A parking garage has partially collapsed outside a shopping mall in suburban Maryland, and officials say one construction worker who was trapped has died.
Montgomery County rescuers were working to stabilize the structure to free a second worker for more than three hours on Thursday. Officials say it appears a 50,000-pound section of the parking deck collapsed outside a Macy’s store.
Fire Department spokeswoman Beth Anne Nesselt says one man died. The second worker has been freed and is being airlifted by helicopter to a shock trauma center. The worker has serious and potentially life-threatening injuries.
Assistant Fire Chief Scott Graham says rescuers confirmed there were no other people inside the structure.
The parking deck was under construction during the collapse and was not open to the public.
Video from the scene showed a large concrete slab that appears to have fallen out of place.
Montgomery County Fire officials say a 50,000 pound beam fell at an angle just after 1:47 p.m. at a parking deck near Macy’s. The beam fell from the third floor to the second floor, where the two workers were.
The parking deck was under construction at the time and was closed to the public.
There were about 20 workers at the garage at the time of the collapse.
The Cabin John Park Volunteer Fire Department says units responded to Westfield Montgomery Mall “for major structure collapse” on Thursday afternoon.
Montgomery County Fire officials say they got a call at 1:47 p.m. at the location at 7125 Democracy Blvd. They say a key section of the parking deck collapsed. Assistant Chief Scott Graham says they are trying to rescue two adults.
More than 100 people are working on the rescue right now, says Graham.
We are told the parking garage was not open to the public because it was under construction.
The last word from Broward County, Florida is the remaining suspect from the training and certification scandal involving Fort Lauderdale Fire-Rescue is Michael T. Reimer. According to news reports, Reimer recently resigned from the fire department and has continued to run Safety Solutions out of Boynton Beach. Reimer’s firm is accused of providing phony training documentation.
A search of the web shows that Michael Reimer and Safety Solutions also have provided training for the FEMA Urban Search and Rescue teams. News reports indicate that the other four firefighters arrested, Freddie Batista, Greg Jones, Joseph Perri and Steve Loleski, all worked for Safety Solutions.
A South Florida company has so far been responsible for training more than two dozen of the country’s urban search and rescue teams.
Contracted by FEMA, Safety Solutions, based in Boynton Beach, taught all 28 urban search and rescue teams in Haiti everything they know. “This is a concrete chain saw. It can plunge through solid concrete,” said Mike Reimer of Safety Solutions, as he demonstrates how the machine can cut through solid rebar in a few seconds.
Teams go into the ruins and dig with $3 million worth of equipment. “They need to know building construction, how to use tools effectively, how to prevent further collapse,” said Reimer. “They’re going to shore up the building with lumber that will hold the building in place, and then they’re going to tunnel and dig.”
Broward County Sheriff’s Office photos of (l-r) Freddie Batista, Steve Loleski, Gregory Jones and Joseph Perri via sun-sentinel.com.
Here’s what the articles are now saying about Michael Reimer and Safety Solutions.
Authorities said (arrested firefighter Steve) Loleski allegedly got his training at Safety Solutions Inc., a Boynton Beach company owned by Michael and Tracey Reimer that was not approved to offer the certification.
Batista allegedly also made a phony card for Michael Reimer, a city firefighter who recently resigned and faces charges of uttering a forged document, grand theft and official misconduct, police said. He remains at large.
Other firefighters who also allegedly received the bogus certification were: Gregory Jones, 28, and Joseph Perri, 27, both employed by the city department for six years, and charged with uttering a forged document and official misconduct.
During the investigation, it was discovered that Loleski and the other accused firefighters received their ACLS cards from a company called Safety Solution Inc., owned by Michael Reimer, which was not approved to teach the advanced cardiovascular life support course, stated the affidavit. The cards of Loleski, Reimer, Jones and Perri all contained similar, suspicious characteristics including the name of a non-authorized instructor, Freddie Batista, stated the affidavit.
As a result of the fake cards, the affidavit stated, Reimer and Jones received the 15-percent pay incentive and Loleski received the 10-percent.
Reimer is president of Boynton Beach-based Safety Solutions LLC, an internationally recognized safety company he founded in 1996. Safety Solutions sells products and equipment and specializes in rescue and recovery training.
Batista, Jones, Perri and Loleski have worked for his firm.
The company has provided training to fire departments around the country and abroad. It has also offered training to law enforcement agencies and branches of the U.S. military, as well as foreign government.
At this time, the remaining subject that is still at large is Michael T. Reimer. His whereabouts are unknown at this time. Anyone with information regarding Reimer’s location, is urged to contact Sgt. R. Pelham of the Fort Lauderdale Police Department at 954-828-5700.
The investigation began when the Fort Lauderdale Fire Department discovered what appeared to be a suspicious document during a routine audit of training certificates. The Fort Lauderdale Fire Department initiated an internal auxiliary review, discovering additional fraudulent documents. The Fort Lauderdale Fire Department turned their investigation over to the Florida Department of Health and the Fort Lauderdale Police Department.
About a month after the events of September 11, 2001 I was asked by journalist Allison Gilbert to contribute my experiences at the Pentagon on that day to a book called Covering Catastrophe: Broadcast Journalists Report September 11. While I knew I was only one of many TV and radio reporters and anchors who would be contributing to the book, and Allison would only be using a couple of blurbs, it was an opportunity for me to write a chronology of the day and put a few thoughts down.
Below is that account. It is a view of September 11 through the eyes of a TV reporter who arrived on Washington Boulevard in front of the Pentagon helipad six-minutes after impact. YouTube has some of the TV coverage from that day broadcast by my colleagues at WUSA-TV in Washington. I have added those clips at the appropriate times.
I conclude with a postscript written 40-days after the attacks that looks at the public’s perception of firefighters following the sacrifice made by 343 members of the Fire Department of New York.
September 11, 2001
8:52 AM: Spending time with my son is always the best way to start the day. Sam, almost two years old, is eating his breakfast. I bring my toast into the den to sit with him. The television is on so we can do what we usually do in the morning, watch my wife, Hillary Howard, Sam’s mom, do the weather on WUSA-TV. Instead of the “Early Show” ending to make way for local news, I see the open to a “CBS News Special Report”. I turn the sound up, but don’t need Bryant Gumbel to tell me that something is very wrong at one of the World Trade Center towers. The thick, black smoke pouring out of many windows and from the roof makes it very clear this is a major disaster in the making. Gumbel says there is a report that a plane hit the building. Those words send me out of the room and upstairs to quickly finish getting dressed.
9:03 AM: I occasionally glance at the TV upstairs. A little slow to comprehend some of what it going on, it dawns on me that this appears to be a crystal clear day. I am starting to wonder if this plane crash is really an accident. As I think about calling the newsroom to suggest we might be dealing with a terrorist attack of some sort, any doubts I had are immediately erased. My head quickly turns toward to the TV as I hear a woman say to Byrant Gumbel, “Oh, there is another one! Another plane just hit! Oh, my gosh! Another plane has hit! Another building! Flew right into the middle of it. Explosion.”
It hit me instantly that our lives have suddenly changed.
9:05 AM: On the phone to the station, I talk to Dave Roberts, our news director. I am convinced that if the people who did this were organized enough to quickly hit two targets like the World Trade Center towers, Washington would be next. We decide I will head into town to start looking around for increased security measures and be ready if another attack occurs.
9:10 AM: No time for our normal goodbye ritual. I give Sam a quick kiss and hug. Sam says something about “Jay Jay”. “Jay Jay the Jet Plane”, Sam’s favorite TV show, comes on soon. Not knowing what he may have already seen on TV this morning, I tell him calmly that “Jay Jay” is having a bad day. With the uncertainty of what was ahead, I didn’t want to leave Sam. I knew, though, he was in good hands with Glenda, the woman who takes care of him while we are at work.
9:15 AM: Realizing my good friend, Dan Patrick, our night assignment manager, is probably asleep and has no idea what is going on, I wake him. Dan doesn’t believe me when I describe the events of the morning along with my concern that Washington is next. Certainly I would have thought this was one of his sick practical jokes if the situation were reversed. Hanging up, I’m not sure he is convinced that this is for real.
9:25 AM: My first stop, the State Department. I circle the block and notice some extra officers being deployed around the building. Other street activity appears normal. Checking out the Pentagon never enters my mind.
9:38 AM: East bound on Pennsylvania Avenue near the White House, I turn north on 17th Street. At that moment the scanners in my car come alive. On numerous police and fire radio frequencies, people are yelling that a plane hit the Pentagon. Making a fast U-turn, I see the smoke rising across the Potomac River. I get the assignment desk on the phone. It’s a bad connection. I yell into the phone, “Pentagon, Pentagon, Pentagon. Send everyone to the Pentagon. I should be there soon.”
I carefully bust a few lights on southbound 17th Street. Making a right turn, traffic is light on westbound Independence Avenue.
9:41 AM: Anchors Mike Buchanan and Andrea Roane break into CBS coverage to report that there has been an apparent plane crash at the Pentagon. They have distant, but clear pictures of the Pentagon ablaze from our rooftop camera in Rosslyn.
9:43 AM: There is also little traffic heading outbound on the Memorial Bridge. Across the river, I now have a distant view of the Pentagon. The very black smoke I am seeing is surely caused by the fuel, now burning, that was in the plane’s tanks. I call the control room to try and get on the air, but the call cuts out as the anchors lead to me.
9:44 AM: Somehow I end up on southbound Washington Boulevard directly in front of the Pentagon helipad. That is good news, but for the moment it does me no good because there is wireless gridlock. I am unable to get a phone call out.
9:46 AM: I have my home video camera out and on the tripod, rolling off a few shots. The phone still isn’t working.
9:48 AM: Walking down Washington Boulevard is Heather Cabot a recently hired reporter for WUSA. She tells me her phone isn’t getting out either. I ask her to take over my camera and I will work on trying to get a phone call to the station. Heather tells me she is with photographer Mike Trammel. I look back to see Trammel and put my camera away.
9:52 AM: Heather’s phone finally gets through. I describe the scene as firefighters from Ft. Meyer and National Airport put the first water and foam on the burning Pentagon. Some people are looking at the sky, making sure another plane isn’t approaching. I suggest to Heather, that it is probably a good idea for us to do the same. Amazingly traffic on northbound Washington Boulevard has not been blocked and drivers are just whizzing by the burning Pentagon as they head to work.
A familiar red van pulls a few feet past us. It is one of our microwave vans with Bruce Bookholtz at the wheel. I am a bit amazed that, with no communication, we all end up at the same spot.
We hear a number of small pops and explosions. I am guessing those are tires popping from the vehicles that were parked against the building and are now burning, or possibly some small canisters exploding. Among the vehicles on fire is the new crash/rescue fire truck, belonging to the Ft. Meyer Fire Department. It is stationed at the Pentagon and is routinely on hand for helicopter landings and takeoffs, in case of an emergency. It is a fire truck designed for just this rare event, a plane crash, and it can’t be used.
9:55 AM: Heather tells me to look down on the street around us. I was so intent on watching the burning Pentagon, I hadn’t noticed there are what appear to be small pieces from the airplane at my feet. I had already seen the large amount of debris scattered on the Pentagon lawn, but so far no piece is large enough to be easily identified as an airplane part.
9:57 AM: Our first live video is on the air. You see flames crawling up the familiar face of the Pentagon along with some of the first victims as they are carried away from the building.
