I am not big on ghost stories and I am not a believer. But I guess if there is a place that has a right to be haunted it’s a firehouse built on the site of a former mausoleum. That’s the case of the quarters of Engine 35 and Ladder Truck 16 at 100 N. 64th Street in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The City of Milwaukee took over the site in 1994 after the Fairview Mausoleum, built in 1912, fell into disrepair. The remains of 999 people were removed to a cemetery in town and eventually a fire station was built.
The firehouse is nicknamed the Crypt Keeper. The name sits on a tombstone in front of the station. So is the place haunted?
In anticipation of Halloween, the Journal Sentinel’s Jim Stingl asked that question of the firefighters who work there. It turns out quite a few believe in ghosts. Maybe they should contact those guys who work out of a New York firehouse and drive an old Cadillac ambulance for some help with their problem (see video below).
“It’s always the cold water, and it’s always full blast. This has happened at least a dozen times,” said firefighter Ron Reagan, who is not the ghost of a former president.
I don’t want to take the cold water imagery too far, but three people interred at the mausoleum were on the Titanic. The man died that night, and his wife and daughter survived in a lifeboat.
Josh Larson tells of a night when he was on watch duty at the firehouse. His laptop computer, which he had turned off and tucked into its case, suddenly switched on and began playing music on YouTube. To be exact, it was Zac Brown Band’s version of “Feel Like Making Love.” Um, no thanks, Jacob Marley.
Elsa Gomez has been spooked more than once. There was the time she heard two large pans and a popcorn pot fall off the stove in the kitchen, and was shocked to find them on the floor but nowhere near the stove. “They just flew off the stove basically, is what I’m saying. It was weird,” she said.
Then there was the night when she and a fellow firefighter were relaxing in chairs on either side of a floor lamp. Suddenly the lamp plug popped out of the wall, and the room went dark. They couldn’t think of any logical explanation.
FOX6 News is told one firefighter is in serious condition, one in fair condition and one in good condition. Two were treated and released.
The civilian is reportedly in critical condition.
“I was at the hospital. All those people, I am their boss and they work for me and it is hard to take,” Milwaukee Fire Department Battalion Chief Michael Romas said at the scene Sunday night.
A 2-year-old boy was thrown from a window and a woman jumped from the same second-story apartment to escape a fire Tuesday on Milwaukee’s northwest side.
Also, a 13-year-old might have jumped from a separate apartment in the building in the 5800 block of N. 87th St., according to Milwaukee Fire Department records. Firefighters said none of the injuries appears life threatening.
“We had a 25-year-old female that, in order to escape the fire, jumped from a second floor porch, a two-year-old that was thrown down to a bystander as well, and then I was told also a 13-year-old that suffered minor injuries while escaping the fire,” Milwaukee Fire Deputy Chief Randall Zingler told Newsradio 620 WTMJ’s Dan O’Donnell.
“We found three of the four units fully involved in the fire.”
The YouTube videos on this page from Nemmy25 show the progression of a fire on Saturday in the 2200 block of S. Muskego Avenue in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
According to fire officials at the scene, the fire started in the third floor attic area of the building. When the Milwaukee Fire Department arrived on scene, the first three hydrants they tried to use were frozen.
Firefighters managed to get the fourth hydrant, two blocks away, to work, but that allowed the fire to spread to the second and first floors of the building.
No details on when or where in Milwaukee this fire was. I do like the firefighter who provides prevention material to the neighbors while the house is still belching smoke. You certainly have them thinking about that topic. Talk about striking when the iron's hot.
Above is the raw video from the camera of WITI-TV photojournalist Clint Fillinger just prior to his arrest Sunday nigh accused of resisting a Milwaukee police officer and obstructing the officer in his duties at the scene of a house fire. On the video, the police sergeant can be heard saying that Fillinger was being moved back for "his safety". At the same time the safety of the members of the public, who like Fillinger, were standing outside the secure area, behind the police yellow tape, is apparently not so important.
