Quick Takes: October 15, 2012.

Oct 15, 2012

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House fire in Luzerne County, PA: Video from FireandFilm.com’s JC Kriesher of a fire late Sunday morning in Hazelton.

Click here to follow STATter911.com on Facebook (hit “like”)

So what the hell was Statter ranting about with his post about The Rube?: A very good question. Thanks for asking. The former chief of the DC Fire & EMS Department wrote his latest FireEngineering.com column about dealing with the press at a major incident. I just happened to notice some facts in the column were very different than the “facts” Chief Dennis Rubin used when he claimed in 2009 that STATter911.com was not reporting the truth in some of our coverage of a deadly Metro collision. Reading The Rube’s article, I am starting to be suspicious that I actually did tell the truth (must have been by accident, you know how we media types always lie) Click here for my post.

But if you would rather avert your eyes and not look at Dave dredging up something few people care about, let me offer you this Reader’s Digest version of it all. During a major crisis in the community an elected official put his own need to be on TV in front of keeping the citizens informed. When called on it by the press, a department head covered for his boss, the elected official. In doing so, the department head then went on the attack and blamed the reporter.

Shocking? Not really. The team of Mayor Adrian Fenty and Chief Dennis Rubin were far from the first to do something like this in the Nation’s Capital or elsewhere and they won’t be the last. It’s just nice to see more of the real story starting to emerge.

The Curt & Dave Show: Curt Varone of FireLawBlog.com and much more is getting ready to carry me through a webinar on social media sponsored by American Military University. It will be held on Tuesday October 23 at 11:00 AM Eastern time. Sign up here through the IAFC.

Fire truck struck in Ohio: Glenn Usdin’s FireTruckBlog.com has the story from Miami Township, Ohio of a rig hit on a highway.

Pre-arrival video from Fresno, CA house fire: A neighbor has two versions of the fire he shot on Saturday. One shows all 30 minutes of video speeded up for review in just six minutes. Check it out.

PA Barn fire with exposures: Video of another Lancaster County mulit-alarm fire.

Squirrel dinner destroys apartments: Firegeezer.com has all the details of one of the more unusual causes for a fire of late. Don’t miss this one.

Audio from Detroit 2nd alarm at pallet & trucking firm: wildfirevideosWNY has audio posted from Wednesday’s fire at Beaufait and Sylvester. Click here.

Random behavior: That guy at FireCritic.com has the latest installment of his new series called Firefighter Randomness. I’m not sure how to describe it (or pretty much anything that guy does) but here it is.

On duty sex show(s) in Nashville ends career for three: The scandal that was uncovered when a firefighter was being extorted now results in three firefighters resigning. Here are details.

Never off duty in Jacksonville, Florida: There is some fallout after a group of Jacksonville firefighters were reprimanded because of sexually charged performances at a fundraiser in August. Now, an annual charity fashion show, which in the past had firefighter participation, isn’t getting many volunteers. The union head says there is concern about a comment from the chief that the firefighters are never off duty, Here’s more.

Captain Willie vents: My friend Willie Wines Jr. thinks he has the answer to much of what ails the fire service in this country and lays it all out in two columns here and here.

Three-alarms in Manassas, Virginia: Some details from a fire late last night in a storage facility.

First Due Tackle: Check out the latest post, How Do You Store Your Webbing?