9:59 AM: I am on the air with Michael Kelly, an eyewitness Heather pulled out of the crowd. Kelly was driving on nearby I-395 when he saw the plane take aim on the Pentagon.
10:00 AM: Anchor Andrea Roane interrupts me, “Dave, Dave, Dave. We want to break in, because we want to go back to New York, where Dan Rather is anchoring our coverage, where one of the towers at the World Trade Center has collapsed”.
These words stop me in my tracks for a moment. I have no TV monitor to see this for myself. Just Andrea’s words. It doesn’t compute in my brain. I had been a firefighter. I had studied high-rise firefighting. There had been a number of major high-rise fires throughout the world that burned for many hours. To my knowledge there had never been a catastrophic collapse of an entire building. This was just one of many things happening today that no one has ever had to deal with.
Knowing how aggressive New York firefighters are, I realize there must be scores of dead rescuers. The last pictures I saw out of New York were from an hour ago. Even then it was pretty apparent, from the amount of fire, that anyone at the impact points and above had little chance of survival.
10:05 AM: They come back to me for our first interview with someone who was in the Pentagon at the time of the attack. Two or three men on stretchers pass by us. It is our first close-up look at the injured and they are severely, if not critically burned over a good portion of their bodies. These victims are flown out by helicopter to a hospital burn unit. Their lives will never be the same.
10:10 AM: A Virginia State Trooper starts moving everyone back. There is concern another plane is coming toward the Pentagon. We don’t move.
10:15 AM: As they come back to our live shot, five floors suddenly collapse around the jet’s impact point. There is now a large gash on the west side of the Pentagon.
10:18 AM: People start running away from the Pentagon. This time, FBI agents are telling us another plane is just minutes out. They order us to move immediately. I am able to get in a few quick words, attempting to explain to Mike and Andrea what is happening, before the transmitter is turned off and the live truck’s mast starts coming down.
10:28 AM: We move just a short distance off Washington Boulevard and down the ramp to Columbia Pike. As Bruce tries to re-establish a signal, I hear through my earpiece that the second tower in New York has collapsed. I just can’t imagine what it going on in Manhattan. The death toll must be staggering. I recall my wife once telling me her grandfather hauled truckloads of steel used to build the Twin Towers. Now those buildings don’t exist.
10:32 AM: We are again feeding live pictures of the burning Pentagon.
10:36 AM: Witnesses are giving different descriptions of the plane that hit the building. Some say it is an American Airlines 757, while others believe it was a business jet. The fire is still burning out of control.
10:38 AM: Mike Buchanan asks me if I have seen any large pieces of an airplane at the scene. As I answer this question, he interrupts me,“Hold on Dave. Hold on just a second. We’ve got a bulletin from AP. A large plane has just crashed in Western Pennsylvania.”
Mike also reads an AP report about a car bomb going off at the State Department. We are just across the river from State and we didn’t hear an explosion.
10:42 AM: An F-16 makes a low pass near the Pentagon. That, along with the plane crash in Pennsylvania, makes me think there was something to the threats that forced us move away from the building. I notice a large group of people huddled under the Washington Boulevard overpass.
10:52 AM: A Lt. Colonel with Air Force Public Affairs passes our location. We snag him. He urges people to keep far away from the Pentagon. If you have loved ones you can’t account for, he asks that you not come to the Pentagon. He has no idea of the number of dead or injured. Not much in the way of information, but it is the first official word.
WUSA anchorman Gordon Peterson, who was originally sent to nearby National Airport for a flight to New York, arrives at our location.
10:54 AM: Mike and Andrea confirm there was no car bomb at the State Department. A little bit of good news.
11:06 AM: Gordon interviews Mike Walter, a television reporter for “USA Today Live”. Mike, on his way to work in Rosslyn, witnessed the Pentagon crash and offers the most vivid description so far.
11:10 AM: We are again ordered to move our live truck further away from the Pentagon.
11:31 AM: Our shot is back up. This time, from a hill in front of the Quick Mart. This Citgo, looks like a normal service station, but it is exclusively for use by military personnel.
11:39 AM: The fire is spreading. Suddenly there are flames showing in a number of windows far from the point of impact.
People again start moving quickly from the Pentagon. There is more talk of another hijacked plane heading our way.
11:52 AM: Again, more people rush from the Pentagon.
12:16 PM: I listen to Dan Patrick, with a phone report, describe his attempts to get from Northern Virginia to the TV station in Northwest Washington. Dan says he had to show identification to a police officer and explain his business in the city. Only then was he allowed to cross Key Bridge into Georgetown. The city is in lockdown.
12:18 PM: Gordon notices an ambulance convoy from the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad pull up along Columbia Pike. It was a repeat of a scene I had witnessed, just on the other side of the Pentagon, almost 20 years earlier. The same Maryland squad sent a similar contingent after Air Florida Flight 90 crashed into the 14th Street Bridge on January 13th, 1982.
12:20 PM: If I am not convinced how much turmoil there is in the country from these attacks, this does it. Mike and Andrea announce Disney World is being evacuated.
12:28 PM: A Navy public affairs officer officially confirms what has been painfully obvious. Besides the dead on the aircraft, Pentagon workers are dead inside the building. He has no idea how many people didn’t get out.
12:32 PM: Talking on the air with Mike and Andrea, it still isn’t clear which of the four hijacked jets smashed into the Pentagon. Right now, American Airlines believes the hijacked flight from Dulles crashed into one of the towers in New York.
Police move everyone, including the news media, off the hillside. Bruce pulls the truck around to the other end of the service station lot. This fourth move winds up being our last. It becomes home for the better part of two weeks.
1:19 PM: The first official briefing from the Pentagon. Rear Admiral Craig Quigley, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, announces that this was “a full assault on the United States of America”. The admiral says there was no way to prepare for an attack like this. I am shaking my head at the fact that the spokesman for the military headquarters of the United States of America is forced to talk to the world from a service station parking lot.
1:30 PM: CNN Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre joins me on the air for a few minutes. Our first time working together was at WTOP radio, 20 years ago, covering the Air Florida plane crash. Jamie says they always anticipated a terrorist attack at the Pentagon, but figured it would be on the other side of the building where all the top brass is located.
Off camera, Jamie tells me that just yesterday his son’s class in middle school had a discussion about the bombing in Oklahoma City. Jamie’s son told the class he always worries about his dad being hurt by an attack like this, because his dad works at the Pentagon. Jamie tried getting word to the school to let his son know he was okay.
1:50 PM: Andrea announces that the Urban Search and Rescue Team from Fairfax County, known as Virginia Task Force 1, has been activated and will be at the Pentagon shortly.
American Airlines now says they aren’t sure where Flight 77 ended up.
WUSA-TV’s Mike Trammel’s shot of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (third from the right) helping carry one of the injured from the Pentagon to a waiting ambulance.
1:56 PM: Admiral Quigley sets the tone for his second briefing by saying “you are going to have a lot more questions than I have answers.” Quigley doesn’t have an answer to the one question all of us are asking. He can only say, “we know there are casualties.”
He tells us Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was among the Pentagon workers hurrying from the building after the explosion. Rumsfeld helped the injured for about 15 minutes, getting several people onto stretchers. Then he went back inside to the National Military Command Center. The command center is reportedly smoky, but not damaged. (NOTE: Approaching the one-year anniversary of the attack, CNN’s Vito Maggiolo contacted me after looking at the raw video from September 11 shot by WUSA-TV photojournalist Mike Trammel. While many people had viewed that video, and all of it played out in front my own eyes, Vito was the only person to notice that one of the men carrying a stretcher with one of the first victims removed from the Pentagon was Secretary Rumsfeld.)
2:10 PM: Virginia Task Force 1 arrives. Normally Fairfax County’s Urban Search and Rescue Team is sent to some far off land by way of military transport. This time it was just a quick drive down Interstate 66 to the county on its eastern border.
2:23 PM: WUSA Photographer Greg Guise is able to provide some details surrounding the hijacked jet that went down in Pennsylvania. Greg grew up a few miles from the crash site and has business interests in the community. Greg relays a description of the scene from a radio engineer friend in Somerset County.
2:43 PM: For the past few hours we’ve seen no ambulances leave the area with lights and siren. We’re pretty certain that anyone alive is already being treated. Now reporter Jennifer Ryan, at the Virginia Hospital Center, confirms no more victims are expected from the Pentagon.
2:49 PM: Mike and Andrea report it’s now fairly clear the plane wreckage at the Pentagon is from American Airlines Flight 77 out of Dulles.
2:55 PM: Rear Admiral Stephen Pietropaoli, U.S. Navy Office of Information, tells us that in the recently renovated wedge of the Pentagon, where the attack occurred, there is blast resistant glass on the windows. In the days to come we hear from many who believe that this very expensive glass saved lives.
3:53 PM: Now briefing us at the Citgo press center, Pentagon spokeswoman Torie Clark and Defense Protective Service Chief John Jester. Jester tells us the impact from the jet extends through to the C ring, the middle of the 5 rings of the Pentagon. All we see from our location, is that a portion of the E ring, the outer most portion of the Pentagon, has crumbled.
Clark admits she can’t confirm that all members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are accounted for. That news is a bit unsettling. We also hear about a Navy captain who burned his hands rescuing others. Clark says that man is already back from the hospital and wants to be put to work again, helping at the Pentagon.
4:12 PM: Rumors have been spreading that the U.S. military brought down the hijacked plane in Pennsylvania. Rear Admiral Craig Quigley says, “That didn’t happen. I cannot explain to you the cause of the crash of the airplane near Pittsburgh, but it was not engagement by a U.S. fighter aircraft.”
The Pentagon now confirms all the Joint Chiefs are accounted for.
4:54 PM: The second Urban Search and Rescue Team arrives. This one is from Montgomery County, Maryland.
5:04 PM: I see International Association of Firefighters General President, Harold Schaitberger and his press person, George Burke arrive at the Citgo. I grab Harold for a live interview. Harold has been in close touch with his people in New York. We learn for the first time that more than 200 New York firefighters probably perished when the towers collapsed. He calls firefighters “our domestic soldiers”. Schaitberger says the civilian death toll will be in the thousands. Off camera he lets me know that much of FDNY’s command staff was lost, including the Chief of the Department and the head of Special Operations.
5:36 PM: Harold Schaitberger joins me again with the story of two Ft. Meyer firefighters who were at the Pentagon when the crash occurred. They were standing near the fire truck we saw burning this morning. Both men were knocked down and injured by the force of the crash. They helped rescue a group of people through some of the office windows, before the firefighters themselves were hospitalized.
6:42 PM: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfield briefs the press. For the first time since the crash, the press conference is held inside the Pentagon. I watch it from our van. Pushed for a body count, Rumsfeld says, “It will not be a few”. The Pentagon “will be in business tomorrow”.
8:45 PM: New information has been slow in coming, but marching up Columbia Pike with the television lights reflecting off his orange vest is a member of Montgomery County’s Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) Team. Captain Scott Graham gives us the first solid information about the fire and rescue efforts. Scott becomes a lifeline for information in the days to come.
Despite the large fire still burning, Graham says the USAR team members are always optimistic about finding people alive. He says, “We have to look at it as a rescue effort for us. We have to look at it as a very unstable building. And our job, pretty much, is to take the name of the Pentagon off the outside of it and go in and rescue the people that are in there”.
