“Nobody should judge me on one incident,” is the message TribLive.com reporter Liz Zemba got in a phone conversation with Uniontown, Pennsylvania (Fayette County) Fire Chief Chuck Coldren yesterday, three days after his tirade against a citizen with a camera was posted to YouTube. The citizen is self-described activist Chris Shellhammer who, along with his mother, has been involved in protests at the courthouse and police station and regularly videos police activity.
Uniontown Mayor Ed Fike, who says the incident will be investigated, reiterated what he told other reporters, “For him to come unglued like that, somebody had to provoke him.” But according to reporter Zemba, who has seen additional raw video shot by Shellhammer, there is no indiction of anything leading up to the confrontation.
“I’ve devoted 40-plus years of public service to the city of Uniontown,” Coldren said. “I’ve always been totally professional. People who don’t know me have no right to judge me.”
“They were at a bomb scare, where people are in harm’s way, and you’re trying to keep people out of harm’s way,” Fike said. “It’s not like Chuck is a mean, degrading, terrible person, because he isn’t.”
“There are two sides to every story,” Fike said. “We have to look at the video and talk to Chuck to get to the real cause of it to determine whatever the reprimand will be, if anything.”
Some thoughts on how Uniontown is dealing with this incident. When a man dressed in civilian clothes, screams “leave” to a citizen standing in an area that is not blocked off and the citizen asks who he is, if your first answer is “I’m the fire chief, do you want to f#$*ing argue with me?”, you should be throwing in the towel immediately. Stop trying to defend the indefensible, making excuses and looking for ways to justify the chief’s response and his apparent threat to do bodily harm to the citizen. All you are doing now is stretching this story into multiple days of news coverage and making sure that even more people see how stupid your fire chief looks and how lame your excuses are.
There should have been an apology from day one. With the apology should be an explanation from the mayor and fire chief that Uniontown and it’s officials recognize the rights of citizens to take pictures along with an announcement that guidelines are in place to prevent this from happening again.
If these leaders have any sense, something similar to that will ultimately occur anyway. It almost always does. Why wait and destroy your credibility and image further? Swallow your pride, get over yourself and deal with it like reponsible leaders.
In addition, if you are the person promising an investigation, when you make a statement that “somebody had to provoke him” when there is no clear evidence in the public record to back up that point, you are letting everyone know that getting to the bottom of what happened may not be your real goal.
There was a lot to learn in the original video showing the chief going nuclear and there is a lot to learn from how Uniontown is handling the fallout.
We introduced you to Chuck Coldren Tuesday night. He is the career fire chief of Uniontown, Pennsylvania (Fayette County) making a little more than $56,000 per year. The chief, wearing a t-shirt and shorts, let Uniontown resident Chris Shellhammer have it on Monday at an emergency incident. Shellhammer’s video is now making news. Local newspapers and at least two Pittsburgh TV stations did the story yesterday trying to get to the bottom of the fire chief’s tirade.
It turns out Chief Coldren missed his latest turn on camera because he is on vacation and reporters could not reach him at his home or office. This left Mayor Ed Fike to answer for Uniontown. Upon seeing the video, Mayor Fiske described Chief Coldren as a low-key guy who had to have been provoked to act that way. Shellhammer claims there was no provocation. The mayor told reporters there will now be an investigation and if an apology is warranted he is sure the chief will have no problem doing that.
The video has prompted lots of discussion with hundreds of comments posted on STATter911.com and related Facebook pages and many other forums. Only a couple of people have come to the chief’s defense so far.
Uniontown resident Chris Shellhammer likes to know what’s going on in his neighborhood. So when he saw police and fire vehicles near his home on Monday, he walked over to see what he could see. He also started capturing video with his cellphone.
In the video, Uniontown Fire Chief Charles Coldren approaches Shellhammer in plain clothes and ask him to move back, which Shellhammer does. Shellhammer suggests the area should be taped off if the public is not allowed. That’s when the encounter escalates.
“You’re not going to tell me how to do my (expletive) job. Now, if you want to keep running your lip I’ll have you (expletive) arrested. You can record me all you want. I don’t give a flying (expletive),” Coldren says in the video.
It’s important to note, Shellhammer described himself and his family members as “community activists,” and they’ve become known in the community as a result. Shellhammer said he’s skeptical of authority and often joins protests at the Fayette County courthouse. However, in the Internet video, Shellhammer’s responses don’t seem to warrant Coldren’s responses and, at one point, Coldren appears to challenge Shellhammer to a fight.
