours before military action in Afghanistan began, President Bush told the stories of some of the 99 domestic soldiers who died in the line of duty in the United States last year. I watched as spouses and children received a flag and a red rose, and heard a bell toll in honor of their loved one, our hero.
I have forced myself on most days since September 11th to read the New York Post, Daily News and Times and the accounts of the daily funerals of New York firefighters. It is difficult to read about the pain their wives and children are going through. It is the least, though, that we can do. It is important to remember this unbelievable sacrifice.
My hope is that people all over the United States are paying very close attention to these same stories of heroism. My hope is that they don’t forget these stories when someone is trying to save a little money and close down their local firehouse.
Right now when Sam sees a fire truck he says, “Evan”. “Revvin’ Evan” is the animated fire engine on that “Jay Jay the Jet Plane” cartoon show he loves. When Sam is old enough, I will make sure he knows a lot more about firefighters. I will make sure Sam understands exactly who those people were climbing up the clogged, smoke filled, stairways, as he sat in his high chair, watching the first pictures transmitted from New York, at 8:52 AM, on September 11th, 2001.
Tomorrow, most of us will pause and reflect at some point on where we were ten years ago, what it means and think of those who were lost. For firefighters it will be a time to honor the 343 from FDNY who died trying to save others when our country was attacked. Paying tribute to those firefighters is the goal behind the 9-11 Memorial Stair Climbs we've been telling you about for quite some time.
We've shared with you the climbs that have occurred this year at FDIC, CFSI, Firehouse Expo (in the video below) and FRI. Tomorrow there will be climbs like this in dozens of locations across the country (and one in Canada). Firefighters, and in some cases the public, will be climbing the equivalent of 110 flights to represent the climb of the firefighters at the World Trade Center towers. There are still some climbs where the registration is open. Check out one near you and join in this experience. Or, just show up to support your fellow firefighters. The proceeds benefit the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation.
A fire on Sunday afternoon at a law office on West Gentry Street in Checotah, Oklahoma (McIntosh County). The building housed a law office but the police chief, Andy Blizzard, told D.E. Smoot at MuskogeePhoenix.com it had an earlier life as the town's hospital.
Two firefighters, including Blizzard, were treated for heat exhaustion and a third was treated for a minor cut.
“It looks like the fire started high in the back there,” (Checotah Fire Department Assistant Chief Cloyd) Whitmus said. “It was already through the back (of the building), but we were able to save all those buildings.”
Blizzard said there was some discussion about bringing in an investigator from the State Fire Marshal’s Office, but officials saw no need for that.
“We saw no signs that would lead us to believe there was anything going on,” Blizzard said.
In the video below, it appears firefighters improvised in order to get an aerial platform.
Glenn Usdin's FireTruckBlog.com has details of a visit to the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California by an FDNY rig damaged in the attacks of 9-11. Click here for the story. It will likely not go unnoticed by those who read it that the Orange County Register refers to it at one point as an "NYFD ladder truck" and then as a "NYPD fire truck".
Above is video from a fire on Sunday morning in Canton Township, Ohio. You will hear what sounds like ammunition cooking. WEWS-TV reports that's exactly what it is. Neighbors say shell casings from .50-caliber bullets ended up in their yards as far as four houses away. One was embedded into the siding of a home. Watch the story below.
Officials said the fire started around 7 a.m. in the 2700 block of Waynesburg Drive SE at the Cobra Roll-Off Service, which is a trash bin rental facility.
Multiple mutual aid fire departments responded and worked to put out the blaze.
At 11 a.m., officials said the blaze was extinguished, but crews were still on scene as a precautionary measure.
Heavy rains on ground already saturated by Hurricane Irene kept firefighters busy in and around Baltimore County. There have been numerous water rescue calls in the western and northern part of the county and northern Howard County. Many of these areas have not seen rising waters like this since Tropical Storm Agnes in June, 1972.
