PGFD suspends Ritchie chief & president; VA FFs missing in NH are safe; Close call at 3-alarm fire; Stafford profile; Capt. has stroke while driving
Video of the day and CLOSE CALL ALERT: I was asleep at the switch and missed the above moment from Tom Yeatman’s video of Sunday’s 3-alarm fire in Laurel, MD. One of our reader’s, Matt, spotted it and wrote this warning – “Watch the Firefighter taking down the fence in front of the masterstream, get’s his helmet and almost his head blown off by the masterstream. GOTA PAY ATTENTION! Those things will hurt ya. Again glad everyones OK”. Click the image above to see the video. We’ve slowed and isolated it. One chief pointed out that if the firefighter had been wearing his chin strap, he might have suffered a broken neck. Amid all the controversy of a few hot topics we’ve been covering lately, it’s nice to pass along an educational moment. File it under situational awareness.
New developments in Ritchie VFD vs PGFD: Chief and president suspended
Dave Crigger, president of Ritchie VFD, tells STATter 911 a letter from Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Lt. Col. Tyrone Wells was hand-delivered to him this evening ordering Crigger’s suspension. Crigger said that Chief 837, William Cunningham has also been operationally suspended. According to Crigger, the letter states the suspensions are a result of PGFD’s investigation into a convicted arsonist responding on calls at Ritchie. Crigger points out that there was no personally delivered letter when PGFD’s background check determined on September 10, 2007 that Napoleon Queen was not to be part of emergency operations. Crigger has said, despite PGFD’s claims, Ritchie never received any notification about Queen with the exception of the county’s recent request that Queen come in for his hepatitis B shot or face suspension.
We have contacted PGFD for comment. If want to read more or provide your own comment on this issue, click here.
Two Fairfax County FFs missing in White Mountains of New Hampshire are safe
In an image from WMUR-TV, Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department technicians Steve McCay and Alex Obert meet the press after being found this morning in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Click here for the latest and coverage that began yesterday evening. New way of doing business
Captain suffers stroke while driving rig
On Saturday San Bernadino County, CA Captain Vance Tomaselli was driving a fire engine to a call when he suffered a stroke. He remains unconscious in critical condition. From the Press-Enterprise:
“I have a feeling he knew what was going on,” said Thom Wellman, San Bernardino County Fire Department division chief.
“He was trying to tell (radio dispatchers) that he knew something was going wrong with him, and he was trying to get off the road when he sideswiped a tree.”
If Tomaselli had lost control of the engine, the rig likely would have plunged down a mountainside, Wellman said. That could have killed both occupants.
“We’re talking 600 feet — a long ways,” Wellman said.
Instead, Tomaselli negotiated the turn from Jenks Lake Road onto Camp Edwards Road, where other firefighters came to his aid and summoned a medical helicopter.
By many accounts, Tomaselli is an independent soul.
“Ornery, strong-willed, stubborn,” Wellman said. “But a man with probably as big a heart as any man I’ve ever met in my life — a man who has always put the community before himself.
Ambulance crash test
Texas explosion and fire
