DCFD Inspector Investigated After Mayor’s Press Tour Interrupted; MA Close Call Video; PGFD Numbers Game; Raw Charleston Interviews; Mystery Truck
Video of the day: More than 9 minutes of raw video from a 2-alarm house fire in Clifton, NJ on Sunday. FireFightingNews.com has details and good still pictures.
A woman is dead in an overnight Houston fire that spread to four apartment buildings and went to four- alarms. Video and more details from KTRK-TV.
Inspector who interrupted mayor’s tour staying close to home.
A District of Columbia fire inspector is under investigation after his school inspection conflicted with a walk through by the mayor and reporters.
Close call in Massachusetts.
In Everett overnight a firefighter apparently ran out of air and was separated from his crew while searching during a fire in a combination commercial-residential building. He was rescued by ladder from the second floor and taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation and cuts. Articles on the four-alarm fire, here, here and here. Video of firefighter rescue, here. WHDH-TV reports two firefighters were in trouble.
Pick a number between 7 and 9.
Prince George’s County, MD is getting ready to switch over to the COG numbering system. Some career chief officers are already using it. The details are expected soon in a press release. PGFD are the 800 units. For example the first engine out of Station 33 (sorry, for some reason they were just the first to pop into my mind) will be Engine 833. The second engine will be Engine 833b. There will also be Tower 833. Of course the question still is, will there be an Ambulance 833?
Already quite a bit of discussion on thewatchdesk.com.
Update 1:53 PM: PGFD’s Mark Brady has issued a press release on this topic.
Help for fire victims who happen to be firefighters.
Chief Billy Goldfeder of firefighterclosecalls.com passes along this message about the fire at Schuylkill Hose Company No. 2:
As you may know, last Wednesday afternoon’s fire destroyed the Schuylkill Hose Company No. 2’s engines, hazmat truck and gear and caused more than $1 million in damage. This Fire Company in Pennsylvania can use some assistance. If you have safe and immediately usable fire equipment, PPE etc to donate or wish to assist them as they get back on their feet, please contact Glen Sattizahan. His e-mail is: gsattizahan@alphamills.com and his cell Phone # is 570-449-2613.
FireGeezer makes not of another firehouse fire. This one is in Kentucky.
Winnipeg makes changes in anticipation of LODD report.
After first saying it had done “everything by the book”, Winnipeg’s fire department is making changes after two firefighters died and four were injured last February. One of our readers points out this last paragraph in the CBC News article:
Under provincial law, the city could be fined up to $150,000 if workplace health and safety rules were violated; senior employees with the city or fire department could face up to six months in jail.
Smoke gets in your eyes. College fire drill practice questioned.
On Friday we showed you how a smoke machine was used for a college fire drill in Texas. A similar practice in Kentucky is being criticized.
A lot of questions and few answers on bodies missed at crash site.
Half of the victims at a Saturday car crash weren’t found until relatives searched. Fire department in Gary, Indiana says this is a police issue. Police aren’t talking.
Fair practice may be unfair.
Union complaint in Stamford, CT over volunteer department’s use of off-duty firefighters to protect a church fair.
SF drunken, groping probe stalling.
Everyone seems to agree something happened during the August 29th barbecue at an old San Francisco firehouse used as a soup kitchen. The “top-priority” investigation into the actions of off-duty firefighters may be hampered by uncooperative nun.
Planned demolition didn’t go as planned.
In Berlin, two of three smokestacks cooperated. When the third didn’t: “Five adults and two children were brought to Androscoggin Valley Hospital in Berlin with fractured ribs, lacerations, contusions, and sprains”.
Virginia house fire and more from the web.
VAFireNews.com has details and more pictures, like the one above, from a recent house fire in Abingdon.
WithTheCommand.com has the guided missile cruiser fire and a scrap metal bla
ze in CA.
FireGeezer, as always, has our multi-national coverage.
Firefighter Spot has video of the plane crash in Thailand.
SConFire.com has a link to the beautiful story of Indiana firefighters paying tribute to one of the fallen from Charleston.
Firefighter Hourly looks at more issues in the air as the probe into the June 18th fire continues.
FireFightingNews.com has the picture below and more from a weekend commerical building fire in LA.
Covering North Carolina, FireNews.net has a look at a fire in a busted natural gas line on a construction site.
Raw video from Charleston interviews.
You have probably seen the articles and the TV stories of some Charleston firefighters recently made available to reporters talk about the Sofa Super Store fire. WCIV-TV has posted raw video of its interviews.
Garage fires.
The one above with the exposure potential was posted today, but has no other information. The one below is a close call that goes back a bit.
And finally, Truck 44 or not Truck 44, that is the question.
Still have people debating the identity of the truck company with the PGFD seal pictured in a memories page from a few days ago. I think we can agree the picture was taken at Toledo Terrace. I will make the lame excuse that I was a south side boy who was drinking heavily in those days and can’t remember a thing.
One old timer (sorry) writes there were 4 trucks in the area at the time that looked similar. Truck 1 (before the demolition derby at East-West and Adelphi that resulted in a new tractor with an enclosed cab), Truck 44, Truck 28 (before it was painted yellow) and Silver Spring Truck 1 (unless they ran with a PGFD seal, it wasn’t them).
A fire destroys one home and damages a second on Sunday afternoon at Discovery Bay in California. A second-alarm was called by the East Contra Costa Fire District