“You want to put that down and take it to another level?” Coldren said in the video. “Let’s go.”
Action News went to Coldren’s Uniontown home looking for answers but he didn’t answer the door. An employee at the fire station said he is on vacation until next week. Channel 4 was first to show Uniontown Mayor Ed Fike the Internet video, which has now been viewed more than 5,000 times.
“You only hear one side of it, not that that makes either side right,” Fike said.
“He said he doesn’t give a flying ‘F’ if I record him, knowing he was being recorded. It just blew my mind,” said Shellhammer.
When shown the video of the fire chief, Uniontown Mayor Eddie Fike said, “He’s a low-key kind of guy. For him to say anything improper, someone had to provoke him, in my opinion.”
Shellhammer told Channel 11’s Cara Sapida he did nothing to provoke Coldren.
As you watch this, I will be the first to admit, other than what is evident on the video, I have no clue what kind of scene this was or what the person with the camera did or didn’t do to warrant the expletives coming from the man who says on the video he is the “fire chief”. What I do know is that, much like Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Captain Greg Smart’s infamous on camera tirade, this is probably not the best way for professionals who deal with public to handle with this situation. Even if you are right, you undermine your own authority and reputation with actions like this caught on camera.
The description with the video from ccspagan simply asks, “Is this how public officials should treat taxpayers?”
Police tell the Columbus Dispatch that Columbus Fire Investigator Jeffrey L. Smith was involved in an on-duty road rage incident with another motorist where Smith drew his weapon and handcuffed the other driver. While Michael J. Watkins was charged with aggravating menacing and Smith was not charged with a crime, the fire investigator has been placed on administrative duty with his city issued weapon taken way while an internal investigation continues. The paper reports the two men were familiar with each other and have had past differences.
The article in today’s Dispatch by Lucas Sullivan not only talks about the January 2 confrontation between Smith and Watkins at Jack Gibbs Boulevard and Cleveland Avenue, it points to a previous investigation by the paper into the city’s armed firefighters. In August, the Dispatch reported the City’s Fire Division lacked a gun policy and that 10 of 14 firefighters issued guns, including Smith, were not certified by the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy.
Smith said Watkins brandished a gun from inside his car during the argument.
Police found a black pellet gun in Watkins’ car, according to a police incident report.
Smith told investigators that’s when he jumped out of his unmarked city vehicle, drew his weapon and ordered Watkins out of his car. Smith placed Watkins in handcuffs and called police.
(City Attorney Richard C.) Pfeiffer and officials with the city’s Department of Public Safety previously have said that firefighters are allowed to carry guns within the city limits, but can only use them during “fire-related incidents.” Those same officials insist that armed firefighters do not have the same use-of-force and arrest powers as police officers.
There has been a contentious relationship between firefighters and the Mayor of North Providence, Rhode Island, Charles Lombardi, for some time. Lombardi is himself a former firefighter. Yesterday WPRI-TV investigative reporter Tim White aired a 14-mont-old recording of Mayor Lombardi confronting Firefighter Thomas Guibealt because Lombardi says the firefighter insulted a member of the mayor’s family while off-duty in a bar. At the time Mayor Lombardi was dealing with a battle with the firefighters’ union over the closing of a fire station.
The recording was made last Spring at fire department headquarters at a meeting the mayor called that also included Chief Leonard Albanese and a battalion chief. The mayor told reporter White he was not aware someone was recording him but believes he acted appropriately:
On the recording Lombardi is heard screaming at the firefighter, who he identified as Thomas Guibealt.
“Don’t let my name roll out of your mouth,” Lombardi says on the tape. “[Because] the next time that happens you’re going to have a serious headache.”
Above is the full recording of the confrontation.
The mayor said he learned from a third party that an employee who works at his son’s auto body shop was told he was not welcome at a North Providence bar because “he works for the Lombardi’s.”
Contacted by phone, Guibealt did not want to comment if he was the one recording the conversation and directed all questions to a union lawyer.
A chaotic scene unfolded outside Middle School 72 in Jamaica, Queens, on Wednesday night as several men who wanted to attend a tutorial workshop for the upcoming FDNY entrance exam were turned away.
These men said it was because they were white. The Workshop was being hosted by the Vulcan Society, a fraternal organization of black firefighters, which apparently only let in people who got a special e-mail.
