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Fireground audio, pictures & video from apartment fire in Spring Valley, New York. Second fire in area within hours.

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Article by Jane Lerner and Rob Ryser at LoHud.com:

Ten families were left homeless today after an early morning fire broke out at an apartment complex off Old Nyack Turnpike across the street from where fire damaged a separate house the night before.

Investigators don’t know if the two fires are connected.

Three firefighters were injured battling the blaze today at Sleepy Hollow Gardens apartment on Lunney Court.

The fire apparently started in Apartment 34 sometime after 6 a.m. It spread to the attic and then to adjacent units, Spring Valley fire Chief Ken Sohlman said.

Michael Choinski, 16, who lives in the apartment next door to where the fire broke out, said his mother was awakened by the sound of windows shattering from the fire. Choinski helped get his family out of the building and then ran to the other apartments in the building.

This is video from a house fire in the same area of Spring Valley around 9:30 PM on Thursday. Click here to see more clips from the fire.

“I was banging on the doors — telling everyone to get out,” he said.

All residents, including the women and her three young daughters who lived in the unit where the fire started, were out of the building by the time firefighters arrived.

It took firefighters about an hour to bring the fire under control. Firefighters from Spring Valley, Hillcrest, Monsey and Tallman were at the scene along with Spring Hill and Ramapo Valley ambulance corps.

Thursday night, Spring Valley firefighters were called to a single-family house at 123 Old Nyack Turnpike, directly across the street from the Sleepy Hollow Gardens apartments, shortly after 9:30.

It took them nearly two hours to put out the fire, which caused extensive damage to the house. No one was injured.

Investigators are trying to determine what caused both fires.

The Red Cross was being asked to help residents relocate.

Radio traffic & video from crash involving DC’s Rescue Squad 1. Three civilians hurt.

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Click the picture for more images.

Click the picture for more images.

Three people were seriously hurt after a crash involving Rescue Squad 1 at 14th Street and Constitution Ave in Northwest Washington.

DC Fire & EMS Department spokesman Pete Piringer says the crew was responding to a report of a fire at a library at George Washington University when it was involved in a crash with two other vehicles around 7:30 AM today. Three people in the two cars were taken to a hospital with serious injuries. No firefighters were hurt.

The fire at the library ended up being a small fire in the heating and air conditioning system. Piringer says it was quickly contained.

Why did it take so long? One of the big questions in Spotsylvania County after fatal fire where woman stayed on the phone with 911.

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VA Spotsylvania Chancellor Banner

Fireground audio

Transcript of fireground radio traffic

Transcript of Sandy Hill’s call to 911

Read the entire article

An investigation is underway after firefighters in Spotsylvania County, Virginia failed to find a woman who was on the phone, trapped in her house, while firefighters were inside searching. It apparently took repeated attempts and more than 20 minutes before firefighters finally found 43-year-old Sandy Hill on February 5.

Firefighters were able to rescue another person trapped in the fire. According to Dan Telvock with the Frederickburg Free Lance-Star, Hill was on the second floor of the 2000 square foor, four bedroom, Cape Cod. The paper has the fireground audio, audio of part of Sandy Hill’s conversation with 911 and transcripts of her calls. 

Here is an excerpt from Telvock’s article:

Carl Maurice, a Spotsylvania resident who spent 32 years with the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department, is the only expert who listened to the recordings and also viewed the exterior of the house.

“If someone presented this scenario to me in theory, I would have expected the victim to survive,” Maurice said. “The question everyone has to ask is ‘Why didn’t she?’”

Kevin Dillard, the administrative chief and spokesman of Chancellor Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department, initially sent an e-mail a few hours after the fire praising the 45 volunteers involved for an “awesome job.”

But this week, after learning more about the response, Dillard said he thinks an investigation is warranted.

Dillard said he knew few details when he sent the e-mail. Only after after some volunteers criticized the response two weeks ago did he begin to realize “serious” problems related to the response, he said.

For example, thermal imaging cameras that could have helped locate Hill and the teenager were available at the scene but were not used.

Dillard said a ladder was never deployed to Hill’s bedroom windows, and the crews seemed to be confused with the layout of the house and where Hill was trapped.

Dillard said ventilating the house to remove smoke came late in the process because there was a delay in announcing that the fire had been extinguished.

