This evening Alexandria, Virginia officials tell STATter911.com that Station 206 at 4609 Seminary Road has been closed due to structural concerns following the weekend’s heavy snowfall. More snow is on the way tomorrow. Firefighters and equipment have been moved to other Alexandria fire stations.

Station 206 is about three miles to the east of Fairfax County’s Station 410 in Bailey’s Crossroads. The roof over that fire station caved in at 3:00 this morning. All 18 firefighters inside the firehouse escaped unharmed. Underneath that collapsed roof are an engine company, ladder truck and other fire and EMS vehicles. The crews from Station 410 have been sent to other nearby stations.

The closing of the two firehouses leaves a big gap in coverage along the border between the two jurisdictions.  On tops of these problems, just three miles to the south of the Bailey’s Crossroads station, a sagging roof was discovered at Station 408 in Annandale. Firefighters in Annandale were operating out of the adjacent bingo hall.

It is unclear at the moment what long term plans are in the works for providing fire and EMS coverage for the busy area served by these three adjacent fire companies.

The roof problems at Station 206 and Station 408 were discovered after officials ordered inspections of flat roofs at firehouses following the collapse at Station 410.

Station 410 was  built in 1974 by the Bailey’s Crossroads Volunteer Fire Department. Volunteer officials were on the scene working with Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department officials assessing the damage.

For the people who go all around the world helping others when their buildings collapse due to natural disasters, this one couldn’t have been any closer to home. Overnight there was a collapse of the roof over the equipment bay at Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department Station 410. Now, there is a roof problem at a neighboring firehouse. Firefighters report sagging in the roof at Station 408 in Annandale, about three miles south on Columbia Pike.

Dan Schmidt, spokesperson for Fairfax County Fire and Rescue, says 18 firefighters were in the bunk room of Station 410 located in the 3600 block of Firehouse Lane when they heard a loud noise coming from the bay area around 3:00 a.m. Schmidt says the firefighters discovered the flat roof over all four bay areas collapsed under the weight of this weekend’s heavy snowfall.

Firehouse in Bailey's Crossroads at a better time. Click the image for Google Maps Street View.

There were no injuries.

Schmidt says a good portion of the roof is now sitting on top of the ladder truck and the engine. A full evaluation of the damage has not been made, but the damage at Station 410 is extensive.

After the collapse at Station 410 Schmidt says  an alert went out to firefighters to do an evaluation of flat roofs at other fire stations. That’s when sagging was noticed at Station 408 in Annandale.

Officials say there is a two to five inch deflection in the center portion of the roof at that station. For now crews are running out of the newer bingo hall at the firehouse.

The people in the 2900 block of North Lexington Street had been without power for about 24 hours late Sunday afternoon. Virginia Dominion Power crews were in the neighborhood dealing with downed lines and other issues. According to neighbors, when the workers turned the power back on the smoke started coming from both the top of a utility pole and a nearby home.

Firefighters from Arlington County and Fairfax County found fire in the basement and first floor of the house. A woman in her 80s and her daughter safely escaped the home.

A Dominion Virginia spokesperson had no information on the cause of the fire when contacted on Sunday.

Officially, the Arlington County Fire Department is waiting for the determination from a fire investigator on the cause of the fire. Firefighters on the scene confirmed neighbors reports that the fire occurred at the same time power was restored.

Neighbor Cliff Cohen said the power was on for about a minute and then shut down again when the house fire was discovered.

What was left of the home’s electric meter had charring all around it.

The house suffered substantial damage. No one was injured.

More from WTNH-TV

Kleen Energy Systems

WFSB-TV

NECN

From WCVB-TV

Deaths and a large number of injuries are reported in an explosion at a power plant in Middletown, Connecticut. Most sources are saying about 100 injured, but WFSB-TV is citing sources saying as many as 250 people have been hurt.

Here are a variety of links and news reports from a story that is developing in Middletown, Connecticut.:

From the AP:

Police are reporting a gas explosion and fire at a power plant in Connecticut.

Several ambulances and fire trucks responded to the explosion on at the Kleen Energy Systems plant in Middletown on Sunday, and witnesses say black smoke was visible for miles.

No details were immediately available, but police advised people to avoid the area.

From WVIT-TV:

Reached by phone, plant general manger Gordon Holk said he was enroute to the plant, and did want to speculate on the number of injured.  He said the plant is a 620 megawatt gas-fired power plant.

From the Middletown Press:

We’re hearing reports of an explosion of a gas line by the Kleen Energy plant on River Road. All of Middletown’s fire departments are working at the scene, and Durham, Middlefield, Portland and Cromwell fire departments have been called in to assist.

There are reports of numerous casualties.

Four ambulances and a Life Star helicopter have been called to the scene. Most of River Road has been blocked off. Flames were shooting out of a pipeline at one point, but the gas line has now been shut off.

From WVIT-TV.

The incident, which happened around 11:30 a.m., shook most homes in Middletown and as far as Portland.

From the blog, The Middletown Eye:

Former Common Council member Earle Roberts called and left a message that about 11:15 an explosion nearly rocked his house off of it’s foundation on nearby Bow Lane.  Roberts said that the force of the explosion nearly tore the roof from his house, and sent a cloud of brown debris into the air above the plant which is under construction, and was scheduled to come on line later this year.
I felt the explosion myself at my house on Pearl Street.  It sounded as if something had fallen off of my roof, and onto my porch.

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 County, Frederick 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.

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.

