New Outrage Over DOJ & PSOB — Gonzales Admits Problems; Heart Attacks Again Top List; Spontaneous Combustion Video; Siren’s Song
Mount Vernon, Washington church burns Tuesday night. About 60 people escape as smoke filled the building. Click picture to see video and KOMO-TV coverage. Chief Dennis Rubin outraged over DOJ ruling. Goldfeder calls it the “Department of Injustice”. Attorney General says PSOB problems “unacceptable”.
D.C. Fire & EMS Chief Dennis Rubin is ready for a fight. Rubin was chief in Atlanta when Firefighter Russell Schwantes died of a massive heart attack. The U.S. Department of Justice ruled on Monday against Public Safety Officer Benefits for Schwantes’ widow. From Ohio, Chief Billy Goldfeder sends a late-night email taking on DOJ. Also, the Attorney General acknowledges problems with his department’s handling of the claims. All of these comments and more details can be found here.
Meanwhile, in another part of your federal government …
On the very same day of all this outrage over how DOJ handles PSOB, the U.S. Fire Administration reminds us why the 2003 Hometown Heroes Act was passed in the first place. In its annual report on “Firefighter Fatalities in the United States”, USFA says of the 106 on-duty deaths in 2006, fifty were from heart attacks.
Spontaneous combustion fear shuts down play grounds.
We first mentioned this yesterday and now fire investigators say you can’t argue with the video. They claim it shows spontaneous combustion of wood chip mulch at an Arlington, Texas playground and may explain some other playground fires. See for yourself.
The finding has shut down at least 20 playgrounds in Arlington. The plan is to replace the material with gravel. That should feel good on the knees. One can easily see this quickly spreading to other communities. Could it all just be a conspiracy by the massive band-aid lobby?
Busy day in Baltimore County.
Two, two-alarm fires at about the same time Tuesday afternoon. Good helicopter video.
No mooning over this siren. Just complaining.
Unlike a recent, similar dispute in New Jersey, the pants are staying on, at least so far, during this house siren complaint in Pennsylvania.
Explosions, fire and a collapse at a Maryland plant that manufactures industrial coatings and adhesives. Click on picture to see WBOC-TV’s raw helicopter video of the fire’s later stages. More details can be found here.