This incident seems to have a lot of similarities to a fire in Fairfax County in May, 2007 where firefighters were unable to find 49-year-old Debra Chiles on the top floor of her small townhouse. Chiles was in the bathroom on the phone with 911 as firefighters pulled up to battle a kitchen fire. The acting chief of the department admitted at the time that Chiles should have been found.

Fireground audio & early video from Rochester. Two alarms on house fire with exposures.

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Video by Guy Zampatori.

Click here for fireground audio & more details from Monroe County Fire Wire (special thanks to Scott Ellman)

Story by Tina Yee, Democrat & Chronicle:

A two-alarm fire last night destroyed one Rochester home, damaged another and caused the deaths of two dogs.

Flames were showing on the front and rear of a two-and-a-half story wood-frame house at 156 Ackerman St. when firefighters arrived about 10:25 p.m., said Rochester Deputy Fire Chief Ron Mendolera. Firefighters had to attack the fire from the exterior.

The fire got into the second-floor eaves of a house at 150 Ackerman St. and damaged the attic. Mendolera said that house also sustained some exterior exposure damage.

Mendolera said the house at 156 Ackerman St. was razed to extinguish the fire and because the building’s structural stability was in question. Two tenants, whose dogs died, are being helped by the Greater Rochester Chapter of the American Red Cross.

Ackerman Street is off Bay Street in northeast Rochester.

It happens (to the best of us). Chicago dispatcher leaves microphone open a little too long. Don’t listen to this YouTube video if you are offended by a common 4-letter word.

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Listen to the recording via YouTube (again, you have been warned it contains a common four-letter-word, so don’t complain to me if you are offended)

I am sure this all has to do with foot and eye coordination (or hand and eye, depending on what they use). The audio clip posted to YouTube this morning shows the results when you leave the transmitter open just a little too long. The note with the posting says it happened to someone at the Chicago Fire Department – Main Fire Alarm Office yesterday at 12:46 PM.

This clip sent as a public announcement and reminder to all of us who speak into a microphone for a living.

UPDATED: Transport video & radio traffic from shooting at the Pentagon. Two security officers wounded. Shooter is dead.

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View images from George Washington Hospital Center and the Pentagon

Two Pentagon Force Protection Agency officers were grazed by bullets last night and returned fire killing the gunman.

Pentagon-Police-Officer-at-George-Washington-Hospital-~-01Chief Richard Keevill, who leads the security force, says the shooter, “Walked up cool and with no distress. He reached into his pocket which is common for people to get their Pentagon pass out but instead he came out with his gun.”

With no known motive sources say 36-year-old John Patrick Bedell tried to enter the Pentagon and opened fire just outside of the building around 630 Thursday evening. Besides the officers and the suspect no one else was hurt.

Officials say there is no immediate signs of terrorism but they haven’t ruled anything out. Authorities say the shooter said nothing as he got to the first security checkpoint to the Pentagon, and opened fire.

The incident happened at the Pentagon’s Metro entrance facility. Keevill says, “We have layers of security, he never got inside the building to hurt anyone.”

The two officers who were within several feet of the suspect were shot and sustained non-life threatening injuries.

Josh Gross a CBS producer was on his way home on the metro when his train stopped underground at the Pentagon Metro stop.
officers told passengers to stay underground for safety.

Gross says, “Officers told us we could leave at our own risk and as soon as they got to the platform they were forced back down.”

The Pentagon went under lockdown for an hour and a half and metro trains passed through without stopping.

Gross says, “The producer side of me was curious, I was the last person off the train and I took pictures but officers said I couldn’t take pictures and watched me erase them.”

Surae Chinn contributed to this article.

Fireground audio after plane crashes into Louisa, Virginia home & burns. Pilot dead. Resident escapes.

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VA Louisa plane crash

View slideshow of pictures from the plane crash & fire from Shenda Allen & others

A small plane crashed into a house in Louisa County around 12:30 this afternoon killing the pilot.

The FAA tells 9NEWS NOW a Cessna 303 twin engine crashed into a home on Quiet Lane at Route 33 shortly after take off from Freeman Field/ Louisa County Airport.

The FAA says the plane’s registered owner is from Reston, however, they have not confirmed who was on board.

The FAA reports that witnesses say the engines appeared to quit.