Many applicants were referred to the Vulcan Society test by Deputy Chief Paul Mannix, who heads a group called “Merit Matters,” which calls for even-handed entry requirements regardless of race.
Image from WCBS-TV.
He said it wasn’t a stunt. “We feel that for your best opportunity to do well on the test the Vulcan’s test is a good test. They hit the nail on the head last time with those unique types of questions,” Mannix said.
Wednesday night’s class was the third in a series of prep exams given by the Vulcan Society. The previous two were integrated. The one Wednesday was the only one from which people were barred from attending.
The New York Post has a story about a confrontation at a tutoring workshop in Queens last night put on by the Vulcan Society for those who are interested in taking the FDNY entrance exam. Police had to be called after tempers flared when a group of about 60 people who are white tried to take part in the workshop and were denied entrance.
A volunteer told the Post's C.J. Sullivan and Dan Mangan that he wanted everyone to get in but they didn't have enough resources to handle the crowd. The volunteer says the decision was not based on race but on who received a confirmation email from the Vulcan Society.
You will recall that the Vulcan Society, backed by the U.S. Justice Department, won a lawsuit recently, when a judge determined the FDNY's hiring practices are discriminatory.
From the Post:
Paul Mannix, a deputy FDNY chief who is president of Merit Matters, which opposes the reforms as a watering-down of standards, said that in two earlier workshops this week, the Vulcan Society admitted whites.
“It’s incredible in this day and age” that whites were barred last night, said Mannix, who called the Vulcans’ explanation “disingenuous.’’
Back in the early days of STATter911.com I posted a few videos from Jimmy Justice. Jimmy is a man who roams the streets of New York, camera in hand, looking for government vehicles parked illegally. He has a special interest in those blocking fire hydrants. Jimmy is not shy about confronting the government workers, particularly ticket writers and police officers, over these parking issues. In fact, he taunts them.
I know I am biased, but I happen to think leaving your vehicle in front of a fire plug is one of the more selfish acts you can commit. That's why I used to post the videos. Until recently I had thought Jimmy was no longer active. But I was wrong.
A month ago Jimmy Justice showed up on Comedy Central's Colbert Report (below). He got the full Stephen Colbert treatment.
Jimmy's most recent video posted to his YouTube Channel is the one above from two months ago.
So, what do you think about an annoying vigilante with a camera getting in the face of public servants who block hydrants?
It took only a week after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed the right of the citizenry to shoot video of public officials working in public places for someone to decide that the law of the land doesn't apply in their jurisdiction. Interestingly, that jurisdiction is Suffolk County, New York, where a little more than a month earlier a veteran police sergeant decided he was editor in chief after chasing a freelance videographer from a crime scene and later arresting him for daring to point a camera in the direction of cops doing their jobs. Did I miss the footnote to the First Amendment that says "except on Long Island"?
Even more interesting is that the confrontation above was shot by Phil Datz (and posted on September 3), the same cameraman who the good sergeant arrested on July 29 (see the video below).
Mike and others report it is a Suffolk County EMS officer who grabbed the camera at a Haz-Mat scene in Bohemia, New York. Now, I know a lot of people will look at this one and say the cameraman, from WNBC-TV, is too close. The information with this video and posted elsewhere indicates no police or fire line was established until after this incident occurred.
Whether he is too close or, as the official says in the video, "I told you to stop", is really meaningless here. An EMS official grabbing a camera like that makes him and his agency look foolish and opens the organization up for all kinds of issues. You rarely win pulling a stunt like this.
Yes, for all you press haters, it looks good giving the nasty media what those scums deserve. But where in the job description does it say someone in fire or EMS has the right to decide what can be photographed or the right to grab a person or a camera to enforce their orders?
My advice is unless someone's life or safety is in imminent danger you might want to leave the enforcement to police. Though in Suffolk County we have discovered that some police officers have a lot to learn about this same issue.
To me, it is typical of SOME of the interactions that occur across the country between the news media and public safety officials. It's an interesting follow-up to my posting last week that looked at the confrontation last December between a Connecticut State trooper and a photographer at the scene of a fatal crash and vehicle fire.
I am very aware we only have one side of this story and we should always be cautious when drawing conclusions. But there are a few things that are clearly said by the sheriff's deputies, including supervisors, that don't need much interpretation and, to my knowledge, go beyond the powers this country gives to law enforcement. These include: ordering a photographer not to take pictures from a certain vantage point because the homeowners don't want their houses shot; deciding when a videographer can and can't roll his camera; telling a photographer he can't take pictures of police officers doing their jobs.
