(Hamilton Fire Department spokesman Dave) Christopher said because the home is under construction it did not have all of the fire stops – things which would stop a blaze from progressing quickly through a house – that a home would regularly have.
The roof and flooring was unstable and because of this firefighters were not able to go into the home and had to battle the blaze from the outside.
The house — which is being constructed privately on the site and is not part of a larger development — was destroyed.
The video above is a compilation of fires in Detroit from FirePhoto.CA that occurred last Friday. While watching it I found the second fire, starting at 1:16 on the clip interesting. The fire is at 3:00 AM in the 3300 block of E. Hancock Street in the first battalion. From what I can tell via the limited view of the camera and no outside information, it appears at some point the application of water on the fire ceases and you hear talk of letting it collapse.
I am not sure if this has anything to do with Commissioner Donald Austin’s budget cutting proposal last month of letting vacant structures, 50 percent or more involved, burn to the ground. Commissioner Austin also looked at the tactic as a form of urban renewal and an issue of firefighter safety.
WJBK-TV reporter Charlie LeDuff is back on the case of the Detroit Fire Department and says it is still in bad shape with little hope on the horizon.
At the same time, LeDuff is asking what ever happened to the big green fire truck? That’s the 1983 tower ladder that was donated to the City of Detroit by a Michigan man. The fire department sort of reluctantly accepted it back in September of last year. LeDuff discovered, despite a claim by Commissioner Donald Austin that it could be up and running in a month, the department had no intention of using it. The rig is sitting in the shop.
But LeDuff has found someone who wants that truck rather desperately. He is the mayor of nearby Highland Park whose department is in even worse shape than the Detroit Fire Department. We have been showing you videos recently of the understaffed and under equipped Highland Park Fire Department (here & here).
“I would ask the mayor of Detroit, Mayor Bing, to bring that fire truck here to Highland Park because we definitely need it,” says Mayor Deandre Windom. “Please, please, please, please, bring the fire truck here to Highland Park.”
The mayor says he called Detroit, but nobody would call him back.
Well, Mayor Bing didn’t return my call. Deputy Commissioner Fred Wheeler didn’t return my call. I’m starting to feel like the mayor of Highland Park.
For the love of god, free the big green fire truck for the sake of somebody’s children!
Should firefighters from the local volunteer fire department duty crew be on the roof of the mayor’s home removing shingles with the fire trucks parked out front? That’s the question in Pine Hill, New Jersey after that exact scenario took place on April 6, Good Friday.
WCAU-TV put an investigative reporter on the case after neighbors sent in cell phone pictures. The cameras were rolling when the neighbors confronted Mayor Christopher Green ten days later.
Mayor Green contends he did nothing wrong and that the firefighters were there to help his son who is a junior member of the department.
“They drove the fire truck down to my house, so that if they got a call, they could go to the call,” said Mayor Green.
“What if they fell off your roof and couldn’t go to a call?” asked one resident during the meeting. “How are you going to explain that? Who was going to pay for them if they fell off your roof?”
“I would have paid for them,” answered Mayor Green. “When individual members ask for assistance they help each other.”
“Regarding sending the apparatus with a full duty crew so that the truck will be at the ready, I feel I made the right decision and I’d make the same decision tomorrow,” said Pine Hill Fire Chief John Greer.
An internal investigation done by the city’s personnel director (also a former mayor) found that Mayor Green did nothing wrong. The chief, who was one of those helping out on the roof, says he is thinking of quitting because the department has become a “political football” in this episode.
This is additional raw video from the two-alarm fire on Friday at 1337 Girard Street in Northwest Washington, the home of DC activists Dorothy Brizill and Gary Imhoff. It was shot by Vito Maggiolo for the DC Fire & EMS Department. Vito arrived a little later than the earlier video we posted, but he takes us a little closer to the action and captures the collapse at 4:50 on the clip.
On Friday we posted three video clips of the early stages of a two-alarm fire in a large house at 1337 Girard Street in Northwest Washington, DC. The home was owned by activists Dorothy Brizill and Gary Imhoff. For some reason the video was taken down a few hours later. The videos from jroweddc was re-posted to YouTube combined in one clip and some of the sound apparently edited.
Someone has also posted the original Part 2 and Part 3 videos without editing.
No one was injured, Assistant Chief Scott Graham said. Firefighters were dispatched to the scene at approximately 3:30 p.m.