9:52 PM: Another familiar face shows up at the Citgo. Ed Plaugher is the fire chief of Arlington County. The Pentagon is in Arlington County, Virginia and Chief Plaugher is the man in charge of the fire and rescue operations. None of the other reporters nearby seem to know who Plaugher is, or if they do, they don’t care. Ed joins me live at 10:00 PM with the first solid news about the loss of life at the Pentagon. There are no figures as of yet, but the Pentagon has given him a range to work with. Plaugher says it is believed that anywhere from 100 to 800 people work in the area where the impact occurred. While that is fairly large range, it lets us know that the death toll will likely be in the hundreds at the Pentagon, as compared to the thousands presumed dead in New York. Plaugher’s guess is, when it is over, the number at the Pentagon will be in the low hundreds.
Plaugher later receives some heat when his statements are taken out of context. Some news reports claim Plaugher estimated the death toll at 800. Days later we learn that 125 were killed on the ground and 64 perished aboard Flight 77.
On another topic Chief Plaugher says, “To be honest with you, we always were afraid of the Pentagon as being a target, but never in our wildest dreams to this extent. I am still in disbelief.”
11:03 PM: Fire has broken through in at least four places along the Pentagon roof. Chief Plaugher says aggressive interior firefighting operations will cease until daylight. But, crews overnight, will continue to pour in water from the outside to keep the fire from spreading further.
I relay a phone conversation with Scott Graham a few minutes before our 11:00 PM newscast. Scott and most of the USAR team members from Montgomery and Fairfax Counties worked very closely with Deputy Chief Ray Downey from the Fire Department of New York. Downey, commander of FDNY’s Special Operations, is unaccounted for after the towers collapsed. Scott says Downey commanded all the USAR teams in Oklahoma City after the bombing there. He says Downey wrote the book on urban search and rescue. Skills Downey taught will be utilized in New York and Arlington by hundreds of rescuers in the difficult days to come. His voice cracking, Scott tells me, “We lost a damn good man”.
We lost a lot of good men and women today.
October 27, 2001
11:15 PM: As I am looking back at September 11th, I have just spent a week covering the deaths of two Washington, D.C. postal workers, from inhalation anthrax. Others are hospitalized because of anthrax that was sent through the U.S. Mail. No one knows how this story will play out.
There is a lot of uncertainty since September 11th. Our war efforts, our security in public places, our ability to travel safely by air, our economic future. Like all parents, Hillary and I worry over what this will mean for our young son.
This much I’m sure of. Through the thick smoke hanging over New York and Washington, it became clear that some remarkable people walk among us.
Some are just ordinary citizens who put other people’s lives ahead of their own. Staying behind, trying to make sure everyone gets out.
Others are paid to protect us. But I don’t think anyone believes for a moment that a police officer, paramedic or firefighter’s modest salary is enough to encourage someone to walk into the places that these men and women did on September 11th. It takes much more than money. It takes heart, and courage, and a belief you can make a difference.
I know firefighters the best. Six years in a busy volunteer company during my youth, and almost 30 years making the fire service my beat as a reporter, have given me some perspective.
In many big cities, including our Nation’s Capital, the fire departments have long taken a back seat when it comes to funding. Citizens who can tell you how many times the police patrol car comes down their block, or how many officers are walking the beat, have no idea how many firefighters are on duty in the neighborhood fire station. Political leaders know this to be true and through the years have made drastic cuts in fire protection, often without protest from the public.
Through the years, I have reported many stories where citizens and firefighters have died because of these cuts. Just last week an understaffed ladder company became an issue in Houston, Texas, after a fire captain died in a high-rise apartment building fire.
Firefighters are can-do people. Their skills at making things work under adversity often hides from the public the shortcomings in their staffing, equipment and facilities.
Some of the good that has come from the sacrifices made by the 343 members of FDNY who died on September 11th, is the recognition, by the public, of what firefighters really do.
A recent trip to Arlington County Fire Station #2 brought this home. The firehouse is covered with cards and letters from all over the world. Many are from school children, with drawings of the firefighters in action at the Pentagon and World Trade Center. All say thanks.
Veterans of more than 20 years in the fire service are astounded by the reaction these days as they drive through local streets. People stop and wave. When the firefighters walk into a building in uniform, they are applauded.
On October 7th, I was at the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Just two hours before military action in Afghanistan began, President Bush told the stories of some of the 99 domestic soldiers who died in the line of duty in the United States last year. I watched as spouses and children received a flag and a red rose, and heard a bell toll in honor of their loved one, our hero.
I have forced myself on most days since September 11th to read the New York Post, Daily News and Times and the accounts of the daily funerals of New York firefighters. It is difficult to read about the pain their wives and children are going through. It is the least, though, that we can do. It is important to remember this unbelievable sacrifice.
My hope is that people all over the United States are paying very close attention to these same stories of heroism. My hope is that they don’t forget these stories when someone is trying to save a little money and close down their local firehouse.
Right now when Sam sees a fire truck he says, “Evan”. “Revvin’ Evan” is the animated fire engine on that “Jay Jay the Jet Plane” cartoon show he loves. When Sam is old enough, I will make sure he knows a lot more about firefighters. I will make sure Sam understands exactly who those people were climbing up the clogged, smoke filled, stairways, as he sat in his high chair, watching the first pictures transmitted from New York, at 8:52 AM, on September 11th, 2001.
About a month after the events of September 11, 2001 I was asked by journalist Allison Gilbert to contribute my experiences at the Pentagon on that day to a book called Covering Catastrophe: Broadcast Journalists Report September 11. While I knew I was only one of many TV and radio reporters and anchors who would be contributing to the book, and Allison would only be using a couple of blurbs, it was an opportunity for me to write a chronology of the day and put a few thoughts down.
Below is that account. It is a view of September 11 through the eyes of a TV reporter who arrived on Washington Boulevard in front of the Pentagon helipad six-minutes after impact. YouTube has some of the TV coverage from that day broadcast by my colleagues at WUSA-TV in Washington. I have added those clips at the appropriate times.
I conclude with a postscript written 40-days after the attacks that looks at the public's perception of firefighters following the sacrifice made by 343 members of the Fire Department of New York.
September 11, 2001
8:52 AM: Spending time with my son is always the best way to start the day. Sam, almost two years old, is eating his breakfast. I bring my toast into the den to sit with him. The television is on so we can do what we usually do in the morning, watch my wife, Hillary Howard, Sam’s mom, do the weather on WUSA-TV. Instead of the “Early Show” ending to make way for local news, I see the open to a “CBS News Special Report”. I turn the sound up, but don’t need Bryant Gumbel to tell me that something is very wrong at one of the World Trade Center towers. The thick, black smoke pouring out of many windows and from the roof makes it very clear this is a major disaster in the making. Gumbel says there is a report that a plane hit the building. Those words send me out of the room and upstairs to quickly finish getting dressed.
9:03 AM: I occasionally glance at the TV upstairs. A little slow to comprehend some of what it going on, it dawns on me that this appears to be a crystal clear day. I am starting to wonder if this plane crash is really an accident. As I think about calling the newsroom to suggest we might be dealing with a terrorist attack of some sort, any doubts I had are immediately erased. My head quickly turns toward to the TV as I hear a woman say to Byrant Gumbel, “Oh, there is another one! Another plane just hit! Oh, my gosh! Another plane has hit! Another building! Flew right into the middle of it. Explosion.”
It hit me instantly that our lives have suddenly changed.
9:05 AM: On the phone to the station, I talk to Dave Roberts, our news director. I am convinced that if the people who did this were organized enough to quickly hit two targets like the World Trade Center towers, Washington would be next. We decide I will head into town to start looking around for increased security measures and be ready if another attack occurs.
9:10 AM: No time for our normal goodbye ritual. I give Sam a quick kiss and hug. Sam says something about “Jay Jay”. “Jay Jay the Jet Plane”, Sam’s favorite TV show, comes on soon. Not knowing what he may have already seen on TV this morning, I tell him calmly that “Jay Jay” is having a bad day. With the uncertainty of what was ahead, I didn’t want to leave Sam. I knew, though, he was in good hands with Glenda, the woman who takes care of him while we are at work.
9:15 AM: Realizing my good friend, Dan Patrick, our night assignment manager, is probably asleep and has no idea what is going on, I wake him. Dan doesn’t believe me when I describe the events of the morning along with my concern that Washington is next. Certainly I would have thought this was one of his sick practical jokes if the situation were reversed. Hanging up, I’m not sure he is convinced that this is for real.
9:25 AM: My first stop, the State Department. I circle the block and notice some extra officers being deployed around the building. Other street activity appears normal. Checking out the Pentagon never enters my mind.
9:38 AM: East bound on Pennsylvania Avenue near the White House, I turn north on 17th Street. At that moment the scanners in my car come alive. On numerous police and fire radio frequencies, people are yelling that a plane hit the Pentagon. Making a fast U-turn, I see the smoke rising across the Potomac River. I get the assignment desk on the phone. It’s a bad connection. I yell into the phone, “Pentagon, Pentagon, Pentagon. Send everyone to the Pentagon. I should be there soon."
I carefully bust a few lights on southbound 17th Street. Making a right turn, traffic is light on westbound Independence Avenue.
9:41 AM: Anchors Mike Buchanan and Andrea Roane break into CBS coverage to report that there has been an apparent plane crash at the Pentagon. They have distant, but clear pictures of the Pentagon ablaze from our rooftop camera in Rosslyn.
9:43 AM: There is also little traffic heading outbound on the Memorial Bridge. Across the river, I now have a distant view of the Pentagon. The very black smoke I am seeing is surely caused by the fuel, now burning, that was in the plane’s tanks. I call the control room to try and get on the air, but the call cuts out as the anchors lead to me.
9:44 AM: Somehow I end up on southbound Washington Boulevard directly in front of the Pentagon helipad. That is good news, but for the moment it does me no good because there is wireless gridlock. I am unable to get a phone call out.
9:46 AM: I have my home video camera out and on the tripod, rolling off a few shots. The phone still isn’t working.
9:48 AM: Walking down Washington Boulevard is Heather Cabot a recently hired reporter for WUSA. She tells me her phone isn’t getting out either. I ask her to take over my camera and I will work on trying to get a phone call to the station. Heather tells me she is with photographer Mike Trammel. I look back to see Trammel and put my camera away.
9:52 AM: Heather’s phone finally gets through. I describe the scene as firefighters from Ft. Meyer and National Airport put the first water and foam on the burning Pentagon. Some people are looking at the sky, making sure another plane isn’t approaching. I suggest to Heather, that it is probably a good idea for us to do the same. Amazingly traffic on northbound Washington Boulevard has not been blocked and drivers are just whizzing by the burning Pentagon as they head to work.
A familiar red van pulls a few feet past us. It is one of our microwave vans with Bruce Bookholtz at the wheel. I am a bit amazed that, with no communication, we all end up at the same spot.
We hear a number of small pops and explosions. I am guessing those are tires popping from the vehicles that were parked against the building and are now burning, or possibly some small canisters exploding. Among the vehicles on fire is the new crash/rescue fire truck, belonging to the Ft. Meyer Fire Department. It is stationed at the Pentagon and is routinely on hand for helicopter landings and takeoffs, in case of an emergency. It is a fire truck designed for just this rare event, a plane crash, and it can’t be used.
9:55 AM: Heather tells me to look down on the street around us. I was so intent on watching the burning Pentagon, I hadn’t noticed there are what appear to be small pieces from the airplane at my feet. I had already seen the large amount of debris scattered on the Pentagon lawn, but so far no piece is large enough to be easily identified as an airplane part.