In one operation six firefighters from Baltimore County had a bit of a close call after one rescue boat capsized and another got stuck.Two of the firefighters ended up clinging to trees.
A swift water rescue boat carrying two firefighters capsized in the Patapsco River near Catonsville while they responded to rescue calls near the Howard County line, said Baltimore County spokeswoman Elise Armacost. Four firefighters had to bail out of another boat that got stuck, but all six were eventually accounted for.
Baltimore County firefighter Jason Porrovicchio. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark)
After the boat flipped in the current, fire specialist Donald Pruitt was able to cling to a tree, but firefighter Jason Porrovicchio said he ended up about 300 yards downstream. There, he held tight to a branch in the water rushing fast enough to knock down trees until it broke and he managed to swim out.
“It was scary,” Porrovicchio said. “It was my first time as a victim.”
Porrovicchio made his way upstream to help rescue Pruitt, who had been holding on to a tree for half an hour. Other rescuers were then able to pull him to safety.
When they got out, Porrovicchio says the men hugged and then they were checked out by medics. Pruitt was taken to an area hospital with a shoulder injury.
Baltimore County fire crews safely rescued six firefighters from the Patapsco River along the Baltimore County/Howard County line.
The firefighters — four from the Arbutus Volunteer Fire Company Swiftwater Rescue Team and two career firefighters from the Texas Station Swiftwater Rescue Team — were involved in those operations.
One firefighter was stranded in a tree surrounded by moving water. Rescue swimmers safely brought him to shore.
Fire officials are still gathering information about what happened to the boat and how the firefighters ended up in the water.
A firefighter was rescued from swift water in the Catonsville area after he became trapped during a rescue operation. Elise Armacost, with the Baltimore County Fire Department, told ABC2 News that one firefighter was pulled to safety after clinging to a tree.
Five other firefighters were able to swim to safety after the went into the water.
As firefighters from Stafford County and the City of Fredericksburg went to work yesterday afternoon trying to get to a man stranded in the middle of the raging Rappahannock River, WUSA-TV photographer Kurt Brooks also went to work. Above is Kurt's raw video and below is an interview reporter Peggy Fox did with Kurt.
A man was rescued from the Rappahannock River Tuesday afternoon after he fell from a boat.
A call went out around 1:30 p.m. for a person in the water in a nearby quarry, says the Fredericksburg Fire Department. The Fredericksburg Fire Department responded and found two witnesses who advised the man was in fact in the river on some rocks.
Mark Doyle with Stafford County Fire says the man fell out of the boat and was unable to get to shore. He was standing on a rock and holding on to a tree branch, but even so, the water was up to his knees.
Fredericksburg City fire rescue personnel with assistance from Stafford County went out in a Fredericksburg City Fire zodiac boat from a nearby quarry. Falmouth Fire was on standby.
Fire rescue personnel located the man about 75 yards up river from the I-95 bridge. They encountered some language problems at first because the man only spoke Spanish, but they reached him and pulled him to safety in their boat.
We were originally told the man was transported by Medic 2 to Mary Washington Hospital, but a battalion fire chief with the Fredericksburg Fire Department official later said the man was conscious, alert, not injured and refused medical treatment. He also says the police questioned him and then let him go on his way.
He has been identified only as a Hispanic, 26-year-old man from Fredericksburg.
It is unclear what the man was doing before he fell into the river, but it is believed he may have been fishing in a rock quarry before he wound up in the river itself.
Authorities advise the river is not at flood stage but is much higher and swifter now than normal. Under normal circumstances, there are still dangers associated with the river, but authorities advise they are currently under a flash flood watch. Rain has been heavy all day long in their area. They advise people to stay off of and out of the river at this time
This rescue Tuesday was the first time Fredericksburg Fire Department had used their new Zodiac motorized rescue boat, which they received due to a grant just last month.
Fire Chief John Bradner said that when the fire spread through the house, firefighters could not stay inside because it was not safe and changed to attacking the flames with water from the outside.