Police say one person inside the home was in the basement and got out safely.

As you will hear from the audio below by FireSceneAudio.com, Medic 1 in Louisa County called in the report of the plane crash and reported it had struck a house.

Fireground audio from Detroit fire that killed 3 little girls. Mother had gone to the store.

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Watch story from WDIV-TV

Article by Tammy Stables Battaglia, The Detroit Free Press:

Three of seven Detroit children died in a house fire while their mother went to the store Tuesday evening, according to investigators.

The Detroit Free Press featuring a Dennis Walus photo from the deadly fire. Click the image for more Detroit pictures from Dennis.

The Detroit Free Press featuring a Dennis Walus photo from the deadly fire. Click the image for more Detroit pictures from Dennis.

When Detroit Fire Department crews arrived at 4956 Bangor around 6:30 p.m., flames were shooting from the two-story, single-family home, Fifth Battalion Fire Chief Gary Lauer said today.

“There was nobody on the scene telling us there was anyone inside,” Lauer said. “The way it was burning was like it’s a vacant house. But somebody finally said, ‘There’s three girls upstairs.’ ”

Three brothers had already jumped out of a second-floor window with an infant, Lauer said. Investigators were unclear about the age of the oldest boy today, thought to be between 10 and 12 years old.

But the girls, between 3 and 6 years old, remained trapped.

“They … found the girls pretty quickly,” Lauer said. “But the smoke and the heat and the fire was so intense, they were in pretty bad shape when we found them.”

The mother arrived at the home shortly after the fire broke out, hysterical about the tragedy, Lauer said.

“At the time there were no adults at home,” he added. “I’m just going by what was said at the scene, that she had gone to the party store.”

An aunt took the boys to Children’s Hospital of Michigan, and they’re expected to survive. The condition of the infant, who was being given CPR before being transported to the hospital Tuesday night, was unknown this morning, Lauer said.

A space heater was found in the home, but Lauer said the cause of the blaze hasn’t been determined.

Officers from the department’s Arson Investigation Unit are expected to continue searching for a cause today.

Fireground audio & video from 4-alarm fire in Dallas. Two restaurants destroyed owned by well-known tournament poker player.

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From the AP:

Four businesses were destroyed by fire today morning in the restaurant-packed lower Greenville Avenue area of Dallas — when the places were closed.

The multi-alarm blaze left one firefighter being treated for smoke inhalation.

Fire department spokesman Jason Evans says the fire apparently started in Terrilli’s, a popular restaurant in the neighborhood east of downtown known for its eateries, funky retail stores and live-music clubs.

Evans says the adjoining restaurants that were destroyed share a crawl space with Terrilli’s.

Gregg Merkow of Plano, a well-known tournament poker player who owns two restaurants destroyed by the fire, said he raced down to the area to see smoke billowing from his bar.

Fireground audio from Montgomery County, Maryland townhouse fire. Two alarms on Columbia Pike.

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No pictures and not much information on a two-alarm townhouse fire on Friday in Montgomery County, Maryland. It occurred shortly after 5:00 PM at 11,273 Columbia Pike in the White Oak area of the county. Above is the fireground audio from FireSceneAudio.com.

Three-alarms in Prince George’s County. Fireground audio from garden apartment fire in Laurel, Maryland.

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PGFD Laurel 2

Photos by PGFD’s Mark Brady. Click here for more.

Additional pictures here and here.

Flames shot through the roof of an apartment building in Laurel Monday afternoon causing a part of the building’s roof to collapse.  No injuries were reported, but a number of residents were displaced.

MD PG Laurel Mistletoe 4Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department officials say that they received a call around 2:50 PM for a fire on the third floor of a 3-story garden apartment complex, located in the 13000 block of Mistletoe Springs Road. When firefighters arrived, they found flames on the third floor extending though the roof.

Fire officials report the bulk of the fire was knocked down at 4:00 PM.  

The cause of the fire is still being investigated.

PGFD has not provided a dollar estimate on the loss.

Five-alarm fire in vacant Baltimore warehouse. Video from Clipper Mill Industrial Park.

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WBAL Radio video from the 41st Street Bridge late into the fire.

