A two-alarm motel fire shut down beach traffic going into Ocean City on Monday afternoon.
Ocean City firefighters responded to a reported fire at the Bedtime Inn at 12:38 p.m. At the scene, smoke was pouring from the building and no flames were apparent. Route 50 in both directions was shut down as emergency responders arrived at the scene.
The initial report was of a fire in one unit with smoke showing. Firefighters were concerned it would spread across the roof, said Steve Price, a spokesman for the Ocean City Fire Department. To that end, firefighters cut a hole in the roof, but found only smoke inside.
Six-years-ago this evening nine Charleston, South Carolina firefighters died when the Sofa Super Store on Savannah Highway burned. In remembering and honoring those firefighters ABC News 4 in Charleston (WCIV-TV) is running the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation’s documentary “Charleston 9: The Ultimate Sacrifice”. The TV station is live streaming the telecast (above) starting at 7:30 PM EDT. It is one of a number of ways people in Charleston today are remembering Captain Louis Mulkey, Captain Mike Benke, Captain William “Billy” Hutchinson, Engineer Bradford “Brad” Baity, Firefighter Melvin Champaign, Engineer Mark Kelsey, Engineer Michael French, Firefighter James “Earl” Drayton and Firefighter Brandon Thompson.
As one of the producers I would like to publicly thank the management and staff at ABC News 4. In particular, News Director Cathy Hobbs and General Manager Suzanne Teagle who immediately recognized when it was released last month that the video was something they wanted to share with the citizens of Charleston.
The fire started on the home’s back porch, said Orange Lake Fire Chief Richard Pisani. One woman was home at the time; a neighbor, who saw that the back of her house was on fire, alerted her. He said the fire was pretty involved when firefighters arrived, and it accelerated when a propane tank in the back of the home exploded.
About 50 firefighters, from the Orange Lake, Winona Lake, Coldenham, Cronomer Valley, Plattekill and City of Newburgh departments, battled the blaze for about 45 minutes.
Video above and below by Samera Abdelbagi and Stephen Phillips (bottom video) of a fire on Sunday that left one dog dead and two homes damaged. According to the description with the video above, neighbors tried to free two dogs trapped but were unable to break through the glass. One of the dogs was able to get out and the other died in the fire.
A house fire in Northwest Austin which left six people out of their homes and one dog dead has been ruled an accident.
AFD says flames broke out on the back deck of a home on Ladera Norte near Bull Creek Park just before 6 p.m. on Sunday.
Officials say they tried to stop them from spreading, but the flames worked their way inside the attic. Because of the heavy roof, crews had to battle the flames from outside the home.
Video from Jim M of an Indianapolis house fire posted on June 6. No details on when or where it occurred. Here is some of the description:
First arriving companies had significant trouble navigating through the interior of the house to the area of origin due to the tremendous amount of “stuff” piled from floor to ceiling throughout. Consequently, the fire was able to increase in size and obviously spread through the attic. Also, the layout of the house did not allow easy access to the fire room through the front door.
There was a large multi-alarm warehouse fire in Indianapolis on Saturday that required laying supply lines across railroad tracks. In the video above, WISH-TV shows the moment a CSX train took out one of those supply lines. Here’s what the TV station reported:
Firefighters regrouped and laid more lines.
They say CSX officials cooperated from the very start of the fire-fight. But this one train did not have time to stop.
The tracks remained closed for the next seven hours.
Above is raw chopper video from WISH-TV from the fire. Below is undated video of a similar incident with a supply line from Maine that popped up on YouTube this past week.
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Video from esdras alvarado of a house fire in Bellingham, Washington. I know it is no surprise to anyone, but watch around the 2:00 mark and someone starting to pull a vehicle right in front of the burning home.
Video from Frank Wesnoski (fwesnosk) from a house fire on Wednesday at 640 W. Rolling Road in Springfield Township, Pennsylvania (Delaware County).
From video description:
Pd arrived reporting 2nd floor fully involved. 44-9 requested a working fire dispatch, he arrived reporting fire through the roof and a hydrant right out front. 44-1 came right in and went in service with 2 2 ½ lines 56 put a blitzfire on the exposure which was already taking heat damage to the siding. Tower 44 put 2 elevated master streams in service and knocked the bulk of the fire. Crews then went interior with extensive overhaul and salvage.
Three people were routed from their beds by an early morning fire that caused significant damage to their Rolling Road home.
An unidentified jogger passing by 640 W. Rolling Road at about 4:45 a.m. on Wednesday saw flames coming from the roof of the two-story house. He banged on the front door of the home, alerting the two residents and their 5-year-old grandson to the fire. All three escaped without injury.
Fire Capt. Pete Hendrickson, with the Burbank Fire Department said the 9-1-1 call came in at 10:17 a.m.
“The first arriving engine company found flames outside Beauty Kiss Carpets and heavy smoke in the attic,” he said. “At some point, all the carpets in the entire interior became on fire and the roof collapsed.”
