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Early chopper video: Fatal house fire in Anne Arundel County, MD with ammo exploding. Neighbors jump in to help.

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Raw video above from TV news chopper via WUSA-TV of a fatal fire in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. Fire officials say they were hampered by stored hunting ammunition exploding. In the video, neighbors are also using garden hoses and in the image below (from about 5:30 in the raw video) it looks like one civilian picks up something a little bit bigger. Reporter Scott Broom talks to neighbors and firefighters in the video at the bottom of the page.

Scott Broom, WUSA9.com:

Rescuers trying to get to a disabled man trapped in a burning trailer home were met with flying bullets as ammunition stored inside the house exploded on Wednesday morning.

The trapped man was eventually discovered dead inside the home. Fire officials have not released his identity, but neighbors said he was a 55-year old husband, father and grandfather who was disabled.  His wife had gone to work.

The fire is being investigated as an accident. Rescuers believe the ammunition was for hunting and was stored inside the house.

After briefly taking cover, rescuers quickly determined they were not under attack and began pouring water on the house quickly, said Lt. Cliff Kooser of the Anne Arundel County Fire Dept.

Neighbors said the fire was so intense, there was little hope of rescuing the trapped man, despite the exploding ammunition.

The fire was reported just after 8 a.m. at 9 Zona St. in the Parkway Village trailer community in Maryland City.

Press release from Anne Arundel County Fire Department Division Chief Keith Swindle:

At 8:26 a.m. on Wednesday, January 2, 2013, Anne Arundel County Firefighters were dispatched to a reported dwelling fire in the unit block of Zona Road in the Parkway Village Mobile Home Park located in the Maryland City area of Anne Arundel County.  The first unit to arrive on the scene reported visible fire coming from a one-story double-wide mobile home.  An aggressive fire suppression and search/rescue operation was then initiated by the first arriving crews.  In all, it took approximately 40 Firefighters from Anne Arundel, Ft.Meade, Prince Georges and Howard County Fire Departments 45 minutes to bring the “All Hands” incident under control.  After the fire was extinguished, Firefighters working on the first floor living area of the home located the body of an occupant that Fire Department personnel determined had suffered fatal injuries as a result of the incident and was pronounced dead at the scene.

The fire was reported by neighbors who were alerted to the incident when they observed smoke coming from the home.  The fire which originated on the first floor of the dwelling caused an estimated $150,000 in damages.  The exact cause of the fire remains under investigation. 

At this time, the name of the victim and the immediate cause of death are being withheld pending positive identification and the result of an autopsy by the State Medical Examiner.  A preliminary investigation into the incident did reveal that there were smoke detectors in the dwelling however, it is unclear if they were operable at the time of the fire. 

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Posted by on January 3, 2013 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Command & Leadership, EMS Topics, fire, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Safety & Health, Firefighting Operations, Fires, News, Videos • Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Raw video: Anne Arundel County, MD two-alarm apartment fire with transition to defensive operations.

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Shawn Coleman posted this video on his  YouTube channel of a two-alarm fire in Odenton, Maryland (Anne Arundel County) yesterday afternoon. The air horns sound at 1:32 in the video.

Here’s Shawn’s description:

Units from Company 28 arrived with heavy fire from Side Charlie of the 3 story apartment/condo type structure. An aggressive interior attack was made but crews were eventually evacuated. Conditions were very windy on the scene as a storm was approaching the area. Once the exterior attack was made the fire was darkened down and crews soon thereafter made entry to mop up. Red Cross was notified, BGE gas & electric were on scene, and a County Building Inspector was requested. The incident went to a full 2nd Alarm with a special call for 3 additional engines later in the incident.

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Posted by on October 1, 2012 • Filed under: Command & Leadership, EMS Topics, fire, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Safety & Health, Firefighting Operations, Fireground Audio, Fires, News, Videos • Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Third suspicious package found at Maryland State office. Two others contained small incendiary devices. One addressed to the Governor.