MD Baltimore 5th alarm Clipper MillClick here for WJZ-TV video (updated)

WBAL-TV coverage (updated)

Listen live to Baltimore City Fire Department

As of 10:25 PM Baltimore City Fire Department units were still battling a fire in a large vacant warehouse in the 1700 block of Union Avenue. Master streams were shut down and some limited interior operations were being done in an office area to reach some of the fire.

The call came in at 6:30 this morning. The location is adjacent to the light rail tracks on the west side of the Jones Falls Expressway in the Clipper Mill Industrial Park area (Between Woodberry and Hampden). This industrial park is where Firefighter Eric Schaefer was killed during a wall collapse at a building fire on September 16, 1995.

MD Baltimore 5-alarm fire BEV

That is the 41st Street Bridge on the north side of the building and the Jones Falls Expressway (JFX, I-83) to the east. From the WBAL-TV tower cam shot it appears the south side of the building burned. Click the image for Bing's Birds-Eye-View.

That location is just down the street from TV Hill where a number of the city’s television station’s are located. WJZ-TV reports one of its photographers was on the scene before the fire department (watch for that video later today). Here are excerpts from the station’s website:

Over 100 firefighters are on location battling the five-alarm blaze. There are also 45 fire suppression, EMS, command and support units on the scene.

“We have employed exterior operations, being that we have ladder pipes in place. We’re extinguishing the fire from outside the building, not sending our members in for them to become victims themselves,” said Kevin Cartwright. “We’re making headway on extinguishing this fire.

According to residents in the area, the building has been mostly vacant for 12 years, although there are some offices inside. Residents say there have been several small fires in the building in the past year.

Police have shut down several roads in the area. Two lanes of the JFX south of Coldspring are shut down. The light rail station at Union Avenue is closed. The 41st Street bridge and several side streets near Union Avenue are also shut down. Delays are likely if you travel in this area; drivers are advised to avoid the area if possible, but if you have to drive in the neighborhood, be prepared to use alternate routes.

No injuries have been reported.

Three-alarm church fire in Baltimore: Mt. Calvary Baptist on North Milton Avenue. Watch video.

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MD Baltimore 3-alarm church fire

More pictures in slideshow from WBAL-TV.

Raw video from WBAL-TV tower cam

Helicopter video from WBAL-TV

Baltimore City Fire Department live dispatch

From WJZ-TV:

Firefighters are battling a 3-alarm church fire in East Baltimore.

The fire at Mt. Calvary Baptist Church located on the 1700-block of North Milton Avenue started around 10 a.m.

Electrical wires are down, and there is a partial collapse of the building.

No injuries have been reported

Quick Takes

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Allentown, PA second-alarm: This is from 10:30 last night at 614 Walnut Street. NewsWorking.org shot the video and has the details.

‘You’ve got to get out of your truck and you got to go there’: No, this isn’t a comment about the DeKalb County, Georgia house fire that cost firefighters their jobs. This is the public safety director talking about Pittsburgh EMS. A pretty unbelievable story where an EMS crew wanted the patient, a man who died following 10 unsuccessful calls to 911 over three days, to walk to them during a snow storm. City officials believe Curtis Mitchell would still be alive if things had been done properly. Here’s the story.

Two-alarm school fire in Fairfax County: A fire Tuesday morning destroyed a pre-school attached to the Highview Christian Fellowship Church in West Annandale. Twenty children along with teachers escaped the fire. Two of the staff  suffered minor smoke inhalation. We have the fireground audio from FireSceneAudio.com. Click here for a slideshow and here for my story.

Fatal fire in DC: Click here for details of a duplex fire on East Capitol Street at 5:30 this morning. Click here for an interview with Deputy Chief Kenneth Crosswhite.

PGFD animal rescue: Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department video and pictures from a rescue operation in a storm drain that brought a dog to safety. Click here.

Must see mayday video: This is a follow-up to a story we brought you at the end of January of a firefighter bailing out of a second floor window during the search for an elderly woman at a Randolph, New Jersey house fire. Helmet-cam video of the firefighter’s escape is now posted. Check it out.

Going out in style: A UK firefighter on the final day of his 25-year career rescues a woman from her burning bedroom. Read the story.

The fireground audio that goes with the picture of the day: If you have seen the picture of the infant being dangled from a window of a Bronx apartment building, you will want to listen to the radio traffic that goes with it. Click here.