While, in general, I have absolute respect for the job police officers and others in public safety do, I admit my bias in these issues. As a news reporter I was told by many people, including law enforcement, that I couldn't take pictures of something that was in public view while standing in a public place. My bias is that I am very much pro-First Amendment and know that, in the United States, decisions like those aren't to be left in the hands of police officers, firefighters or any other government official. But there are many other countries where people in uniform do make those choices for you.
That said, when asked to make sure that the images of witnesses or undercover officers whose safety may be in jeopardy not be shown, I always cooperated by shooting or editing around those images. Also, when given a legitimate explanation by law enforcement that a case would be jeopardized by information or images being released, my bosses and I cooperated. I saw similar cooperation by the other TV stations in Washington.
But orders to shut off our cameras in a public place were almost always ignored. Often we did that for our own protection. In one case the video evidence showed a police officer was not telling the truth when my colleague, photographer Frank McDermott, was arrested at the scene of a drowning at a Virginia hotel many years ago. When the officer's supervisors saw the video (it was still rolling when the police officer placed the camera in the trunk of the police car following Frank's arrest), the charges were suddenly dropped and the officer found himself in quite a bit of trouble.
Let me close with some interesting words a Statter911.com reader wrote in a comment a few days back about the Connecticut video from December:
I don't like the media, but will defend it just as I will the 2nd Amendment. I still think the trooper was flat out wrong, as were the comments that attempted to justify his actions.
There's a reason the first amendment is first and is followed by the second. If gov't attempts to eliminate the freedom of speech, press, to gather, etc, then we have to fall back on our second amendment rights.
Creek Nation Paramedic Maurice White Jr., who was involved in a May scuffle with an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper, was arrested today following a traffic stop this morning in the town of Vian. White , who was in his own car when he was pulled over, is facing a variety of charges including speeding, not having a driver’s license, not wearing a seatbelt, and resisting arrest.
Vian Assistant Police Chief Brian Chandler, who made the arrest, told reporters the 56-year-old White was booked into the Sequoyah County jail.
While Chandler was completing a citation, White allegedly approached the police car and was asked to return to his vehicle, police said. “I asked him again to go back to his vehicle, and he said, ‘What was I going to do’ if he didn’t?” Chandler said. “It went downhill from there.”
White’s vehicle allegedly was clocked at 39 mph in a 25 mph zone, Chandler said. He faces fines of $668, said a spokeswoman with the Sequoyah County Sheriff’s Office. White attorney, Richard O’Carroll, said the allegations are “officer fiat. If he (the officer) says it happened, it happened.
“I think it will never make it to the courthouse door,” he said. “We’re going to contest it right there in the city of Vian. If we can’t beat it in the city of Vian, we’ll bring it on down to the city of Sallisaw, and we’ll deal within the county courthouse. It ain’t going anywhere — for a fact.”
On May 24, White, while working for a Creek Nation ambulance, was part of a tussle with OHP Trooper Daniel Martin.
Martin had stopped the ambulance at Paden after he thought the ambulance driver, Paul Franks, had made an obscene finger gesture, which the trooper felt was an “act of defiance.”
White came out of the back of the ambulance and said he told Martin they were taking a patient to the hospital and asked to continue the dispute there. A physical altercation ensued at the side of the ambulance, a video of which was aired on national TV channels.
Martin served a five-day suspension, levied July 21, for “conduct unbecoming an officer’’ for his role in the tussle with White.
OHP spokesman Chris West said Martin had a right to stop the ambulance and had justification to arrest the paramedic for obstructing an officer, but that the situation could have been handled differently.
O’Carroll called the timing of White’s arrest on Monday “curious,” given that White is scheduled to testify Wednesday in the jury trial of Kristopher Douglas, of Holdenville. Douglas, 28, is charged with obstructing an officer in Hughes County for allegedly not heeding officers’ commands in connection with a Oct. 3 traffic stop, which took place in front of Douglas’ uncle’s home.
Stemming from that incident, Martin and OHP Trooper Tommy Allen were placed on administrative leave for six weeks but cleared of accusations of using excessive force.
“A prosecutor called me and told me my witness had just been arrested before I knew it,” O’Carroll said, referring to White’s arrest Monday “… I’m going to check the cell phone records for everybody.”