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Slideshow from WUSA9.com

From WUSA9.com:

A third suspicious package has possibly been found at the state office complex On West Preston Street in Baltimore. Earlier, packages sent to two state buildings created a small flash of fire, smoke and an odor when they were opened, but did not cause any serious injuries.

State officials initially said the two packages exploded, but later said there were no blasts. One of the packages was addressed to Governor Martin O’Malley.

It’s not clear whether or not the third package is related to the other two packages.

Spokesman Rich Wolf says it is not known if the package at the building on Preston Street near downtown is incendiary. The package is at the building that houses the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and other agencies.

U.S. Postal Inspector Frank Schissler in Baltimore says the package was being examined.

Wolf said it was not known if the Baltimore package was related to the two packages that emitted a flash and smoke when opened at two state buildings in Annapolis and Hanover.

WJZ’s Derek Valcourt reports fire officials initially responded to a report of an explosion in Hanover at the Department of Transportation headquarters.

Officials say the incident happened in the 7200-block of Corporate Center Drive around 1 p.m. Thursday. The package under investigation was addressed to the Secretary of the Department of Transportation.

The building has been evacuated. Buses have been brought in to help employees stay warm as they wait to get inside the building.

Several people were transported to the hospital as a precaution, but their injuries are believed to be minor.

Meanwhile, a Maryland State House mailroom employee was injured early Thursday afternoon while handling a package addressed to the governor around 12:30 p.m. It happened at the Jeffrey Building on Francis Street in Annapolis is being investigated by various agencies.

When the package was opened by a mailroom employee, it triggered a reaction involving smoke and a sulfur-like smell. The mailroom employee had minor burns to his hands and refused treatment.

The employees of the building were immediately evacuated and reentered the building at approximately 2:30 p.m. after the building was declared safe.

Maryland State Police Spokesman Greg Shipley says mailrooms at state offices across Maryland are being quarantined Thursday until it is determined if any other packages have been sent.

Shipley says the packages were small, describing them as about the size of a book. Shipley says the packages did not cause any damage to the buildings.

Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger told WJZ one of the packages did have a return address that was traced to a Washington, D.C. parking garage.

The FBI’s joint terrorism task force was assisting in the investigation, the state police spokesman said, adding that the state fire marshal and a number of other law enforcement agencies also responded to the two scenes.

A Homeland Security Department official said the department was aware of the incidents and monitoring them.

New Jersey state police also said they had notified agencies across the Garden State about what had happened, saying it was part of normal protocol when such incidents occur. The New Jersey agencies were advised to be “extra vigilant” in handling mail and packages.

In neighboring Delaware, Detective Britt Davis, a spokesman for the Delaware Capitol Police, said police were operating in a state of raised awareness, but they are not doing much differently.

A UMD Alert was also sent out to all UMD Alerts users (messages sent out to e-mail, pagers and cell phones from the University of Maryland) that read: “Suspicious mail exploded @ 2 state bldgs DO NOT OPEN ANY MAIL until advised. Report any suspicious mail to 911.”

DC Mayor Vincent Gray’s spokesperson Doxie McCoy confirms that the mailrooms for District government agencies have been closed down, as a precaution, because of the incidents in Maryland government buildings this afternoon. 

Posted by on January 6, 2011 • Filed under: Uncategorized • Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Maryland firefighter threatened with arrest while fighting a fire at Pennsylvania home of his parents.

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BS BS MD-AR-FIREFIGHTER-PHILADELPHIA-SAVE

Baltimore Sun photo of Firefighter Justin Davidson.

Justin Davidson didn’t look like he does in that picture when he was fighting a house fire on Tuesday in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, south of Philadelphia. Then he was dressed only in a T-shirt and shorts. His tools to fight the blaze were an extinguisher, a garden shovel and water from the kitchen sink.