“The homeowner was working on a piece of engine equipment in the basement when it fell over and landed on a can of brake cleaner,” Graham said in a statement. A water heater pilot light ignited the brake cleaner’s fumes, and the fire extended up the walls and into the first and second floors.
Note: As a reporter I had many conversations with Dorothy Brizill and was the recipient of a lot of good information that she uncovered about the DC government, including its fire department. My thoughts are with Dorothy and her husband Gary Imhoff through this difficult time.
On this page are three video clips of the early stages of the fire at 1337 Girard Street in Northwest Washington, DC posted to YouTube by jrowedc.
The fire was first reported about 4:45 p.m. Over 80 firefighters, two engines and one truck were dispatched to combat the two-alarm blaze, according to D.C. Fire and EMS. Only one injury has been reported—a firefighter who suffered from smoke inhalation.
Though we’re still awaiting details on the cause of the fire, the house has been a target of neighborhood curiosity and complaints. The house—built in 1870—came under the watchful eye of the D.C. Board for the Condemnation of Insanitary Buildings in 2007, according to a 2008 City Paper article. In 2002, the structure was put on the list of vacant and abandoned properties. There’s nothing yet indicating that today’s fire and any past problems are related.
Brizill and Imhoff, under the name D.C. Watch, have been deeply engaged as local government watchdogs for more than two decades. Notably, Brizill in 2002 raised questions about ballot petitions submitted by former Mayor Anthony A. Williams, which led the Board of Elections and Ethics to strike his name from the Democratic primary ballot. Williams ended up winning as a write-in candidate. More recently, Brizill raised concerns about the voting record of a top aide to Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D), leading to her resignation.
Their home, built in 1870, has garnered the attention of city authorities in the past decade for its sometimes dilapidated condition.
This is a fire handled by the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District at 4792 Bayside Way in Oakley, California. No date given, but this one follows that growing trend of having musicians travel with the firefighters, though this band isn’t as loud (maybe I’m mistaken and it’s just someone’s iPod feeding back through the helmet-cam).
This is the video (in three parts) the ATF produced to accompany its engineering analysis utilizing Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) of the fire that killed Lutherville VFC Firefighter Mark Falkenhan last year. There are links above to the ATF report by Adam St. John P.E., Fire Protection Engineer ATF Fire Research Laboratory and the internal report the Baltimore County Fire Department released in March. The modeling is matched with the fireground and dispatch radio traffic.
Description with video:
This video summarizes the ATF Fire Research Laboratory’s Engineering Analysis of the fire that occurred at 30 Dowling Circle on January 19th, 2011. ATF Fire Protection Engineers were asked to utilize engineering analysis methods, including computer fire modeling, to assist with determining the route of fire spread and the events that led to the firefighter MAYDAY and subsequent Line of Duty Death of Firefighter Mark Falkenhan.
Of the three injured firefighters, two were from Franklin and one was from Ogdensburg. Franklin volunteer firefighters Steven Knebl III and Donna Spoll were injured during the fire.
Knebl suffered minor burns to his face while responding to the blaze. He was treated at St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston and released Friday.
Spoll suffered a bruised collar bone and was transported to Newton Medical Center. She was treated and released on Friday as well. The Ogdensburg firefighter suffered chest pains while at the scene and was later released.
The video above is a series of still pictures provided to STATter911.com of the fire inside Tyler Perry Studios on Tuesday evening. Atlanta Fire Rescue sounded four alarms to handle the blaze.
AP:
Investigators are trying to determine the cause of a fire that ripped through a simulated streetscape at Tyler Perry’s Atlanta studios.
The fire sent flames soaring about six stories high into the night sky. Officials say no one was hurt from the blaze that began shortly before 9 p.m.
An Atlanta fire captain says the fire never reached inside the building because of its concrete masonry behind the facade but there is some water damage.
More than 100 firefighters responded to the four-alarm fire. Perry was at the complex last night and spoke with the city fire chief.
The complex includes a 200,000-square-foot studio, five sound stages and a 400-seat theater in southwest Atlanta.
Pop star Cee Lo performed at a fundraiser for President Obama at the studios in March.
Larry Shapiro on the scene early Tuesday morning of a basement fire on Hiawatha Lane in Riverwoods, Illinois. According to Larry, firefighters entering the first floor found the floor soft and were able to back out before the floor collapsed. Eventually, as you will see in Larry’s video, foam was used in the basement.
