THE MAJOR FIRE ON ALASKA’S KENAI Peninsula currently has 500 firefighters working it and is now 60% contained.  It was learned today that the fire began as a result of an attempt to create a wedding present. 

The bride’s parents had donated the land and the groom’s parents were going to build a vacation cabin on it.  While sharpening a shovel on a grinder, sparks ignited the dry grass and you know the rest of the story.

The groom’s parents tried to in vain to stop the flames, then found themselves cut off from a road and had to be rescued by helicopter, Alaska Division of Forestry wildfire investigator Sharon Roesch said.

“They tried to slap it out with the shovel and the shirts off their backs,” Roesch said.

Roesch was still determining whether the incident will warrant charges. If convicted of violating state fire statutes, the offending couple could be made to compensate the state based on their ability to pay, she said.

The full AP story is HERE.

Firegeezer says:  The bride’s mother is quoted: “It’s devastating. It’s heartbreaking,” Steik said. “What a tragic (way) for my daughter to start her married life.”
Typical Yuppie mentality…..88 homes destroyed along with millions of dollars worth of property, and she’s heartbroken because her daughter’s  wedding will be dampered.

IN PORT ST. LUCIE, FLORIDA a man woke up at 4:30 am with a splitting headache.  He thought he was either having an aneurism or else his wife had inadvertantly elbowed him during the night.

His wife drove him to the hospital where doctors found a bullet lodged behind his right ear.  Sheriff’s deputies, after investigation, charged his wife with attempted murder.

Yahoo! News has the AP story HERE.

A STATE AGENCY CHARGED the Baltimore City Fire Department yesterday with “intentionally” and “knowingly” violating safety rules resulting in “a substantial probability [of] death or serious physical harm” during a Feb. 9 training exercise that killed a fire cadet.

The Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, after a five-month investigation, cited the department for 33 safety violations and singled out two fire commanders for the haphazard planning and execution of the live burn that claimed the life of Racheal M. Wilson, 29, and injured two others in a vacant rowhouse on South Calverton Road in Southwest Baltimore.

The Baltimore Sun has obtained the complete report and summarizes it HERE.  The violations cited are quite egregious and justify the personnel actions taken so far…..one officer fired and two others on suspension pending termination.

THIS AFTERNOON AT 2:30 pm EDT, the International Association of Fire Fighters has scheduled a press conference.  It is expected that they will be addressing the incident last week in Charleston, So. Carolina.  There have been many questions raised concerning the incident command, tactics, and preparedness.

The Post & Courier reports that: 

Roger L. Yow, president of the Charleston Firefighters Association Local 61, was on the scene of the furniture store fire and has not yet publicly spoken about the incident. Yow retired from the city fire department in 2003 after 25 years of service.

“We are just going to talk about the promise I made to the guys that night,” Yow said told The Post and Courier Wednesday. He declined to elaborate.

Firegeezer will keep updated.

Update:  The press conference was held in Charleston and speakers were Roger Yow, Mike Parrotta and Larry Osborne.  An edited video of the presser is HERE.

GEORGETOWN, TEXAS POLICE ARRESTED  a woman suspected of stealing an ambulance from St. David’s Hospital in Georgetown early Monday morning.  Janna Marie Grazdan, 43, of Round Rock, was charged with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, a state felony punishable by up to two years in prison. Her bond was set at $15,000.

Officials said the vehicle was not damaged nor was any medication gone, but one paramedic’s purse was missing.

Full story HERE.

Garzdan mug shot

THE BRITISH HEALTH MINISTER is set to unveil the Queen’s Ambulance Service Medal for acts beyond the call of duty.  It is being introduced to mark the Ambulance Service’s 70th Anniversary.

The medal will be awarded for an outstanding contribution to the national or local development of the ambulance service, as well as for demonstrating commitment beyond the call of duty.  It will be bestowed by the Queen, similar to the Queen’s police and fire service medals.

BBC has the STORY.

A TIRE IMPORTER/DISTRIBUTOR IN NEW JERSEY has been ordered by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to recall 450,000 light truck tires that were made in China and sold in the U.S. in 2005 and 2006.

The importer, Foreign Tire Sales of Union, New Jersey, claims that a massive recall as ordered would force it into bankruptcy.  However, the NHTSA is brushing off that claim and is also probing the Chinese manufacturer.

The United States imports roughly 32 million tires annually from China, according to the Rubber Manufacturers Association, a trade group. It also imports tires from Canada, Japan, Korea and Taiwan.

The Reuters story is HERE.

