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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.

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Just a look back that someone posted to YouTube yesterday.

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Our friend Zach Green at MN8-Foxfire, who has those extremely unique and useful illuminating products for firefighters, has teamed up with IronFiremen.com and FireCritic.com to do something really nice this week. They are raising money for the FDNY Rescue 2 Mayday Fund to help Firefighter Robert Weidmann and Firefighter James Gersbeck who were burned in the fire in Crown Heights on December 19. From today through midnight on Monday January 30, MN8-Foxfire will donate 50 percent of all product sales through the company website to the FDNY Rescue 2 Mayday Fund. There will also be a way to directly donate.

CLICK HERE FOR THE MN8-FOXFIRE WEBSITE

Many of you have been asking for an update on 11-year-old Kyle McGetrick, the Barnegat, New Jersey boy who has been battling cancer for seven years. My friend Jim Duffy, who like many of you read the updates on Glenn Usdin's FireTruckBlog.com and here on STATter911.com, tells me that Kyle will be a guest tomorrow night on the Internet radio show Fireground Strategies & Other Stuff From the Street that Jim does with Deputy Chief Anthony Avillo on Fire Engineering Talk Radio. It starts at 7:30 PM Eastern Time. Here's the link -

Listen to Fireground Strategies & Other Stuff From the Street with special guest Kyle McGetrick, Tuesday, January 24 at 7:30 PM Eastern Time

If you recall, Kyle's story became known in the fire service around the world just before Christmas when the Barnegat Fire Company arranged an impromptu parade past Kyle's home. Planning for a few fire trucks, once word got out around Ocean County, 100 fire vehicles lined up in tribute to Kyle.

When Glenn posted the article on FireTruckBlog.com a virtual parade began. The original post brought in more than 500 messages to Kyle from firefighters around the world. Veteran fire service Internet gurus believe that article was likely seen by more people in a couple day period than any previous web story directed to firefighters.

Then the flow of patches started from generous firefighters around the world.

Now, thanks to Jim and Anthony, the Barnegat Fire Department, and Kyle's dad Gene, we will get a chance to hear from Kyle tomorrow night. Make sure you tune in. Maybe we will find out just how many patches Kyle received.

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A house fire reported around 12:30 this morning in the 200 block of Devonshire Road in Tredyffrin, PA (Chester County). According to the description with the video, the call was dispatched as a fireplace fire. Read more about the fire here.

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Photo by Keith Addie, www.njfiregroundphotos.com.

Read entire Woodbridge Patch article about FF Bruce Turcotte

Read entire Star Ledger article about FF Bruce Turcotte

Previous coverage of the fire

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Krista Sweeney had rushed backed to her home yesterday afternoon after hearing about a fire in the neighborhood. Deborah Bell at the Woodbridge Patch reports that as Sweeney was walking up Jefferson Street she passed a fire engine and saw what she at first thought was a mannequin behind the wheel.

Looking a little closer, she realized it was actually a man in the driver's seat. It turned out to be Bruce Turcotte, a former chief of the Hopelawn VFD. According to Bell's article Sweeney alerted firefighters on the scene:

The firemen looked at one another and in seconds, they had located Turcotte, dragged his body from the cab of the fire engine, and were furiously working to revive him.

"They didn't know [that he was injured.] You couldn't see him from where they were fighting the fire. The ambulance blocked it. You had to be where I was," she said, as she was walking towards her house to see Turcotte's unconscious body in the fire truck.

The Star-Ledger reports that Bruce Turcotte's son Brian, also a Hopelawn firefighter, was on the call:

Turcotte, a former chief of Hopelawn Engine Company No. 1, excelled to the end, said Brian Turcotte, the fallen man’s son and a firefighter himself with Hopelawn.

The younger Turcotte was there Thursday for his father’s final mission, a fatal residential fire on Jefferson Street in the Menlo Park Terrace section of the township.

Turcotte went into cardiac arrest after Hopelawn’s Rapid Intervention Crew arrived at the scene, according to his son and a statement from fire Capt. Joseph Heintjes. According to Heintjes, the elder Turcotte was assisting in stretching hoses so the engine company crews could advance to the building.

