Click here to follow STATter911.com on Facebook (hit "like")

Jason Low, STATter911.com reader and a firefighter at Redwood Meadows Emergency Services in for Redwood Meadows Emergency Services in Alberta, Canada sent us this information about a fire last night at a service station:

Redwood Meadows Emergency Services (RMES) along with mutual aid partners from Cochrane, Springbank, Elbow Valley, Priddis, Madden, and Langdon all worked together to extinguish a gas/service station that caught fire at 8:20pm MST Monday night. Initial reports are that a car being worked on inside the service bays contained gasoline fumes which were ignited by the overhead heater. One person sustained minor injuries.

Bragg Creek's commercial district is comprised largely of unsprinklered wooden structures. The fact that this was held to the building of origin and did not spread to the very close by strip shopping mall and another gas station can be directly attributed to effective water (tanker) shuttles and frequent pre-plan/table-top exercises by RMES.

From ClagaryHerald.com:

A Bragg Creek gas station has been destroyed by a gas-fed fire, despite desperate attempts by fire crews to contain the blaze.

Firefighters spent hours battling an inferno Monday night, sparked inside a garage at the Bragg Creek Husky station on the corner of Highway 22 and Highway 22X.

Residents reported that gas inside the southwest station ignited sometime after 8 p.m.

Click here for a series of still pictures from CalgarySun.com.

From CalgarySun.com:

Rob Evans, deputy fire chief with Redwood Meadows, said the blaze could have been far worse.

“Crews did a great job of saving it from going into the newer mall in Bragg Creek, as well as the old mall, “ he said.

Propane tanks in a cage outside of the gas station were whistling, said Evans — venting and ready to blow.

Evans said the preliminary cause of the fire is gasoline vapours from a vehicle being worked on in the shop at the time, ignited by a unit heater in the ceiling.

Video below by David Schuurman.

Do you want to sell a rig? Click HERE to find out how with SellFireTrucks.com.

Click here to follow STATter911.com on Facebook (hit "like")

A close call yesterday in West Haverstraw, New York. Firefighters were investigating the rupture of a high pressure gas line by a Verizon crew when there was an explosion that leveled a townhouse and injured two firefighters and two utility workers. The urgent message about the explosion comes from command at 4:49 on the audio above.

The injured firefighters are Gerry Knapp and Ken Patterson of West Haverstraw Volunteer Hose Company #2. As you will read below, Firefighter Patterson also had a close call a year ago.

From WNBC-TV:

Two firefighters were near the townhouse on Zarriello Lane investigating reports of a gas leak when the blast occurred shortly after 12:30 p.m..

“They knocked on the door at 52 Zarriello right before the explosion,”  said Orange and Rockland Utilities spokesman Michael Donovan. “No one answered so we assume no one was home.”

The firefighters were brought to Westchester Medical Center as other first responders battled to get the blaze under control and to contain further explosions. Nearby homes were evacuated after the blast, which leveled the townhouse.

From LoHud.com:

Knapp, who lives near the development and is West Haverstraw’s emergency coordinator, suffered first and second degree burns to his face, West Haverstraw Mayor John Ramundo said. Patterson, who works for the village Department of Public Works, suffered severe burns to a leg.

Patterson, one of the injured firefighters, was nearly killed while fighting a blaze almost a year to the day.

On Jan. 14, 2011, he was inside a home on Westside Avenue that had been illegally converted and became disoriented while searching for potential victims.

He ran out of air inside the burning building and issued a mayday call.

Another firefighter, Andrew Kolesar, found Patterson in the building and rescued him.

Do you want to sell a vehicle? Click HERE to find out how with SellFireTrucks.com.

Pictures at AberdeenNews.com

From FirefighterCloseCalls.com:

The fire call came in when caller noticed smoke coming from one of the coal bins at the colony-starting around 0800 hours. The bins, inside the building and hold coal to feed the furnace for a boiler.

Several volunteer firefighters fought the fire, and it was thought the fire had been extinguished.

At 0915 hours the colony Firefighters noticed smoke again, coming from an opening on top of the building.

The two young Firefighters climbed to the top of the 75-foot structure to put out what was still burning. The men were attempting to knock down the fire through the top of the opening onto the coal bin when the explosion occurred. The blast threw both Firefighters from the roof onto the ground.

Debris from the roof landed on top of one of the Firefighters and the other was pinned beneath a concrete wall that had collapsed. The west wall of the building crashed through to the coal furnace, crushing it. The father of one of the Firefighters, was also is a Volunteer Firefighter himself, was inside a lower level of the building during the blast. He emerged from the building dazed, covered in debris and injured.

Firefighters had to use one of the trucks on scene to remove the roof and cement off of the men and one of the colony fire apparatus was damaged in the blast.

Several departments responded to the blast, including the North Marshall Fire Department, the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office and, the Sunset Colony Firefighters. As we pointed out last night, in that area-and several “plains” area rural communities in North America, “colonies” of Hutterite people (similar in some respects to the Amish) maintain their own volunteer fire companies. This is one such community.

From the AP:

Two volunteer firefighters died and one was injured after an explosion Thursday morning northwest of Britton.

Marshall County Sheriff Dale Elsen tells the Aberdeen American News that a 20-year-old man and a 21-year-old man had been on top of a structure putting out a fire when an explosion blew off the top and south wall of the building, killing the men.

Elsen said the man injured was the father of one of the men who died. The man was taken to Marshall County Health Care Center.

Elsen said several volunteer firefighters had fought the blaze and thought it was extinguished when the explosion occurred. The 911 call came in at 9:51 a.m.

