More from Tarrytown-Sleep Hollow Patch

It turns out that 48-year-old Anthony Ruggiero and 51-year-old John Kelly were childhood friends. Both were volunteer firefighters in Tarrytown. But at the time he died city officials say Ruggiero was operating as a foreman for the Village of Tarrytown’s Public Works Department. Ruggiero had gone into a 15-foot manhole behing the Consolidated Engine Company around 6:30 PM Monday checking out a clogged sewer line and collapsed. Firefighter John Kelly went in after him. Both men died.  

Here’s more from WCBS-TV:

Anthony Ruggiero, 48, and John Kelly, 51, childhood friends, both fell victim to toxic fumes they encountered while in a waste sewer line, 15-feet below ground.

Investigators will try to determine exactly why Ruggiero and Kelly went down the manhole without a breathing apparatus. Most protocols for manhole work require an air monitor, air blowers, safety harnesses and a lost list of rules and regulations to safely enter the space.

Officials said the oxygen levels in the manhole were dangerously low — about 14-percent, and 20.8-percent is needed to sustain life.

First, no one may enter a manhole until the air quality is checked, and then levels must be constantly monitored by a co-worker for methane and other deadly gases.

The worker must go down the hole wearing a harness  attached to a winch that can easily be operated by a single safety operator — which makes it easy to rescue the worker if problems develop.

Any rescuers who go in must wear a breathing apparatus.

Police said Ruggiero went down the manhole behind Consolidated Engine Company 77 at around 6:30 p.m. Monday in his capacity as a Department of Public Works foreman to checkout a nearby blockage.

When he didn’t come back up, Kelly went down after him. He was also overcome by the toxic fumes and lost consciousness.

Click above to see Tarrytown-Sleepy Hallow Patch video from the scene and hear statements from town officials

Click here for pictures from the scene

Tarrytown Fire Department

Shortly after 6:30 this evening Firefighter John Kelly went into a manhole behind the Consolidated Engine Company in Tarrytown, New York where a worker collapsed after being overcome by fumes. Town officials say that Firefighter Kelly and Tarrytown employee Anthony Ruggiero did not come out of the hole alive. Ruggiero had been investigating a sewage backup.

Excerpts from an article by reporter Sean Roach at the Tarrytown-Sleepy Hallow Patch:

“The police department received a call that a man had fallen down a manhole,” Blau said. “Police responded and found two men in the manhole.”

Kelly had been quick to respond to the scene and had attempted to rescue Ruggiero, Blau said. He too was overcome and lost consciousness. Both men had gone down the manhole without oxygen tanks.

Police called for a hazardous materials unit and an advanced rescue team from Greenburgh to help rescue the men.

While the teams were one their way, Tarrytown Fire Department Second Assistant Chief Gene Gasparre put on an oxygen tank and carried supplemental oxygen for both men and descended into the manhole aided by Felix Sartario.

“They did what they could under horrible circumstances to get these guys out and give them a chance,” Fixell said. “Even though it didn’t work out in the end, it was truly heroic selfless actions by our fire department, our police department and our volunteer ambulance corps.”

The video below has details of the attempted rescue of the two men.

FDNY Pier 97 fire dispatch details from Thomas Godoy, N.Y. Retired FD (unofficial)

Excerpts from WNYW-TV: 

More than 130 firefighters battled a three-alarm blaze at a sanitation garage on Pier 97 that shutdown the West Side highway. Three firefighters went to the hospital with minor injuries. 

The fire began at around 3:30 p.m. on 57th street and 12th avenue.  

The blaze was on a sanitation pier. It began in trailers containing garbage, according to FDNY. Fire officials are checking the stability of the pier after wooden parts of the structure and trailers filled with garbage went up in flames 

Click here for more pictures from NY1.

 

From NY1: 

“There were no injuries, no panic. Everyone got out, everyone did his and her job,” said Sanitation Supervisor Gilbert Keyes, who was inside the trailer when the fire broke. “We got keys to the cars, moved the cars off the pier and made an alleyway, made it accessible for the Fire Department to do their part.” 

“All the men lost their uniforms, boots, personal items that were in their lockers…. Their lunchroom was gone, the whole north field is gone,” he said. 

Firefighters were concerned that the day’s strong winds would spread to a nearby Consolidated Edison pier that contained fuel lines, but the fire was able to be contained.  

 Watch raw chopper video of the fire from WPVI-TV

Watch news reports from KYW-TV

More on the five-alarm fire from PhillyFireNews.com

Excerpts from Philly.com: 

The fire, at Scully Welding Supply Corp. in Collingdale, broke out about 12:50 p.m. and quickly went to five alarms. 

Image from KYW-TV.

 

“It looked like hell, like Dante’s Inferno,” said Collingdale fire marshal George Kaiser. “The fire was at least two-stories high.” 

The main fire was declared under control around 4:30 p.m., and officials began letting almost all people return to their homes shortly after 7 p.m. 

Three Scully employees were injured, including one seriously who was transported to Crozer-Chester Medical Center and was reported tonight in stable condition. Five firefighters were treated for heat related illnesses. 

