*  STATter911 continues his daily saga of the D. C. Water and Sewer Authority’s ineptitude.  Today’s featured hydrant:

WUSA image

After being notified about the unusable hydrant, the water authority crew said there was nothing wrong with it.  They were able to get water out of it, you see.  Catch up on the series HERE.

*  The Chopper Chick is on her days off again and has brought her blog up to date.  The Zaca fire is about wrapped up and she’s seeing a lot of wildlife on the ground.  (the animals, that is)  Check it out HERE.

*  FirefighterHourly is talking about Charleston’s two-stepping mayor solving problems by changing uniforms HERE.

*  FireRescue1 has a story about 6 Croatian FF’s who died at a forest fire this week HERE.

WHILE INVESTIGATORS ARE TRYING TO DETERMINE why the firefighters and fire inspectors stopped inspecting the Deutsche Bank building over a year ago, it has come to light that “numerous” senior chief officers spent every day there for several months without reporting any fire hazards.

When the demolition of the building began, several pieces of human remains were found on the top floor.  So the city had inspection teams comb the building looking for any more that might be in there.  The teams were composed of forensic scientists, medical examiners, a safety supervisor from the contractor….and fire battalion chiefs.  They were in there day and night, working in shifts, from March 15 until May 29.

So far as can be determined, not a one of them reported on any deficiencies or fire hazards in the building.

Read the Newsday story HERE.

A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO, RANGERS AT THE TAWAKONI State Park in Texas discovered a 200 yard-long spider web.  It covers a hiking trail that is now used by only the brave, or the foolish.

Ft. Worth Star-Telegram photo

At first the web, built by many spiders rather than one giant spider, was a fairy-tale sight….expansive and silvery in color.  But since then it has trapped millions of mosquitoes which has given it a brownish tinge, along with an odor from the carcasses.  A rain last weekend has further weighted it down and now it looks more like garden decor from the Munsters.  During the night a loud hum emanates from the thousands of freshly-trapped mosquitoes.

The web is not expected to last until the end of October.  Soon the spiders will be dying and the web will fall apart.

Read more about it HERE.
Tyler channel 7 has a VIDEO.

THERE IS A PRODUCT ON THE MARKET that has been proven effective in protecting homes from passing forest fires.  Known as Barricade gel™, it has been in use for 10 years, but is still relatively unknown.

To put it simply, the product is mixed with water through a pickup tube and hosed onto a building where it forms a coating that repels fire and even keeps heat from passing through.  Using a jug filled with the gel attached to a garden hose, it can be sprayed onto a house quickly.   Water from the hose is soaked up in the gel and stored in layers of millions of tiny bubbles.  The gel can protect trees and houses far longer than ordinary water because the water inside the gel boils off one layer at a time, while water alone can evaporate quickly.

According to the manufacturer, each layer holds the heat away from the next layer of bubbles beneath. As a result, the gel can provide thermal protection from fire long enough for a blaze to blow past even at 3,500 degrees.   Spraying it onto windows prevents radiant heat from igniting curtains inside.

In northern San Diego County, the community of Palomar Mountain (home of the famous Palomar Observatory) is getting prepared during this especially critical wildfire season.  A $20,000 county grant recently allowed the fire department to purchase enough Barricade gel for all homes on Palomar Mountain. Jugs and applicators soon will be stored in key locations around the mountain for residents to use before fleeing when fire breaks out. Lucia and the department’s Community Emergency Response Team coordinator, Bill Leininger, are encouraging people to buy a Barricade kit from the department at cost for $220.

Palomar Resident Bret Thorne sprayed his arm
with the gel and held it in the flames to demonstrate
its effectiveness.  It is easily cleansed off with water.
Union-Tribune photo

Barricade was applied to some of the most severely threatened homes as the fires raced towards the community of Palm Coast, Florida on July 2, 1998. Amazingly, every one of the Barricade-treated homes stood completely undamaged after the firestorm passed.

Captain Gorden Sabo and his crew of the Rockerville Fire Department, located in the Black Hills of South Dakota, were assigned to a structural protection task force while working the Battle Creek Fire. The 13,200-acre fire was raging out of control on August 17, 2002 and was threatening many homes. Fortunately for homeowners, the State of South Dakota had recently purchased Barricade Fire Blocking Gel for every fire department in the Black Hills region. Captain Sabo was in command of a brush truck equipped with the Barricade Quik Atak system. With the raging fire bearing down, Captain Sabo and his crew applied Barricade to the threatened homes. The crew coated six homes before they exhausted their supply of Barricade Gel and had leave the area for their own safety.

When the fire had passed, they returned to the area and discovered that every home they “barricaded” was still standing, undamaged from the fire. The one home they were unable to coat and all of the outbuildings around the homes, which also were not coated, had burned to the ground.

Barricade gel is made from canola oil and is completely non-toxic and biodegradable.  For more information you can visit their website HERE.  Some of this information is from the San Diego Union-Tribune.

A CONSTRUCTION CREW WORKING ON THE foundations for a new firehouse accidentally started a brush fire Wednesday.  The new station is outside Salt Lake City, Utah and the workers were grinding rebar for the concrete foundation.  Sparks from the grinder flew over into some scrub area and quickly started a 29-acre brush fire that required 50 firefighters and two aircraft to control it.

Read the full story HERE.

