No one was injured, Assistant Chief Scott Graham said. Firefighters were dispatched to the scene at approximately 3:30 p.m.
“The homeowner was working on a piece of engine equipment in the basement when it fell over and landed on a can of brake cleaner,” Graham said in a statement. A water heater pilot light ignited the brake cleaner’s fumes, and the fire extended up the walls and into the first and second floors.
Note: As a reporter I had many conversations with Dorothy Brizill and was the recipient of a lot of good information that she uncovered about the DC government, including its fire department. My thoughts are with Dorothy and her husband Gary Imhoff through this difficult time.
On this page are three video clips of the early stages of the fire at 1337 Girard Street in Northwest Washington, DC posted to YouTube by jrowedc.
The fire was first reported about 4:45 p.m. Over 80 firefighters, two engines and one truck were dispatched to combat the two-alarm blaze, according to D.C. Fire and EMS. Only one injury has been reported—a firefighter who suffered from smoke inhalation.
Though we’re still awaiting details on the cause of the fire, the house has been a target of neighborhood curiosity and complaints. The house—built in 1870—came under the watchful eye of the D.C. Board for the Condemnation of Insanitary Buildings in 2007, according to a 2008 City Paper article. In 2002, the structure was put on the list of vacant and abandoned properties. There’s nothing yet indicating that today’s fire and any past problems are related.
Brizill and Imhoff, under the name D.C. Watch, have been deeply engaged as local government watchdogs for more than two decades. Notably, Brizill in 2002 raised questions about ballot petitions submitted by former Mayor Anthony A. Williams, which led the Board of Elections and Ethics to strike his name from the Democratic primary ballot. Williams ended up winning as a write-in candidate. More recently, Brizill raised concerns about the voting record of a top aide to Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D), leading to her resignation.
Their home, built in 1870, has garnered the attention of city authorities in the past decade for its sometimes dilapidated condition.
This is a fire handled by the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District at 4792 Bayside Way in Oakley, California. No date given, but this one follows that growing trend of having musicians travel with the firefighters, though this band isn’t as loud (maybe I’m mistaken and it’s just someone’s iPod feeding back through the helmet-cam).
This is the video (in three parts) the ATF produced to accompany its engineering analysis utilizing Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) of the fire that killed Lutherville VFC Firefighter Mark Falkenhan last year. There are links above to the ATF report by Adam St. John P.E., Fire Protection Engineer ATF Fire Research Laboratory and the internal report the Baltimore County Fire Department released in March. The modeling is matched with the fireground and dispatch radio traffic.
Description with video:
This video summarizes the ATF Fire Research Laboratory’s Engineering Analysis of the fire that occurred at 30 Dowling Circle on January 19th, 2011. ATF Fire Protection Engineers were asked to utilize engineering analysis methods, including computer fire modeling, to assist with determining the route of fire spread and the events that led to the firefighter MAYDAY and subsequent Line of Duty Death of Firefighter Mark Falkenhan.
Of the three injured firefighters, two were from Franklin and one was from Ogdensburg. Franklin volunteer firefighters Steven Knebl III and Donna Spoll were injured during the fire.
Knebl suffered minor burns to his face while responding to the blaze. He was treated at St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston and released Friday.
Spoll suffered a bruised collar bone and was transported to Newton Medical Center. She was treated and released on Friday as well. The Ogdensburg firefighter suffered chest pains while at the scene and was later released.
The video above is a series of still pictures provided to STATter911.com of the fire inside Tyler Perry Studios on Tuesday evening. Atlanta Fire Rescue sounded four alarms to handle the blaze.
AP:
Investigators are trying to determine the cause of a fire that ripped through a simulated streetscape at Tyler Perry’s Atlanta studios.
The fire sent flames soaring about six stories high into the night sky. Officials say no one was hurt from the blaze that began shortly before 9 p.m.
An Atlanta fire captain says the fire never reached inside the building because of its concrete masonry behind the facade but there is some water damage.
More than 100 firefighters responded to the four-alarm fire. Perry was at the complex last night and spoke with the city fire chief.
The complex includes a 200,000-square-foot studio, five sound stages and a 400-seat theater in southwest Atlanta.
Pop star Cee Lo performed at a fundraiser for President Obama at the studios in March.
