Updates on the news
Just tying up some loose ends with new information and links on stories we have brought you recently.
Medics treating FF Jared Pearish. From southbendfire.org where you will find more info on the fire.
Back home again: On Chief Billy Goldfeder’s FirefighterCloseCalls.com he has pictures of the helmet FF Jared Pearish was wearing yesterday when a grocery store wall came down around him (click here to see our links and video). South Bend, IN Chief Howard Buchanon believes the helmet was likely the difference between life and death and allowed FF Pearish to return home again.
There is also an update on the cuts Chief Buchanon says the department will have to face due to budget issues. The union thinks there are other things that should go before people. Click here.
All fall down 2: In a little foreshadowing of the days events, about the same time the world was coming in on FF Pearish, we had just posted an older video where some firefighters were having a similar experience. A fire official in Toronto was kind enough to write and confirm our guess that the video was taken in Cleveland. Still don’t know the date.
Power to the people: You may recall the video we ran on August 1 of power lines and transformers burning and arcing and surging through homes. We knew it was old, but didn’t know how old or a lot of details. Our readers quickly responded including the department that was first due at the blaze. Both Deputy Chief Bill Snyder and PIO Rich Gardiner of the Bel Air VFC in Harford County, MD contacted us about the 1988 fire. The video is often used for training. Here is what Rich Gardiner wrote:
During the summer of 1988 there was a most unusual fire call. The original alert was “Transformer explosion with CPR Assist.” The place: Moores Mill Road near Broadway. The first unit to arrive on the scene found, to their relief, that, miraculously, the man in the bucket of the utility truck had escaped injury. A transformer was lighting up the area every few minutes and its fire would run up and down the wires on Moores Mill Road.
Very shortly afterward, transformers all over the nearby developments were burning. The officer in charge called for additional alarms and units from all over the county responded. Fireman left work to help with the serious situation, and the EMS people were busy helping neighbors with the “welders eyes” they had received from watching the bright electrical arcs on the power lines. One house caught fire and many homes had such strong surges of current that their appliances were ruined. Luckily, no one was seriously injured. The entire day was spent preventing disastrous situations.
Rich also invited us to visit BAVFC.org, the company’s website. Quite a lot of information about the department on the site. Very interesting is the “Officer Biographies” link. It provides resumes for each of the company’s line officers. Nice feature.