*  The driver of the ambulance involved in the head-0n crash near Palm Springs, California Monday night (reported HERE) remains in critical condition.  Kohl Hetrick, 20, suffered a broken and shattered vertebrae, a deflated lung and multiple other broken bones.

*  In the face of today’s rally and beginnig of job actions (reported HERE), the New South Wales government has come to agreement with the ambulance workers on one of their points.  They will now be included with the other emergency services in the death and disability benefits program.

*  In Turner, Maine the Androscoggin County Sheriff has determined that the driver who pulled out in front of an ambulance on July 5 was intoxicated.  The collision killed the paramedic who was in the back treating a patient.  The ambulance driver will be bedridden for at least a year.

*  London’s sole air ambulance has been facing shutdown because of a lack of funding (HERE).  So they have decided to spend their money on designing a new Logo.

THE NEW YORK TIMES IS REPORTING THIS MORNING that Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta is setting up a defense for his hasty personnel actions in demoting 3 uniformed fire officers.  On Monday the commissioner and the millionairemayor announced, very publicly, that they were reassigning Capt. Peter Bosco, Batt. Chief John McDonald and Dep. Chief Richard Fuerch from the field to headquarters.

Immediately, the rank-and-file, through their unions, and the public began calling them “scapegoats” for the administration.  The commissioner has been on the defense all week saying thing like:   “It’s prudent to remove them from operations until the investigation is done. It doesn’t make it any easier on them, but it’s the prudent thing to do.”

But there are signs that he is wavering in his determination to hold blame at the lower ranks.  Yesterday he said, in response to the many claims that the “cease inspections” order came from upper management,  “If that turns out to be the case, that would certainly change my view of the captain or any subordinate’s actions.”

Firegeezer thinks that this public statement is a sign that Scoppetta is beginning to distance himself from whoever in HQ set the policy.  Capt. Bosco’s lawyer (who happens to be his brother, also) has been doing an effective job in turning the spotlight back onto the commissioner’s office. 

Mayor Bloomberg is showing second thoughts as well.  He is now saying that he wants to know what the fire officials knew before the fire and what was being done about it.  He also said that more people may be disciplined.

It was pointed out that the Batt. Chief who wrote the original memo calling for more inspections has been promoted twice in a short span of time and is now working in the Commissioner’s office.  That is an indication that the administration knew, or should have known, that the inspections had been stopped.

Read the New York Times article HERE.
CBS News has a story and video REPORT.

Labor Day Weekend

Here we are, the end of August.  You can almost see the cooler weather of autumn off in the distance.  The younger folk are disappointed because the summer frenzies will be ending.  But the geezers are looking forward to days without air conditioning and going places without crowds.  Either way, there’s always a cultural shift when the Labor Day weekend finishes up.

One of those markers is the annual Fill-The-Boot campaign for the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy fund raiser.  This has grown to be a significant activity in the fire departments that are IAFF affiliated.  Literally millions of dollars are raised each year by firefighters across the county to help fund research for cures and care for this disease.

The past few years there has been a strong rivalry between the Houston, Texas firefighters and the Fairfax County, Virginia local for collecting the highest dollar total.  This year there is a third player in the game, Montgomery County, Maryland.  Up until this year Montgomery’s muddle-headed politicians deliberately put restrictions on the FF’s collecting abilities.  But I think they got that worked out this year and you’ll see a new player in the finals.  They have the numbers and the income base to make a good run for it.  We’ll see how they do.

Many of the Fire and Rescue departments have already had their collection campaign, but most of them will be on this weekend.  However much your Local collects, it all helps.  Good luck to all of you.

Now let’s get the equipment checked, and don’t forget to put that extra boot on the engine.  See you at the coffee table.

Perrysburg Twp., Ohio
IAFF image

*  EMS1 has a story of a Rhode Island EMT who had a criminal record when he was hired.  He’s just been fired after adding a couple more items on his record.  Read it HERE.

*  STATter911 has still another chapter in the D. C. Water and Sewer Authority woes.  It makes you ask, “Just what have they been doing all this time?”  Read the STORY.

*  FirefighterHourly tells about a movement to stage a citizens’ parade in Charleston HERE.

*  FireFightingLinks is now a host site for safety videos from the U. S. Chemical Safety Board.  He has two of them up now.  Go HERE and scroll down.

*  Today’s Large (forest) Fire Incident MAP.

THE ONTARIO ASSOCIATION OF FIRE CHIEFS has teamed up with an association of water-main engineers to warn the public of the dangers being created by old water pipes.  Many of the mains are leaking as much as 20% to 40% of their water and the corrosion of the older pipes has restricted their flow to the point where sprinkler systems cannot work effectively.

Many hydrants are thus delivering a reduced fire flow, yet the solution proposed by many municipalities is just to color-code the hydrants.

The Toronto Star has the ARTICLE.

Firegeezer points out that in Oct. 1973 the city of Chelsea, Massachusetts had a conflagration that destroyed 1/4 of the city’s industries and wiped out most of the downtown.  More than 1,000 firefighters from 3 states were needed to finally stop the blaze.  Investigation later disclosed that the major cause of the fire growing so large was because all the town’s water mains were so corroded that they has as little as 1 inch effective diameter interior opening.  In other words, no fire flow at all.

This is typical because politicians rarely spend money on “hidden” problems.  They like the visual things where they can get their picture taken.  We’re seeing a modern-day scenario playing out in Washington, D.C. with their broken fire hydrants.