9:57 AM: Our first live video is on the air. You see flames crawling up the familiar face of the Pentagon along with some of the first victims as they are carried away from the building.
9:59 AM: I am on the air with Michael Kelly, an eyewitness Heather pulled out of the crowd. Kelly was driving on nearby I-395 when he saw the plane take aim on the Pentagon.
10:00 AM: Anchor Andrea Roane interrupts me, “Dave, Dave, Dave. We want to break in, because we want to go back to New York, where Dan Rather is anchoring our coverage, where one of the towers at the World Trade Center has collapsed”.
These words stop me in my tracks for a moment. I have no TV monitor to see this for myself. Just Andrea’s words. It doesn’t compute in my brain. I had been a firefighter. I had studied high-rise firefighting. There had been a number of major high-rise fires throughout the world that burned for many hours. To my knowledge there had never been a catastrophic collapse of an entire building. This was just one of many things happening today that no one has ever had to deal with.
Knowing how aggressive New York firefighters are, I realize there must be scores of dead rescuers. The last pictures I saw out of New York were from an hour ago. Even then it was pretty apparent, from the amount of fire, that anyone at the impact points and above had little chance of survival.
10:05 AM: They come back to me for our first interview with someone who was in the Pentagon at the time of the attack. Two or three men on stretchers pass by us. It is our first close-up look at the injured and they are severely, if not critically burned over a good portion of their bodies. These victims are flown out by helicopter to a hospital burn unit. Their lives will never be the same.
10:10 AM: A Virginia State Trooper starts moving everyone back. There is concern another plane is coming toward the Pentagon. We don’t move.
10:15 AM: As they come back to our live shot, five floors suddenly collapse around the jet's impact point. There is now a large gash on the west side of the Pentagon.
10:18 AM: People start running away from the Pentagon. This time, FBI agents are telling us another plane is just minutes out. They order us to move immediately. I am able to get in a few quick words, attempting to explain to Mike and Andrea what is happening, before the transmitter is turned off and the live truck’s mast starts coming down.
10:28 AM: We move just a short distance off Washington Boulevard and down the ramp to Columbia Pike. As Bruce tries to re-establish a signal, I hear through my earpiece that the second tower in New York has collapsed. I just can’t imagine what it going on in Manhattan. The death toll must be staggering. I recall my wife once telling me her grandfather hauled truckloads of steel used to build the Twin Towers. Now those buildings don’t exist.
10:32 AM: We are again feeding live pictures of the burning Pentagon.
10:36 AM: Witnesses are giving different descriptions of the plane that hit the building. Some say it is an American Airlines 757, while others believe it was a business jet. The fire is still burning out of control.
10:38 AM: Mike Buchanan asks me if I have seen any large pieces of an airplane at the scene. As I answer this question, he interrupts me,“Hold on Dave. Hold on just a second. We’ve got a bulletin from AP. A large plane has just crashed in Western Pennsylvania.”
Mike also reads an AP report about a car bomb going off at the State Department. We are just across the river from State and we didn’t hear an explosion.
10:42 AM: An F-16 makes a low pass near the Pentagon. That, along with the plane crash in Pennsylvania, makes me think there was something to the threats that forced us move away from the building. I notice a large group of people huddled under the Washington Boulevard overpass.
10:52 AM: A Lt. Colonel with Air Force Public Affairs passes our location. We snag him. He urges people to keep far away from the Pentagon. If you have loved ones you can’t account for, he asks that you not come to the Pentagon. He has no idea of the number of dead or injured. Not much in the way of information, but it is the first official word.
WUSA anchorman Gordon Peterson, who was originally sent to nearby National Airport for a flight to New York, arrives at our location.
10:54 AM: Mike and Andrea confirm there was no car bomb at the State Department. A little bit of good news.
11:06 AM: Gordon interviews Mike Walter, a television reporter for “USA Today Live”. Mike, on his way to work in Rosslyn, witnessed the Pentagon crash and offers the most vivid description so far.
11:10 AM: We are again ordered to move our live truck further away from the Pentagon.
11:31 AM: Our shot is back up. This time, from a hill in front of the Quick Mart. This Citgo, looks like a normal service station, but it is exclusively for use by military personnel.
11:39 AM: The fire is spreading. Suddenly there are flames showing in a number of windows far from the point of impact.
People again start moving quickly from the Pentagon. There is more talk of another hijacked plane heading our way.
11:52 AM: Again, more people rush from the Pentagon.
12:16 PM: I listen to Dan Patrick, with a phone report, describe his attempts to get from Northern Virginia to the TV station in Northwest Washington. Dan says he had to show identification to a police officer and explain his business in the city. Only then was he allowed to cross Key Bridge into Georgetown. The city is in lockdown.
12:18 PM: Gordon notices an ambulance convoy from the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad pull up along Columbia Pike. It was a repeat of a scene I had witnessed, just on the other side of the Pentagon, almost 20 years earlier. The same Maryland squad sent a similar contingent after Air Florida Flight 90 crashed into the 14th Street Bridge on January 13th, 1982.
12:20 PM: If I am not convinced how much turmoil there is in the country from these attacks, this does it. Mike and Andrea announce Disney World is being evacuated.
12:28 PM: A Navy public affairs officer officially confirms what has been painfully obvious. Besides the dead on the aircraft, Pentagon workers are dead inside the building. He has no idea how many people didn’t get out.
12:32 PM: Talking on the air with Mike and Andrea, it still isn’t clear which of the four hijacked jets smashed into the Pentagon. Right now, American Airlines believes the hijacked flight from Dulles crashed into one of the towers in New York.
Police move everyone, including the news media, off the hillside. Bruce pulls the truck around to the other end of the service station lot. This fourth move winds up being our last. It becomes home for the better part of two weeks.
1:19 PM: The first official briefing from the Pentagon. Rear Admiral Craig Quigley, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, announces that this was “a full assault on the United States of America”. The admiral says there was no way to prepare for an attack like this. I am shaking my head at the fact that the spokesman for the military headquarters of the United States of America is forced to talk to the world from a service station parking lot.
1:30 PM: CNN Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre joins me on the air for a few minutes. Our first time working together was at WTOP radio, 20 years ago, covering the Air Florida plane crash. Jamie says they always anticipated a terrorist attack at the Pentagon, but figured it would be on the other side of the building where all the top brass is located.
Off camera, Jamie tells me that just yesterday his son’s class in middle school had a discussion about the bombing in Oklahoma City. Jamie’s son told the class he always worries about his dad being hurt by an attack like this, because his dad works at the Pentagon. Jamie tried getting word to the school to let his son know he was okay.
1:50 PM: Andrea announces that the Urban Search and Rescue Team from Fairfax County, known as Virginia Task Force 1, has been activated and will be at the Pentagon shortly.
American Airlines now says they aren’t sure where Flight 77 ended up.
WUSA-TV's Mike Trammel's shot of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (third from the right) helping carry one of the injured from the Pentagon to a waiting ambulance.
1:56 PM: Admiral Quigley sets the tone for his second briefing by saying “you are going to have a lot more questions than I have answers.” Quigley doesn’t have an answer to the one question all of us are asking. He can only say, “we know there are casualties.”
He tells us Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was among the Pentagon workers hurrying from the building after the explosion. Rumsfeld helped the injured for about 15 minutes, getting several people onto stretchers. Then he went back inside to the National Military Command Center. The command center is reportedly smoky, but not damaged. (NOTE: Approaching the one-year anniversary of the attack, CNN's Vito Maggiolo contacted me after looking at the raw video from September 11 shot by WUSA-TV photojournalist Mike Trammel. While many people had viewed that video, and all of it played out in front my own eyes, Vito was the only person to notice that one of the men carrying a stretcher with one of the first victims removed from the Pentagon was Secretary Rumsfeld.)
2:10 PM: Virginia Task Force 1 arrives. Normally Fairfax County’s Urban Search and Rescue Team is sent to some far off land by way of military transport. This time it was just a quick drive down Interstate 66 to the county on its eastern border.
2:23 PM: WUSA Photographer Greg Guise is able to provide some details surrounding the hijacked jet that went down in Pennsylvania. Greg grew up a few miles from the crash site and has business interests in the community. Greg relays a description of the scene from a radio engineer friend in Somerset County.
2:43 PM: For the past few hours we’ve seen no ambulances leave the area with lights and siren. We’re pretty certain that anyone alive is already being treated. Now reporter Jennifer Ryan, at the Virginia Hospital Center, confirms no more victims are expected from the Pentagon.
2:49 PM: Mike and Andrea report it’s now fairly clear the plane wreckage at the Pentagon is from American Airlines Flight 77 out of Dulles.
2:55 PM: Rear Admiral Stephen Pietropaoli, U.S. Navy Office of Information, tells us that in the recently renovated wedge of the Pentagon, where the attack occurred, there is blast resistant glass on the windows. In the days to come we hear from many who believe that this very expensive glass saved lives.
3:53 PM: Now briefing us at the Citgo press center, Pentagon spokeswoman Torie Clark and Defense Protective Service Chief John Jester. Jester tells us the impact from the jet extends through to the C ring, the middle of the 5 rings of the Pentagon. All we see from our location, is that a portion of the E ring, the outer most portion of the Pentagon, has crumbled.
Clark admits she can’t confirm that all members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are accounted for. That news is a bit unsettling. We also hear about a Navy captain who burned his hands rescuing others. Clark says that man is already back from the hospital and wants to be put to work again, helping at the Pentagon.
4:12 PM: Rumors have been spreading that the U.S. military brought down the hijacked plane in Pennsylvania. Rear Admiral Craig Quigley says, “That didn’t happen. I cannot explain to you the cause of the crash of the airplane near Pittsburgh, but it was not engagement by a U.S. fighter aircraft.”
The Pentagon now confirms all the Joint Chiefs are accounted for.
4:54 PM: The second Urban Search and Rescue Team arrives. This one is from Montgomery County, Maryland.
5:04 PM: I see International Association of Firefighters General President, Harold Schaitberger and his press person, George Burke arrive at the Citgo. I grab Harold for a live interview. Harold has been in close touch with his people in New York. We learn for the first time that more than 200 New York firefighters probably perished when the towers collapsed. He calls firefighters “our domestic soldiers”. Schaitberger says the civilian death toll will be in the thousands. Off camera he lets me know that much of FDNY’s command staff was lost, including the Chief of the Department and the head of Special Operations.
5:36 PM: Harold Schaitberger joins me again with the story of two Ft. Meyer firefighters who were at the Pentagon when the crash occurred. They were standing near the fire truck we saw burning this morning. Both men were knocked down and injured by the force of the crash. They helped rescue a group of people through some of the office windows, before the firefighters themselves were hospitalized.
6:42 PM: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfield briefs the press. For the first time since the crash, the press conference is held inside the Pentagon. I watch it from our van. Pushed for a body count, Rumsfeld says, “It will not be a few”. The Pentagon “will be in business tomorrow”.
8:45 PM: New information has been slow in coming, but marching up Columbia Pike with the television lights reflecting off his orange vest is a member of Montgomery County’s Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) Team. Captain Scott Graham gives us the first solid information about the fire and rescue efforts. Scott becomes a lifeline for information in the days to come.
Despite the large fire still burning, Graham says the USAR team members are always optimistic about finding people alive. He says, “We have to look at it as a rescue effort for us. We have to look at it as a very unstable building. And our job, pretty much, is to take the name of the Pentagon off the outside of it and go in and rescue the people that are in there”.
9:52 PM: Another familiar face shows up at the Citgo. Ed Plaugher is the fire chief of Arlington County. The Pentagon is in Arlington County, Virginia and Chief Plaugher is the man in charge of the fire and rescue operations. None of the other reporters nearby seem to know who Plaugher is, or if they do, they don’t care. Ed joins me live at 10:00 PM with the first solid news about the loss of life at the Pentagon. There are no figures as of yet, but the Pentagon has given him a range to work with. Plaugher says it is believed that anywhere from 100 to 800 people work in the area where the impact occurred. While that is fairly large range, it lets us know that the death toll will likely be in the hundreds at the Pentagon, as compared to the thousands presumed dead in New York. Plaugher’s guess is, when it is over, the number at the Pentagon will be in the low hundreds.
Plaugher later receives some heat when his statements are taken out of context. Some news reports claim Plaugher estimated the death toll at 800. Days later we learn that 125 were killed on the ground and 64 perished aboard Flight 77.
On another topic Chief Plaugher says, “To be honest with you, we always were afraid of the Pentagon as being a target, but never in our wildest dreams to this extent. I am still in disbelief.”
11:03 PM: Fire has broken through in at least four places along the Pentagon roof. Chief Plaugher says aggressive interior firefighting operations will cease until daylight. But, crews overnight, will continue to pour in water from the outside to keep the fire from spreading further.
I relay a phone conversation with Scott Graham a few minutes before our 11:00 PM newscast. Scott and most of the USAR team members from Montgomery and Fairfax Counties worked very closely with Deputy Chief Ray Downey from the Fire Department of New York. Downey, commander of FDNY’s Special Operations, is unaccounted for after the towers collapsed. Scott says Downey commanded all the USAR teams in Oklahoma City after the bombing there. He says Downey wrote the book on urban search and rescue. Skills Downey taught will be utilized in New York and Arlington by hundreds of rescuers in the difficult days to come. His voice cracking, Scott tells me, “We lost a damn good man”.
We lost a lot of good men and women today.
October 27, 2001
11:15 PM: As I am looking back at September 11th, I have just spent a week covering the deaths of two Washington, D.C. postal workers, from inhalation anthrax. Others are hospitalized because of anthrax that was sent through the U.S. Mail. No one knows how this story will play out.
There is a lot of uncertainty since September 11th. Our war efforts, our security in public places, our ability to travel safely by air, our economic future. Like all parents, Hillary and I worry over what this will mean for our young son.
This much I’m sure of. Through the thick smoke hanging over New York and Washington, it became clear that some remarkable people walk among us.
Some are just ordinary citizens who put other people’s lives ahead of their own. Staying behind, trying to make sure everyone gets out.
Others are paid to protect us. But I don’t think anyone believes for a moment that a police officer, paramedic or firefighter’s modest salary is enough to encourage someone to walk into the places that these men and women did on September 11th. It takes much more than money. It takes heart, and courage, and a belief you can make a difference.
I know firefighters the best. Six years in a busy volunteer company during my youth, and almost 30 years making the fire service my beat as a reporter, have given me some perspective.
In many big cities, including our Nation’s Capital, the fire departments have long taken a back seat when it comes to funding. Citizens who can tell you how many times the police patrol car comes down their block, or how many officers are walking the beat, have no idea how many firefighters are on duty in the neighborhood fire station. Political leaders know this to be true and through the years have made drastic cuts in fire protection, often without protest from the public.
Through the years, I have reported many stories where citizens and firefighters have died because of these cuts. Just last week an understaffed ladder company became an issue in Houston, Texas, after a fire captain died in a high-rise apartment building fire.
Firefighters are can-do people. Their skills at making things work under adversity often hides from the public the shortcomings in their staffing, equipment and facilities.
Some of the good that has come from the sacrifices made by the 343 members of FDNY who died on September 11th, is the recognition, by the public, of what firefighters really do.
A recent trip to Arlington County Fire Station #2 brought this home. The firehouse is covered with cards and letters from all over the world. Many are from school children, with drawings of the firefighters in action at the Pentagon and World Trade Center. All say thanks.
Veterans of more than 20 years in the fire service are astounded by the reaction these days as they drive through local streets. People stop and wave. When the firefighters walk into a building in uniform, they are applauded.
On October 7th, I was at the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Just two hours before military action in Afghanistan began, President Bush told the stories of some of the 99 domestic soldiers who died in the line of duty in the United States last year. I watched as spouses and children received a flag and a red rose, and heard a bell toll in honor of their loved one, our hero.
I have forced myself on most days since September 11th to read the New York Post, Daily News and Times and the accounts of the daily funerals of New York firefighters. It is difficult to read about the pain their wives and children are going through. It is the least, though, that we can do. It is important to remember this unbelievable sacrifice.
My hope is that people all over the United States are paying very close attention to these same stories of heroism. My hope is that they don’t forget these stories when someone is trying to save a little money and close down their local firehouse.
Right now when Sam sees a fire truck he says, “Evan”. “Revvin’ Evan” is the animated fire engine on that “Jay Jay the Jet Plane” cartoon show he loves. When Sam is old enough, I will make sure he knows a lot more about firefighters. I will make sure Sam understands exactly who those people were climbing up the clogged, smoke filled, stairways, as he sat in his high chair, watching the first pictures transmitted from New York, at 8:52 AM, on September 11th, 2001.
The National Weather Service reports as many as 24 people dead and widespread damage after multiple tornadoes roared through Central North Carolina Saturday afternoon. USAR teams and other firefighters are searching damaged buildings for more victims. Above and below are a number of videos showing the tornadoes and the damage.
Two dozen people might have been killed by severe storms and tornadoes that struck at least 20 counties in North Carolina Saturday, according to preliminary reports Sunday.
WRAL News has confirmed 18 deaths, while the National Weather Service received preliminary reports of 24 deaths.
The worst-hit area appears to be Bertie County, where authorities say 10 people are dead there and one is missing.
Emergency crews are still searching for victims in the hard-hit parts of the state. Authorities warn the death toll is likely to rise further Sunday as searchers probed shattered homes and businesses.
"There's a lot of work that needs to be done in these areas that are most heavily impacted," said Doug Hoell, the state's director of emergency management. "There's a lot of debris out there that's got to be cleaned up."
Man driving with his family on I-95 in North Carolina.
Tornadoes were reported in Raleigh, Holly Springs, Roxboro, Fayetteville, downtown Wilson and Roanoke Rapids according to WRAL meteorologist Nate Johnson.
Emergency crews rescued a family in Person County that had taken shelter in their basement. They became trapped when a tree fell on their home.
One apparent tornado ripped through Sanford, carving a path about a mile long. The winds ripped the roof off a Lowe's store, turning a delivery truck on its side in the parking lot. Along with one man reported killed, another had to be cut from an overturned car, and several people were injured.
Wind damage in Johnston County forced authorities to close Interstate 95 near Micro about 5:45 p.m. There also were reports of severe structural damage and vehicles overturned in Dunn and in Wilson.
More from Sanford.
And another view from Sanford.
Damage from Sanford.
The video above is of a tornado reported to be near Fayetteville.
WRAL-TV's live stream, above, has been intermittent.
Today was identified as a high risk day for severe weather in North Carolina along the I-95 corridor. Storms are now firing in the Raleigh/Wake County area and damage is reported along with possible tornado sightings. A USAR deployment has been ordered for at least one possible tornado in the Raleigh.
You can watch and listen live through these links.
Nine firefighters hurt in Calvert County, Maryland: We have details, lots of video and links to still pictures from the fire that started in a chimney late Saturday night in Huntingtown, Maryland. Two of the firefighters went to the burn unit. One has inhalation burns. Click here for our coverage. Christopher Naum at CommandSafety.com has a good before look at this mega-McMansion and diagrams the location for us. Click here.
A kiss is still a kiss, but Dave is looking for much more meaning: Please take a moment to view the pictures from last week’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Savannah, Georgia and what I had to say about them. The images may be the most encouraging thing I have seen in a long time when it comes to the reputation of firefighters. Click here. And join me in Indianapolis on Thursday in room 125-126 at 1:30 PM for my thoughts on how to manage your reputation when news moves at the speed of light. The session is called “The PIO Reporter: Telling Your Story in a World Where “Spin” Doesn’t Work”.
Coincidentally, at the very same time, there is a presentation scheduled on social media in rooms 134-135. The host is THE Fire Critic, Rhett Fleitz. As loyal readers know, we have taken a very special interest here at STATter911.com in the career of Lt. Fleitz and always look for ways to promote his work. That’s why we have no problem publicizing this competing session, once again. We also did it in a language that most firefighters in the United States speak and understand. If you click here you will see that THE Fire Critic has a different view on this topic. But, as always, we take the high road when it comes to Rhett. And as a public service, here’s a tip if you aren’t certain you are in the correct room on Thursday. If you just hear a voice and no one is visibile behind the podium, that will be Rhett’s presentation.
And on the topic of 9-11: The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation is holding a 9-11 Memorial Stair Climb at Lucas Oil Stadium during FDIC. It starts at 11:30 AM Friday morning. You can sign up now. The event is limited to the first 343 firefighters. Click here. You can also host your own 9-11 Memorial Stair Climb for the upcoming 10th anniversary of the attacks. Click here for details.
“Just because you’re a first responder, it doesn’t give you the excuse to drive like a maniac”: The quote from the Village of Chester, New York police chief after Kiryas Joel ambulance corps member Menachem Kramer was cited for 21 traffic violations following his response to an accident a month ago. Police say Kramer’s 1999 Tahoe forced a police officer’s vehicle off the road. From RecordOnline.com- “According to the report, Kramer drove at excessive speeds, as well as down the center of Brookside Avenue, forcing cars in the turning lanes to quickly veer out of the way — some into the path of oncoming traffic.” Police say the incident was already clearing when Kramer was responding.
Big one tips in Germany: A Bronto Skylift with a reach of almost 300 feet failed to make a turn on a roadway in Germany. Firegeezer has that story.
USAR teams back home: The teams from Fairfax County and Los Angeles County returned home from the mission to Japan. Click here and here for stories.
Union billboards its complaints: In Lancaster, Pennsylvania a recent no confidence vote in the chief has been followed by a billboard asking the citizens about safety. Here’s the story.
Woman who fled to Nigeria after deadly day care fire is coming back to Houston: Houston’s fire chief apologized to the families who lost children after a fire in a day care center. Fire investigators and the Harris County District Attorney battled over an arrest warrant while Jessica Tata left the country. We told you Saturday that Tata had turned herself into authorities in her native Nigeria. Now there is official word she is returning to Houston and should be back by tonight. Read more.
Last week’s fire in Howard County, Maryland: While traveling the last few days I failed to link to Doug Walton’s photos from Friday’s apartment fire in Columbia that left two firefighters injured. Check out Doug’s coverage.
Montgomery County, Maryland house fire: Jeff Krauss has a series of photos to go with the one to the left from a house fire Sunday afternoon on Whites Ford Way in Potomac. An 87-year-old man is reported in critical condition with burns and smoke inhalation. An 85-year-old woman suffered smoke inhalation and a firefighter had was burned on the shoulder.
Volunteer recruitment in Nebraska: Last week’s volunteer summit in Washington hosted by the IAFC is already making news back home. One of those who attended and is dealing with recruitment issues is featured in a story from the Omaha area. Click here.
Tulsa, Oklahoma apartment fire: This was a fire just before dawn on Sunday at the Monaco Park Apartments.
Days after the earthquake and tsunami struck Japan, more than 7,500 people are still missing, and the number could likely rise.
Search and rescue teams are on hand in some areas– helping with the hunt for survivors.
The relieved mayor of Ofunato greets U.S. and British rescue teams as they start their first full day of operations, but his city’s condition could lie beyond their reach.
The tsunami came through Ofunato’s narrow inlet with such force a tugboat was thrown several blocks, and cars were violently scattered for miles.
“The first thing is we find a place to search. We have map grids that are set up by the local emergency managers in the area. They give us an area to search. We split it up. We take coordinates. We go through the buildings, search it building by building- standing up or laying down,” said Fairfax Co. Urban Search and Rescue Capt. Sam Gray.
The teams fan out, through mountains of rubble and teetering buildings, using every tool they brought.
Rescuers got word there was a note posted on a house that there was someone alive inside. They had the dog teams check it out, but the dogs didn’t detect the scene of anyone alive.
“If you can hear me, knock three times!” yelled one of the rescue team members.
Listening devices and audio signal yielded nothing.
Residents who did escape the tsunami are in shock.
It was initially thought Tomuko Shida lost her husband in the disaster, but a translator says, “Her husband already died. She had stored in a box…She put it in a really high place. And when the storm came, she couldn’t reach the box. She ran away first.”
She’s still looking for her husband’s remains.
For those who did lose loved ones in this disaster, the final casualty count here may never be known.
“The way we’re operating now there’s still plenty of opportunity to find live victims. But as time goes on, those opportunities diminish,” says Battalion Chief Chris Schaff of Virginia Task Force 1.
In many of these places, rescuers say they rely on local citizens, flagging them down to come and get a loved one out of a building or out of a pile of rubble.
One team member said that in Ofunato, whole families might have gone missing, and there might not be anyone even looking for them.
The 74 members of Virginia Task Force 1 deployed to Japan are seeing the devastation first hand.
Fairfax Co. Fire and Rescue Battalion Chief Chris Schaff joined 9NEWS NOW by phone Tuesday morning. He said half the team was resting after searching for survivors, while the other half was preparing to take over.
Click the image above for more of Travis J. Tritten’s photos of VATF-1 in action in Ofunato, Japan and additional details about the team’s initial missions.
“They have us doing search and rescue right along the shoreline where the tsunami came in, and actually working in that grid this morning and afternoon, and we’re going to push further down and closer to the coast tomorrow morning,” Chief Schaff said.
The team was also deployed to Haiti after the earthquake in January, 2010, where they made more than a dozen rescues.
Chief Schaff described how the conditions are different in Japan: “In Haiti, there’s not a whole lot of lumber they used to build, it’s mostly concrete. Here, there is a lot of lumber, so there is a lot of debris washed ashore. There’s houses that have been picked up and moved, as well as a lot of boats, large boats, that we’ve had moved a good distance from the shore, up on top of the houses and collapsed those houses. The crews are working in and around those, doing their search and rescue.”
At this point, they have not had an opportunity to rescue anyone, though Chief Schaff says the team is still very energetic.
Chief Schaff says they are also far enough away for the threat of nuclear radiation not be a concern. “We’ve got hazardous materials specialists that are also working with us from the team, and they’re keeping us abreast of the situation with the hazardous materials in the area we’re working in. That’s not a complication we’re dealing with right now, so we’re not really focusing that direction. However, we do have people that can take care of that should that need arise for us.”
Rescuers have found a 70-year-old woman alive four days after the disaster struck.
Osaka fire department spokesman Yuko Kotani says the woman was found inside her house that was washed away by the tsunami in northeastern Japan’s Iwate prefecture. The rescuers from Osaka, in western Japan, were sent to the area for disaster relief.
Kotani said the woman was conscious but suffering from hypothermia and is being treated at a hospital. She would not give the woman’s name.
Her rescue was a rare bit of news for Japanese traumatized by the disaster.
My friend Ron Gardner (a former and great TV news anchor) in Idaho posted the above video on his Facebook page today. It is one of the many videos from Japan that gives you the close-up ground view as the tsunami obliterated towns. It gives you an idea of the task ahead for the search and rescue teams from the U.S. They are now in Japan. Firegeezer has a bunch more videos for you.
Below are some videos, courtesy of WUSA9.com, of the arrival of Virginia Task Force 1 (VATF-1 out of Fairfax County) and California Task Force 2 (CATF-2 out of Los Angeles County) in Japan. There they have met up with a British team. (Note: I am aware the audio on the last two videos is out of synch. It was fed to WUSA9.com that way.)
Here is some information contained in a press release from the Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department:
The team arrived at Misawa Air Base, Sunday, March 13, 2011, by commercial aircraft. Approximately 31 tons of equipment and supplies, including four inflatable boats, was transported separately by military airlift.
The self-contained, heavy task force of 74 personnel has technical search and rescue specialists, search and rescue canines, structural engineers, a medical component consisting of physicians and paramedics, and other critical support personnel. VATF-1 will travel to Ofunato, a seaport city of approximately 41,000, and establish a base of operations.
While enroute to Japan, VATF-1 stopped in Los Angeles, California, and joined with California Task Force 2 (CATF-2) for the trip to Misawa Air Base. Both teams will be working under the direction of the Tokyo Fire Department.
The Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue team has been mobilized to respond to the devastation caused by the earthquake and tsunami in northern Japan.
Dan Schmidt, spokesperson for the Fairfax County Fire Department, says they received word just minutes ago. He says mobilization means the team prepares for deployment, but it does not necessarily mean it will be deployed.
The Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue team, also known as Virginia Task Force 1, is one of two teams in the nation deployed by USAID to assist countries who have experienced large scale damage due to natural disasters or other causes. The other team is from Los Angeles, California.
Two groups from Fairfax’s team were dispatched after Haiti’s earthquake in January, 2010. They pulled more than a dozen people from the rubble.
Lieutenant Winters, a seven-year-old Belgian Malinois/Shepherd died Friday after being injured during a training exercise in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Win was a part of Virginia Task Force 2. Win had been deployed five times by FEMA, including during Hurricane Katrina and the earthquake in Haiti.
In a press release today, Virginia Beach Fire Department Battalion Chief Tim Riley explained how the dog was injured:
He entered through a small opening of the rubble pile, where the victim was located, when the accident occurred. A piece of concrete reinforcing wire punctured his chest cavity causing internal bleeding. Although Win was injured, he finished his search, located the victim, and laid at her side. The canine handler immediately sensed a problem and Win was quickly transported to Bay-Beach Veterinary Hospital where Team Doctor/Veterinarian Mark Honaker was unable to save Win. He died shortly after arriving at the animal hospital. Win died doing what he was trained and loved to do, performing his job to the very end.
Hampton, NH fire in HD: A video I failed to post over the weekend was Rick Nohl’s HD version of the five-alarm fire that took out most of a block along the ocean front during the coastal storm early Friday. Click here for the earlier coverage and here for more of Rick’s work.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Just added: Always check out our player in the right hand column for the latest videos. wusa9.com‘s Emily Cyr, late this morning, posted an overnight fire in a vacant building in Bellingham, Washington. You will also find search and rescue videos from Chile (here, here and here). And Emily has put together images of fire & rescue crews searching for quake victims. Click here.
A mini-milestone for STATter911.com: Unless all of you just decide to shut-up for the day and give me the cold shoulder I am expecting that we will be posting comment number 15,000 on this blog in the next hour or two. Obviously we have received more comments than that, but some (I am guessing 1,000 or so) weren’t posted due to not meeting even the low standards that I have. As I have mentioned before, the comments section is the part of the blog that brings me the most criticism (even from some of my closest friends). I do enjoy the interaction and the well-thought out writings that aren’t personal attacks. I have learned a lot from your comments, including those critical of the jerk who writes this junk each day.
So, keep them coming. Keep them clean (this blog is still affiliated with the TV station where I am employed). Do your best to play nice. And if you really want to get on the good side of me, toss in some humor when it is appropriate (but I will probably like it even if it isn’t appropriate).
Must see police dashcam video: A Brooklyn Heights, Ohio police lieutenant is on the mend with multiple fractures after he tried to help a motorist who spun out on an icy highway. A second driver did the same thing with his car as the two men in the vehicle’s path tried desperately to get out of the way. This is a video that is relevant to anyone who works road side. Check it out.
A firing offense: I am still fascinated by the story from Colleton, South Carolina where Firefighter/Paramedic Jason Brown was fired over a video he created and posted on his Facebook. Brown says it was done on his own time, with his own computer. It is one of those text-to-movie clips involving a firefighter character. I am sure, like me, you have received, or possibly made, similar videos. We brought this one up Friday in our last Quick Takes and the comments are coming in. If you missed it, click here. By the way, the top video of Firefighter Mike going off on 911 abuse is not the Jason Brown production. It is the other one, in the hospital emergency department.
The battle in Cherry Hill, New Jersey: The fire chief calls the place a “boys club or fraternity” and deactivated Cherry Hill Company No. 1. The volunteers are continuing to battle in an effort to start responding to calls again. Philly.com has the latest on the story we first told you about on November 1.
Gated community’s gates bring lawsuit: An ambulance unable to easily get through an unmanned gate at a community in Beaufort County, South Carolina last April was apparently delayed for up to three minutes. The victim died of a heart attack. His widow has filed suit against fire and EMS crews, along with developers, property management and the property owners association. Click here for the story.
Radio traffic from Maryland plane crash: The pilot was killed as a small plane crashed and burned near homes in Anne Arundel County. Click here.
Close-up raw video from 1987 Boston plane crash & nine-alarm fire: Now retired overnight freelance videographer Bill Harrigan shot this pretty spectacular piece of tape from the crash in Dorchester. Check it out.
A more up-to-date Boston story: Also from Dorchester, Pat Foley was on his way to work at Engine 21 on Saturday. He ended up meeting some of his crew at a fire near the firehouse where they teamed up for the rescue of an elderly woman. Read more.
Pension at center of contract dispute: In Palm Bay, Florida both sides are going in front of a special magistrate in an effort to agree on a contract. Firefighters say they have given enough concessions with wage freezes and are not willing to budge on the pension relief the city wants. Palm Bay officials believe the pension cuts are the “new normal”. Read the article.
Three dead in New Jersey house fire: A young girl and her parents died in this fire in Toms River on Saturday. Read more.
Gary house fire: A Edward Malik video is posted here with the usual many comments the Gary videos seem to generate. Malik’s latest effort (not from Gary), taken early this morning, is below.
Vacant commercial structure in Hobart, Indiana: This fire was at 2nd & East. No injuries were reported.
Above is raw video from Dulles International Airport and the Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department Training Academy as Virginia Task Force 1 is welcomed home by family and friends. Video by Sky9 and Greg Guise.
How they do it in Singapore: Good quality, close-up video of the fire department in Singapore in action late last Thursday morning at a commercial fire. Here’s part of the description - 3 Fire Engines, 2 Firebikes, 3 Red Rhinos, 3 Supporting Vehicles, 1 Ambulance were immediately dispatched to the incident site. Upon arrival, fire was found raging from the two-storey shop house. SCDF firefighters immediately set up water jets and pitched ladder to gain access into the shophouse. As the fire had partially burnt through the roof, water jets were used to tackle the fire from the top.Here’s the Street View of the building on Moonstone Lane and the surrounding neighborhood (look at the business and the clutter across the street). Watch more from the Official Singapore Civil Defense Force Videos on YouTube.
Fireground audio from close call in Virginia: If you haven’t checked in with us since early yesterday morning the fire on Heming Avenue turned out to be a double fatal. The bodies of two men were found inside. Three firefighters from Fairfax County found the kitchen floor crumbling around them and needed help getting out. One firefighter was slightly hurt. We have the radio traffic and raw video. Click here.
Virginia Task Force 1 scheduled to return: As of yesterday’s briefing the USAR team from Northern Virginia is expected to fly to the Dominican Republic today and then back to the Washington area on Thursday. They have been in Haiti for two weeks.
The director speaks: Memphis Fire Department Director Alvin Benson finally talks to the reporter who has been featuring a rather unflattering side of his department in reports over the last 8 days or so. Click here for the latest.
Brownouts in San Diego: They start next week as a budget saving measure. Read more.
And what will it sound like if they win the Super Bowl?: We were sent a recording of the New Orleans Fire Department’s radio traffic immediately after the Saints won Sunday night. Check it out.
Officials have more to say about new volunteer accused of setting fires: We had previously told you about 24-year-old Adam Paul Carriere who was accused of starting two fires within days of joining a fire department in the Baton Rouge area. A press conference is scheduled for this afternoon where investigators are expected to point out that Mr. Carriere was a bit more prolific than originally thought. Here’s the story.
Firefighter hurt as two are grabbed from Alaska house fire: The woman was on the phone with 911 screaming shortly before firefighters pulled up to the Anchorage home. There’s a lot of detail in the article on how the firefighters got the woman and a man out yesterday morning. One firefighter cut up his foot on window glass. Click here.
Saved from the mighty Mississippi a woman says thanks in a big way: Kay Dickison knows it was a 911 call taker and firefighters who saved her after falling through the ice trying to rescue her dog on the Mississippi River in Dakota County, Minnesota last month. She didn’t just say thanks. She wrote a check for $2500 so firefighters can get additional cold-water suits. Click here for the story.
Dissension in Vermont: A volunteer firefighter in Wallingford says he was blindsided by his dismissal after bringing up concerns about safety and how the fire department is run. The board of directors says he didn’t follow the chain of command with his complaints. Here are the details.
House explodes and burns in Cleveland: A neighbor’s video as three people were hurt after an explosion at West 83rd Street and Madison Avenue. Click here for more details and videos.
Watch our latest videos over here >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
UPDATED – Close call in Fairfax County, VA at scene of now double fatal fire: (Click here for slideshow from fire.) PIO Dan Schmidt confirms the bodies of two men were found inside a burning home on Heming Avenue in North Springfield this morning. Earlier three firefighters from Station 422 ran into trouble when the kitchen floor began collapsing around them. Other firefighters assisted them in getting out safely. Schmidt says one firefighter has been hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries. All firefighters were accounted for. The fire was reported around 6:40 AM. We will have more later, including video.
Dead, not dead: Firefighters in Prince George’s County, Maryland thought they were doing body recovery early Sunday morning on I-95. The “body” in the burned out car started breathing and things quickly reverted to a rescue operation. We have the details, fireground audio, and a timeline. Click here for our coverage.
More PGFD news – Shake-up at the top: In November, Chief Eugene Jones said about Lt. Colonel Victor Stagnaro, “You are growing into the leader I always believed you had the capacity for” as he gave the 24-year veteran “a rare and prestigious” department award. Yesterday, Chief Jones gave Stagnaro something else: his walking papers. According to Chief Jones, Stagnaro “indicated his intent to retire”. But numerous other sources familiar with what happened at the Largo Government Center tell STATter911.com the chief’s executive officer presented Stagnaro with a letter telling him his last day is February 12. Click here for more on this story.
Close Call #1: This is the "before" picture a neighbor snapped just prior to two firefighters falling through the roof of this burning Phoenix home on Monday. The firefighters were not injured. Police say the house was set on fire by an 18-year-old who had assaulted his parents. Click the image to see more pictures and watch the story.
Two Metro workers killed on tracks in Maryland: Montgomery County firefighters were busy early this morning when two employees of Metro were struck and killed by a hi-rail vehicle on the rail system’s Red Line in the Rockville area around 1:55 this morning. Read the story here. Click here for the video. Click here for pictures.
NEW – Virginia Task Force 1 heading home Thursday: That’s the plan today for the return of the urban search and rescue team from Northern Virginia. They have been in Haiti for two weeks and are now assisting with humanitarian efforts after helping to rescue 16 people who were trapped in the rubble of the earthquake.
More from Memphis: A TV station is into its second week of reports on the Memphis Fire Department. WLMT-TV has been looking at the department’s hiring practices, the number of firefighters who have been arrested and allegations of discrimination over who gets to keep their job and who doesn’t. The latest installment is here. Click here to see what you missed earlier.
Four fire officers on leave as fatal house fire is probed in Georgia: Firefighters in DeKalb County were sent to a 911 disconnect at 1:00 Sunday morning. A fire truck was sent to investigate. The firefighters found nothing. Five hours later the house was destroyed with a woman inside. Read and watch the story. Read DeKalb County public safety director’s statement.
New talk of major FDNY cuts: Firehouses and firefighters are again being discussed for possible cuts as mayor’s staff and the new fire commissioner meet on budget issues. Read more.
911 system in DC getting scrutiny after gun is pulled on council member: A fire truck was the first on the scene to assist Council member Yvette Alexander last week when she interupted an armed robbery. There are questions about the accurate relay of information and the timeliness of the response. Read more.
Close Call #2: Three firefighters inside as explosion lifts roof off home during fire in Wells, Minnesota. The chief says he was blown 3-feet out of a door. The firefighters weren't hurt. Click the picture by Brie Cohen for details and more pictures from the Albert Lea Tribune.
Former Columbus, Ohio firefighter who killed dogs walks out of hearing because of TV camera: The latest on David Santuomo, who left the two dead dogs in a dumpster behind a firehouse in December, 2008, is that the Civil Service Commission dismissed the appeal of his firing because the former firefighter wasn’t present. News reports indicate Santuomo got up and left when he saw the camera being set up. You may recall Santuomo executed the dogs because he didn’t want to pay kennel fees while on vacation. Read more.
LAFD defends dog rescue: The Los Angeles Fire Department stands by the decision to commit resources to last Friday’s dog rescue in the L.A. River that left a firefighter with dog bites. Read more. Earlier coverage here and here.
Mayor is shocked: Paramus, New Jersey Mayor James Tedesco is also a volunteer firefighter. Responding on a call for a downed power line, the firefighting mayor touched a fence that had come in contact with the wire. He is okay. Read more.
House fire in New Jersey: This is from yesterday in Oradell in Bergen County.
Five firefighters tumble into the basement: Only two of the firefighters who ended up in the basement when the first floor collapsed at an Anne Arundel County, Maryland house fire yesterday afternoon were sent to the hospital. Neither has life threatening injuries. The video above is from Sky9. I have edited it so all of the shots are in chronological order. The mayday was over when the chopper arrived. The video begins with the Maryland State Police helicopter ready to take off with one of the injured firefighters. You can click here for the slideshow. You will find the fireground audio and many more details about the three-alarm fire here.
Read controversial letter captain read to returning Houston firefighter: The letter that apparently helped push Houston Fire Department Chief Phil Boriskie out the door has now been released. Click here to see the four page document that was presented by Capt. Brian Williamson to Jane Draycott on the day she returned to Station 54, six months after making accusations about racial and sexual grafitti in the women’s locker room. The letter, read aloud to Draycott, Chief Boriskie and others, listed reasons why the crew did not want Draycott back at the firehouse. Also, an investigator in the grafitti case says, that despite news reports, Draycott and another female firefighter are not suspects in the case. Click here, here and here for the latest.
“That is all bogus and lies and fabrications” – FDNY EMTs tell their side of the story: Two EMT/dispatchers for FDNY are scheduled to be back to work today after being accused of not providing medical help to a dying woman while on break at the Au Bon Pain near the dispatch center in Brooklyn. For the first time Jason Green and Melisa Jackson tell their story. Click here to read the details.
More from Haiti: Virginia Task Force 2 has been making news in Haiti. The team was heading back to its base on Tuesday when it was flagged down and brought to what used to be a three-story home. There they rescued a boy and girl who had been in the rubble for seven days. Here’s the story. You can follow VA-TF2 on its website and Facebook page.
So, why didn’t the closest team go to Haiti first?: There are some unhappy people in Florida over the fact that the Miami-Dade USAR Team, sitting within easy striking distance of Haiti, didn’t get the first call. There was a time they would have been at the top of the list. But Miami-Dade was dropped from that list after an audit revealed it had overbilled the federal government for some of its trips in the 90s. Specifically, it was an effort to hide the cost of overtime for firefighters to backfill the positions of team members who were deployed. It is a cost the federal government now reimburses. The fire chief says that all happened under old management and wants to see the team back in the first-call category for international responses. Read the story. Watch the story.
Felon hired in Memphis may be tip of the iceberg: A Memphis, Tennessee TV station has been all over the case of Lawrence Batiste a firefighter currently facing a variety of charges including domestic violence, assault, drugs and alcohol. WLMT-TV reports that Batiste was hired by the Memphis Fire Department despite being canned by the Shelby County Fire Department when a previous felony was discovered. But it appears the Memphis Fire Department will be facing more scrutiny. STATter911.com has seen FOIA documents that indicate this problem goes beyond FF Lawrence Batiste. Here’s the latest story.
Captain accused of pretending to be a Klan member is fired: Accusations that he used a pillow case to pretend to be a member of the KKK and made a racially insensitive remark have brought the dismissal of a Captain Robert “Danny” Heil at Pleasure Ridge Park Fire Protection District board in Kentucky. Read the story.
147 firefighters told to be at a meeting Friday about layoffs: That’s the story from Tulsa. Click here.
Check out the player to the right for new videos from Haiti and other fire & EMS news
Wednesday morning briefing on Virginia Task Force 1:
The team assisted French and Turkish crews in rescuing a 25-year-old woman last night (see the video below of the recent rescues by the team).
That is rescue number 16 for VA-TF1 and 122 for all teams (43 by U.S. crews).
All team members were at the Base of Operations and are fine after this morning’s 6.1 earthquake.
Recon and Rescue assets are today at the new epicenter site – this assignment may prove to be lengthy due to the distance from the Base of Operations and extremely heavy traffic.
Personnel will also be back at the Hotel Montana to assist with delayering operations and the recovery of remains.
Team members are doing fine with the exception of some bug bites.
Canine Tomo was given fluids and is doing better after suffering dehydration/electrolyte issues yesterday.
All of the previous concerns about satellite phones, food, water and fuel are still the same and are being dealt with and/or watched closely.
Lt. Mark Stone with the Stafford County Fire & Rescue Department is part of Virginia Task Force 1 in Haiti. Stone, retired from the Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department, has been on a number of these missions around the world. He took some time yesterday afternoon to give STATter911.com an update on their work in Haiti. Click above to listen to the entire interview.
Lt. Stone says that even now, eight days after the earthquake hit. this is still very much a rescue mission. While finding people alive is not happening as frequently, there have still been success stories by search and rescue teams as recently as a few hours before our conversation. As we spoke, members of Virginia Task Force 1 were on at least one mission that had the potential to be successful. For that reason Stone expects the team will be in rescue mode for a few more days.