Larry Shapiro on the scene early Tuesday morning of a basement fire on Hiawatha Lane in Riverwoods, Illinois. According to Larry, firefighters entering the first floor found the floor soft and were able to back out before the floor collapsed. Eventually, as you will see in Larry’s video, foam was used in the basement.
FireDispatch.com has posted a little more than four minutes of early radio traffic from Monday’s fire at the Stag Hotel in Watsonville, Califronia that left 17 people injured. There is above for the audio and some new video shot at ground level during the early stages of the fire. Also above is a link to TV coverage that includes some of the triage and treatment of victims from the fire.
Atlanta fire officials said they received the 911 call about the fire at 8:40 p.m. Tuesday.
Russell Evans lives across the street from TP Studios. Evans said he heard the fire before he saw it.
“I started filming the fire and the explosion. I though the tower where senior citizens live at was on fire. I found out it was Tyler Perry Studio,” said Evans.
Atlanta fire officials initially said multiple buildings were engulfed in flames when they arrived.
AP:
Atlanta fire officials say they have put out a 4-alarm blaze at Tyler Perry Studios that damaged a building at the complex.
Atlanta Fire Department spokesman Capt. Jolyon Bundrige says there were no reports of injuries from the fire that started before 9 p.m. Tuesday. Officials said in a news release it was extinguished about an hour later.
He says the cause of the fire and the amount of damage to the complex was not immediately known
A spokesman for Tyler Perry did not immediately comment Tuesday evening. The studio’s website says the complex includes a 200,000-square-foot studio, five sound stages and a 400-seat theater in southwest Atlanta.
In March, pop star Cee Lo performed for donors at a fundraiser for President Barack Obama at the studios.
This is as dramatic a video as we’ve seen in some time. It is best viewed in full screen and at the 480p quality (the star at the bottom right group of controls).
The fire broke out around 5:45 PM at the Stag Hotel in Watsonville, California. The hotel is at 117 West Beach Street. The injuries, according to news reports, include burns, smoke inhalation and fractures.
In the video it appears police and civilians are making some of the initial rescues using a ladder on Side A. Firefighters arrive, stretch a line and assist with getting others out. It appears that a police officer picks up the first line hitting the fire on the ground floor. Others are brought down a ladder on Side D.
The Stag Hotel is described as transitional housing for those receiving substance abuse treatment and those leaving incarceration.
Three victims of the fire were air lifted out of the area, one for a broken leg from jumping out a window, and the other two for major burns.
“The first guy got burned pretty bad. They took him away first because his hide was falling off. His shirt was smoking,” said Russell Leckbee, a resident in room 37 of the hotel.
Leckbee had been dragged out of a window by two police officers.
Firefighters from the station a block away on Second Street responded quickly, Rickman said. Fire Chief Mark Bisbee said they immediately went to work rescuing residents and doused the flames in 8-10 minutes.
Rickman said the hotel has 50 rooms – three apartments in two buildings. He said about 45 men lived there. The fire was in the larger front building.
The building, constructed in 1927, had no sprinklers. The residents are a mix, some disabled, some struggling with substance abuse or in recovery, some on parole. All are men with little income.
Many bystanders helped police and firefighters get people out of the burning building or helped with ladders and hoses.
One man reportedly jumped from the second-story window to avoid the smoke and fire. Other residents said they considered jumping from the second story.
“I stuck my head out the bathroom window,” said Rick Cresswell, whose face was blackened from the smoke. “I thought about jumping.”
If you haven’t seen some of the videos from the house fire at the annual street festival in Athens, Ohio called Palmer Fest, please take a moment to check them out.
The street party in the Ohio University neighborhood was shut down Saturday evening because of the fire. The fire has been ruled arson. Scores of people were arrested as confrontations occurred between police and those attending the festival.
In the video above you will see police officers approaching Side C of the home at 11 Palmer Street as the basement burns. The videos below show the smoke conditions on Side A before firefighters arrived, a supply line dropped on Palmer Street parting the crowd, a line going through the Side C basement door, suppression efforts through a window on the second floor and a soon to be classic interview with a young woman who says she was in the house when the fire started.
The narration on some of the videos may also become classics, including this line from the video taken inside a neighboring house: “Who farted?”
Video above includes the pre-arrival view from Side A & crowd control efforts.
A house fire in the middle of Palmer Fest in Athens has been ruled arson and officials are offering a reward for information in the case.