By Michael King, WXIA-TV:

11Alive News learned late Friday that three Atlanta firefighters have been disciplined after an internal investigation into a fatal shooting at a package store last December.

It was all captured on video.

As a part of their internal investigation, the fire department reviewed a surveillance video from a Moreland Avenue package store. It shows the three fire fighters as they looked over the store counter at a clerk who had just been shot.

According to their superiors, the three saw no signs of breathing or movement from clerk Martez McKibben.

But the department concluded that the firefighters failed to check McKibben for other signs of life, by checking for a pulse or breathing as prescribed by the department’s operating procedure.

Lt. Dennis Smith will receive a two-day suspension without pay, while firefighters Charlamus Dennis and Katrina Sims will both receive letters of reprimand.

A statement from the fire department states that the inaction of the firefighters, “did not directly contribute to the death of the patient, but does not negate the fact that they failed to fully assess the patient.”

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 County, Frederick County, MD

Tens of thousands are already without power in the Washington area. This picture by Chris Tucker taken in Bethesda shows one location where power was a problem.

If you would like to check in with how your Nation’s Capital is dealing with what is being call an epic snow storm, click above for live coverage from WUSA9.com.

Area fire departments are having difficulty getting to many locations and fire and EMS equipment is getting stuck.

There has been a collpase of a hangar at Dulles International Airport. Here are some details from WUSA9.com (hope to have more on this later)-

A spokesperson for the Airport Authority says the roof of a hangar housing private jets partially collapsed damaging some aircraft. The hangar is in the Dulles Jet Center in the General Aviation area. There were no injuries reported but the hangar was evacuated. No estimate yet on the amount of damage to the aircraft. The hangar has been condemned.

Michael "FirePix1075" Schwartzberg photo of Baltimore County Fire Department Medic 17 at GBMC.

There have been collapses of roofs on at least two homes in Northeast Washington.

The World Headquarters of STATter911.com is fairly inaccessible right now and we have instituted a liberal leave policy for our hard working staff. I will just have to plug along without them.

I am getting assistance from the WUSA9.com web team. They continue to add videos to our player to the right. These include some TV appearances by local fire chiefs (DC’s Dennis Rubin and Montgomery County’s Richard Bowers) and even a snowy response video from the Leesburg VFD (also added below). By the way, that player always has the 30 latest fire and EMS videos that come through WUSA9.com (locally and from around the country).

If you have video or pictures showing how firefighters  & EMS crews are handling this storm you can click here to upload them to WUSA9.com. It can even be just a pretty shot of your firehouse.

Emily Cyr and Jillian Coyle will make sure they show up in the video player (and STATter911.com will find a way to show case your still photos).  

Read April 4, 1922 article about criminal charges in the collapse

Images from the 1922 Knickerbocker Storm from NOAA

Washington Post front page from January 29, 1922

WUSA9.com coverage of the current storm

I know this isn’t much for many of you who live in the snow belts of our country, but the 20 to 30 inch snowfall predicted for the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia is a paralyzing experience here. Schools closed well before the first flakes began falling.

From the NOAA photo library.

The film above is of  the disaster that came from a record Washington, DC snowfall on January 28, 1922. The 28-inches that fell caused the collapse of the roof of the Knickernocker Theater located at 18th Street and Columbia Road, NW.  The collapse killed 98 people and injured 133.

My friend Jeff Krulik, a filmaker in Washington, unearthed the film above and posted it to YouTube during the December 19 storm (and I forgot to use it). Thanks to Jeff who used this hand-cranked newsreel footage in his 1988 documentary Twenty-five Cents Before Noon, a look at DC’s old movie palaces.

The collapse of the snow packed flat roof of the 5-year-old theater came on the night the comedy Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford was the feature film.

Here’s how the collapse was described in Washington Weather – The Book:

From the NOAA photo library.

Shortly before 9:00 p.m., the Knickerbocker Theatre’s orchestra was play­ing for intermission. The lights had dimmed and the people were returning to their seats. Suddenly, a loud hissing noise filled the room. The ceiling, weighed down from the snow, had begun to split apart down the middle. The few people who had noticed the splitt­ing ceiling dove under their seats or ran for the door. Within seconds, the entire roof started to fall towards the crowd. As the roof came down, it collapsed the theater’s ce­ment balcony and pulled down portions of the theater’s brick wall. Concrete, bricks and metal crashed to the ground, burying dozens of people

The theater was owned by Harry Crandall and the architect was Reginald W. Geare. Here are some details on the cause of the collapse from the site Greater Greater Washington.

The subsequent investigation determined that the contractor had inserted the steel beams supprting the roof only 2 inches into the walls rather than the 8 inches Geare had specified, and Geare and Crandall were found innocent of any wrong doing.

The theater was rebuilt in 1927 as the Ambassador. That building was torn down in 1969. 

An interesting note from former College Park VFD Chief Ty Dickerson (currently chief of Virginia’s Lexington Fire-Rescue Department).

Salvaged timbers from the Knickerbocker were used to build the Byrd Mansion in College Park, home to University of Maryland President Curly Byrd.  In about 2003, during a snowstorm that house suffered a serious fire and was subsequently rebuilt.

From the Library of Congress.

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.

Click here for the view from the air

Click here and here for pictures from the fire

This is video from a junk yard fire on Route 1A in Wrentham, Massachusetts. The fire was reported at Armitage Auto Parts near the Wrentham Village Outlet Mall around 1:00 on Thursday afternoon. Columns of black smoke from the blaze could be seen from as far as Pawtucket, R.I. No injuries were reported.