‘We cannot continue to pay them at the rate we are paying them’: The words of Clark County, Nevada Commissioner Steve Sisolak who says firefighters make too much. He says on average benefits and salary equal $180,000. Click here for the story.

Boston lieutenant in road rage has past: We first told you yesterday about what police believe was an alcohol fueled road rage incident involving off-duty Boston Fire Department Lt. Paul Souza. Boston.com reports this isn’t a first for Souza.

Riding with Engine 16: Reporter Surae Chinn gets a close-up view as DC firefighters try to navigate the snow clogged streets of the Nation’s Capital. Here’s the story.

Close call follow-up: The must see video to go with the fireground audio from Randolph, New Jersey mayday.

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On January 28 we brought you the fireground audio (Courtesy of FireSceneAudio.com) and details of the mayday that occurred during a fatal fire a day earlier in Randolph, New Jersey. Now, our friends at Firefighter Spot and Firefighter Close Calls have alerted us to this video posted by FireVideo.net of the close up action as a firefighter bailed out of a second floor window of the burning home.

The firefighter, who came head first down the ladder, was searching for the woman who died in the fire, 84-year-old Norma Miller. Below is the audio.

The fireground audio to go with the picture of the day. Rescues in the Bronx.

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*Feb 15 - 00:05*

This photo from the New York Daily News was taken by Maya Tucker.  Click the image for the story.

Firegeezer beat me to the picture of the day and has details about this Bronx fire from Monday. Everyone was rescued even though it was a challenge with multiple people trapped and the baby dangling from the fifth floor of the Pelham Parkway Houses.

FireSceneAudio.com posted the audio (below) and WNYW-TV talked with the person who took the picture.

Radio traffic from Florida firefighter struck. Orange County’s Chad Lowrey is among those injured in secondary crash.

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Firefighter Chad Lowrey.

Firefighter Chad Lowrey.

This is the emergency radio traffic from the call on State Route 50 at Deer Island Road in Orange County, Florida shortly after 8:00 Sunday morning. Engine 37 from Orange County Fire Rescue responded to a collision between a motorcycle and a car. Soon things got much worse after another vehicle crashed into the scene.

Firefighter Chad Lowrey and four other people were victims of the second crash.

Lowrey was seriously injured and flown to Orlando Regional Medical Center. We do not have an update on his condition.

Reports indicate Engine 37 had been placed in the “fend off” position to in an effort to prevent other vehicles from getting into the scene.

 

House explodes as firefighters arrive on scene of gas leak call. Five injured in Poland, Ohio.

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Ohio Poland explosion

Image from video by William D. Lewis at Vindy.com.

Click here for video & interview with Chief David Comstock Jr.

Click here for the fireground audio from Ohio News Alerts

A house exploded this morning at 2816 Center Road in Poland, Ohio just as firefighters arrived for a reported gas leak and headed inside the home. Here are excerpts from a WYTV-TV article:

“We immediately had fire throughout the house, and within a very short period of time, the entire front of the house collapsed.”, says Fire Chief David Comstock, Jr., Western Reserve Joint Fire District.

When the first crews got on scene they opened the front door to the home and immediately smelled gas. That’s when they shut the door and say the home exploded, literally blowing firefighters away from the house and into the snow bank, trapping a few of them underneath the porch, which collapsed.

A handful of firefighters were taken to the hospital with minor injuries from battling the blaze, and being trapped under the debris. Chief Comstock says,

“Three were released, two are still being evaluated but they were very fortunate, I have to say the Lord was looking down on them, because it could have been very serious.”

Luckily, no one was inside the home when it blew up. Neighbors say the family who lived there had trouble with their furnace earlier in the week, and reported a possible gas leak to Dominion East Ohio. Apparently they had come back to check on their home right before it exploded.

Fire crews spent the rest of the morning dousing flames and smoke. The Chief says gas is the primary suspect, and the home is a total loss. The State Fire Marshal’s Office and local Metro Arson Strike Force continue to investigate.

Oh, what a week! Sykesville, MD is the latest of 4 Mid-Atlantic fire stations greatly damaged or destroyed. Fireground audio, pictures, & recap of the destruction.

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Click the image for the Bing Bird's Eye View.
Click the image for the Bing Bird’s Eye View.