Kaiser, the fire marshal, was working at the storage center he owns adjacent to the Scully plant. He said the blaze ignited his building. The fire destroyed two old Collingdale fire trucks he kept on the premises and storage units rented by 70 customers. 

Excerpts from KYW-TV: 

Officials spent hours pouring water on large propane tanks to cool them, Lovejoy said. County Emergency Services Director Ed Truitt said officials also had been concerned about the danger the flames posed to a nearby oxygen supply company. 

“If that building were to be breached, that could make life real interesting down there,” he said. 

The fire caused heavy damage to Scully Welding Supply and a neighboring business, Kaiser Automotive, Lovejoy said. The cause of the blaze was under investigation by state and local authorities, he said. A call to Scully Welding Supply rang unanswered. 

Tammy Scanlon, who lives a few hundred yards across the railroad tracks from Scully’s Propane, heard the explosions go on for about 30 minutes. 

There is much debate in our comments section about the use of master streams during the CNG fueled Metrobus fire in Anne Arundel County, Maryland on Friday morning. We originally posted a short YouTube clip and still pictures provided by Chief Drew Mutch of the Cape St. Claire Volunteer Fire Company. What I missed, that a reader pointed out in our comments section yesterday, is another much longer YouTube video. It begins just before the arrival of the first engine and continuously rolls for almost seven minutes.

Rather than a serious discussion on the merits of master streams when faced with this situation, the comments have devolved, as often is the case on the Internet, into name calling and a debate over who has the bigger nozzle. Because of that I don’t recommend you take the time to read the discussion. Depending on your own mental state, doing so could cause you to either do bodily harm to yourself or sue me for wasting your valuable time.

Unlike some of our comments on this subject, the video is quite interesting and seems to give a more complete picture of the conditions to help you choose sides in this issue.

This is from an incident Saturday two blocks east of The White House. The video above is from someone staying in the W Hotel who began rolling before the arrival of the fire department as cops blocked off the 1400 block of F Street, NW.

Still frame from Vito Maggiolo video showing Treasury Department in the background.

Some of the fire video in the story below is from DC Fire & EMS photographer Vito Maggiolo who also sent along the still image.

From WUSA9.com:

Fire from an underground electrical transformer forced the evacuation of two hotels near the White House on Saturday night.

No injuries were reported. Pete Piringer of DC Fire and EMS said the fire, at 14th and F Streets, began at 7:45 p.m. and was under control in about an hour. Flames shot 20 to 30 feet high and dark smoke could be seen for miles, Piringer said.

The W hotel and historic Willard were evacuated. Several streets were closed and power was lost in the area.

The fire spread underground and shot through several manholes and grates in the area. More than 125 firefighters responded to the scene.

Fire in Utica, New York: One person is unaccounted for following an apartment building fire Friday night on Blandina Street. What was left of the building was demolished on Saturday morning. Click here for more.

One amazing older flashover video that you must see: If you have never seen the video from Spain where light smoke at an apartment building suddenly turns to flames throughout the structure, trapping two firefighters in the process, you will want to check it out. You won’t need subtitles for this foreign film. There is a lot going on in this video, including a couple of citizens who grab a ladder to help the firefighters. It is one compelling video. Click here.

Well it’s not as if my name showed up on the Mayflower Madam’s list: But I did make the Sunday paper in Charleston, South Carolina for being on another list. The Routley diaries have been released. More than two-thousand emails from the team that investigated the Sofa Super Store fire were obtained by reporter Glenn Smith after the Post & Courier filed a FOIA request. Since one of the emails discussed in the article was from or to me, I will refrain, for the moment, on giving you my assessment of this interesting situation that has developed. Click here and you can first digest this stuff yourself without influence from a clearly biased participant like me. But I will say that Glenn’s judgment is questionable if he thinks this rag is “influential”.

Newspaper looks at the issue of race in the Boston Fire Department: A study by Boston.com contends that many firehouse are “starkly and increasingly segragated”. Check here for the story.

FDNY staffing reduction: The union says the city has the formula wrong, but New York officials are ready to reduce the staffing at 60 engine companies from five to four. They are allowed to do so when the use of medical leave goes above 7.5%. Firefighter Close Calls has that story.

Big fire & big problem in British Columbia: Toxic runoff from a large fire Friday night in Kelowna has a creek and some back yards shut down. We have details and lots of video.

Also in B.C.: Just west of Kelowna a firefighting tanker aircraft crashed while fighting a wildland fire in Fraser Canyon. The crew of two is dead and the crash sparked another fire. Firegeezer has the story. 

Funerals: This weekend I talked to some friends who went north and others who went south to attend the funerals of four firefighters killed last week. Click here and here to view coverage of the funerals of Lt. Steven Velasquez and Firefighter Michael Baik in Bridgeport Connecticut.

In Rocky Mount, Virginia Rhett Fleitz and his VAFireNews continues to lead the coverage of the deaths of Chief Posey Dillon and Firefighter Danny Altice. Here’s the main page. You can see the pictures Rhett and Drew Abel took here and here.

Four children rescued in the other Charleston: In West Virginia, news reports indicate one firefighter found three children and another found the fourth during a house fire early Sunday morning. Read the story.

