Montgomery County fire officials say a man is in critical condition at a burn center after a two-alarm blaze in Silver Spring on Tuesday morning. Several other people, including a six-year-old child, were also taken to hospitals, according to officials.
Pictures from Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service.
Beth Anne Nesselt, spokeswoman for the department, says dispatchers received a report of a fire at 415 Silver Spring Avenue shortly before 7 a.m. The department was just a short distance away, literally up the street, from the apartment building.
Once firefighters arrived on scene they found orange flames shooting from the top floor of a 6-story apartment building. Cell phone video captured the intense fire. A request for a second alarm was transmitted shortly after arrival.
Firefighters to rescue several elderly residents who threw their belongings out of the window. Some residents were escorted down the stairs to safety. Four people were rescued by ladder.
As many as eight people were injured. A fire spokesperson said, “One is an elderly adult with priority one, serious, life-threatening injuries as a result of burns and smoke.” A 57-year-old man was also burned. A middle-aged woman suffered non-life-threatening injuries and a six-year-old child was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.
Firefighters have rescued eight people trapped by a three-alarm fire at an apartment building in Burtonsville, fire officials said.
Montgomery County Fire officials say approximately 100 firefighters have responded to the 14000 block of Castle Boulevard near Silver Spring. The fire started just after 7:20 a.m. Friday.
Upon arrival, crews found heavy fire on the ground floor of the building, officials say. The fire had also spread to the upper floors, stranding several residents, who firefighters rescued using ladders.
Captain Oscar Garcia, spokesman for Montgomery County Fire and Rescue, says fire crews were alerted to the blaze in the 14000 block of Castle Boulevard around 7:23 Friday morning. Firefighters arriving on scene found the apartment building fully involved. Captain Garcia confirms they have called for a second alarm.
Three, maybe four people had to be rescued from the upper floors of the apartment building, officials said.
It is believed that everyone got out of the building safely, officials said. Firefighters had to evacuated the structure after it got too dangerous for them to fight the fire, officials said.
They then performed an “exterior attack,” with hoses and ladders.
Early video from Edmonton house fire: A neighbor got to the scene with a camera before firefighters arrived at this house fire on Manning Drive in Miller. Click here for Part 2 which shows the initial attack.
Virginia USAR dog is injured and dies during training: The news just came out yesterday about an incident Friday during training of Virginia Task Force 2. A search dog known as Win received a puncture wound while looking for a “live” victim. Win died later in the day. Here’s the sad story.
Fire Station One just opened in Silver Spring, Maryland. It is the old firehouse at 8131 Georgia Avenue (the new one is across the street). The restaurant held a fundraiser last night for the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF). Click the image to read more about the eatery & brewery that is the dream of Jeremy Gruber, a retired Montgomery County Firefighter/Paramedic. Full disclosure- In his "retirement" Dave is doing work for NFFF. More on that later.
Fire & explosion cuts power for thousands: Lights flickered all over Denver Monday evening. We have news coverage and home video from the electrical substation explosion and fire. Click here.
Dramatic rescue video: A TV news crew was rolling when citizens and a rescue team got a man out of an SUV in the Nisqually River in Mt. Rainier National Park. Watch the rescue.
Florida firefighter isn’t good around lightning, or is he?: We mentioned this yesterday, but you can now listen to the story of Mike Brasol a Volusia County firefighter who for the second time in his life had a close call with lightning. Watch the story.
Demotion after claiming female firefighters are ”OTWOS”: That stands for “oxygen-thieving wastes of space” and it is why a part time station officer in Whyalla, Australia was demoted. George Dunbar lost his appeal. Here is an excerpt from WhyallaNewsOnline-
He was also reported to have referred to women as “cannon fodder”, made remarks about the size of their bottoms and allegedly stated that they should “self-explode at a certain age”.
Flying hydrant: In Meyersdale, Pennsylvania the message came over the radio during a house fire yesterday, “I lost the hydrant, she blew boys”. It was one of two holes in the ground from a main near the fire on High Street. No one was injured from the airborne hydrant. Click here to read the story.
No hydrants, flying or otherwise: Firegeezer Bill Schumm takes a look at the water-supply problems in Booneville, Iowa during a fire Sunday night. Read Bill’s story and watch the video.
And it continues: The Boston Globe is urging the City Council to hang tough against firefighters and vote against anything that has the city paying for the right to do random drug testing. Click here for the editorial. The impasse continues in this four year journey for a contract. Here’s the latest.
More lawsuits in Charleston: As the third anniversary of the Sofa Super Store fire approaches four more former firefighters file suit over the trauma of losing their nine colleagues. Glenn Smith has the latest in the Post and Courier.