According to the article by Nicole Fuller in The Baltimore Sun, the off-duty Anne Arundel County firefighter had been taking a nap in his old bedroom while visiting his parents’ home. Pamela Davidson came in screaming to her son the house was on fire. Justin got his parents and their dogs outside and went to work while waiting for the local VFD. But police arrived first and that didn’t go too well. Here are excerpts from Fuller’s story:

When local police showed up to answer the 911 call — minutes before the volunteer fire company responded — they wanted everyone out, including Davidson, 28, who lives in Baltimore. Unmoved by his claims of being a firefighter, they threatened to arrest him, according to fire officials.

But Davidson, in between shouting with the police, wouldn’t quit trying to save his parents’ modest home.

“The police were threatening to drag me out,” said Davidson, a nine-year veteran assigned to Truck Company 33 in Glen Burnie, who was not injured. “They said, ‘You’re going to jail.’ At that point, it just didn’t matter; I had to save my parents’ house. This is all they have.”

Joe Lombardo Jr., chief of the Garden City Fire Company in Pennsylvania, responded to the fire and helped put out not only the one-alarm blaze but the dispute between Davidson and the officers. Lombardo, who has been chief of the volunteer company for 32 years, remembered Davidson as a cadet junior firefighter when he was in high school.

“The police were upset because they didn’t know him, but once I had a conversation with them, it was all good,” said Lombardo. “I did yell at him for being in shorts. But he’s well-trained. It was pretty much contained when we got there. He saved it from being a lot worse than it could have been.”

Police Chief Thomas Flannery of Nether Providence Township said the incident report makes no note of threats of arrest, but Flannery said he was glad that “cooler heads prevailed,” especially since Davidson is a trained professional.

“I think we showed good judgment and restraint with that,” Flannery said. “We shouldn’t be arresting people who were just trying to put a fire out.”

Chief Michael Cox, a spokesman for the Anne Arundel Fire Department, said he could not comment without knowing all the facts, but that under national firefighting standards, “we recommend that … all occupants evacuate the building and remain outside until the arrival of the fire department, and only trained and equipped firefighters should re-enter.”

“I teach classes on this,” Davidson said. “I know what to do: If your house is on fire, get out. But my natural instincts kicked in. I was born to do this.”

“We live in a small town, it’s an all-volunteer fire department and God bless them for the volunteer work that they do,” said Pamela Davidson. “But if we had waited for them, our house would have been gone. So we’re just thankful Justin was home. We’re so proud of him.”

Posted by on April 14, 2010 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Anne Arundel County Fire Department, Command & Leadership, fire, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Safety & Health, Firefighting Operations, Fires, News, Police • Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Anne Arundel reduces responses by Dunkirk VFD after collision between two rigs. Volunteer chief disputes police report & makes own accusations about career staff. Crash highlights problems between border companies. Driver charged.

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Photos of damage to rigs, provided by Dunkirk VFD

Statement from Anne Arundel County on mutual aid changes and other issues

Anne Arundel County’s notification to Dunkirk about running assignment adjustments

Dunkirk Chief Toby Sealey’s response to Anne Arundel County

 Dunkirk Chief Toby Sealey’s message to STATter 911 discussing police report and other topics

Original article on the collision from The Capital

In the wake of the collision between two fire trucks responding to the same emergency, the Anne Arundel County Fire Department has changed the way it dispatches Calvert County’s Dunkirk Volunteer Fire Department on mutual aid calls into Anne Arundel. In a statement to STATter911.com, Anne Arundel County Chief John Robert Ray said the decision to ”limit but not eliminate” Dunkirk’s responses was made “in the interest of public and firefighter safety”.

Image provided by Dunkirk VFD.

Image provided by Dunkirk VFD.

Dunkirk VFD Chief Toby Sealey calls the change “flat out dangerous” and says it is ”a poor decision that will have ill fated results with due time”.

In explaining that decision, Chief Ray says his department “operates under nationally recognized best practices policies and procedures for both responses to and operations at emergency incidents”. According to Ray, ”there has been some deviation from these policies by members of one of our neighboring departments”. Ray is “hopeful that continued discussions and perhaps joint training opportunities will yield positive results, which will allow me to revert to the prior response profile with this company.” 