O’Carroll said he didn’t think the arrest would affect White’s civil case against Martin. In July, White filed a federal lawsuit in Muskogee, claiming that the OHP trooper violated his civil rights.
We have a winner! The very first entry into our top stories contest for 2009 correctly guessed the top story of the year. Even though the rest of that person’s top five weren’t on target, it gave me hope for you people and this contest. Once again, Statter was wrong.
Many of you were blinded by our extensive coverage of PGFD and one man in particular, who at last look was still in the Prince George’s County Detention Center. You will have to scroll way done to number 14 to find his picture on this page. Other entries, including one from a person who should know better, focused way too much on our coverage of the District of Columbia Fire & EMS Department. Only one DC story made the list (but it was a big one at number two). In fact, only eight of the top 20 were local stories from the Washington, DC area. Remember that for next year’s contest. We are global in scope here at STATter911.com (yeah, right!).
To get a winner we had to go deep down to someone who guessed two of the top five. While he had the two top stories in reverse order, author and fire service veteran from Baltimore County Chris Hawley was the only entrant to get more than one out of five. The good news is the two Baltimore boys should have lots to talk about when this one buys lunch.
Our rankings are based on the number of pageviews between January 1 and December 31, 2009 according to Google Analytics. If a story had multiple postings we only counted the top one for our list.
The interesting thing is that the bottom two stories and the 21st story were just nine clicks apart. Their rankings kept changing up until the closing hours of 2009. In the end, a somewhat odd, but newer story from Montgomery County, Maryland moved up, knocking off one of my personal favorites from earlier in the year. Number 21 is the story of Alexandria Fire Department (VA) veteran Doug Townshend who, while off duty, rescued his brother Mike from a burning home. Click here for that story.
Click the Popeye cartoon to see what used to pass for a year-end review at STATter911.com.
By the way, I did this type of year end review, rather than the more humorous (at least I thought so) version of the two previous years, because I thought it would be easier to manage. I am writing this at 4:00 AM on New Years Day, so now I am not so sure. If you miss the old one, here it is (I am sure most of it is still true today anyway).
Obviously isn’t just us taking a look back at 2009 and ahead to 2010. Other fire service sites beat us to the punch. Paul Peluso at Firehouse.com says 2009 was the year of the video (look below for proof). FireRescue1.com has a host of characters writing lots of words under its year in review banner. Billy Goldfeder has a message for the new year at FirefighterCloseCalls.com. Paul Combs has a great thought in his December cartoon at FireEngineering.com. I am sure Bill Schumm will have something to help bring in the new year Firegeezer style and so will many others who share the FireEMSBlogs.com site with this rag. .
And Rhett Fleitz at The Fire Critic, who is a great inspiration and supporter to all of us who blog, has a contest that is better than mine. Rhett is looking for the Fire/EMS Blog of the Year 2009 (now you know why I said those nice things about him). Rhett’s is better because he is promoting it as the contest with the prize where you don’t have to sit across the lunch table from Dave Statter.
Thank you to all who entered our contest. Thank you to all who read and comment each day. Thank you to all who link to STATter911.com and carry our stories. Most important, a happy and safe 2010 to all of you and especially those out there protecting us each and every day.
So, drum roll please! We present our 20 most popular stories from 2009:
This was the story that dominated 2009 on STATter911.com. Not only did the posting on May 30 (our fourth posting on the topic) bring in 43 percent more pageviews than our number two story for the year, three other stories on the confrontation would have taken places two, three, and four. When you add up the clicks for the almost 20 stories we posted on this topic they account for about five-percent of the overall traffic on the blog for 2009.
There have been more than 700 comments (actually a lot more than that, but many we couldn’t publish). A couple of comments still arrive each week.
I think the reason for the high numbers, besides being a hot topic, is that we apparently reached way beyond our normal fire and EMS service audience on this story. It helps that the YouTube video above, which has more than two million views, has our link in its description.
As much grief as I get for carrying too many negative stories on the blog, the only reason the world knew about this one is because I was trying to do a good deed and post some positive news. On Wednesday, October 7 there were two sprinkler demonstrations scheduled in the National Capital region. One at Gallaudet University and the other at the University of Maryland (at MFRI). My goal was to get to both of them, but the Maryland one was the priority because of the release of a study about Prince George’s County’s mandatory residential sprinkler law. I never made it to DC and no one said anything to me about a problem during that demonstration.