The best fire safety system?: This video was shot Monday morning at a fire in the largest market in Yangon in Myanmar. Hundreds of shops were destroyed. There were no injuries reported despite the people who appear to have been trapped on the roof. The fire raged for 10 hours. At one point it was thought to be under control but gas tanks in a fourth floor restaurant then exploded. In February an official declared the building had the best fire safety system. Read that story. Also check out 3:30 in the video. It is a place where they still ride the back step.
Chief saves family and firefighter calls for evacuation just before the collapse: If you haven’t seen it make sure you check out the story from a fire early yesterday in Everett, Massachusetts. Click here.
One of the notes left to throw off investigators looking at a string of fires set in the Swansea, South Carolina area. Investigators say Lexington County volunteer firefighter Larry Williamson has confessed to the fires. Click the image to read and watch the story.
Memories of the way we were: If you really want to laugh check out the standup from Dave during a 1985 PGFD hazmat story. Some familiar faces are in the video. Just don’t look at it while you are eating breakfast. Click here for the video.
North Carolina POV response fatal crash results in charges: The Union Fire Department volunteer involved in the fatal crash Sunday that killed a 76-year-old woman returning from church is facing charges. Forty-one-year-old Terry Allen Moore has been charged with misdemeanor death by vehicle. Witnesses told Trooper C.F. Rogers of the North Carolina Highway Patrol that Moore had passed a number vehicles as he drove his pickup to a medical call. As he passed another vehicle the woman was making a left turn into her driveway. Here is more from the Salisbury Post:
Rogers said while Moore had a flashing red light in his vehicle, it gave him no authority to break state motor vehicle laws.
Rogers said drivers aren’t required to move out of the way for a firefighter in his or her personal vehicle with a red light, although most drivers do as a courtesy.
Chief down but not out: Firegeezer has the update on the story we brought you few weeks ago from Carlisle, Iowa where Fire Chief/Paramedic Scott Burger is accused of showing up intoxicated at a medical call. The chief is getting a six-month vacation. Click here for coverage from the Geezer.
Fire Station One: My son and I walked by the old firehouse on Georgia Avenue in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland about six weeks ago and wondered when it would be opening. This week is the soft launch of the new restaurant in the old Silver Spring VFD building. Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service Station 1 is now across the street from Fire Station One, the restaurant. Click here to read details.
Volunteer says he will resign over ambulance fee: Speaking of the Silver Spring VFD, one of its members says he is resigning because Montgomery County is implementing an ambulance transport fee. Darian Unger says it is wrong to charge for what he provides for free. The volunteer association is working on a petition to put the issue before voters. Read more.
Getting the word out about burglar bars: WTSP-TV’s Reginald Roundtree plays the victim behind burglar bars as he waits to be rescued from a house fire by St. Petersburg, Florida firefighters.
The latest number we have on people found alive buried under earthquake rubble in Port au Prince, Haiti by Virginia Task Force 1 is 14. The hard and sometimes frustrating work by all of the USAR teams continues as the hours slip away.
In the video above is one of the survivors from the Hotel Montana. There, the crew from Fairfax County joined colleagues from France in searching for those who could still be alive. One of those they found was a neighbor from the Washington area, Rick Santos. Santos, from Silver Spring, Maryland, is the President and CEO of IMA/World Health.
Here is some more information that Fairfax County officials distributed Sunday morning to various interested parties:
The two teams from Virginia Task Force 1 (USA-1 & USA-5) are now combined into one. Apparently this was necessary due to transportation and fuel issues, but has helped in the management of the resources and enhanced the team’s capabilities.
The last live victim removed by VA-TF 1 involved a 26-hour operation at the University of Port-au-Prince. It was completed at 9:00 PM Saturday. The patient was in critical condition.
The operation at the Hotel Montana has been completed.
Satellite telephone reliability is a continuing problem, but the radio system has worked well.
VA-TF 1 along with CA-TF 2, FL-TF 1, and FL-TF 2 are still working out of the U.S. Embassy.
NY-TF 1 and VA-TF 2 are set up at the airport.
It is possible, but not certain, that teams could be used for “humanitarian efforts” once things switch to a recovery operation.
News reports here and here indicate California Task Force 2 located six victims in the rubble at two different locations. The video above and below follows their work at a collapsed building where the team heard tapping within the debris.
Even now, survivors still emerge from under mounds of concrete. By Saturday, American search teams had pulled out 22 people from collapsed buildings.
Early Sunday, a man and a teenage girl were found alive in the rubble of a grocery store housed in a three-story building that had collapsed. A joint New York police and fire urban rescue team found them. Both were taken to a U.N. hospital at Port-au-Prince’s airport, where the girl, about 13, was treated for leg injuries and the man treated for undetermined injuries.
The team was trying to reach three others who were still trapped, according to a statement Sunday from New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne. The five survived on the grocery store’s inventory of food and water, authorities said.
Nearly 30 international rescue teams continued to comb the disaster areas for more survivors.
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