Chief  Sealey forwarded to STATter911.com an email sent by Anne Arundel County Division Chief H. Lee Cornwell outlining the new mutual aid plan. The email says in part:

… in light of the recent accident at RT255/RT468, our department determined it was necessary to make adjustments to the running assignments. Although we think our meeting last week was promising, this incident is just another example of the concern we have with your company. In summary, any box area where your company is either closest or second due, the assignments remained the same. Box areas where your company was greater than second due, your company has been removed from the running assignments.

Dunkirk’s Engine 51 and Anne Arundel’s Tower 40 collided while responding to a reported gas leak on February 14.  The Capital of Annapolis reports the driver of Dunkirk’s rig, 24-year-old David Stream, has been charged with one count of unsafe driving by an operator of an emergency vehicle. The Capital also cites the police report as saying Tower 40 had the green light and that Dunkirk’s engine didn’t stop at the scene, but continued to the call.

Chief Sealey, in an email to STATter911.com, disputes the police report and says pictures he has provided prove that a diagram on that report is wrong. STATter911.com currently does not have a copy of that police report.

MD AA Dunkirk JeopardyChief Sealey also forwarded his response to Chief Cornwell. In it,  Sealey cites numerous concerns about the relationship between the volunteers at his station and the career staff in Anne Arundel County.

Sealey sent along two images he claims had been posted at Anne Arundel County Station 9. One is a Jeopardy style question that reads “Where do reject Prince George’s County firefighters spend their days off?”. The other is set up as a caution message that uses expletives to indicate Dunkirk volunteers are on the way to mess things up.

Sealey also writes in his email to Cornwell that an individual at Station 9 tossed Dunkirk provided SOPs into the trash can. He adds:

The same individual most likely (is) responsible for comparing a picture of Engine 52 to that of a school bus that transports handicapped children that was posted in the station, along with other derogatory posters and drawings that I do in fact have in my possession, and were given to me by one of your employees that will remain nameless at this time to prevent any retaliation by you or your command staff. Do you condone this type of immature behavior in your stations? Do you condone the hostile work environment that your employees are creating for my men and women? How would you explain these derogatory posters to a citizen that stops by one of your stations to show their kids a firetruck, or a citizen that’s having a medical emergency? Is that the PROFESSIONALISM that you praise that your county and your employees have?

STATter911.com altered this image to remove language that may be offensive to some.

STATter911.com altered this image to remove language that may be offensive to some.

Anne Arundel County Division Chief Michael Cox, a department spokesman, tells STATter911.com “these images are obliviously inappropriate and an investigation into the matter is underway.” Cox says in a statement,  “Any individuals found guilty of such inappropriate behavior will be dealt with appropriately, in accordance with established departmental policy.”

In an incident STATter911.com covered in January, 2009, the professionalism of Chief Sealey was brought into question after photos surfaced in the publication St. Mary’s Today of Sealey wearing a fire department shirt exposing himself at a Dunkirk bar.

Asked about this, Chief Sealey wrote:

I am aware of the issues in January of 2009, and I have handled the cards that were dealt to me regarding that issue. Is it something to be proud of? Absolutely not. If it takes people (commenters on your site) to beat a dead horse (ref. Jan.2009) to get the point across about how this decision that Anne Arundel County Fire Department is making then so be it.  Once again, just for clarification, this issue isn’t about me at all, which I’m sure that you are very aware of. This is about the safety and well being of fellow Fire, Rescue, and EMS personnel (in) both Anne Arundel, and Calvert County,  as well as the general public.  

Toby Sealey is also a career firefighter in the District of Columbia. In his emails (links above), Sealey apologizes for a late response to these issues because he is recovering from second degree burns received during a fatal fire in DC on February 17. Sealey was released from the MedStar Burn Unit at the Washington Hospital Center on Friday.