Then the second floor collapsed into the first and the walls bulged outward.
Sign company burns in Commerce, California: Los Angeles County Fire Department on the scene of a fire on Sunday at Pacific Sign Supply at 4620 East Washington Boulevard in the City of Commerce. Click here for a before picture of the building that burned.
Laid off firefighter tries to save neighbors this morning: In Scranton, Pennsylvania at 1:00 AM, a firefighter who had been laid off grabbed a garden hose in an unsuccessful attempt to save three people inside a burning home on Lawall Street. A couple in their fifties and an elderly woman died. Read and watch the story.
Dave went all political on us and stuff … and on the holiday to boot: Yes, check out the video STATter911 Communications, LLC helped produce for the New Haven Fire Fighters, IAFF Local 825. The message about pensions and blaming firefighters for the economic mess seemed right for Labor Day. Click here if you haven't seen it. Share it and comment on it. The discussion has already started.
Firefighters in Ohio have their own Labor Day ad: This is an effort to get the public to vote no on Issue 2 which would restrict collective bargaining rights. Watch the ad. The opposition dissects the ad and makes the case that no one knows better than the fire chief, so let's not take any rights away from the chief. Click here for that argument.
You can still save money by telling people you know me: You still have time to use the STATTER name in the promo code to save money for the Gateway Midwest Firefighter & Leadership Training event in St. Charles, Missouri. I will be there October 21 to 23 with some of my closest friends (even my closest friends aren't too fond of me). But if you show up at my presentation I will provide you with some great tips on how to keep your department from being a "must see video" or "must read story" on STATter911.com. Check out the GoForwardTraining site to sign up.
Lots of discussion about FDNY and NYPD's ESU after posting of second video: If you saw the brief clip posted last week by the New York Post of the attempt by firefighters and police to get a man out from underneath a car in Brooklyn on Thursday, you will want to see a more complete video. We posted this one on Saturday and the camera started rolling three minutes before police and fire arrived and continues until the man was removed. It shows what else was going on when the car collapsed while a police officer was using spreaders to lift up the back end. Here it is. Mick Mayers has his own view on this one at Firehouse Zen.
Virginia fire engine likely totaled: The pumper from the Louisa VFD rolled onto its side during a response. The firefighters are okay. Glenn Usdin's FireTruckBlog.com has the story.
Raw video from Cecil County, Maryland: The videographer arrived as the first line was being stretched on a house fire in Fair Hill. Click here.
You read the amateur hack's version, now get the straight scoop from a pro: If you don't check out Curt Varone's FireLawBlog.com regularly, you need to. Being a lawyer and a firefighter makes Curt's analysis of the recent U.S. Court of Appeals ruling on the press and the public taking pictures of police much more valuable than mine. Make sure you check it out.
Is Firegeezer stunting?: Radio stations and rug stores pull this all of the time in an effort to get listeners and customers. Firegeezer is telling us his days of running episodes of Emergency! are numbered and because of it he has gone to a daily schedule until September 18. If you recall, Bill told us the same thing about losing Roy and Johnny a while back. Is he serious this time? Better not take the chance and get your fix in now.
How it's made – a fire station: A cool time lapse video showing the 11 months it took to build a fire station in Dorset, England. Check it out.
The Brotherhood Ride: Making it's way to New York on bike for September 11th. They started on August 20 in Naples, Florida and picked up friends along the way. Here's the site.
Just in time for Labor Day, New Haven Fire Fighters (IAFF Local 825) released the video above asking who is to blame for the financial mess that put firefighter pensions on the chopping block all across the country. Full disclosure for those who don't read the credits, STATter911 Communications, LLC in association with Greg Guise Media and SAMDOG Films, LLC produced this spot under the direction of union officials James Kottage and Frank Ricci.
Please share your thoughts and share the video. And happy Labor Day!
