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.