David Stream is also a career firefighting with the Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department, assigned to Station 24 in Accokeek. Stream faces the possibility of a $150 fine and three points on his license. 

Posted by on February 23, 2010 • Filed under: Apparatus Wrecks, Career - Volunteer Issues, Command & Leadership, DC Fire & EMS Department, EMS Health & Safety, EMS Topics, fire, Firefighter Safety & Health, Firefighting Operations, Fires, IAFF, News, PGFD, PGFD (MD) • Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Quick Takes

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More video from Baltimore fifth-alarm: A large, mostly vacant warehouse burned Sunday morning in the Clipper Mill Industrial Park along the JFX. Firefighters used the highway as a vantage point to lob water onto the fire. The video above is from Michael “FirePix1075″ Schwartzberg. His  still pictures can be seen here. We also have more details and news video posted. Click here for our coverage. Also, as we first mentioned while the fire was burning, the industrial park is where Firefighter Eric Schaefer died in 1995 after a wall collapse during a nine-alarm fire. The Sun’s Peter Hermann looks back at his coverage of that tragedy.

Fatal fire in Bailey’s Crossroads, Virginia: The way relatives describe it, firefighters weren’t likely to save 52-year-old Andy Wang from Saturday morning’s house fire on Paul Street, no matter how fast they got there. Wang’s nephew tells STATter911.com, he smelled smoke and traced it to a basement bedroom where he saw his uncle sitting on the bed on fire. The nephew made sure six other relatives escaped the house. The closest firehouse to Paul Street is Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department Station 410 about 1.3 miles away. At the end of last week, Fairfax County decided not to staff that station overnight following the collapse of the roof over the bay area two weeks ago. For much of the two weeks, Engine 410′s crew had been using the Rehab Unit outside the station as its quarters. The engine is now with Truck 410 at Station 428 during night time hours. The Seven Corners firehouse (AKA Buffalo Ridge) is about two miles further away from the house on Paul Street. Officials say it took five minutes for the first unit to arrive on the scene. Firefighters we have talked to are very eager to again have coverage within Bailey’s Crossroads 24-hours-a-day (they spend most of the daylight and early evening hours in the first-due). Spokesman Dan Schmidt says the hope of county fire officials is that most of the living area at the Bailey’s Crossroads firehouse can be occupied during the next week or two, with a tent outside for apparatus. Click here for the fireground audio from Sunday’s fire.

This sure is different – chief cites grant competition for not allowing newly promoted career captain to be volunteer firefighter: This is a really interesting article from Fargo, North Dakota. The Fargo Fire Department recently promoted Joe Mangin to captain, but Mangin was told to accept that position he would have to resign as a member of the Casselton Volunteer Fire Department (where he had previously been assistant chief). The reason given is that Casselton competes with Fargo for grant money. At least three other Fargo captains are volunteers in North Dakota departments, including two who are chiefs of their departments. The explanation is those departments don’t compete with Fargo for funding. Here’s the story (may require log in).

Steve Skipton and Ron Trout have lots of photos of the two-alarm fire at Philadelphia International Records. Click the image to take you to PhillyFireNews.com.

Steve Skipton and Ron Trout have lots of photos of the two-alarm fire at Philadelphia International Records. Click the image to take you to PhillyFireNews.com.

The Philadelphia sound is a little smoky: It is where Chubby Checker recorded “The Twist”. It is also where songwriters Gamble and Huff developed the Philadelphia sound. A fire severely damaged the offices of Philadelphia International Records on Broad Street Sunday morning (see picture at left). Firefighters did their best to save Gold Records on the walls and other memorabilia. Read more about this legendary company at Philly.com. I am assuming their knowledge of the music industry surpasses their understanding of the fire service, considering this line in the story – “More than 100 fire personnel from Ladder 5 and Battalion 1 at Broad and Christian Streets responded to the two-alarm blaze … “. Damn, that is one crowded firehouse. 

