THE CINCINNATI FIRE DEPT. WAS ESTABLISHED IN 1853 and has a rich history.  There is an excellent website that someone has set up with lots of photos and information on the CFD History here.  Click on this one when you have plenty of time to leisurely graze through the site.

ONE OF LONDON’S BUSIEST SHOPPING STREETS was closed today after a major fire left a building on the verge of collapse.

LOS ANGELES CITY BATT. CHIEF LARRY SCHNEIDER has been on the job for 53 years (!) and has never held a desk job….always in the field.  Actually, he started before that in 1949 but served a stint in the Army.  He is retiring today and there is a good video here.  After you watch it, tell me if you think you’ll be looking and moving this well when you’re 79 yrs. old.

THE CITY OF ST. LOUIS HAS LONG HAD A RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT for its city employees.  Unfortunately, the city has recently allowed the public schools to become so incompetent that they are losing State accreditation come June.  The firefighters are waging an uphill battle to get a law passed in the State legislature that will override the city and allow the FF’s to move into other jurisdictions where their children can be educated properly.

note:  This article is over a week old, but Firegeezer thinks it is still a relevant topic.

THE FOREST FIRE IN S.E. GEORGIA THAT HAS been burning for 11 days broke its containment yesterday.  Continued dry weather and high winds have it on the move again.  Albany, Ga. channel 10 has two videos here.

A HUGE FOSSILIZED RAIN FOREST has been discovered in an Illinois coal mine.  A major earthquake 300 million years ago caused the forest to drop below sea level, burying the entire ecosystem in mud almost immediately.

IN WHAT SEEMS TO BE A REGULAR OCCURRENCE THERE, an entire apartment building collapsed today.  Fortunately the residents had a little warning and most of them got out before it went down.  But an unknown number are still buried.

IN JAPAN SHEEP ARE SO RARE THAT MANY PEOPLE have no idea what a lamb looks like.  Enter the entreprenuer who bought a flock of sheep and sold them as “fashion poodles” at half the price a poodle normally costs.  People started getting curious when their “dog” wouldn’t bark.

A FIRE DISTRICT NEAR TUCSON IS HAVING AN UGLY finger-pointing battle going on between the Chief, who was accused of sexual misconduct, and a Captain who is being accused of not disclosing a 1987 negligent-homicide conviction when he applied for the job in 1991.

IN NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND THE FIRE CHIEF HAS DECIDED to ignore most of the recommendations for improving the fire department.  Chief Edward McCarthy says they will not a) build a new station in an underserved area, b) relocate the fire prevention offices into an adequate facility, and will not schedule more time for training and pre-fire planning, even though the report says that “The work schedule during the day shift also devotes excessive time to cleaning the facility.”

TOILET PAPER HAS BEEN IN THE NEWS LATELY thanks to a Hollywood entertainment-industry dunce who has suddenly found out that nobody will shake her hand.  But in Germany a research physicist for Proctor & Gamble has wrapped himself in developing a new product that will wipe the competition.  His ultimate vision is to eliminate the stuff altogether.  Really.

Wayne EAGLE photo

 FIREFIGHTERS AT THE WAYNE (MICHIGAN) FIRE DEPARTMENT are restoring “Old Betsy,” the 1928 American LaFrance 1,000 gpm fire engine that originally served their department.  And they are doing it without expending any government funds, instead raising the money through fund-raisers, etc.