Hendrickson said about 75 firefighters knocked down the fourth-alarm fire in about two and a half hours.
He added two of the firefighters suffered “heat-related injuries.”
“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.
Look, a specialized vehicle that responds on all dumpster fires. I am not sure I would want to get in and drive it. The video, from FdNy8231 (@FDNY8231), was taken at the quarters of FDNY’s Engine 60 and Ladder 17.
Three Lakeville firefighters suffered minor injuries while battling the city’s second structure fire in a 24-hour period Tuesday night.
The firefighters were hurt when ceiling collapsed while their fought a fire at 7910 166th St. W., says a Lakeville Fire Department media release. All three were treated at the scene.
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.
Last night, WTXF-TV reporter Chris O’Connell showed the Philadelphia area TV audience a two-year-old video of the chief and some firefighters from New Jersey’s Somerdale Fire Department (Camden County) mocking a man with developmental disabilities who is also described as a department member. The person who took the video and provided it to the news media is Mike Miller, a former member. Miller, whose family had been firefighters for four generations, explains in the news story why he is a former member and that he is sharing the video now because the recent passing of his grandmother, who had also been a volunteer, prompted him to do the right thing.
Video shows Somerdale’s Fire Chief Steve Daniels, along with a captain, a lieutenant and other firefighters all making inappropriate sexual comments to the disabled man who doesn’t seem to understand why everyone is laughing.
Miller was terminated from Somerdale Fire Department 2 years ago. The department says he was fired because he broke the rules.
Miller says he was targeted for speaking out against department policies.
“This was a continuing pattern of the type of things that went on there and that I needed to record it and have it”
FOX 29′s Chris O’Connell went to the Somerdale Fire House to ask Chief Daniels about the video but he wasn’t there.
On the phone he tells us he’s quote “deeply sorry” for what was said in the video. And says quote “since our training we haven’t had any more incidents. We think we have taken steps so this never happens again.”
FOX 29′s Chris O’Connell did speak with the Somerdale mayor tonight. He explains that he is disturbed by the video, but believes sensitivity training was the appropriate way to handle it.
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?”
The District of Columbia. Population: 630,000. Available ambulances: three.
D.C. Councilmember Tommy Wells, D-Ward 6, raised new concerns about the city’s emergency response capabilities after visiting the District’s 911 call center.
But D.C. Fire and EMS and the mayor’s office say his claim is out of context.
One source described it as borderline fear mongering and using skewed numbers to benefit his mayoral aspirations.
During his visit to the call center on Monday, Wells learned just three medical transport units were available at that particular moment. All of those were in Northwest.
“The prevailing issues with our fire and emergency medical services fleet readiness are of grave concern to me, the council and the public,” he said in a subsequent statement.
But the the fire department insists the claim about available ambulances overlooks its reserves and exaggerates the alarm.
At the time Wells toured the call center, 36 ambulances were either transporting patients or in the process of returning to service, according to the fire department.
“What (Wells) saw were three units that were not in the business of transporting or treating patients at that time,” says Kenneth Ellerbe, the fire chief.
But in addition to those units, numerous others can respond in the event of an emergency, he says.
Among them: six EMS supervisors, 21 paramedic engine companies and four ambulances at a reserve site.
“If the call comes out, we will be responding to calls for emergency service,” says Ellerbe.
Still, what Wells saw would trigger an alert.
When between five and 10 ambulance units are available for immediate response, an all call goes out to EMS supervisors, battalion chiefs and the fire chief himself.
Wells viewed his troubling visit in the context of other problems plaguing the department.
“Recent failures… to provide transport quickly points to gaps in accountability, fleet management and staffing,” he says.
A new audit of the D.C Fire Department’s fleet of vehicles shows a critical lack of reserve pumper and ladder trucks with just over half of the ambulances owned by the city available for service.
The audit was ordered by D.C. City Councilman Tommy Wells after FOX 5 revealed the fleet numbers given to the city council last February were false.
After taking weeks to count all of the vehicles in its fleet and determining their readiness the D.C. Fire Department now admits it doesn’t have nearly the ambulances and pumper trucks it claimed to have last February.
City Councilman Tommy Wells says there is money in the budget to purchase new vehicles but he is now more concerned with staffing.
Just before he appeared before the D.C. City Council’s Judiciary Committee last February, Fire Chief Kenneth Ellerbe and his staff told the council it had 398 vehicles in its fleet including 29 ladder trucks, 106 ambulances and 64 pumpers.
Numbers we now know were false.
In a new report obtained by FOX 5 the fire department now admits it has far fewer vehicles with many of them out of service.
In fact an audit now shows the department has available for service:
56 out of 96 ambulances
37 out of 53 pumpers
And 18 out of 26 ladder trucks.
Those numbers concern Tommy Wells.