From the UK's Dorset Fire & Rescue Service comes this pretty cool time lapse video taken over the 11 months needed to clear the site and build the Weymouth Fire Station and Weymouth Community Safety Centre, Radipole Lane, Dorset. You can read more about the firehouse here. Construction was completed on July 15. Work began on August 23, 2010.
Firefighter Spot first posted this video from a house fire in Fair Hill, Maryland (Cecil County) last Tuesday. The fire, in the 1800 block of Appleton Road, was reported around 1:30 PM. Read more at the Cecil Whig.
A STATter911.com reader alerted us to this much better video of the attempt to remove a motorcyclist from under a car in Brooklyn on Thursday morning. This is the one where a member of the NYPD's Emergency Services Unit (ESU) tries to lift the car off of 21-year-old Karam Rampersaud using hydraulic spreaders under the rear of the Ford Taurus but the car comes crashing back down. New York officials have told reporters that Rampersaud died because of the original accident and not the mishap with the spreaders.
Here's what I see in this latest clip. (Feel free to correct me if I miss something or use the wrong terminology, particularly when it comes to ESU.).
This video begins more than three minutes before firefighters and police arrive. Engine 225 and Ladder 107 are on the scene first. Two firefighters from the engine walk over to evaluate the scene. One takes a close-up look at the victim and the other appears to set the emergency brake on the car. The officer from Ladder 107 comes up, takes a quick view and speaks to his crew. They appear to immediately begin setting up for air bag operations.
Forty seconds after the arrival of the firefighters an ESU REP (Radio Emergency Patrol) vehicle arrives followed about 15 seconds later by an ESU truck (similar to a heavy rescue squad). Within 50 seconds of their arrival ESU is deploying the spreaders under the rear of the Taurus as the firefighters appear to be continuing to set airbags.
Only a minute after he pulls up on the scene, the ESU officer already has the back raised (far from the four feet witnesses described), but seconds into the lifting the vehicle comes off the spreaders and slams back down. It looks like a bit of a close call for an ESU member on the drivers side of the vehicle placing cribbing (the same officer also appears to have moved aside FDNY equipment placed on that side of the vehicle).
After a bit of commotion the ladder officer appears to talk with two of the ESU officers and airbag operations continue with involvement of both firefighters and police officers.
At 9:45 into the video, about 6:40 after FDNY's arrival, the rescuers begin pulling the victim from under the car.
The incident has many in our comments section talking about the working relationship between FDNY and the police department's ESU. There have been some very public battles through the years.
Below is a NYPD video called Inside the NYPD: Emergency Services Unit.
I have been looking unsuccessfully on the web for a detailed listing of primary responsibilities for ESU and the official working relationship between ESU and FDNY at scenes similar to his one.
UPDATE: A STATter911.com reader has sent along a document (2009 version) outlining the Citywide Incident Management System (CIMS) for New York. It is attached. It lists the "primary agency" for auto extrication as "NYPD/FDNY (First to arrive)".
FDNY is listed alone as the "primary agency" for confined space rescue, elevator incident or emergency, entrapment/impalement, fire and structural collapse.
An ESU REP at a recent fire in Brooklyn. Click above for the video.
Here's part of what FFLaurelVFD posted with the video above:
At approximately one in the morning on Aug 24, 2011 The Laurel Volunteer Fire Department was alerted for a reported apartment fire on the third floor. 34 Orchard Towne Ct. Tower 10 responded with 8 Personnel. Rescue Engine 49 (Laurel Rescue Squad) arrived on scene first, reporting fire on the third floor balcony. Tower 10 arrived soon after, immediately throwing multiple ground ladders. The fire on the balcony was quickly knocked down with the water can by a crew member from tower 10. There was some fire extension into the attic as well.
Both the FDNY and the NYPD were on the scene of an accident in Brooklyn yesterday that is making headlines in New York. It happened around 8:45 AM
on Loring Avenue and Forbell Street in East New York when 21 year old, Karam Rampersaud, on a motorcyle, was run over by a Ford Taurus and became trapped underneath the vehicle.