The house fire occurred at 11 Palmer Street at about 7 p.m. Saturday, in the heart of the area where students and others hold Palmer Fest, a gathering of house parties and music.
Video above shows the supply line being dropped down Palmer Street.
The fire, reported shortly after 7 p.m. at 11 Palmer St., prompted Athens Mayor Paul Wiehl to declare Palmer and the immediate surrounding neighborhood as a riot area at 7:35 p.m., allowing police to clear the neighborhood of partiers soon after.
The house was occupied at the time of the fire, with one unidentified partier caught on video talking about noticing smoke coming from the basement and taking shots of liquor in honor of the fire before evacuating the premises.
At 1:06 in the video above a line is stretched into the basement door on Side C.
According to the police report, party goers began throwing bottles at emergency responders and inhibiting police officers from clearing the scene of the fire. Athens Mayor Paul Wiehl declared Palmer Street a riot area at 7:35 p.m. after the crowd resisted police force.
Officers then went house to house, shutting down the fest. The area was cleared by 8:20 p.m.
The vantage point from a neighboring home is seen in the video above. It shows the line going into the second floor window & same great narration from the residents.
This is a house fire yesterday handled by Sheldon Community Fire & Rescue in Houston, Texas. The description says there was a problem initially with low water pressure.
Sheldon is one of the growing number of departments that apparently has a band travel with the firefighters whenever they extinguish fires.
While I attend many, many fires virtually through the scores of YouTube videos I view each day in an effort to bring you the finest in fire porn, it had been a long time since I actually had been on a fireground. But Sunday afternoon I was behind the wheel on the southbound Garden State Parkway returning from a visit with the family of Mrs. STATter911.com when I spotted smoke off in the distance as we approached the Oranges. Passing the interchange with I-280, I could actually see off to my left the top floor of what was a three story house with some heavy fire conditions.
I should note at this point in the narrative that we would have arrived at the scene much more rapidly than we did after first spotting the header, but the New Jersey State Police Garden State Parkway high speed escort service for celebrity fire bloggers failed to show as in the past (anyone know if there has been a recent change in policy on this vital service?).
We pulled up to the fire in the 200 block of South 19th Street in Newark with some of the second-alarm units. The video of what we saw is above. It has been edited somewhat to try and improve my lousy shooting skills, but all of the shots are in chronological order.
During yesterday’s inaugural Hero Rush event in Clarksburg, Maryland participants saw smoke in a distance. These three videos show you what people saw up close.
At about 8:15 p.m. Saturday night a car, a Lexus headed northbound on 148th Avenue NE in Redmond swerved off the road and crashed into a home on the corner of NE 61st Way, hitting a natural gas line in the process and igniting a fire, according to Jim Bove spokesman for the Redmond Police department.
The home was engulfed by the time the Redmond Fire Department responded but the blaze was quickly extinguished.
A fire in a three family home yesterday morning on Park Avenue in Enfield, Connecticut. One firefighter suffered a minor hand injury.
According to the description with the video by drummer112093 at YouTube, the fire was handled by the Thompsonville FD with mutual aid from Enfield, North Thompsonville, Shaker Pines, and Hazardville.
A 2-year-old boy was thrown from a window and a woman jumped from the same second-story apartment to escape a fire Tuesday on Milwaukee’s northwest side.
Also, a 13-year-old might have jumped from a separate apartment in the building in the 5800 block of N. 87th St., according to Milwaukee Fire Department records. Firefighters said none of the injuries appears life threatening.
“We had a 25-year-old female that, in order to escape the fire, jumped from a second floor porch, a two-year-old that was thrown down to a bystander as well, and then I was told also a 13-year-old that suffered minor injuries while escaping the fire,” Milwaukee Fire Deputy Chief Randall Zingler told Newsradio 620 WTMJ’s Dan O’Donnell.
“We found three of the four units fully involved in the fire.”
On Monday, my friend Firegeezer Bill Schumm was among the first in the fire service media world to tell us about a dangerous incident last Saturday at a drive-thru at a McDonalds in Coachella, California. It involved a pick-up truck with a couple of LPG tanks in the bed that vented during a 100-degree day and caught fire. A short time later the smaller of those tanks exploded, rocketing the larger one 75-feet away. Bill has a complete description and a video of the blast he found on YouTube.