Helicopter video from WJZ-TV

Slideshow from WMAR-TV

You can listen to the fireground operations live by clicking here

Sykesville Freedom District Fire Department website

Click the image for more pictures from WBAL-TV.

Click the image for more pictures from WBAL-TV.

For the fourth time in as many days we are telling you about a firehouse that has been greatly damaged or destroyed due to fire, collapse or both in Maryland, Virginia and Delaware. This time it is the Sykesville Freedom District Fire Department in Carroll County, Maryland.

News reports indicate the roof over the social hall collapsed and then sparked a gas fed fire. This happened around 8:45 AM.

By 10:00 AM the fire had gone to a third-alarm plus additional equipment.

Below is the early fireground audio from FireSceneAudio.com.

 Click here for Part 2.

Yesterday, two other firehouses were destroyed. Baltimore County Fire Department Station 6 in Dundalk caught fire around 2:45 AM. That fire went through the roof. The brand new Engine 6 was among the fire and EMS rigs lost in the blaze. Click here for video of the damage and here for our earlier coverage.

Later in the day, heavy snow brought in the roof of the Townsend Fire Company in New Castle County, Delaware. Seeing that the roof was compromised, crews were able to get the apparatus out of the building before the roof came down. Click here if you haven’t seen the video of the roof collapse.

Early Monday morning heavy snow collapsed the flat roof at Fairfax County’s Station 410 in Bailey’s Crossroads. Eighteen firefighters inside escaped without injury. That firehouse is destroyed and a ladder truck, engine, EMS units and a boat were under the rubble. Here is our coverage of that incident.

There is also a sagging roof at Station 408 in Annandale three miles away. For now, at both stations the apparatus is outside in the elements. In Annandale, crews are sleeping in tents inside the bingo hall. 9NEWS NOW’s Greg Guise spent some time during the blizzard yesterday with the crew at Station 408. That story is below.

Concerns about the roof at Alexandria’s Station 206 three miles east of Bailey’s Crossroads resulted in the evacuation of that station Monday night. Snow was removed from the flat roof and a structural engineer gave the okay to return to the firehouse on Tuesday.

Fireground audio & video from Fairfax County mayday during apartment fire. One firefighter dropped from balcony & another lost mask.

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See inside pictures from Fairfax County fire station collapse earlier in the day

Two firefighters ran into serious trouble Monday evening at a garden apartment building fire in Fairfax County, Virginia. Firefighters were already dealing with heavy snow on the ground and water supply issues when a mayday was called for two firefighters down. This happened around the time command ordered the evacuation of the building due to a report of a top floor collapse at the building  in the 4200 block of Hunt Club Circle in the Fair Oaks section of the county.

Fire officials say one firefighter came off of a balcony dropping three floors into a snow bank. A second firefighter was reported missing for a brief period. That firefighter was soon found and was taken to a burn unit after the firefighter’s facepiece became dislodged.

The snow slowed firefighters in placing ladders and accessing hydrants. Virginia National Guard members in Humvees and other vehicles have been assisting firefighters. They helped in getting at least one of the injured firefighters to an ambulance.

The injuries to both firefighters are not considered life threatening.

At least 14 apartments were damaged in the fire. 

It already had been a tough day for the Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department. Eighteen firefighters had a close call when their fire station crumbled around them at 3:00 in the morning. Heavy snow on the flat roof at Station 410 in Bailey’s Crossroads collapsed the roof. The fire station, the apparatus inside and vehicles belonging to firefighters parked outside have been heavily damaged, but no firefighters were hurt.

 

Two hangars, ice rink and church among structures that have collapsed. Fires also keep DC area crews busy. More snow coverage, video & radio traffic.

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Click here for an interview with an MWAA spokesman about the collapse at Dulles.

Watch live coverage from WUSA9.com

Learn more about the deadly collapse from the historic Washington snow of 1922

Send us your fire & EMS snow videos and pictures

Preliminary snow totals

Some live scanner feeds from the region: DC Fire & EMS, PGFD, Montgomery County, Anne Arundel CountyFrederick County, MD

We hope to have more details later today on what sounded like a frustrating incident in Fairfax County last night. A house burned in Great Falls and the snow greatly prevented access to the scene. (Also, don’t forget to check the player to the right for the latest videos from WUSA9.com.)

The Joshua Temple Church in DC was one of a number of  buildings that collapsed Saturday in Washington area.