The officer was so concerned about the safety of this one man with the camera that he knocked the 68-year-old cameraman to the ground as Fillinger was being shepherded to the end of the block. Fillinger told a reporter for his station that he touched the officer while putting up his hands in a defensive move as the officer came at him while the photographer was walking backwards. I will let you be the judge if the officer's reaction was appropriate. I say this knowing there will be plenty out there who will focus on the fact Fillinger touched the sergeant and that's all anyone needs to know.
The other police officer on the video, also identified as a sergeant, told Fillinger we need you to move back "for their privacy".
Now, let's bring in Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn who was asked by a reporter from WITI-TV to comment on this confrontation. The chief pointed out, since this was the same as a citizen complaint he was limited in what he could say to those facts that everyone has seen on TV. From apparently watching that video the chief made the point, "If the cameraman had simply complied with the instructions to back off from a working fire none of this hullabaloo would be taking place".
But Chief Flynn, couldn't it also be said at this point from just watching the video, if the police officer hadn't targeted an individual for removal from a non-secure area because the person was carrying a camera none of this hullabaloo would be taking place?
The chief did what many will think is an admirable thing by defending his people, taking the side of the sergeant over the cameraman based on the video that's in the public. But isn't Chief Flynn also sworn to defend the Constitution of the United States?
In the defense of the Constitution shouldn't the chief be bringing up some other points and questions that seem reasonable to bring up from just looking at and listening to this video? Things like was that a lawful order of the police officer based on the recent ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals? Why was it so important to aggressively remove this one person from the scene and not anyone else? Just what privacy expectation is there on a public street in Milwaukee? What safety concern was there that only the photographer needed to be sent to the end of the block?
Yes, it's great to support your people chief and to reserve judgment until the investigation is complete. But wouldn't it be nice if you or some other police chief got up there during one of these situations and said something like this?
"I want to make it clear that the job of the police department is to defend the Constitution of the United States. This includes the First Amendment. In reviewing this incident I want to make sure that the rights of this individual carrying a camera were not violated and at the same time try to determine if this order from my officer is consistent with our rules, regulations and procedures and the laws of this state and country. When this investigation is complete I hope to know these answers. In the meantime I can assure you that my officers are aware that it is their duty not to interfere with anyone who is lawfully shooting pictures."
So, tell me Chief Flynn, would it make you or your department look bad if you answered the questions about this incident in that manner? Is that not a more even handed way to reply to something as important as this? Is it considered a sign of weakness for the police to make a clear statement about supporting the First Amendment? Would you be considered any less of a police chief in front of the public or your officers if you answered this way?
The clip above provides additional video and details from the story we brought you a month ago of two Milwaukee firefighters who were forced to bail out of a burning home. At least two cameras were rolling when Lt. Chris Schutte and Firefighter John Kokalj dropped from the attic onto a porch roof. The fire occurred on June 3 at 16th Street and Lincoln Avenue. The video was put together by Dale G. Pakel.
Here's some of what Pakel wrote about the incident:
MFD Engine 31 experienced a collapse in the attic while searching for two children who were reported trapped. The hose line they were on lost pressure and the collapse cut off their primary egress to the stairwell. As a result of rapidly deteriorating fire conditions, the Officer and Nozzleman were forced to bail out the front attic windows.
By now you have likely seen the video from Friday's house fire from 16th Street and Lincoln Avenue in Milwaukee that forced a lieutenant and firefighter to bail out of the attic as conditions rapidly changed. Firefighter John Kokalj left first after suffering second-degree burns. Lt. Chris Schutte was right behind him. Schutte injured his pelvis. A third member of the crew, Jason Rodriguez, found another escape route and was unharmed.
Above is the interview with the firefighters. It includes cell phone video of the firefighters' escape taken by an off duty firefighter from another jurisdiction. There is another video of the bailout that can be found here. Below are two clips from later in the fire. Here's an excerpt from WTMJ-TV's story:
"I just dove head first as if i was jumping into the lake," said Schutte. "I didn't look to see where I was going. I didn't look to see if there was a porch. None of that mattered. The only thing that mattered was getting away from the heat."
The temperature inside reached a few hundred degrees, they couldn't see and the ceiling was falling all around them. They knew they were in danger and they needed to get out fast.
"Mayday, mayday, mayday engine 31, mayday" yelled Lt. Schutte into communication radio.