Firegeezer says:  Were you aware that we were importing all those tires from China?  I sure wasn’t.  But I’m having a little trouble generating any sympathy for the importer.  They knew going into the deal that China is largely unethical and unreliable as a business partner.  Ya’ takes your chances when you’re dealing with them.  It was lucrative for a while, but it came back to bite them.  Personally, I would never knowingly buy a tire made in China.

A FIRE LATE YESTERDAY AFTERNOON at a plastics recycling plant in Riverside, California was notable for its huge plume of black, toxic smoke.  A nearby freeway interchange was shut down during the evening rush hour and the Riverside County health authorities had to declare a health emergency.

The rapidly-spreading outside fire quickly engulfed an acre yard filled with wooden pallets, cardboard boxes and piles of plastic.

The Post-Enterprise has the story HERE.
KTLA has a good helicopter/VIDEO HERE.

THE AREA OF 300 HOMES that was threatened yesterday when the fire jumped a fire line were spared as the flames were successfully re-directed.  Yesterday the blaze moved so quickly that two firefighters were forced to deploy the emergency shelters firefighters carry to protect themselves as a last resort. They managed to walk away uninjured.

Today is considered the key day for containment.  The latest AP report is HERE.

THE CHARGES AND COUNTER-CHARGES ARE just getting going.  Many of the uniformed rank-and-file are anxious to get into the mud pit, but are restraining themselves until the immediate mourning is over.

It started on Sunday when the lead newspaper in Charleston, the Post & Courier, published a scathing article about the FD’s lack of a viable Incident Command System led to a rapid deterioration of the incident.  The article is HERE.

Then on Monday, Dave Statter at STATter911.com published an email from IAFF President Schaitberger that has been posted on several union local websites.  In this letter, Schaitberger categorized a litany of complaints about how the Memorial Service was being utilized for political purposes and sloppily assembled due to the as-yet unexplained desire for a rapid assembly.  Read the EMAIL HERE.

Yesterday Jim Bowie, the lead coordinator for the memorial service, sent an email to STATter911 countering Schaitberger’s accusations, labeling the IAFF President’s statement as:  “…. a page of untruths, false and inaccurate.”  Then Bowie proceeds to unwittingly admit that he did do those things that he was accused of.

For example, Bowie admits that  he did invite Rudolph Giuliani to speak, and that he (Bowie) is involved in Giuliani’s campaign.  He claims that the IAFF did “have a seat at the table” in the planning sessions, but the charge remains that all those people “at the table” were only told of firm decisions after they were made by a select few in secret meetings.  He also admits that the State regulations on 2-in-2-out (that he was involved with implementing) were finalized at 2-in-1-out as a compromise.  Firegeezer thinks that this is the wrong time to be admitting a willingness to compromise of firefighter safety.  There’s more……read Statter’s email exchanges HERE.

Today, Mike Parrotta, the State IAFF president, chimes in with his refutation of Bowie’s email.  Parrotta expresses his view of the controversy.  Dave Statter has published it HERE.

There will undoubtedly be more coming out of South Carolina in the next few days (weeks?), so file these in order so that you can keep up.  Later today Firegeezer will be opening a daily dialogue on the points that have been publicly laid out.  Today we will consider the Fire Chief’s defense of his style of incident command.  Check back later.

JUST A FEW MINUTES AGO THE ASSOC. PRESS reported that the firefighters trying to tame a raging wildfire near Lake Tahoe Tuesday suffered a setback when the blaze jumped a fireline near a densely populated area, forcing a new round of evacuations.

The flare-up is about three miles from where the fire started Sunday near the south end of Lake Tahoe. By Tuesday afternoon, the blaze had consumed more than 2,700 acres and was about 40 percent contained, fire officials said.

“I didn’t save hardly anything in the house,” said retired firefighter John Hartzell, who lost his home of 20 years. Along with his wife, adult son and a daughter, he sorted through the rubble in search of any mementos.  “I got out with the clothes on my back, my fire coat and my helmet,” he said.

Sue Hartzell, right, looks inside her family’s burned out van Tuesday, June 26, 2007, with friend Mike Corey of Lake Valley Fire Protection District after her family home was burned down on Sunday in the Angora wildfire in South Lake Tahoe, Calif. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Full story HERE.

IN NORTHERN COLORADO TWO TEENS were jumping on the top of a crude oil storage tank when they somehow ignited the vapors causing an explosion that hurled them 150 feet to their deaths.

Authorities believe that their antics on the top of the tank caused the pressure relief valve to release the vapors.  They are now attempting to learn what the ignitions source was.  There was a campfire at the base of the tank.

Channel 31 has the story HERE……and a video report HERE.