FireDispatch.com has posted a little more than four minutes of early radio traffic from Monday’s fire at the Stag Hotel in Watsonville, Califronia that left 17 people injured. There is above for the audio and some new video shot at ground level during the early stages of the fire. Also above is a link to TV coverage that includes some of the triage and treatment of victims from the fire.
Atlanta fire officials said they received the 911 call about the fire at 8:40 p.m. Tuesday.
Russell Evans lives across the street from TP Studios. Evans said he heard the fire before he saw it.
“I started filming the fire and the explosion. I though the tower where senior citizens live at was on fire. I found out it was Tyler Perry Studio,” said Evans.
Atlanta fire officials initially said multiple buildings were engulfed in flames when they arrived.
AP:
Atlanta fire officials say they have put out a 4-alarm blaze at Tyler Perry Studios that damaged a building at the complex.
Atlanta Fire Department spokesman Capt. Jolyon Bundrige says there were no reports of injuries from the fire that started before 9 p.m. Tuesday. Officials said in a news release it was extinguished about an hour later.
He says the cause of the fire and the amount of damage to the complex was not immediately known
A spokesman for Tyler Perry did not immediately comment Tuesday evening. The studio’s website says the complex includes a 200,000-square-foot studio, five sound stages and a 400-seat theater in southwest Atlanta.
In March, pop star Cee Lo performed for donors at a fundraiser for President Barack Obama at the studios.
An off-duty police officer in a Corvette. A volunteer firefighter on his way home from hazmat training in what apparently is his POV with lights & radios. What happened between the two around 10:00 Friday night on a Bauxite, Arkansas road appears to be a he said – he said. The only other witness may be a female the firefighters says was in the cop’s car. The confrontation ended with Rockport Firefighter Westley Steinert arrested.
While the officer told KATV-TV he couldn’t comment, his boss Police Chief Ron Parsons did. Parsons believes Steinert could have killed someone, claiming the firefighter was driving 90 miles-per-hour.
“Very unprofessional, very unprofessional.” Westley Steinert says for about 3-miles he was followed by a driver in a Corvette riding his bumper, at times feeling chased. When the driver began flashing his high beams, Westley gave in. He says, “As a first responder I thought maybe they’re trying to get my attention for a more important reason.”
That’s when he says he pulled over and flashed his light rack, to acknowledge the driver of the Corvette.
Both men got out of their cars. Neither showed credentials. “Before I could even say hey, what’s up? What do you need? He screamed at me, you’re going to jail, I’m an off duty police officer.”
He continues, “He indicated I was impersonating a police officer because I flashed my rear deck lights at him.”
This is as dramatic a video as we’ve seen in some time. It is best viewed in full screen and at the 480p quality (the star at the bottom right group of controls).
The fire broke out around 5:45 PM at the Stag Hotel in Watsonville, California. The hotel is at 117 West Beach Street. The injuries, according to news reports, include burns, smoke inhalation and fractures.
In the video it appears police and civilians are making some of the initial rescues using a ladder on Side A. Firefighters arrive, stretch a line and assist with getting others out. It appears that a police officer picks up the first line hitting the fire on the ground floor. Others are brought down a ladder on Side D.
The Stag Hotel is described as transitional housing for those receiving substance abuse treatment and those leaving incarceration.
Three victims of the fire were air lifted out of the area, one for a broken leg from jumping out a window, and the other two for major burns.
“The first guy got burned pretty bad. They took him away first because his hide was falling off. His shirt was smoking,” said Russell Leckbee, a resident in room 37 of the hotel.
Leckbee had been dragged out of a window by two police officers.
Firefighters from the station a block away on Second Street responded quickly, Rickman said. Fire Chief Mark Bisbee said they immediately went to work rescuing residents and doused the flames in 8-10 minutes.
Rickman said the hotel has 50 rooms – three apartments in two buildings. He said about 45 men lived there. The fire was in the larger front building.
The building, constructed in 1927, had no sprinklers. The residents are a mix, some disabled, some struggling with substance abuse or in recovery, some on parole. All are men with little income.
Many bystanders helped police and firefighters get people out of the burning building or helped with ladders and hoses.