Post lay-off proposal by union in San Jose: In an effort to get the jobs back for dozens of firefighters let go in recent days, the union in San Jose has offered new concessions to the city. This article indicates it may not be enough. 

There were lots of fireworks in Kelowna, British Columbia Saturday night. You will find some of the more visual explosions in the middle video.

The fire is out but the problem has not been solved. There is toxic runoff from the large blaze that has contaminated the area around the building, nearby Mill Creek and a few back yards.  Kelowna Fire Department Chief Jason Brolund summed it up this way to BCLocal.com:

“A major point of concern exists around the types of materials being stored in the building, including a welding supply, irrigation supply and agricultural supply warehouse. A volatile mix of explosive materials combined with fertilizers and pesticides have burnt, hence the need for the evacuation and ongoing concern regarding water contamination due to firefighting water than has runoff from the scene.”

The only reported injury is to a firefighter who suffered smoke inhalation. He has been treated and released.

The glow in the sky and the numerous explosions brought out the crowds. The blasts did not deter some of the onlookers. In the video below police try to move the people away from the burning building. Wonder how they feel now that they know they were likely standing in toxic waste.

 Can my crew and I play through?: No details on where, but the fire department clearly showed up with more than a foursome when this golf cart caught fire. Pre-arrival video of this heartbreaking scene is here and here.

Fire department moves live power line at house fire: An interesting video from Buffalo during a house fire with rescue and water supply issues. The cameras rolled as a firefighter attempted to take care of the downed power line in front of the house. Watch the video.

Long Island house fire: Raw video from a recent house fire in Garden City Park.

9 firefighters reported hurt in Irvington, NJ: They were battling a three-alarm fire in a vacant house last night. Read the story.

Arrangements in Bridgeport: There have been some changes in the original plans for the funerals of Lt. Steven Velasquez and Firefighter Michael Baik. Firefighter Close Calls has the update.

“Six-Million Dollar Mini Taj Mahal”: That’s how one political leader describes Cape Coral, Florida’s newest fire station. There’s much debate over the city’s priorities in fire department spending. Here’s the story.

Late firefighter’s transgender spouse regrets appearance on Jerry Springer show: If you are trying to keep up with the sad saga from Wharton, Texas and the dispute over the sex of a firefighter’s widow, click here for the latest.

Firefighter saves same cat twice: Coweta County, Georgia firefighter Jim Cadenhead thought his efforts to rescue a flea-ridden cat from a 40-foot well would have been wasted if the cat was then euthanized. Cadenhead stepped up to the plate a second time and adopted the cat from the animal shelter just in time. Here’s more.

Walkout of fire departments avoided in West Virginia: It seems West Virginia officials have  settled some of the insurance coverage issues to keep fire departments from shutting down. Click here for the latest. 

Newark firefighter falls out of rig: A left turn while responding left one New Jersey firefighter with lacerations and neck injuries after he fell out of the truck and into the street. Here’s more.

Recruit accused in abductions: In Raleigh, North Carolina a recruit is being terminated after his arrest in two different cases where women were abducted. Read the story.

City to appeal judge’s decision adding name to 9-11 Memorial: A judge believes the name of retired FDNY Captain James Corrigan should be placed alongside the names of former colleagues in the fire department section of the National 9/11 Memorial. Corrigan died while working as a Fire and Life Safety Coordinator for the World Trade Center when he was killed. Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the city will appeal that decision. Here’s the latest.

Train vs. ambulance: Firegeezer has the story of one from Vancouver Island that could have been a lot worse.

Los Angeles explosion raw video: The video of the explosion that left three firefighters and a TV photographer injured has been sitting in the STATter911.com video player since yesterday morning (thanks to WUSA9.com’s Emily Cyr). Click the image above if you haven’t seen it. Emily cut out the sound because of some language issues. Here’s a longer versions with the shots leading up to and after the blast. Being on the road yesterday I didn’t have time to write about the fire at a firm that makes titanium golf clubs, but Bill Schumm did at Firegeezer.

Seven hours to change a flat: The Memphis Fire Department found out the hard way that the city no longer had anyone under contract to change tires on its fire trucks. Here’s the story.

Firehouse water battle leads to chief’s arrest: Assistant Chief Jason Ober faces assault, harassment and disorderly conduct charges when a water battle went awry at the Richland Township Fire Department in Cambria County, Pennsylvania. News accounts indicate firefighters were cleaning up from an event around 3:00 AM on June 27. They had been throwing water at each other and dunking people in a tub of ice water that held the beer. As Ober was carried toward the tub he broke free and broke bad leaving one firefighter bloodied. Read details. 

Mayor thinks laid off firefighters could be source of female candidates: The mayor of Haverhill, Massachusetts has his eye on 23 recently laid-off firefighters from Lawrence, specifically the two women who lost their jobs. Mayor James Fiorentini, sensitive to the fact his department is all male, says he is asking for a ruling on gender specific hiring. Read more.

I guess this is one where you can’t say they will come down from the tree when they get hungry: It wasn’t a cat stuck in a tree that brought out firefighters in the U.K. This time it was a little boy about 40-feet above the ground. Here are the details.