They could no longer find the stairs but they found their way to a window. Both fell about 10 feet onto a porch.
The Sun-Times also has the story of a firefighter who has minor injuries after being slugged by a man whose vehicle was in the roadway:
The 52-year-old firefighter was attacked about at 5:25 p.m. in the 7200 block of South Lafayette. The firefighter claimed the man’s vehicle was blocking the road, police said.
The man fled after the incident.
To give you another view of what the firefighters are up against, someone put together the story above of a Chicago Fire Department engine and crew getting stuck in the Albany Park neighborhood. But the videographer didn’t wait around for the rescue.
The clip above, from a different neighbor with a camera, has the snowplow coming in to save the stuck CFD crew on the streets of Albany Park.
Obviously it isn’t just Chicago. Neighbors with shovels rush in to help Milwaukee Fire Department’s Engine 23 dig out.
The food may be fast but the response to the emergency isn’t: It looks like the employees of this McDonald’s in Tampa could use some training on what to do if smoke starts filling the place.
Firefighter saves the gas station but loses his POV: Mike Lee was the first firefighter on the scene when a vehicle caught fire at the gas pumps of a service station in Star, Mississippi. The volunteer is being credited with preventing a more serious problem when he used his own pickup truck to push the burning vehicle away from the pumps. That worked, but in the process Lee’s POV stalled and then became a victim of the fire. Here’s more.
Earlier video from Marlborough, Massachusetts collapse: Another video is now posted from Saturday’s 8-alarm fire that resulted in a sizable collapse at a restaurant on Main Street. It gives another view of the collapse but also shows the earlier stages of the firefighting operation. Check it out.
Assistant chief needed rescue from trench collapse: In Charles City, Iowa Assistant Chief David Boehmer needed his own fire department at his property. Boehmer was trapped up to his armpits after a collapse occurred while working on a new house. He was stuck for 25-minutes. Read the story
Firefighter accused of having sex with fellow firefighter’s teen daughter: An ugly situation in Milwaukee where Firefighter Robert Johnson is charged with having sex multiple times with a 14-year-old girl he met on the Internet. It turns out she is the daughter of a Milwaukee firefighter. Johnson faced similar charges in 2004. That time it was a 14-year-old girl he met on a call to her home. The DA dropped those charges when the girl changed her story. Read details.
Firefighters pay twice in EMT training scandal: In Haverhill, Massachusetts firefighter accused of paying to receive their EMT recertification without having to attend the class are now getting hit in their wallets again. They each lose the $1500 stipend for being an EMT. The mayor says he is going to use the money saved to hire a consultant to look at the fire department. Here’s the latest.
Firefighters hurt in yacht fire: Firegeezer has the video and story about Sunday’s fire that destroyed a 104-foot yacht in West Palm Beach, Florida. Two firefighters were hurt and another suffered heat exhaustion. Click here.
Reports from yesterday evening’s four-alarm house fire on Milwaukee’s south side indicate anywhere from 12 to 15 firefighters were hurt. A few firefighters suffered burns, but all injuries are reported to be relatively minor.
About 100 firefighters responded to the fire, along with at least 16 ladder trucks and engines and five paramedic units, according to Salvatore Santoro Jr., 4th battalion fire chief.
Firefighters worked in rotations, fighting the blaze for 15 minutes and then taking half-hour breaks to rest and rehydrate, Santoro said.
Some of the minor injuries suffered were related to firefighters falling off water-laden equipment, he said. While the dozen firefighters were taken to local hospitals, none of the injuries appeared to be life threatening, he said.
“It was mostly bumps, bruises, scrapes and strains, but the heat certainly didn’t help,” Santoro said.
The fire was under control by late Friday night. Water used to extinguish the flames came from as far as two blocks away, Santoro said. Smoke hung over the entire neighborhood.
NOTE: In its story WTMJ-TV reported, “Scanner traffic indicates the firefighters suffered everything from second degree burns to dehydration. One of them may have been taken to a trauma center after a roof collapsed on him.” I know I have been out of the news business for a whole week and I am sure a lot has changed since then, but when did it become okay for a TV news operation to report information from the scanner that hasn’t been confirmed. Isn’t unconfirmed information just a rumor?
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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