Quick takes
An image you might want to see: Click the photo above for a panoramic view of the procession for Los Angeles County Fire Captain Ted Hall who was killed during the Station fire. It was taken by Bryan Chan of the Los Angeles Times.
Chief thought the brotherhood of the fire department could help convicted sex offender. It apparently didn’t: The captain of the Richland Township Volunteer Fire Department in Anderson, Indiana turned in his keys and resigned as he was taken away in handcuffs on September 4. Larry “Scott” Pearson, 31, has been charged with two counts of sexual misconduct with a 14-year-old girl. Pearson is a 13-year veteran of the department who was allowed to continue as a firefighter after his 2007 conviction of felony child pornography. Chief Bryan Frank explained to the Herald Bulletin why Pearson remained with the fire department:
“What I thought was here’s an opportunity for the brotherhood of the fire department to gather around one of their own, to support him and help him focus on doing things that are right, essentially giving him a second chance. This was not something that was taken lightly when that decision was made.”
Comment of the month: Steve in NJ is a long time reader and a regular in our comments section. He usually has something interesting to say. His comment yesterday on our story about the rescue of the little girl in the stroller at the bottom of a Michigan lake has now been seen by a lot of eyeballs after Billy Goldfeder sent it out on The Secret List. In case you missed it:
Let me see if I have this right. Baby falls into 12 feet of murky water, someone calls 911, firefighters arrive within minutes and risk their lives to dive in and rescue the infant in cardiac arrest then successfully revive her? Did I miss anything? Hey to all the city council members and mayors out there who say that closing stations and laying off firefighters will have no effect on public safety, READ this article. To all you conservative think tanks who think that firefighters all just sit around all day long and get paid to sleep and watch TV READ this article. To all you newspaper editorial writers who think that firefighters need to stop using the “people will die if you cut positions” theme then you should READ this article. Why? Because layoffs, station closures, brown outs and budget cuts DO increase response times and WILL cost people’s lives. So stop worrying about your own re-election and worry about how this story could have had a very different (not so happy) ending if it weren’t for these firefighters.
Did firefighters dig a hole for themselves or is there funny business going on here: I just don’t know what to make of this. In Bayou George, Florida (Bay County) firefighters offered to bury Gizmo the family dog found dead when a mobile home burned down on August 14. Last week the family was going through the remains of the home and smelled something pretty awful. It was Gizmo. So how did Gizmo get out of his hole and back in the home? Digging up the spot where Gizmo had been buried, the family found a stereo speaker wrapped in the towel firefighters had shown them. It doesn’t make any sense to me either. Read the whole story here.
One of Buffalo’s regular customers: We showed you over the weekend how DC is trying to deal with 911 abuse. In Buffalo our sister station caught up with a man who has used the ambulance service 600 times in three years. Click here to read and watch that story.
Man accused of impersonating a fire official: In Los Angeles a man has been arrested for impersonating a fire investigator to shake down small business owners to use his services. He targeted immigrants. Read the details.
Virginia Beach firefighters help bicyclist who took the ride of his life: A 50-foot plunge off a bridge made for a challenging technical rescue. Click here for the videos and the run down of what happened.
The Sharing Tree becomes the burning tree: In Grand Rapids, Michigan an artist had his sculpture destroyed by fire. It wasn’t vandalism. It happened while the artist was trying to prevent trouble. Check out the picture and the story.
The top 100: The FireCritic has a list of the top 100 fire and EMS Twitterers. It turns out there were a few I am not following (and maybe even one or two I don’t want to follow). It is good way to follow fire news from all over. Click here for the list. And click here to follow STATter911.com on Twitter (yes, I made the critic’s cut).
