Capt. Dutrow is home; SCBA on car fires – an option?; Fire chase; STATter 911 Archives; FFs get teen to prom; Indiana explosion; Fall River vote
(Updated at 7:45 PM)
Old pictures of the day: December 7, 1978 and 12,600,000 feet of nitro-cellulose film burns at the Washington National Records Center in Suitland. These are three of a larger series of photos I shot that day. A number firefigters were hurt (If I am not mistaken one of those injured would later become the PGFD chief). This was the second and larger of two fires at the film bunkers. The first one was in the evening of August 29, 1977. The National Archives caught a good deal of grief during congressional hearings about lax storage methods of the unstable, but historically significant film. Click here to see film of a nitrate fire. This one, that we ran previously, was from Little Ferry, NJ in 1937. It killed a 13-year-old boy trying to shield his mother from the fire across the street.
Captain R. Dwayne Dutrow has returned home after 15 days in the MedStar Burn Unit at the Washington Hospital. Captain Dutrow was released from the hospital Monday evening, according to Montgomery County Fire Rescue Service PIO Pete Piringer.
Dutrow and two firefighters on his crew were burned when a floor collapsed during a fire at a garden-apartment building in Rockville on May 4.
Seminar in NOVA 30-years-ago
If you haven’t figured it out yet, I pulled a few boxes from storage a week or so ago. One item in the STATter 911 Archives is a program for a seminar in Arlington County that wrapped up 30-years-ago today. Two of the people providing the training were Emmanuel Fried and Frank Brannigan.
Click here to see the program and read a few thoughts.
PPE on auto fires and some safety thoughts
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juprnW1IE-s&hl=en]
They went that away, an update
Broward County Fire Rescue Lt. Dean Meadows meets the press after using a fire engine to chase and help catch two men now charged with armed robbery. The latest from the Siun-Sentinel.com:
Broward Sheriff’s officials said the incident unfolded when their firefighters, returning from a canceled fire call, saw two men exiting a MetroPCS store in the 900 block of South State Road 7. The men had hoods and clothes covering their faces and one man slipped what appeared to be a gun into his waistband before hopping into a white SUV.
The firefighters followed the SUV for at least a mile before it made an illegal U-turn at a red light at Oaks Road. The Fire Rescue crew switched on their sirens, made the same U-turn and gave chase as the SUV sped up an eastbound ramp of Interstate 595.
The firefighters radioed a dispatcher as they followed the SUV. They lost sight of the vehicle as it drove onto Interstate 95 near Griffin Road.
The SUV eventually got off the highway on Stirling Road but didn’t get very far — it crashed into a fence a mile west of I-95, said Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue spokesman Mike Jachles.
That’s how the headline reads on wmur.com. But it isn’t like the firefighters had a prom dress hanging on the gear rack. Instead the firefighters in Fitzwilliam, NH pooled their money and made sure Alexandra Shaw got to the prom despite a fire that destroyed h
er home and her dress. Way to go. Read more.
Explosion in Indiana
Crews boring for soil samples ruptured a gas line that sparked a blaze and touched off a series of explosions Saturday. No injuries were reported. Total damages are estimated at $1 million.
Workers for Ohio-based paving company Shelly & Sands struck a 6-inch natural gas line at the Martin Marietta Aggregates complex at 15215 River Avenue at about 8:20 a.m. said Division Chief Rick Russell, spokesman for the Noblesville Fire Department.
“After they hit the gas line, they jumped off their truck and everybody took off,” Russell said. “They expected an explosion right away.”
It took approximately one hour for Vectren Energy to shut down the gas leak Russell added. At that point, gas which had flowed into a nearby storage building owned by Shelly & Sands ignited. Oxygen, propane and acetylene canisters stored in the building began exploding forcing firefighters to back off to a safe distance.
GPS almost $10 million later … never mind
FireGeezer Bill Schumm has the story of the $9.5 million spent to equip all 460 vehicles in the Scottish Ambulance Service with GPS. In case you can’t figure out what happened next from the hint above, click here and Bill will tell you.
By the way, I ran across this video which appears to be a re-creation of firefighting back in the Geezer’s day. Click here.
Pillow talk
His name is Greg Pillow. He claims to be a former Nashville, TN firefighter. The department claims there is no record that is true. Pillow is now going on the offensive after media reports that he was impersonating a firefighter during safety talks at local daycare centers. Watch the story.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIagQEkr8eg&hl=en]
The video above is of a tour of a 1972 Oren pumper that apparently was from Mamaroneck, NY. Click here for more videos of this fire engine, including a few on the move.
The chief complaint in Fall River
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmeUoJXm6jM&hl=en]
They have been battling it out in Fall River, MA as the mayor moves the council to give him power to appoint the fire chief. Up until now it has been a civil service position. Mayor Robert Correia got his wish in a vote on Friday. The union has been fighting this issue. Read more.
Chiefs meet
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER-8mL9_rMw&hl=en]
And finally … some forcible entry
Not sure it has any relevance to firefighting, but it sure is neat video.
