Saturday, May 9, 2009

In The News

Explosion in Forestville, MD: The image above shows the positions of three of the firefighters as debris begins flying and a fireball tears through stores at the Penn Mar Shopping Center. A fourth firefighter had just walked through the door into the building. Only two of eight injured firefighters remain hospitalized from Thursday's explosion and they are in good condition. We now have a cleaner copy of the explosion video, fireground audio, a series of still images showing the firefighters' positions, a list of injured firefighters and a lot of new details. Click here for our coverage.

You have to see the pictures: Salt Lake City has its first female battalion chief. The 7-year-old son of Rosemary Ellis pinned the badge on mom. But it is what dad, a captain with another fire department, did that will make you smile. Click here to see the pictures and read the story.

Huh?: We have heard the stories about firefighters falling to discover dead bodies in burned out cars and homes, but this is a new one. A man in Fort Wayne, Indiana claims he woke up in a car lot, in the back seat of his car after it had been towed there following a vehicle fire. Yes, he is claiming the firefighters failed to find a live body in the car. Is anyone buying this? I am not making it up. Check it out for yourself.

Well, that's one way to rob a bank: Police say an assistant bank manager set fire to money in the vault to cover his tracks. He got caught and it probably didn't help that he locked his keys inside the bank. Click here to read the story and here to watch it.

Fired assistant chief gets support: In Albany, Georgia an assistant chief was fired when he sent firefighters to clean out his aunt and uncle's basement after a flood. Now supporters are trying to help him get his job back. Click here.

Demand that a captain be fired: You may recall the story of a Houston fire captain discovered with a noose in his locker. Some community groups want the captain gone. Read the details and watch the story.

Andy Fredericks Training Days: The registration deadline is here for the event honoring the FDNY and former Alexandria, VA firefighter. Click here for the details.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Pucker factor here - Near-Rollover In Pennsylvania

 

A DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, FIRE ENGINE WENT OFF THE ROAD and stopped just short of rolling down an embankment this morning.

chester-firetruck-a-philfirenews

Philly Fire News staff photo

The pumper was responding to an auto accident on I-95 and was traveling down an on-ramp when it went over the guard rail around 10:30 am.  The cause of the crash has not yet been determined, but there was no report of any other vehicles being involved.

Three firefighters were on board, one of them is reported to have suffered lower-back injuries and has been transported.

WTXF-TV Ch. 29 has this video report:

At noontime the northbound traffic on I-95 was still being diverted to a detour while preparations are made to try and retrieve the pumper safely.

The Delaware County Daily News has the latest REPORT.
Philly Fire News has more and a photo gallery HERE.

Fire apparatus hits A Van

Good reminder to drive carful out there. No back ground info on this but a good reminder to drive safe and defensively.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

As Pete Seeger turns 90, his songs remain timeless

I am a couple of days late on this, but Pete Seeger turned 90. If you don’t know him, you should know his songs. Agree with him or not he is an American jewel!

"This Land Is Your Land" Like Woody Wrote It ~ truthout

At the conclusion of today's concert for president-elect Barack Obama 89-year-old Pete Seeger joined Bruce Springsteen for a sing-along with perhaps half a million people of Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land," which I dare say practically everyone in the country knows from childhood.

But sly old Pete, who actually hoboed with Woody during the Depression and Dust Bowl, had the crowd sing the song as it was actually written, as not only a celebration of this great land, but as a demand for workers' and people's rights. That is, he restored the verses that have been censored from the song over the years to make it less political.(lyrics after the jump)

** As Pete Seeger turns 90, his songs remain timeless

Monday, May 4, 2009

Odd news For a Monday

Bathroom Emergency:

Toilets Cushion Plane Crash

The pilot of a small airplane was able to walk away after its crash landing was cushioned by a bunch of portable toilets near Tacoma, Wash.
Gary Mayor of the Federal Aviation Administration says the Cessna 182 crashed shortly after 3 p.m. Friday as it was taking off from Thun Field, an airfield owned by Pierce County southeast of Tacoma.
Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer says the plane was about 150 feet in the air when the engine quit. He tells The News Tribune that the pilot, the only person on board, tried to turn around to land, but didn't quite make it.
The plane hit a fence, flipped over and landed upside down on top of the portable toilets, which were in a storage yard just northwest of the runway.
Several of the toilets were toppled, but a damage estimate and the pilot's identity weren't immediately available.