The Joshua Temple Church in DC was one of a number of buildings that collapsed Saturday in Washington area.

Earlier in the day, I watched a relatively minor version of the same problem. Two trees in front of my house were smoking, thanks to the top of a utility pole and a tangle of power lines that were down in the street just to one side of my driveway. I still had power, as did most of my neighbors, but the service to my house was looking none to good with the line draping down from the meter and across our snow covered lawn to the street.

Not having the scanner with me (what kind of reporter is that?) I figured the half-hour or so delay after calling 911 was just from a back-up of higher priority calls. It turns out Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department Engine 418 was dispatched immediately. It just took them a few tries to get into the neighborhood. Before long Capt. Michael Istvan and his crew were trudging down my street, wisely leaving the engine at the top of the hill.

They did exactly what I expected them to do and taped off the area so no one got zapped. While they were doing that we heard a little sizzle and a loud pop and that was the end of the power for most of the street (tree stopped burning too, imagine that). So far my natural gas fed generator is powering things well and we have become the most popular family in the neighborhood. I am guessing it will be a few days before the lines are restrung. This also means that we won’t likely see a snow plow on our street for a while.

The firefighters from Station 418 had been dispatched to a call around 8:00 AM that sounded a bit more exciting than the 911 response I generated. They were headed to Dulles International Airport where a hangar had collapsed due to the weight of the snow.

No one was hurt, but it sounds like some private jets took a beating. There is video and an interview above, and radio traffic from the incident below. 

Click here for Part 2 of the radio traffic from FireSceneAudio.com.

There was also a collapse of a hangar at Manassas Regional Airport around 1:30 PM. City of Manassas Fire & Rescue Department Chief Fire Marshal Francis Teevan describes it as a 24,000 square foot hangar owned by Dulles Aviation, Inc.

Another major collapse was at the Prince William Ice Center in Dale City, Virginia. Here’s an excerpt from InsideNova.com (where you will also find a picture):

The building at 5180 Dale Blvd. is a total loss, owner Bill Hutzler said. Skaters practicing inside had been evacuated before the collapse and no one was injured.

“We had some speed skaters on the ice this morning, then a beam on ceiling started to twist and … we got everybody out,“ said Hutzler, who bought the rink in March 2008. The rink was built in 1996.

A hazardous materials team was called to the scene due to high amounts of ammonia in the building, which is used to keep the ice fresh.

In the District of Columbia a tree limb and the weight of the snow brought down the 100-year-old Joshua Temple Church in Northeast. Again, no one was hurt.

Also in DC, Rescue Squad 3 was involved in another rescue when they arrived first to a house fire at 1314 T Street, Southeast. You can click here for the fireground audio (hope to have more from this one later).

The DC Fire & EMS Department handled more than twice its normal number of calls yesterday because of snow related issues.

Fire at recycling plant in Cook County, Illinois. Video of Chicago FD mobile ventilation unit in action.

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Steve Redick video from a recycling warehouse fire yesterday afternoon in suburban Chicago. Toward the end of the clip you will see Steve showing the operations of MVU 923. I wonder if the unit has its own Facebook fan page? (So sorry.)

Here are excerpts from an article by Mark Lawton at the Franklin Park Herald-Journal:

The fire started between 2 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. at 615 N. Northwest Avenue in an industrial section of Northlake just east of Interstate 294.

The cement and brick building was about three-quarters empty, said Franklin Park Fire Chief David Traiforos during a phone interview after leaving the scene.

In the center of the building, however, a pile of tightly bundled packages of cloth, paper and plastic had caught fire.

The Chicago Fire Department brought in front-end loaders to push the burning bundles outside where they were broken apart and extinguished.

The building sprinkler system did some of the work, Traiforos said.

“It probably kept the building from burning down,” he said. “There’s really no damage to the building other than cutting into the roof and window damage.”

Firefighters were challenged, however, by insufficient water pressure.

Radio traffic from CO close call for first responders. Crew collapsed as they assisted at townhouse in Salina, Kansas where one person died.

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More from FirefighterCloseCalls.com

Salina Journal: First responders thought they were responding to a medical emergency

From the AP:

Officials say one person died, two emergency responders were hospitalized and nine others were treated after being overcome by carbon monoxide in central Kansas.