A short time later, he was discovered unresponsive behind the wheel of the truck.

In addition to Firefighter Turcotte's death, a man was found dead in the basement of the burning home. Woodbridge's mayor told The Star Ledger the same home had a fatal fire in the 1970s.

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On Saturday, Albuquerque Fire Department Engine 27 was seven miles from its station, parked in a Rio Rancho neighborhood for two hours. It's hard to hide a fire truck, so neighbors were quite curious why a rig from a neighboring department was spending so much time on their street. Their curiosity has brought the scrutiny of a TV reporter and AFD's chief.

According to KRQE-TV, the neighbors say they were told the firefighters were checking out a smoke complaint. It turns out the lieutenant and three firefighters had been authorized to go to the home of one of the firefighters to repair a broken water pipe. It appears they had permission from their battalion chief, sort of:

Here's more from KRQE-TV's story:

But AFD Fire Chief Jim Breen said the firefighter lied about the location of his house, saying it was in Albuquerque and within Station 27's district on the far west side. The chief said if the bosses had known, it never would have been approved.

"Typically what we like to do is relieve that firefighter of duty, let him go address his situation, his personal situation and we'll call in another firefighter to take his place," Breen said. "I'm very concerned about this incident."

Even though the crew was out of its jurisdiction for more than two hours and was seven miles from their station, it remained on dispatch's call list. That means there would have been a delay if they had to respond to a fire in their district, possibly putting city residents at risk

Chief Breen says he isn't sure what they were doing but an investigation is underway to find out.

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The person is dropped at 5:02 in the video. You will see fire equipment arriving before that point and a ladder being brought to the rear after the rescue.

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If you haven't seen it make sure you watch initial video showing rescuers scaling apartment building wall

Above is a different view of the fire and rescue we showed you yesterday that had been posted to a Russian video site in December. In the first video you saw two men scaling the building to the third floor with one of them going into a window with smoke pouring out and dropping what we thought was a child to the crowd below. This video is shot from a neighboring apartment looking down at the crowd.

Alexander Keylin is a firefighter in the U.S. who is originally from Russia. Alex was able to track down the details for STATter911.com. The fire occurred in Moscow on September 4, 2009. Here's what Alexander wrote:

The person who was rescued was actually an elderly disabled male. The rescue was performed by civilians; you also can see a police officer in the crowd. From what I heard about the incident, the firefighters positioned apparatus on the other side of the building because the approach was blocked by illegally parked cars (a common problem in Russian cities), and it took them some time to get the extension ladder to the fire side.

Until Alex's email we thought it was a child being dropped and weren't sure who made the rescue. Because of his great work, I am appointing Alex as the Eastern European Bureau Chief for STATter911.com Worldwide.

In addition, I mentioned in my original post that until I watched the initial video on full screen I thought the rescuers might have been using a pompier ladder (which they were not). This prompted the following from Alex:

Russian firefighters do carry pompier ladders on every engine. There were some incredible rescues performed this way; for instance, in 1977 there was a fire in hotel "Moscow" with multiple civilian and firefighter fatalities; 43 people were rescued from as high as 22nd floor using a chain of pompier ladders.

Read more about the 1977 fire here.

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Welcome to the STATty Awards

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IronFiremen.com's year in review

FireCritic.com's year in review

Curt Varone's FireLawBlog.com year in review

Legeros Fire Blog year in review (lots of pictures)

I had much more grand plans in store for the first annual STATty Awards, but I became sidetracked earlier this week (more on that in an upcoming post). I would like to tell you this is an exhaustive review of all the videos we have posted this year and that it was presented to an esteemed panel of judges for review, but that would be a lie. To be honest, these are ones that I recall with the help of a quick scan of the blog and the website stats for the year. I am sure there are a few really good ones the STATys overlooked. But your job is, as always, to keep me honest. Please write in about the ones I have failed to honor.

As usual, we are showing you the good, the bad and the ugly. The things that will make you laugh, cry and sometimes even scream and throw things at your computer. 

Please note that I purposely stayed away from a category that is among the most important to us all, line-of-duty-deaths. I don't want to indicate in any way that one firefighter's death is more significant than another's. Because it is only me administering this website, I am unable to cover each death (something I have never been pleased about). But please, as the year ends, take a moment to remember all those we have lost.