One man reportedly jumped from the second-story window to avoid the smoke and fire. Other residents said they considered jumping from the second story.
“I stuck my head out the bathroom window,” said Rick Cresswell, whose face was blackened from the smoke. “I thought about jumping.”
If you haven’t seen some of the videos from the house fire at the annual street festival in Athens, Ohio called Palmer Fest, please take a moment to check them out.
The street party in the Ohio University neighborhood was shut down Saturday evening because of the fire. The fire has been ruled arson. Scores of people were arrested as confrontations occurred between police and those attending the festival.
In the video above you will see police officers approaching Side C of the home at 11 Palmer Street as the basement burns. The videos below show the smoke conditions on Side A before firefighters arrived, a supply line dropped on Palmer Street parting the crowd, a line going through the Side C basement door, suppression efforts through a window on the second floor and a soon to be classic interview with a young woman who says she was in the house when the fire started.
The narration on some of the videos may also become classics, including this line from the video taken inside a neighboring house: “Who farted?”
Video above includes the pre-arrival view from Side A & crowd control efforts.
A house fire in the middle of Palmer Fest in Athens has been ruled arson and officials are offering a reward for information in the case.
The house fire occurred at 11 Palmer Street at about 7 p.m. Saturday, in the heart of the area where students and others hold Palmer Fest, a gathering of house parties and music.
Video above shows the supply line being dropped down Palmer Street.
The fire, reported shortly after 7 p.m. at 11 Palmer St., prompted Athens Mayor Paul Wiehl to declare Palmer and the immediate surrounding neighborhood as a riot area at 7:35 p.m., allowing police to clear the neighborhood of partiers soon after.
The house was occupied at the time of the fire, with one unidentified partier caught on video talking about noticing smoke coming from the basement and taking shots of liquor in honor of the fire before evacuating the premises.
At 1:06 in the video above a line is stretched into the basement door on Side C.
According to the police report, party goers began throwing bottles at emergency responders and inhibiting police officers from clearing the scene of the fire. Athens Mayor Paul Wiehl declared Palmer Street a riot area at 7:35 p.m. after the crowd resisted police force.
Officers then went house to house, shutting down the fest. The area was cleared by 8:20 p.m.
The vantage point from a neighboring home is seen in the video above. It shows the line going into the second floor window & same great narration from the residents.
This is a house fire yesterday handled by Sheldon Community Fire & Rescue in Houston, Texas. The description says there was a problem initially with low water pressure.
Sheldon is one of the growing number of departments that apparently has a band travel with the firefighters whenever they extinguish fires.
While I attend many, many fires virtually through the scores of YouTube videos I view each day in an effort to bring you the finest in fire porn, it had been a long time since I actually had been on a fireground. But Sunday afternoon I was behind the wheel on the southbound Garden State Parkway returning from a visit with the family of Mrs. STATter911.com when I spotted smoke off in the distance as we approached the Oranges. Passing the interchange with I-280, I could actually see off to my left the top floor of what was a three story house with some heavy fire conditions.
I should note at this point in the narrative that we would have arrived at the scene much more rapidly than we did after first spotting the header, but the New Jersey State Police Garden State Parkway high speed escort service for celebrity fire bloggers failed to show as in the past (anyone know if there has been a recent change in policy on this vital service?).
We pulled up to the fire in the 200 block of South 19th Street in Newark with some of the second-alarm units. The video of what we saw is above. It has been edited somewhat to try and improve my lousy shooting skills, but all of the shots are in chronological order.
During yesterday’s inaugural Hero Rush event in Clarksburg, Maryland participants saw smoke in a distance. These three videos show you what people saw up close.
At about 8:15 p.m. Saturday night a car, a Lexus headed northbound on 148th Avenue NE in Redmond swerved off the road and crashed into a home on the corner of NE 61st Way, hitting a natural gas line in the process and igniting a fire, according to Jim Bove spokesman for the Redmond Police department.
The home was engulfed by the time the Redmond Fire Department responded but the blaze was quickly extinguished.
Which came first the climb to the top of the pole or the bag? No one seems to know for sure just how a cat ended up on the top of a pole in St. Petersburg, Florida on Tuesday with a Doritos bag on its head. Lt. Ron Kidwell of St. Petersburg Fire Rescue & Station 1 and a newly hired firefighter, Kelly Blake, dealt more with how to get it down rather than worrying how it got there.
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