]]> http://statter911.com/2011/09/16/explosion-kills-firefighter-cousins-in-britton-south-dakota-sunset-colonys-jack-william-waldner-died-after-coal-bin-explosion/feed/ 0 http://statter911.com/2011/08/04/raw-video-one-stubborn-car-fire-in-whitehall-pennsylvania/ http://statter911.com/2011/08/04/raw-video-one-stubborn-car-fire-in-whitehall-pennsylvania/#comments Thu, 04 Aug 2011 14:50:02 +0000 dave statter http://statter911.com/?p=22431

This looks a lot like one of those trick birthday candles that you can't blow out. It is actually a Mercedes Benz burning in Whitehall, Pennsylvania yesterday. Here's the description from Bill Rohrer at Newsworking.org:

From KXTV:

It took 124 personnel and 30 apparatus from 15 fire agencies to contain a 6-alarm fire at a plastics company yard in Fairfield Tuesday afternoon. The flames poured thick black smoke into the sky for hours.

The Fairfield Fire Department said it appears plastic barrels burned in the yard of Macro Plastics Inc. at 2250 Huntington Drive. Officials said the fire was started by employees.

No buildings burned and the fire was contained to the company's property, said Fairfield city spokeswoman Gale Spears.

Those within one mile of the fire were directed to shelter-in-place with windows and doors closed and air conditioners off, Spears said. The voluntary shelter-in-place was expected to be lifted at 6 p.m.

Spears said officials have been told by air quality managers the fumes from the burn did not appear to be toxic.

There were no injuries.

Fire crews on the scene said the cause of the blaze appeared to be accidental.

According to the Macro Plastics website, it manufactures plastic bins. Polyethylene and polopropylene are some of the plastics used.

Lonny, who works in Fairfield about one-half mile from the fire, said right around 1 p.m. there was a loud explosion and the windows and doors shook.

Spears urged drivers to stay away from Air Base Parkway. Police officers were directing traffic.

Smoke from the fire could be seen as far east as San Andreas in Calaveras County where News10 reporter Tim Daly was covering another fire.

A tanker exploded last Thursday evening in the Sawyer, Michigan area. Today Chikaming Township has released video of that explosion along with more details.

The incident occurred at a truck stop where the driver had stopped for dinner. News reports indicate the rig was carrying a mixture of sodium hydroxide and water from Illinois to Canada. After dinner the driver noticed vapors coming from the tank.

After police and firefighters arrived and the building was evacuated the tanker exploded. One firefighter suffered minor chemical burns to the face.

Here's more from WNDU-TV:

The tanker was aluminum. (Chikaming Township Fire Chief Mike) Davidson said he cannot say whether that was a safe container to be transporting the substance, but said the matter is under investigation.

He did explain how the tanker exploded, stating that the problem started with a compromised weld joint, and got worse from there. "The tank was not properly venting itself, and it built up pressure inside of the tank to the point where the leak did expand itself and started to hiss and with all the pressure it built up, it finally exploded," Davidson said.

From WGRZ-TV:

For the second time in a week, Buffalo firefighters were called out to battle a multiple alarm industrial fire.

Flames broke out on Dorothy Street in the city's Clinton/Bailey neighborhood around 7:30 and was called under control around 9:30.

This was the second fire this year at Goldman Titanium. The first was back in April. Fire officials say titanium burns very hot and very slow so crews are expected to remain on the scene for most of the day.

2 On Your Side's Mary Friona was told the department had used up all of its foam on last week's fire at Niagara Lubricant and needed to call a local vendor to bring some to the fire scene.

Firefighter Nation alerted us to this video from the West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service of an explosion a week ago. Check out Firefighter Nation for more details. 

View still images of blast

The videos above and below show three different views as a car bomb detonates on Friday while a bomb squad technician in Narathiwat province, south of Bangkok, Thailand attempts to open a door.

From the AP:

On the eve of Thailand's national elections, insurgents carried off deadly attacks south of Bangkok yesterday, including a spectacular car bomb that exploded just as police tried to defuse it.

A member of the Thai bomb squad approached one of the bomb-rigged cars in Narathiwat province after a second car, three yards away had detonated, wounding a soldier.

From The Telegraph:

The officer, who was wearing a protective suit, was attempting to open the front passenger door of the parked car when the bomb exploded.

Authorities arrived at the scene after receiving a tip-off about the abandoned car, which was left in a no-parking zone.

The bomb disposal expert despite being lawn away nearly 10-meters by the explosion, picked himself up and walked away. He was treated for minor injuries.

Authorities said the bomb was triggered by remote from someone near the scene.

 

 

Video above from Don Murtha III.

Fireground audio from Erie County Fire Wire

Pictures from Erie County Fire Wire

From WGRZ-TV:

Fire officials have given residents the all-clear to leave their homes following a large fire at Twin Village Recycling (Monday afternoon).

Officials originally requested residents to stay in their homes until the smoke cleared.

The fire sent massive plumes of smoke into the air that could be seen across much of Western New York.

The facility is located at 4153 Broadway in the Village of Depew.

The fire started before 4 p.m. Monday. Broadway was closed from Dick Road to Borden Road, causing massive traffic headaches during the busy evening rush.

The owner tells 2 On Your Side that two of his workers were using blow torches to repair a door, and somehow the fire started. He said the building the workers were in housed scrap metal. Although the workers tried to use fire extinguishers to put out the flames, they spread quickly.

Nobody was hurt by the actual fire, but Depew's fire chief says two firefighters were taken to the hospital due to heat exhaustion.