“I am putting a whole lot of scrutiny on the maintenance and availability of these vehicles, that’s why we got the audit report and i am going to require another audit report as they acquire and fix vehicles and I will stay on this like a laser beam, they must be accountable to the public for the vehicles they have and the vehicles they have been budgeted for”, said wells.
As chairman of the City Council’s Judiciary Committee, Wells points out the fire department has been given 18 million dollars for new equipment but has been slow to spend it.
“This is why I am putting the focus on the fire department right now we need to be assured that we have the vehicles ready and available that we need to keep the city safe”, he said.
An opinion shared by the firefighters union.
“It calls into question our ability to answer calls on a daily basis”, said union Second Vice President Dabney Hudson, “we are coming up on summertime, summers here, we had our first little heat wave the other day, it’s our busy time of the year and we run significantly more calls in the next four to five months”.
Even more concerning for Wells is the fire chief’s re-deployment plan which would put more ambulances on the street during peak afternoon and evening hours.
“They are way behind in hiring paramedics, way behind in hiring the staffing they need and that’s why I am very, very skeptical about the new staffing proposal they have”, said wells.
According to the fire department’s numbers there are currently 17 ambulances in reserve.
A number the union says should be doubled.
On Monday Morning Tommy Wells says he went to the Office of Unified Communications to listen to 911 calls and see the staffing levels for himself.
Wells says, as of 10:30 he was astounded to see only three out of 39 ambulances were available for service and all of them were in northwest.
Ongoing issues with D.C.’s emergency medical staff came to the forefront Monday after a D.C. councilman toured a district 911 call center and discovered that there were only three medical transport units available for the entire city.
Councilman Tommy Wells said in a statement Monday that the three emergency transport units were also located in NW.
This is not to say that there were no other emergency response vehicles working. During Wells’ visit to the call center at the non-peak time 10:30 a.m., 31 units were on a response call or at a hospital while five of the remaining eight ambulances weren’t available for unnamed reasons.
“This is exactly why we must take a long, hard look at the proposed ambulance redeployment plan. The prevailing issues with our Fire and EMS fleet readiness are of grave concern to me, the Council, and the public,” Wells said in a statement.
Firefighters carried animals from a strip mall pet store after they sawed through a metal gate to enter the unit and attack a fire that damaged the building’s roof Monday morning in Hollywood.
Aerial video showed firefighters carrying a cage of animals — possibly puppies or small dogs — from the building, identified by signage as Kim’s Pets and Fish. It was not immediately clear whether there are more animals in the building.
The fire, reported at about 6 a.m., damaged at least one unit of the strip mall at Lexington and Vermont avenues. Firefighters used a circular saw to cut through a metal gate and enter the building.
The New York Post’s Susan Edelman and Candice M. Giove, the same reporters who broke the FDNY EMS social media scandal stories, are again focusing on FDNY. But this time they are looking at FDNY “wannabes” in an article titled “Culture of FDNY groupies rages out of control as ‘badge bunny’ obsession turns scary”. Women who want to date New York City’s bravest and men who apparently want to be firefighters so badly that they become obsessed.
Sunday’s article focuses on 34-year-old Christine Cuocolo, an IRS employee, and two men she associated with who are fire buffs, Gary Battista and Scott Main. It’s a detailed article that shows a really dark side that resulted in pictures of firefighters wives and children being posted online, threats of physical harm to specific firefighters and even threats to blow up a firehouse.
Here’s an excerpt to get you started, but make sure you read the whole article:
Some buffs listen to scanners and chase sirens, taking spectacular action shots of blazes to display as trophies. “You guys are sooo awesome,” a female fan recently cooed on one page.
Cuocolo, who showed off a scanner, crafted YouTube videos and slide shows lovingly depicting her favorite engine companies.
She brought plates of cookies to firehouses to “show support because I respect them,” Cuocolo told The Post.
She also confessed to crushes on firefighters at Engine 65 on 43rd Street off Sixth Avenue — and a desire to date them.
But Cuocolo popped by so often — she also brought flowers and memorial plaques for the fallen — the crews grew uneasy. FDNY rules permit visitors inside firehouses only during “open houses”; they can’t just hang out.
When the firefighters finally told Cuocolo to stop the surprise visits and Facebook postings, her adoration twisted into obsession and fury, fellow buffs and firefighters said.
Cuocolo, the daughter of an ex-NYPD cop-turned-private investigator, dug up information on some firefighters and posted photos of their wives and children. At least one firefighter demanded she remove them.
Fire fighters rescued several dogs and puppies after an Ogden residence caught fire Saturday morning.
Fire crews from the Ogden and Roy fire departments responded to a house fire at 280 31st Street at 9 a.m. The house was subdivided into three apartments, and a room of one of the apartments had caught fire. The residents were not home and fire fighters had to rescue two dogs and six puppies from the fire.
The fire was contained to one room, and the other two remaining apartments were not damaged.
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