But the video above has a much closer and more direct view of the blast and it shows the actions of law enforcement and/or private security before firefighters arrive on the scene.
News coverage can be found here and here (the second article has a good aerial shot showing which homes were lost).
The pre-arrival video above is from a kid who lives in the neighborhood in Chesapeake, Virginia where five single-family homes were destroyed by a fire on April 12. This video and Part Two, at the bottom of this page, were posted yesterday to YouTube.
The clip in the center is another neighbor’s early video shot just after the arrival of the first engine and truck in the 600 block of Sweet Leaf Place.
While I have gone through a lot, but not all of the coverage, what I couldn’t find was any real outrage that five homes were lost just like that. Except for one article, there was no mention that the construction of the houses may have been a contributing factor in such a loss.
I know it was a windy day, but I don’t recall seeing many fires like this one 35-years-ago. Now they seem to happen all of the time in similarly built neighborhoods. In fact I’ve seen quite a few all over the Commonwealth of Virginia. Funny how you don’t see this happen in the older neighborhoods that were built before lightweight construction.
But what am I saying? I am so sorry for even bringing that up. Clearly I am being unpatriotic (once again). Let me explain.
According to the people who build these homes, when you look at these videos, what you really are looking at is the cost of freedom. It’s a sacrifice these homeowners made so you and I can live free.
If the government required residential sprinklers, better home separation and fire barriers on the outside wall assemblies, that would be un-American. Remember, it should be every homeowners right to have a fire start in their home and then spread to their neighbor’s homes two and three doors away. It’s right up there with mom and apple pie.
I think the home builders lobbyists in Washington and their affiliates all over this great land should start putting up American flags in front of the shells of houses that were lost like these as a way to remind us of this important freedom they hold so dear. Don’t forget, the home builders are fighting hard for you and me and especially the nation’s firefighters.
The building lobby, after losing the battle for one of our freedoms four decades ago, when smoke alarms were added to the code said, “Never again”. And they have fought valiantly and bravely to protect us ever since. We know they know what’s best for us.
So, from the reaction to this fire, I guess, the indoctrination is complete. We now just accept disposable homes as a way of life. Silly me. What was there really to be outraged about? What was I thinking?
Sorry, this video has now been removed from YouTube
This is video posted to YouTube just a short time ago from California’s Linda Fire Protection District. There is no date or location listed with the video. The description says the victim is a woman whose house firefighters have been to many times. CPR was started and she regained a pulse on the way to the hospital, where she remains in critical condition.
We first told you about this incident yesterday in Quick Takes. We were alerted to this video of a very close call for firefighters and police by a STATter911.com reader. The incident happened Sunday evening in Yorba Linda, California. The series of explosions from a manhole was caught on a police car’s dash-cam. The police arrived first and saw the smoking manhole and waited for firefighters.
When the firefighters arrived to take a close up look another explosion occurred. Captain David Wolf of the Orange County Fire Authority was thrown ten feet by the blast. Wolf and a firefighter suffered minor burns and bruises. Wolf told KCBS-TV he was very lucky. That interview is in the video below
Eventually, a fire captain and firefighter approached the manhole and looked down. The electrical vault unexpectedly exploded, literally sending the fire captain flying into the bushes.
The firefighter headed for the bushes to administer aid and the two police officers were also prepared to help when all of a sudden there was another explosion. The men rushed to get the fire captain out. As he was being dragged to safety, the fourth blast went off.
“The fire captain and the firefighter were properly equipped to approach that. We’re taught to approach carefully. They were investigating what they thought was a fire. They didn’t expect it to explode like that,” said Concepcion.
“When we got there, you could see that it was just a little bit of smoke. There wasn’t a lot of smoke coming out, so I thought, ‘OK, the incident is kind of over. It’s now just protect anyone from going into an open manhole,’” he said.
But that would prove to be the least of his worries. As Captain Wolf gazed down to see what he describes as a small electrical fire inside the vault, a rare event occurred – the vault exploded.
“I kind of tried to roll away from it. And the next thing I know is that when my firemen was kind of dragging me. I found out later it was my firemen I didn’t know, but somebody had picked me up from the back of my coat and dragged me,” he said.
This is Part 2 of the raw video from a fire that damaged four businesses early Sunday morning in the Fashion District of Los Angeles. It is from firelensman at YouTube.
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