Lost ambulance reports: The Anne Arundel County Fire Department has been dealing for some time with lost ambulance reports from a now abandoned computer database and is also having problems with the software that replaced it. The impact includes failing to provided monthly patient-care reports to the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems (MIEMSS). MIEMSS provides free software to the large majority of Maryland’s counties that does the same job. Here’s the story from The Capital in Annapolis.

Four-alarms in Orange, New Jersey: A fire Saturday damaged nine homes. We have lots of video.

Detroit report and more: NIOSH has released its report into the death of Detroit Firefighter Walter Harris inside a vacant home in November, 2008. We put a bunch of links up with the report to give you some perspective on the city’s unbelievable problems. This includes a wonderful compilation of pictures by Paul Bassett. Click here for all of that. Since we posted that entry, our friend Steve in New Jersey came up with the video of Firefighter Harris that I couldn’t find and a very touching article about Harris and Engine 23 two months after his death.

New York Rent-a-firefighter idea receives mixed reaction:  Suburban fire departments don’t seem to be in line asking for Syracuse firefighters to handle their calls. A look at the reaction to this potential money making idea by the Syracuse Fire Department.

Arrests in Texas church arsons: Firegeezer has the details on two people charged with setting as many as ten churches on fire east of Dallas. Click here.

FDNY firefighters honored: A group of Bronx firefighters already receiving recognition for their multiple rescues on Pelham Parkway. This is the one we told you about with the infant dangling from a window. Here’s the latest story.

Reverse Ricci now before the Supreme Court: 6000 African-Americans sued following a 1995 test for the Chicago Fire Department unfairly screened out minority applicants. Their case was thrown out because they may have waited too long to file suit. That issue and more is now before the Supreme Court in a case that had already been before Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Read the story.

Posted by on February 22, 2010 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Baltimore City Fire Department, Career - Volunteer Issues, Command & Leadership, EMS Topics, Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department, FDNY, fire, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Safety & Health, Firefighting Operations, Fires, Major Incidents, News, Videos • Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Quick Takes

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Five firefighters tumble into the basement: Only two of the firefighters who ended up in the basement when the first floor collapsed at an Anne Arundel County, Maryland house fire yesterday afternoon were sent to the hospital. Neither has life threatening injuries. The video above is from Sky9. I have edited it so all of the shots are in chronological order. The mayday was over when the chopper arrived. The video begins with the Maryland State Police helicopter ready to take off with one of the injured firefighters. You can click here for the slideshow. You will find the fireground audio and many more details about the three-alarm fire here.

Four dead in Baltimore fire: A fire at 11:30 last night in a Baltimore home has left four people dead. The fire was in the 1600 block of East Oliver Street. Here are some details. Click here to see video, here for some pictures and here for a quick interview with Capt. Roman Clark at the scene.

Read controversial letter captain read to returning Houston firefighter: The letter that apparently helped push Houston Fire Department Chief Phil Boriskie out the door has now been released. Click here to see the four page document that was presented by Capt. Brian Williamson to Jane Draycott on the day she returned to Station 54, six months after making accusations about racial and sexual grafitti in the women’s locker room. The letter, read aloud to Draycott, Chief Boriskie and others, listed reasons why the crew did not want Draycott back at the firehouse. Also, an investigator in the grafitti case says, that despite news reports, Draycott and another female firefighter are not suspects in the case. Click here, here and here for the latest.

“That is all bogus and lies and fabrications” – FDNY EMTs tell their side of the story: Two EMT/dispatchers for FDNY are scheduled to be back to work today after being accused of not providing medical help to a dying woman while on break at the Au Bon Pain near the dispatch center in Brooklyn. For the first time Jason Green and Melisa Jackson tell their story. Click here to read the details.

More from Haiti: Virginia Task Force 2 has been making news in Haiti. The team was heading back to its base on Tuesday when it was flagged down and brought to what used to be a three-story home. There they rescued a boy and girl who had been in the rubble for seven days. Here’s the story. You can follow VA-TF2 on its website and Facebook page.