Thank you for the amazing support you provide STATter911.com. One of the most satisfying comments I regularly receive is from company officers who tell me they use the videos on this site (again, the good, bad and ugly ones) almost daily in training for their firefighters. Believe it or not, I keep that in mind with each one I post.

We have had a nice jump in readership this year with a real spike over the last two months that so far is holding. It gives us the indication we have a lot of new readers. Again, I thank you. 

From Mrs. STATter911.com, STATter911.com Jr and Mr. STATter911.com, a very happy, safe and healthy new year.

Best story of the year: One house fire, two victims, two firefighters.

There is a legendary story about the Texas Rangers being so tough that for one riot, all you really need is one Texas Ranger. Well in Mogadore, Ohio this dramatic video showed if you have two fire victims in one burning house you only need two Mogadore firefighters. We know that isn't ideal and how any of us would want it, but that's what Ben Stasik and Nick Sansom were faced with on September 23. The pair did Chief Don Adams and the fire service proud in how they handled it.

When I stumbled across it on YouTube, I was quite amazed that something like this was caught on video and had to watch it twice to figure out everything I was seeing. My initial post was based on just my observations, but would you believe (sorry Chief) I heard from Chief Adams who filled in the names and provided STATter911.com with the fireground audio. Our stories, four days after the fire occurred, brought in some local media attention that then went national. The two posts are here and here.

Most viewed story and a runner up for the best story: A newsman with compassion.

If this video is not showing, click here to view

In May, WKTV-TV photojournalist Tim Fisher put together a six-minute TV report about his experience covering a fire that killed a mother and three young children in Utica, New York. Tim told us of a couple of things that sometimes happen at these tragic incidents. This included Tim being attacked by someone close to the family for shooting pictures. But Tim focused on the efforts of firefighters who were criticized by some for not doing enough. I urged everyone when I posted this story to take the time to watch it. If you still haven't seen it, here is another chance. Thank you Tim for what you showed us. Read the post and the comments about the story. 

Most controversial story: ESU and FDNY pulling car off of man.

The two posts on this story brought in more than 150 comments. It showed a motorcyclist trapped under a car in Brooklyn on September 1 and the efforts of FDNY, soon joined by NYPD's ESU, to extricate the man. Things didn't work out too well as the ESU officer attempted to raise the rear of the car with spreaders. The first story is here. The second story had video that was much clearer, but that clip has now been pulled from YouTube.

Most chilling moment on video (by far): The rescue of Firefighter Robert Wiedmann, FDNY's Rescue 2.

What can you say about this one that hasn't been said already? Our thoughts and prayers for FDNY's Firefighter Robert Wiedmann during his recovery. The original stories are here and here.

Another heart stopping moment: Pennsylvania firefighter almost goes through the roof.

This was a June fire in Washington Township (Lehigh County). Check out the 2:00 mark and you will see this fire could have turned out quite differently. Here's the original post.

Most viewed video on STATter911.com's YouTube Channel: Ambulance blowed up real good.

Bladensburg, Maryland Chief Randy Kuenzli was kind enough to share his September video of an ambulance getting its roof raised in Mt. Rainier. Click here for the full story. 

The runaway winner in this category: Very lucky firefighters as burning truck takes off.

A close call in Anthem, Arizona in November just happened to be caught on video. Luckily no one was injured.

The firefighters never give up award goes to: A Detroit firefighter's efforts to make the roof caught from above.

In August a news chopper captured video of a Detroit firefighter's difficult time trying to make it topside on a burning home with a steep peak. Here's the original story.

The award for the poorest excuse for poor performance goes to: Washington, DC 911 director who blamed 14 minute delay on a computer glitch.