Fire Marshal Roger Williams says a woman called authorities after finding her friend unconscious inside his Salina town house Wednesday evening.

Williams says a paramedic and firefighter who went into the home collapsed and had to be rescued by other firefighters. The two were hospitalized.

Williams says seven Salina Fire Department personnel, a police officer and the woman who called for help were treated at Salina Regional Hospital for elevated carbon monoxide levels.

The hospital reported that one of them died, but no name or details were released.

Williams says the carbon monoxide came from a car that had been left running in an attached garage.

Listen to fireground audio from controversial DeKalb County, Georgia fire. Another captain fired over the incident.

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Click here for STATter911.com’s previous coverage of this story and to read DeKalb County report

Captain Sell Caldwell is the fifth member of the fire department in DeKalb County, Georgia to be fired over the January 24 fire that took the life of 74-year-old Ann Bartlett. The impact of the error filled response, detailed in a county report, also resulted in the immediate resignation of Chief David Foster earlier this week.

The video above includes some of the radio transmissions for both the initial response to Bartlett’s home and the response of firefighters five hours later when her home had already been destroyed. Bartlett’s body was recovered from the rubble.

A police investigation continues to see if there were any criminal violations in the actions taken by responding firefighters.

UPDATED (New video added): Three children rescued from DC apartment fire this morning. All revived. Raw security camera video & fireground audio from 1920 Naylor Road, Southeast.

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Three children, all in respiratory or cardiac arrest, were pulled from a burning Southeast Washington apartment this morning. The District of Columbia Fire & EMS Department reports all three are alive and being treated at Children’s Hospital.

DC Naylor Road

The call came in at 6:14 this morning from a resident of Apartment 306 at 1920 Naylor Road, SE. The first arriving crews from Engine 15 and Rescue Squad 3 headed to the third floor, but soon discovered the fire was one floor below in Apartment 206.

Security camera video from the building shows a woman trying to get into that apartment as smoke began filling the second floor hallway. Firefighters soon arrived. Capt. Bernard Holt of Rescue Squad 3 says no one in the hallway told the firefighters there were children in Apartment 206.

As Engine 15 extinguished a fire in the kitchen of the apartment, the crew from the rescue squad began searching the rest of the apartment. Firefighters J.C. Carroll and Charles Ryan were joined by Engine 15’s Mike Huskins as the three children were found in a bedroom. Firefighter Carroll tells STATter911.com that two of the children were on the bed and one was on the floor. Firefighter Huskins wrapped a sheet around one of the children to protect her from the heat as all three were taken out the apartment door and into the lobby.

This is a combination of video captured by two security cameras at 1920 Naylor Road, SE. One is on the ground floor by the center stairwell and the other is in the same position one floor up and down the hall from Apartment 206. I have edited the videos together in general chronological order based on visual clues, but the videos are not matched exactly by time.

Firefighters Pete Bagdovitz and Jeff Carroll aboard Ambulance 15 took all three children into their unit, the only ambulance on the scene. A decision was made to make an immediate transport with the help of the rescue squad crew to Children’s Hospital rather than wait for ALS units that had recently been requested by Battalion Chief Edwin Pearson, the incident commander.

A few blocks from the apartment building, Captain Cee Cee Wilson, an EMS supervisor, met up with Ambulance 15 and hopped aboard to provide ALS treatment for the youngest of the children, who was in cardiac arrest.

Capt. Wilson said all three were breathing when Ambulance 15 arrived at the hospital. The children are a five year-old boy, a two-year-old girl and a six-month-old girl.

DC fire officials say the father had gone to work just before 6:00 AM. He had asked a neighbor to check in on his children. Sources say the woman seen on security camera video, using a key to try and get into the apartment, is that neighbor from down the hall.

Fire investigators say it appears a burner on the gas stove had been left on and ignited combustible material. DC Fire & EMS Department PIO Pete Piringer reports there was no working smoke detector in Apartment 206.

The other firefighters who were part of Rescue Squad 3 on this call were Mike Deavers, Charlie Williams and Mike Rabaoitti. Lt. Lee Havens was in charge of Engine 15, which also included Derek Graham, Jimmy Hill and Benjamin Driscoll. Driscoll is a probationary firefighter and this was his first fire with the DC Fire & EMS Department.