Must see video of a fire in the firehouse: Video from Defiance, Ohio where this fire occurred around 2:30 yesterday. The ambulance that caught fire was hooked up to a battery charger. Other city offices that are part of the building, including court, were evacuated. More details here and at FirefighterCloseCalls.com.
Don’t forget to check our player to the right where we are always adding new fire & EMS videos, including new clips of USAR teams in action in Haiti
UPDATE – 6.1 earthquake hits Haiti this morning: Word from Virginia Task Force 1 is that all team members were at the Base of Operations at 6:09 this morning when the large aftershock occurred. All are fine. (More new information below).
WUSA9.com’s Emily Cyr has been keeping on top of the latest news from Haiti this morning. Click here for our coverage. We will update you on any search and rescue team developments when we know them.
UPDATE – Another interview from Haiti and the Wednesday briefing: Virginia Task Force 1 participated in its 16th rescue last night. We have video in the player at right and in the link to follow of one of the crews recent rescues. It is believed the search and rescue teams in Haiti from all over the world have pulled out at least 122 people. More in our Wednesday briefing on VA-TF1.
Our old friend Mark Stone, who ages ago was a PIO for Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department, gave us a call from Port-au-Prince yesterday evening. Mark, retired from Fairfax and currently a lieutenant in Stafford County, is still a part of Virginia Task Force 1. Besides a happy birthday greeting for his wife Terri, Mark gave us more insight into the work being done by the teams and gave us a hint that the successful rescue last night was underway. Click here to listen to the entire interview.
USAR in the future: Firegeezer, always looking for the latest technology, has one from the search and rescue field. Check it out.
Photo of the day – driving the fire SUV: Not a fun time for one battalion chief trying to navigate flooded roads and mudslides. Check it out.
Fireground audio from around your Nation’s Capital: FireSceneAudio.com has radio traffic from a number of fires in the Washington, DC area this week. Click here for the clips from the DC Fire & EMS Department, Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Services and Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department.
That didn’t take long: Only three days after coming aboard as a probationary firefighter at the West Feliciana Fire District #1 in St. Francisville, Louisiana, 24-year-old Adam Carriere is under arrest for fires in a vacant bar and a vacant home just minutes apart. Read more.
Harsh editorial on Houston fire chief: We brought you the news first thing yesterday morning that Phil Boriskie is going back to suppression after six-years as Houston fire chief. The Houston Chronicle’s editorial on the controversies surrounding the department starts this way:
Whatever Houston Fire Chief Phil Boriskie was thinking when he presided over a personnel confrontation at Station 54 between a beleaguered woman firefighter and her male colleagues, it turned out to be the equivalent of trying to put out a house fire by dousing it with gasoline. In the subsequent blowup Boriskie himself suffered first-degree administrative burns and announced Tuesday morning he was stepping down to return to the rank and file effective Friday.
There are other views on Chief Boriskie, including high praise from the union president. Click here and here for those stories. Assistant Chief Rick Flanagan is the interim chief starting on Friday.
Firefighter saves man after vehicle is hit by train: Last night in Huron, Ohio a firefighter pulled a man to safety from a burning SUV that just been hit by a Norfolk Southern train. Click here.
House fire in Pennsylvania: This fire in a duplex in Shenandoah Heights in Schuylkill County occurred around 4:00 Tuesday morning. Read more about the fire.