So, why didn’t the closest team go to Haiti first?: There are some unhappy people in Florida over the fact that the Miami-Dade USAR Team, sitting within easy striking distance of Haiti, didn’t get the first call. There was a time they would have been at the top of the list. But Miami-Dade was dropped from that list after an audit revealed it had overbilled the federal government for some of its trips in the 90s. Specifically, it was an effort to hide the cost of overtime for firefighters to backfill the positions of team members who were deployed. It is a cost the federal government now reimburses. The fire chief says that all happened under old management and wants to see the team back in the first-call category for international responses.  Read the story. Watch the story.

Felon hired in Memphis may be tip of the iceberg: A Memphis, Tennessee TV station has been all over the case of Lawrence Batiste a firefighter currently facing a variety of charges including domestic violence, assault, drugs and alcohol. WLMT-TV reports that Batiste was hired by the Memphis Fire Department despite being canned by the Shelby County Fire Department when a previous felony was discovered. But it appears the Memphis Fire Department will be facing more scrutiny. STATter911.com has seen FOIA documents that indicate this problem goes beyond FF Lawrence Batiste. Here’s the latest story.

Captain accused of pretending to be a Klan member is fired: Accusations that he used a pillow case to pretend to be a member of the KKK and made a racially insensitive remark have brought the dismissal of a Captain Robert “Danny” Heil at Pleasure Ridge Park Fire Protection District board in Kentucky. Read the story.

147 firefighters told to be at a meeting Friday about layoffs: That’s the story from Tulsa. Click here.

Posted by on January 21, 2010 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Baltimore City Fire Department, Command & Leadership, FDNY, fire, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Safety & Health, Firefighting Operations, Fires, Funding & Staffing, Haiti Earthquake, Houston Fire Department, Major Incidents, Mass Casualty Incident, News, Quick takes, Videos • Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Mayday after floor collapse sends five Maryland firefighters into basement of burning home. Details, pictures, video & firegound audio from Anne Arundel County.

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Click here for longer video (and in chronological order)

Watch slide show of images from the fire

The ladder used to bring firefighter out of the basement. Picture courtesy of FirefighterCloseCalls.com.

The ladder used to bring firefighter out of the basement. Picture courtesy of FirefighterCloseCalls.com.

Five firefighters fell into the basement of a burning home in Deale, Maryland this afternoon. Anne Arundel County Fire Department  Division Chief Michael Cox tells STATter911.com that a ladder placed through the hole of the collapsed first floor into the basement by a rapid intervention crew allowed three of the firefighters to get out on their own. Chief Cox says they were not hurt.

According to Cox, two other firefighters from Anne Arundel County, one career and one volunteer, had to be removed by firefighters. One of those firefighters was flown to Medstar in the District of Columbia with serious, but non-life threatening trauma.

The second firefighter went to Calvert Memorial Hospital in Prince Frederick with relatively minor injuries.

Anne Arundel County firefighters were dispatched to the house fire in the 5800 block of Little Road with crews from Calvert and Prince George’s County shortly after 1:30 PM.

Click here for Part 2 of the audio from FireSceneAudio.com.

The call came in as a report of a chimney fire with heavy smoke conditions throughout the home. The only occupant inside the house was able to escape. The first firefighters found heavy fire and smoke coming from Side D of the home.

After the mayday was cleared the 9NEWS NOW helicopter arrived over the scene. The chopper caught images as the Maryland State Police helicopter took off for Medstar. Smoke could be seen coming from under the roof and a crew soon opened the roof.

Tankers and a second-alarm were called early into the operation. A third-alarm was sounded after the mayday.

More details as they become available.

MD AA Deale hous fire

Posted by on January 20, 2010 • Filed under: fire, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Safety & Health, Firefighting Operations, Fireground Audio, Fires, Major Incidents, News, Videos • Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , ,