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This is Don Murtha III video from a fire around 11:30 last night near Woodlawn Avenue & Wohlers Avenue in Buffalo, New York.
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Photos from the fire by Dennis Wetherhold Jr.
Lehigh County Fire Dispatch transmitted the box at 02:16 for an unknown type of fire to the rear of Woodlawn station 32, sending one engine to investigate.
Engine 32 responds and goes on location reporting a working house fire at 2135 Belmont Street. Lehigh County fills the box for companies 11 and 3.
Chief 32 (Held) arrives and has heavy fire on the top floor of the 2-story S/F/D and fire through the roof. At 02:22 he transmits the second alarm filling out the rest of stations 32, 11, 3 and bringing in 26 and Whitehall's Rescue 8 for the FAST company.
Engine 32 positioned on the B side of the dwelling, stretches in two hand lines through the front door. Engine 11-11 hits the hydrant in front of the fire building and feeds water to Engine 32.
Tower Ladder 3 positions in front of Engine 32 and goes to work on the B side of the building.
Interior crews aggressively darken down the fire within 20 minutes with their two hand lines.
Chief 32 special-calls Allentown's Engine 10, Whitehall's Engine 2 and Han-Le-Co's Engine 33 for manpower.
This is the fourth fire at this address that firefighters have battled here. The Fire Marshall's office is investigating.
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This fire was reported at 6:38 PM Sunday night at 24 Saylor Drive in Coplay, Pennsylvania. Longtime STATter911.com contributor Bill Rohrer from NewsWorking.org was on the scene before the fire department. Here are excerpts from Bill’s description:
… heavy fire conditions in the rear of a 1-story S/F/D. Whitehall’s Squrt 3 arrives as first-due engine and stretches two lines – one to the front door and one to the rear using side B. The initial line to the front door was delayed in being charged because of pump problems.
Coplay Engine 5 arrives and stretches two lines to the rear. Another large handline was stretched off of Squrt 3 to the rear using the D side of the home.
Initial engine crews made a good attack through the front door after getting the line wet. However, with the delay in calling 911 (as the homeowner tried to battle the blaze) and with heavy fire conditions met on arrival, the attack was a little to late to save the house, as it was totally gutted.
Companies working the two alarm blaze: Coplay engines 511 and 512, Whitehall Engines 3, 13, 4, rescue 5, Cascade unit 3292 (Woodlawn) EMS 6291 (Cetronia) and Macungie Recon 6651.
The homeowner sustained burns to his feet and was transported to a local hospital. Red Cross was on scene assisting the family.
The Morning Call has details on the homeowner:
Dennis Brandon is a former volunteer firefighter, but he was no match Saturday for a fast-moving fire that erupted while he was watching the Eagles game, destroying his family’s recently-expanded Coplay Borough ranch home.
The fire, which started in the rear of the house at 24 Saylor Drive at about 6:30 p.m., quickly tore through the rancher. Brandon, 61, said he made a brief effort to fight the fire, which he initially thought was confined to the kitchen curtains, but when he realized it was raging out of control, fled the home with his son and called 911.
Baltimore County fire just before midnight: Michael “FirePix1075″ Schwartzberg shot this video from a house fire at Pembroke Avenue and Flannery Lane in Woodlawn, Maryland last night. Details and pictures from the Pikesville VFC website.
The way we were: We posted some interesting videos yesterday giving a view of EMS in the 1970s. The first is a look at DC in 1976 and a paramedic unit that really wasn’t. Then from 1979 a half-hour special on how EMS was being handled in DC and the suburbs. Check it out here.
Selling out: In the early day of his blog back in 2007, Firegeezer Bill Schumm told the story of the fire chief in Stockton, California selling naming rights for a fire engine. Bill was not a big fan of the idea. Now it has been learned things went a step further and Bill likes it even less. Read his rant.
Boston’s battle: A rally by Boston firefighters and a marathon City Council hearing are the latest development in the debate over the 19-percent pay raise that came with mandatory drug testing after the city and the union went to arbitration. Click here to read and watch the story.
FDNY’s Medal Day helped launch campaign against budget cuts: The Uniformed Firefighters Association parked a large mobile billboard outside Medal Day ceremonies pointing to the plans to close 20 fire companies. Read about the awards and the controversy.
Two crew members killed in Texas medical chopper crash: Click here for the story from Midlothian about yesterday’s CareFlite crash. Two crew members died. The crash sparked a grass fire.
Pennsylvania firefighter accused of arson: A volunteer in Bedford has been arrested accused of setting fire to the home where his ex-girlfriend and her parents live. Read more.
Ammunition plant blows up: A bullet manufacturing plant in Bend, Oregon exploded yesterday. There’s lots of damage but no injuries. Here’s the story.
Shed fire in New Jersey: This occurred Tuesday in Milford, New Jersey.
House fire in Baltimore County: We are a day late in posting the latest from Michael “FirePix1075″ Schwartzberg. This is from early yesterday morning at 5527 Pembroke Avenue in Woodlawn. Michael tells us an interior attack was abandoned after a gas line ignited. You can read his account at the Pikesville VFC website. There is more video - Part 2 and Part 3.
Ellerbe document to remain under wraps for now: The DC Department of Human Resources (DCHR) acknowledged on December 16 there is a formal agreement between the government of the District of Columbia and Sarasota, Florida that lets Kenneth Ellerbe remain a deputy chief in the DC Fire & EMS Department while he is chief of the Florida Department. As for getting that document, well, that’s another story. Saying it “would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy”, DCHR denied our FOIA request to see documents related to this arrangement. Click here for the full denial letter to my colleague Amy Leone. Click here and scroll down for our previous coverage of this issue.
PGFD responds to union press release on staffing during recent multi-alarm fires: Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department Chief Spokesman Mark Brady has a statement about the press release from IAFF Local 1619. The union pointed out understaffed and failed responses impacted operations at two large garden-apartment fires last week. Brady writes -
Handling the volume of calls for service that our Department does on a daily basis will, at times, stretch our resources thin. Prince George’s County Fire Chief Eugene A. Jones is working with the Local 1619 leadership to find a mutually agreeable way to conduct our day-to-day activities in the safest and most efficient way possible.
You can click here for Brady’s entire response and here for Local 1619′s press release.
Riverdale VFD president critical of our coverage: Stephen Lamphier brings up some interesting issues in his Christmas Day letter to STATter911.com. Lamphier is concerned how I portrayed a video of Riverdale’s members enjoying the recent snow storm. Please take a moment to read it.
We have early video to compare to this later picture by The World-Herald's Jeff Beiermann from yesterday's devastating fire in North Bend, Nebraska. Click the image for our coverage.
A little more than 24-hours left in the contest: We have some good guesses so far (and a few that are really far off) as to what the top 5 most popular stories were on STATter911.com for 2009. We can always use your entry. Click here to read about the rules and the amazing prize.
Raw video from DC second-alarm: Vito Maggiolo was on the scene for the DC Fire & EMS Department at an apartment fire on Sunday. Check it out.
Arrests in Woonsocket. RI: Well, I knew I was on to something when I made the map showing the very short distance between two multi-alarm fires in vacant buildings that occurred about 30-hours apart. I just didn’t know there were more fires and how quickly this would wrap up. Firegeezer’s posting alerted me to the arrests yesterday. It turns out there were four homes and two vehicles that burned. A 41-year-old man and two teens have been arrested. Read more.
Click the image for details and more Loudoun County Fire-Rescue Services photos from yesterday's two-alarm townhouse fire in Leesburg.
Decision in New Mexico scandal: In Eunice city officials have determined the fate of troubled Fire Chief Ron Grogan and two of the other firefighters charged with stealing a radar detector at a crime scene. But the details haven’t been released. Here is the latest.
Transcipts from dramatic and chaotic fireground audio on Northampton arsons: A local paper has now added transcripts with names of the chief officers to go with the fireground audio we first alerted you to on Sunday. This documents how dispatchers, firefighters and police tried to handle a dozen fires and attempted fires in 75 minutes, including one that killed two men. Click here.
Firefighter hit by parked police car: A secondary crash leaves a firefighter injured in Boardman, Oregon. Read the details.
Reported backdraft in Maryland: The Prince George's County Fire/EMS Department says this picture by FF/PM Joseph A. Gegor was taken minutes before an explosion blew firefighters more than 15-feet from the front door. No one was injured in what is being described as a backdraft. Click the image for more photos and details.
Three alarms equals 10 firefighters: In East Liverpool, Ohio one firefighter was hurt when the floor gave way during a house fire. He was just one of two firefighters on the first engine. Three alarms were sounded bringing a total of ten firefighters to the scene. Click here for the story and click here for a little history from FirefighterCloseCalls.com on East Liverpool’s staffing issues.
Dozens of cats die in house fire: The fire had burned itself out by the time the pet sitter arrived to find smoke in the Fairfax County, Virginia home. Click here.
Captain delivers Santa and winds up in the hospital: Lancaster, Pennsylvania Captain Ken Barton was seriously injured as he fell about 12 feet from Truck 2. Reports indicate it happened as the ladder was being bedded following its use to pluck Santa off the roof of a building and deliver home to the waiting crowd below. Click here for more.
Cameras rolling before fire engines arrive at gas explosion: One house was destroyed and another damaged in Bushnell, Illinois. Check out the early video.
Steelers’ owner’s defense saves the day: A runaway fire engine in Florida hits the property of a prominent citizen. Click here for details.
Dave has screwed this story up twice, but it still is interesting: In my haste to head out of town early Thanksgiving morning I twice misidentified exactly where this story is unfolding (but I was still very pleased with my headline). It is a legal battle in Heath, Ohio over whether businesses can be forced to have a key box for fire department entry. Read the arguments.
Two from the Geezer: Firegeezer has video and details from a minivan rollover in Louisiana that killed five and injured 10. Bill also has a very interesting story about an IAFF local in Mt. Vernon, Illinois as the members work to save the department’s 1939 Diamond T.
The future of firefighting?: Not quite robots, but the idea is the same. Let the machine take the heat and apply the wet stuff. Two videos for you.
Crash and fire: Some Baltimore County action Saturday evening courtesy of Michael “FirePix1075″ Schwartzberg. It happened on Liberty Road at Kelox Road just down the street from the STATter911.com boyhood home (I believe there is an historical marker). In fact it is quite possible my initials may be on the retaining wall seen in the video, as my friends and I were playing around it when the concrete was being poured. But I digress. One person was trapped with a total of five people hurt. Details can be found on the Pikesville VFC website.
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