From the video it appears an NYPD Emergency Services Unit crew member is handling the lifting of the vehicle when the car suddenly comes back down.
Police and fire officials have been giving indications to reporters that Rampersaud died from the injuries during the original crash.
There are 35 fire and rescue stations in Montgomery County.
Assistant Fire Chief Scott Graham says three of them are crawling with bed bugs, but Graham would NOT reveal which three stations are having the problem.
Today, 9 News Now obtained this internal memo sent to all county fire personnel, by chief Richard Bowers.
He calls the infestation a very serious issue, and includes information about how to keep bed bugs out.
Like inspecting bunkrooms and living room furniture.
And cleaning personal linens daily– including sleeping bags.
But could first responders– such as paramedics treating a bed-ridden patient– transfer the bugs to that person's home?
A board certified Entomologist with American Pest says it's possible– but it's NOT likely given the precautions the Montgomery County Fire Department has taken.
Graham says the department doesn't want to dwell on the bed bug problem because.
The always thoughtful and thought provoking Bill Carey at BackstepFirefighter.com spotted the story above from Elmont, New York. It is about a mishap Tuesday night during training by the Elmont Fire Department's motorized drill team in preparation for a Labor Day weekend competition. The teams are an activity with a long tradition on Long Island. They have come under scrutiny in more recent years, including in the lengthy and controversial investigation Newsday did on the fire departments of Long Island in late 2005 (FirePIO.com looked at the drill team issue last year).
Bill asks questions about the relevance of the teams in today's tight budgets and the potential impact and fallout from the injuries to three firefighters. One firefighter is recovering from what was described as a serious head injury.
I have a couple other thoughts about this TV news story. First is that the leadership of the Elmont Fire Department apparently learned something about dealing with bad news after it's last turn in the spotlight on WNBC-TV in New York (click here). That was a story at the beginning of this year when a reporter wanted to know more about what appeared to be a Confederate flag inside the firehouse. The TV station reported that a fire commissioner threatened the reporter who was asking questions about the flag and there is also video of firefighters closing the bay door on the reporter.
Both were bad moves for Elmont. They stretched a one day story into multiple days and the department didn't look good in the process. And for what purpose? They ended up getting rid of the flag anyway. As I have pointed out many times, if you have a defensible position, by all means defend it and don't run from it. If you can't defend it, correct the problem, address it with the media immediately and get it behind you.
This time it appears Elmont didn't run from Channel 4. They talked about the wreck, the injuries and gave a defense of their drill teams (though, if the department really believes in drill teams they need to say something stronger than it is tradition).
In the same story, the reporter and camera crew show up, apparently unannounced, at a similar drill team practice by the Hempstead Fire Department. Instead of using this as an opportunity to explain what they do and why they do it and the value for the fire department and the community the leadership sees in this activity, they basically run and hide. When they can't chase the TV crew away, they cancel the practice, pack up and go home.
I will let others pass judgment on whether this is a tradition that should still be a part of today's fire service. I am going to pass judgment and offer some unsolicited advice to the firefighters of Long Island from an image and public relations standpoint.
What I have to say isn't very complicated, but is often missed by those in a position of leadership when they are angry and defensive about those nasty reporters breathing down their necks. Here's my message to the firefighters of Long Island:
If this is an activity you strongly believe in and can justify, by all means you should get out there and defend it vigorously. Maybe even mount your own PR campaign explaining why this is important. Sure, you will still take some hits in news coverage and from your critics. But you look much, much worse when you run and hide from legitimate questions about your activities. If the leadership of a fire department or other public agency can't effectively articulate why they do what they do, maybe it's time to stop doing it and change course.
From Tennessee to Harlem: FireTruckBlog.com looks at a rig donated to FDNY ten-years-ago that is still running in Harlem. Click here.
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