A recent rescue in Haiti involving Virginia Task Force 1. We are still trying to determine if this is video from last night where the Northern Virginia crew assisted French and Turkish teams with the rescue of a 25-year-old woman or the Sunday night rescue of a 21-year-old woman.
As in our interview with Captain Joe Knerr a day earlier, Stone says the team has not had to deal with the unrest and violence that we have seen in the news coverage from Port-au-Prince. But it is an issue that continues to be watched closely.
While there is enough food and water for the search and rescue team they are being conservative in the use of those resources, watching the supply closely due to restocking issues. Fuel is another commodity that is even more challenging. But Lt. Stone says they are getting where the need to go to be effective.
Stone is greatly impressed by the resiliency of the people of Haiti who had so little to start with and now have to deal with this unbelievable devastation. He expects that members of Virginia Task Force 1 will eagerly help in the humanitarian aid once their focus changes. In the meantime, he reminds us for now this continues to be very much a rescue mission.
And one more important note, Mark Stone sends along a happy birthday greeting today to his wife Terri.
Check out our player to the right for the latest videos from Haiti and elsewhere
Here are some of the main points from this morning’s update from the Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department:
Still at 15 rescues as of 10:00 this morning.
Search and rescue teams have been responsible for the rescue of 72 people.
U.S. teams made 40 of the 72 rescues.
The team is doing a secondary search of an area known as Sector 1 A.
The team is involved in delayering operations at the Hotel Montana.
There were no night operations last night so team members caught up on rest.
There is improved access to transportation and escorts.
Shortage of fuel is an issue and the team is being allotted 15 gallons-per-day.
Satellite phone problems persist, but the hand-held radios continue to work well.
Supply restocking is an issue the team continues to deal with.
They are restocked on water and MREs.
Bottled water is being reserved for crews work in the field and personnel at the Base of Operations are refilling empty bottles with water that is filtered on the embassy grounds.
Team members remain motivated from the continued success of the mission and continue to work extremely hard.
Demobilization plans are being developed but no timeline for demobilization has been established.
Check out the video player to the right for more videos of USAR teams in Haiti
STATter911.com had a phone conversation this afternoon with Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department Captain Joe Knerr, who is a task force leader on the ground in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Captain Knerr tells us the live rescues by Virginia Task Force 1 and the other USAR teams are becoming fewer as the hours slip by saying, “Time is our enemy”.
The last rescue for his team was last night around 9:00 PM when the Fairfax County group assisted rescuers from Martinique in removing a 21-year-old woman from a collapsed apartment building. She was taken to a hospital set up by a group of Israeli medical personnel.
That was the 15th successful rescue Virginia Task Force 1 participated in since becoming the first urban search and rescue team to arrive in Haiti.
Last Thursday we showed you the very first rescue. That was the widely seen video of security guard Tarmo Joveer as he walked down from the crumbled United Nations building. What we haven’t shown you until know is the close-up view of that rescue. That video, above, shows the final stages of the operation. This appears to be the moment when the crew passed a Sawzall to Joveer so he could cut away a chair and clear the path from the rubble.
Captain Knerr said it was good morale booster for the crew to make an early rescue. They had already been to one scene where the victim they were after had expired. The next day the crew from Northern Virginia made eight more rescues.
Currently Virginia Task Force 1 is doing searches in the team’s assigned sector of the city. Captain Knerr says while he is aware of reports of unrest and security issues, his team has not experienced that problem. He says where necessary they are escorted by security personnel.
After the initial blitz of the entire team working 40 to 50 hours with only cat naps, they are settling down into a routine of assigned shifts.
Knerr tells us they continue to keep a close eye on their water supply and expect to be in Haiti between 10 and 14 days.
The captain says their hope is as the teams move into a recovery phase they can assist with other humanitarian efforts.
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.
(Note: Please check the video player to the right. When new videos come in involving USAR teams, WUSA9.com’s Emily Cyr and Jillian Coyle are adding them, often before I am able to catch up with the details. You will also see other fire & EMS related videos in the player from the DC area and around the country.)
It is clear the urban search and rescue teams on the ground in Haiti are making progress. We have been keeping tabs of our local teams from Fairfax County, Virginia, but there is good work being done by many.
Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department spokesman Dan Schmidt tells us the same team successfully completed at 1:00 AM a 17-hour rescue of a woman at the Hotel Montana in Port-Au-Prince (part of that operation is seen on the video above).
They then went on to assist the French team with the rescue of four people (a fifth was being worked on late this morning). A portion of the team was also assisting the group from Spain on rescuing two people from an elevator shaft.
Team two is known as USA-5 USA-1 Medium. It has 42 36 people on the team. They arrived in Haiti early this morning and Schmidt confirms they are also using the US Embassy as a base of operations (considered a plus for security and coordination).
Second crew from Fairfax County, Virginia headed out: Above, a second team from Virginia Task Force 1 heads to Haiti. This is the first time Fairfax County has had two such teams deployed on the same international incident. This latest group is made up of 42 members. In case you missed it, click here for our coverage of what the first team did in Haiti yesterday.
Kentucky mayor first refuses, then changes his mind, about letting firefighters be part of Ohio USAR’s deployment: Worried that the federal government will only reimburse 70% of the overtime expenses to pay for those who would be needed to staff stations back home, Lexington, Kentucky Mayor Jim Newberry at first declined to send firefighters to Haiti. He later had a change of heart and nine firefighters are on standby. Read that story. Meanwhile, there has been some delay in getting Ohio Task Force 1 on a flight to Haiti. Here are the details. Click here for video of the Ohio team getting ready.
This calendar photo featuring a Houston firefighter has become an issue along with the chief's handling of a "team building session" on a firefighter's first day back after making racism and sexism claims.
UPDATE – Mayor scolds Houston fire chief over his welcome back for female firefighter who made accusations about graffiti: Chief Phil Boriskie decided to have a “team building session” at Station 54 as Firefighter Jane Draycott returned to the firehouse for the first time since last summer when she made accusations about racist and sexist graffiti inside the women’s locker room. The four-hour meeting with the chief, his command staff, a psychologist, Draycott and co-workers apparently didn’t go so well. Draycott says the men brought up rumors, grievances and questioned her sanity. Draycott went home. Mayor Annise Parker questioned the chief’s judgment, saying she doesn’t condone and won’t tolerate what happened at Station 54. Critics are also pointing to other concerns about sexism, including a calendar to raise money for HFD’s Pipes and Drums that has “a scantily clad and nearly bare-breasted female firefighter”. Read more. There also more about a letter read at the meeting. Click here to read and watch that story.
Rhett Fleitz at FireCritic.com has posted a completely different view of the calendar and an interview with the woman appearing in the picture at left. Click here.
Fatal ambulance crash in New Jersey: Firegeezer and Firefighter Close Calls are on top of the story from yesterday where an ambulance in Warren County, New Jersey hit a tree, killing a patient and trapping the crew.
New study questions immobilization protocols: Johns Hopkins researchers have data that shows it may not be a good thing to take the time to immobilize a gunshot or stabbing victim. Click here for the details.
More on Baltimore’s doomsday budget: We told you yesterday about Chief Jim Clack briefing some firefighters on the possibility of closing a lot more companies and laying off scores of firefighters come July 1. The Baltimore Sun has more on the issue today.
Click the image for fireground audio and raw video from yesterday's gasoline tank truck fire in Montgomery County, Maryland.
Pittsburgh union prez admits firefighters have “stumbled” tarnishing the department’s image: We have heard from management on the recent arrests of Pittsburgh firefighters for drug, alcohol and violence charges. Now it’s labor’s turn. Click here.
Detroit firefighter accused of insurance fraud after fake incident report filed: Police indicate the firefighter was trying to cover for an off-duty accident where he hit a parked vehicle and fled the scene. Investigators believe the firefighter created a fake fire department incident report to send to his insurance company. Read more.
STATter911.com has learned the United States Agency for International Development has activated a second urban search and rescue team from Fairfax County, Virginia. Virginia Task Force 1 is now gathering a 42-member team at the Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department’s training academy. The first team of 72-members from Fairfax has been on the ground in Port au Prince and has made at least one rescue. This is apparently the first time two teams have been employed from Fairfax County for an international response.
A man walked out of the collapsed United Nations building in Port au Prince, Haiti today thanks to the firefighters from Northern Virginia. Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department’s Lt. Mike Davis told CNN word came in overnight of someone trapped alive in the building. A four-person recon team confirmed the victim and called for a 15-person rescue squad.
A camera then confirmed the victim’s location and Lt. Davis said the crew began de-layering almost three floors of concrete in an effort to free the man. The man’s escape was hampered by a chair that blocked his way out. Firefighters were able to pass him a Sawzall to cut up the chair. Rescuers say the man walked out of the wreckage on his own.
The rescued man is a United Nation’s security guard from Estonia.
Virginia Task Force 1 arrived in Haiti at 4:00 PM on Wednesday. They have set up a base of operations at the American Embassy compound.
House fire in Millersville, Pennsylvania: This is from last Friday. No more info.
NEW – Virginia Task Force 1 makes rescue in Haiti: Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department’s USAR team arrived in Haiti at 4:00 PM yesterday and set up camp at the American Embassy. Lt. Mike Davis tells CNN that a UN worker has been rescued from a collapsed area by the team. Details later.
More drastic cuts coming in Baltimore?: Baltimore City Fire Department Chief Jim Clack told firefighters it is possible that a loss of state money could mean the closing of 9 to 14 companies and a loss of 200 to 250 jobs come July 1. Click here to read and watch the story.
Layoffs and staffing in Cleveland: A judge has issued a temporary restraining order keeping the Cleveland Fire Department from implementing a staffing plan to account for Monday’s layoffs. Here’s the update.
Goldfeder has a lot to say on a few recent stories: The story we ran yesterday from Monroe Township, New Jersey where the volunteer deputy chief has been suspended for six months after sending around a petition to save the jobs of the department’s two career firefighters caught the attention of The Secret List. Combined with the other recent story about the replacement of Buffalo’s fire commissioner, Billy Goldfeder is talking about how tough times make some people stand up and be counted. Read his commentary.
Then there is the issue of training in Arizona. With state funding cut for certification and accreditation that had been done by the State Fire Marshal’s office, Goldfeder is wondering if some priorities are wrong in Arizona and on the federal level. You can read that one here.
Federal judge says FDNY discriminated: “A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that New York City intentionally discriminated against black applicants to the Fire Department by continuing to use an exam that it had been told put them at a disadvantage.” That’s the opening line in an article by Al Baker in The New York Times. Read more.
Discrimination & retaliation claim in Philly: “A white Philadelphia firefighter who settled a racial-discrimination case against the city last year filed another federal lawsuit yesterday, saying the fire commissioner and his top aides had retaliated against him for going to court.” That’s how an article by Robert Moran begins in the Inquirer. Read more.
Firefighters respond second time for fire in the same house, but it definitely wasn’t a rekindle: Firefighters in East Hanover Township, Pennsylvania recognized the house that was burning in front of them Wednesday morning. They had fought a fire in the same house five-years-ago. Click here for the story.
Fire in Stoughton, Massachusetts: Firegeezer has video and details from a fire that burned a large 1890s era home and the efforts by neighbors to save an elderly woman who lived there.
A big time out: A broken sprinkler line forced the evacuation of FedEx Forum during the Memphis Grizzlies and Los Angeles Clippers game Monday night.
Click here for previous Haiti coverage from STATter911.com
Most Recent Comments