As I was about to leave work the following evening I was feeling guilty the DC sprinkler video didn’t get any play in my story the day before (there had been a photographer on the scene from LNS, the local news service run by my station and two others in Washington). I pulled the video up with the intention of editing something for the blog and possibly WUSA9.com. Of course, as I watched the video, I immediately realized there was a little bit more to this demonstration.
This entry had 128 comments. More comments came in after Chief Dennis Rubin, when talking about what he saw, used the term “comedy act”.
Firefighter Will Gregory exits the home with his PPE on fire. Photo by Brian Haney, The Daily Record.
This was a late entry for the year. It came about because FirefighterCloseCalls.com first put out the story of the close call based on the newspaper article by Brian Haney at The Daily Record in Dunn, NC. Figuring that there might be more than one photo, I called Mr. Haney and he told me he had shot 210 images from that fire. Brian sent a bunch to STATter911.com and gave us permission to use the photos.
Until a day or two ago, this was in the number three spot for the year. In my heart I wish it was number one. I was blogging away on the Friday afternoon that Ladder 26 wrecked trying to keep up with the developments from Boston. Later in the evening when we learned that Lt. Kevin Kelley was the firefighter killed, it didn’t take long to find his appearances from Firehouse USA on the web. How can you not smile when you watch these?
While I get a lot of stories and videos from your tips, this is one I found all by myself. Going through fire related YouTube videos on a Sunday evening I happened upon this clip. I usually don’t run controlled burning type training exercises, but this one looked different. After picking my jaw off the floor upon seeing the unusual PPV via the leaf blower, I decided this was one worthy of a wider audience.
You have to admit this one was different. The 160-foot Spirit of Washington squeezed the 72-foot John H. Glenn Jr., putting a big gash in the Glenn’s hull and sidelining the boat for many months. The collision also crushed a small FBI boat at an adjacent dock.
This is a rather simple story of a rescue in that it was popular despite there being no video of the event. Firefighters saving the day when it looks like that might be impossible.
Here’s how WZZM-TV’s Lambrini Lukidis described the story:
Kelysse LaBelle is full of energy today. But when fireman Scott Campau rescued her from the bottom of Fisherman’s Landing in Muskegon last week, Kelysse was purple, her eyes were gray and lifeless.
“The stroller was actually sitting up-right on its wheels on the bottom of the lake and she was unconscious,” said Campau.
“She wasn’t breathing, no heart rate,” said Battalion Chief Ken Chudy who lead the team on the call. “She was lifeless when we pulled her out of the water,” said Fireman Kevin McMillan also assisted by firemen Chad Horn and Scott Hemmeslbach.
Eight Prince George’s County firefighters were hurt when an explosion occurred while they were investigating a natural has leak at a shopping center in Forestville.
Truly one of the great stories of the year. John and Joel Rechlitz received national attention for their off-duty rescue of a young boy from a burning car. Their efforts didn’t stop after the rescue. The firefighters remained close to D.J. Harper and his family. Click here.
In December, 2008 Continental Flight 1404 ran off a runway and burst into flames at Denver International Airport. This was the audio as the airport tower controllers directed firefighters to the scene.
The fireground audio provided by Erie County Fire wire was very difficult to listen to as these two men responded to a call for help inside the burning building on Genesee Street.
Layoffs and budget cuts were THE story of 2009. We saw a lot of stories like this one, but for some reason the Flint fire got more attention than the others.
What more can I say about this frequent subject of STATter911.com stories. In the interview Jerry Engle told us all about an arson ring involving firefighters. Later in the year Engle and another former volunteer from Riverdale were both charged with the fire Jerry told us about. If you haven’t read enough about him, click here for our Jerry archive.
A touching tribute to firefighters who were lost 50-years earlier. The incident is believed to be the first time the term BLEVE was used to describe the rupture and rocketing of a flammable liquid container during a fire.
It took teamwork and a lot of guts as a dispatcher and engine company worked to save a woman trapped in an apartment fire started thanks to a neighbor’s meth lab. Video shows Chad Meyer from Engine 26 basically walking through fire to bring out Nikki Cain.
This entry from Montgomery County had to be one of the more unusual stories of the year. A firefighter’s date spent the night at the firehouse and got lost on the way to the bathroom.
What this means is that, even though Kyle Wilson died in a house fire in April, 2007 and the report was released nine-months later, firefighters are still interested in learning from this tragic situation. Enough people searched, found and apparently read that entry in 2009 to make it part of our top 20.
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