We should all have 911 callers who were as calm and responsive as Ellie Cossa trying to report what turned out to be a fatal crash on a major DC roadway during a January 26th storm. But as nice as the woman answering the call was, for 14 minutes she just couldn't figure out Cossa's location that could have easily been discovered by looking at a map or calling just about any fire station in the city (or even having your own knowledge of major roadways in your jurisdiction). The problem was, even though Ms. Cossa was reading a road sign right in front of her describing the next exit just a few feet away, the road on that sign and the major road where the crash occurred don't physically intersect and hence the intersection wasn't in the computer. The editor of STATter911.com, who was a fire dispatcher in the stone tablet days, cried foul when the 911 director tried to tell WTOP/WJLA reporter Mark Segraves the call taker did a good job and that this was just a glitch in the computer system that needs fixing. Sorry folks, this is a training issue where your employees have to know how to function when the computer doesn't. Check out my complete rant. (Okay, I admit this one is more audio than video, but it's my blog and my awards.)

The camera never blinks award goes to: Florida firefighters pay the price but teach us all a lesson.

This was one of the more popular videos of the year. An Orange County, Florida firefighter and lieutenant on Rescue Engine 58 must have forgotten that their every move is being watched when they confronted a driver in a car who wouldn't get out of the way. Their actions turned out to be career changers. Read the story.

A personal favorite: The Kenneth M. Cox Building.

It was an honor to be there on Memorial Day Weekend as IAFF Local 36's offices were officially named the Kenneth M. Cox Building. Kenny was the long time VP of the Washington, DC local and is still active in the union despite health issues. Kenny has long been one my favorite people in the fire service and a disciple of our mutual friend, the late Hal Bruno. When I posted the story I also included film and documents about a 1971 legendary rescue that Kenny and DCFD Truck 8 were involved in that I had been saving for just the right moment. Click here to see it all.

Another personal favorite: Chicago Fire Department – Everyone Goes Home.

The comments that have come into NFFF over this thought provoking film produced and directed by my friend Rob Maloney have been wonderful. These lessons learned the hard way by Chicago firefighters are something everyone should see. Read more here.

The beating a dead horse award goes to: Dave Statter.

The nerve of this self-proclaimed champion of the First Amendment (and all-around pompous ass) brings back a year old video to support his usual rant about dealing with people with cameras. But there is another motive for adding this December post. In it are a bunch of videos, some of the them really compelling, showing firefighters making rescues during 2011. Click here to see them.

The self inflicted wound award for the video that should have never happened: Macon-Bibb County Station 19 firehouse prank video.

The fallout from this ill-conceived idea and video from September is still occurring and I am somewhat tired of writing about it. Please don't let this happen to you. If you want to read more we have posts here, here, here, here, here, here, here & here.

Worst performance by an actor in a continuing series: Dave Statter.

Yes, we know Rhett Fleitz, AKA Fireboy from Roanoke is his son. But do we believe for a moment the tears were real and he cares at all about the boy? I didn't think so. This performance is as bad as the one Rhett does trying to imitate a firefighter. No one has yet to believe a 4'6" teenager is driving fire trucks in Roanoke (see below).

Best performance by an actor in a continuing series (runner-up): Capn' Willie Wines.

Sincere, believable, good looking and great mustache. He has it all. Plus he told the truth back in August about Fireboy (or at least part of the truth). This was the most popular episode of the Fireboy in Roanoke series and you can see why when you have top notch performer like Willie. IronFiremen.com has many more episodes (but not the complete boxed set) posted.

Best performance by an actor in a continuing series (champion): Preston Fleitz.

Smart, cute kid, social media maven, wise beyond his years and future star. More of the truth finally comes out. As Dave told you long ago, FireCritic.com was written by a child. Is anyone who has read the site surprised? Only problem with this performance is that the Virginia Labor Commission had to pay a visit to the set because of some child labor law violations. Read more at FireCritter.com.

In conclusion.

That's it. The first annual STATtys. The STATty's motto: We hope to do better next year, but I am sure we will find some excuse if we don't.

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Click here for a very brief earlier video

There was a fire reported in Vincennes, Indiana around 9:30 last night. Above is early video of the fire that spread to multiple exposures.

Photos above from Arthur Collins show early and late stages of the fire.

From MyWabashValley.com:

Officials say the fire at Old Gimble Corner Antiques on 2nd and Main Street started around 9:30 p.m.

There are reports that the fire has spread to several nearby buildings, and has collapsed one or more floors. No injuries have yet been reported.