Woman woken by leaking corpse

A Modesto woman had to move out of her apartment when something horrible happened to her neighbor. Her upstairs neighbor died and no one knew for days... until she experienced it firsthand. "It's been a total nightmare," says Sylvia Pena, Modesto resident. "I was sleeping on the couch... I was awakened by some drops that hit my face... I thought I was drooling," explained Sylvia. It wasn't drool or water dripping from her ceiling. The drippings? Bodily fluids from the upstairs apartment. Her neighbor had died... his corpse sat there rotting, he was dead for days. The autopsy report found the 34-year old "likely overdosed"... His body was "moderately to severely decomposed." And over time, the decomposition allowed bodily fluids to leak, onto his floor, through the ceiling, eventually onto Sylvia and her things.
A biohazard team removed furniture and deodorized the place. But she says the smell of death lingered. It already had seeped into clothes, bedding and her mattress. She turned to her rental insurance company to get her pungent- smelling property replaced. They put her up in a hotel for two weeks until she could move, but they refused to replace the contaminated contents. "Because my policy doesn't cover something so bizarre as this," says Sylvia. They sent her this letter, reading: "Unfortunately, the blood and bodily fluid damage to your contents is not one of the 17 named perils covered in your policy." Perils like fire or lightning, windstorm, falling objects, even aircraft is covered but not bodily fluids. Farmers Insurance is now considering a national change to its policy.... adding "bodily fluids from death" as one of the perils they cover.

Two men eat brother’s body to conceal murder
Two men, aged 23 and 28 have killed and eaten their elder brother in the South Siberian city of Perm, the Life.ru web-site reported Wednesday.
According to the report, the crime was uncovered by pure chance – one of the criminals went to the police and asked for a written confirmation of the disappearance of his relative (a document necessary for inheritance rights to come into force). He said that his elder brother had left home and never came back. However, the policemen became suspicious as the alleged disappearance had taken place several months before the report.
Investigators searched the area around the brothers’ home and found a human head and remains of a corpse. Forensic tests revealed that these were the remains of the missing man.

USPS etter carrier was delivering more than mail
A 43-year-old U.S. Postal Service mail carrier was arrested while on her rounds Thursday, then charged with possessing and selling drugs. Agents found 7.57 grams of meth packaged for sale, prescription drugs, documentation of sales, packaging material and a glass smoking pipe in her vehicle.
SCINTF agents later searched Crabill's home in Yreka, where they found 34.8 grams of methamphetamine, packaging materials, hypodermic syringes, smoking pipes, a drug scale and documentation of sales.
Crabill was booked into Siskiyou County Jail on suspicion of possessing methamphetamine for sale, possessing drug paraphernalia, transporting methamphetamine, maintaining a household for the purpose of selling a controlled substance and possessing Vicodin and Oxycontin.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Volunteer loses job over missing work while on emergency call. Iowa firm had given permission for absence, but changed rules

For a while Heath Omar had an employer that was very flexible about Omar's work as a volunteer with Hiawatha Fire Rescue in Iowa. According to an article by Adam Belz of The Gazette, Clipper Windpower agreed when Omar was hired in August 2007 to allow the firefighter to leave his full-time job to respond to emergency calls.

Belz cites an Iowa Unemployment Insurance Appeals decision that indicates Clipper modified the arrangement last September when Omar missed a shift due to illness but failed to make proper notifications.

FF Heath Omar, from Hiawatha Fire Rescue website

Still, the firm apparently agreed to let Omar arrive late if he was out on a call at the start of his shift. From Belz's article:
Also, Omar's superiors knew he could not call to report his absence while he was driving an emergency vehicle.
On Nov. 3, Omar responded to an emergency call in the morning and "reported his tardiness as soon as he could," Scheetz wrote. He arrived to work an hour late, worked a full day and was fired at the end of his shift.
Clipper later laid off some 90 employees in January, many of them at the company's Cedar Rapids plant.

The administrative law judge handling the case ruled in Firefighter Omar's favor.

There was no comment from any of the parties except Chief Mike Nesslage, Hiawatha Fire Rescue. Chief Nesslage told the reporter, "I see a decline in employers and others in general in their patience for volunteer firefighters. I think in an urban area it's worse. They don't think about it. They just assume those services are there and they don't really think about where they come from."

Friday, May 1, 2009

Tire recycling plant could burn for days. Story from Knoxville, TN.

 

Photo to WBIR-TV by Rob Christenson

Watch story from WBIR-TV (or here)

From WBIR-TV:

A layer of melted rubber has formed a crust over some flames inside Mac's Tire Recycling Center at 1407 Boruff Road in East Knoxville. Firefighters said it could take several days to remove the layer and attack the fire that remains underneath.
Firefighters have also knocked down a wall on the western side of the facility. The opening will be used as a new entrance for firefighters who are fighting the biggest flames. Those are located in the eastern portion of the recycling center.
A cloud of thick smoke could be seen for miles when the fire broke out around 7 p.m. Thursday.
The 10,000 sq. ft. building was covered with flames.
KFD said a lot of tires, used to make rubber mulch, were inside the building.

Photo by KFD spokesman D.J. Corcoran

No employees were inside the facility when the building caught fire.
Firefighters are urging nearby homeowners to stay inside if the smoke blows in their direction.
KFD Spokesperson D.J. Corcoran said the cause of the fire remains under investigation, but another fire at the same facility nearly five months ago could help them find answers.
"That fire [in January] was caused by a grinder. Rubber is ground up and builds on working parts of machinery and the rubber got hot and caused the fire that night," said Corcoran.
There was also a large tire fire last May in North Knoxville. The business at that site was also run by a company called Mac's Tire Recycling. We have not been able to confirm if the two businesses are connected.

Photo by KFD spokesman D.J. Corcoran