Arizona Republic photo

WHEN THE FRONTIER EMERGENCY PRODUCTS business and shop in Phoenix burned down Saturday night, one of the losses was a new pumper schduled for delivery yesterday.  The El Mirage Fire Dept. is one of the busiest stations in the Phoenix area and was planning to put their badly-needed E-One engine is service soon.

The equipment service company was finishing installing the computers and hand tools on the engine, which was valued at $500,000 plus the $100,000 in equipment that the city had installed on it.  The fire chief is now looking for an emergency purchase of a line-piece because they cannot afford to wait another nine months for a replacement.

Last week

The fire destroyed another smaller apparatus that belonged to another department and caused $10,000 heat damage to a Glendale engine that was stored outside.

The Arizona Republic has the full  STORY.

Political Fires

Within hours after the tragedy that killed two FDNY firefighters last week, everybody knew that the weight of political might would come out fast in order to cover up the misdeeds of the meddling politicians.  It always begins with a race of $1,500 suits to the microphones to be the first to bewail the loss and to make promises to get “to the bottom” of the mess that caused it.  This is followed up with back-room maneuvering to get the blame placed on somebody else, preferably someone who doesn’t have the ability to withstand the blizzard of blaming that pours down on them.

Step one has just been taken in New York.  Using the power of the office and the press release, the millionairemayor has very publicly restored the citizens’ trust and the integrity of the city by demoting the station captain.  You could see it coming, but just didn’t know who was going to take the fall.  The poor guy never had a chance.

Within hours of the fire, the newspapers were (rightly) publishing the long list of deficiencies and shortcomings that various city agencies had ignored and which compounded the FD’s problems on the fire scene.  One of them was the fact that the next-door fire station was supposed to do a walk-through inspection at least once a week but they had not done that since March of last year.  And why hadn’t they?  Well before this fire ever took place, the word had already spread throughout the department grapevines that the station officers had been ordered to stay out of the building completely.  They were forbidden to go inside and look around.  This was so well known that even one of the newspapers reported on it the day after the fire.

But who generated this standing order, and more importantly why, is the key to it all.  The District Attorney’s office  is investigating the situation that led to the fire and they are fairly insulated from the City government.  But it will still be a challenge to find this particular answer because the politically powerful have severed the chain of command that passed the order along.  The captain, his boss the Batt. Chief, and their superior District Chief have all been taken off the street (swiftly and very publicly) and transferred to headquarters where they can be closely watched and controlled.  But what about the other two shifts?  The message has been sent…..clam up, buddy, or this can happen to you.  Dirty stuff.

Now let’s get the equipment checked.  See you at the coffee table.

*  Firefighter Blog is keeping up with the Greek situation.  Today he has several videos posted HERE.

*  Roanoke Firefighters is featuring a tv stand for the kitchen of Sta. 1.  It’s made from a fire alarm pull-box pedestal and it really looks nice.  See it HERE.

*  STATter911 is following the problems that D. C.’s Metrorail system is having.  Electrical fires 2 nights in a row now.  Click HERE.

*  FireRescue1 has an interesting story on the Sun Valley (Idaho) ski resort using its snow-making machines to help fight the Castle Rock forest fire.  Read the full STORY.

*  FirefighterHourly is reporting that an embarrased ISO is returning to Charleston HERE.

*  EMS1 carries a story about how a Kansas City medic crew revived a newborn that had been put into a toilet HERE.

*  SConFire tells about a fire district board of directors that can’t bring itself to make a decision HERE.

*  Today’s Major Wildfire Incidents MAP.

THE WILMINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA FIREFIGHTERS haven’t had a raise in years.  In fact, none of the city employees have, except the City Manager and the City Attorney.

Surprisingly, Wilmington is the most expensive place to live in the entire state.  More so than Charlotte or Raleigh, even.  But a recent study done by the firefighter’s Local showed that FF’s salary is 40% below that of comparable cities that size.

Back in June they attended en masse the City Council’s public hearing for the upcoming budget, but the Council refused to give any of the City employees anything other than a measly 1.5% raise.  The firefighters were asking for 5%.  The public meeting became acrimonious, according to the newspaper account, and the FF’s rallied on the front steps and vowed to politic for new council members in this year’s election.

What really has the city’s workers grumbling is that the council has appropriated $5 million to develop a ½-acre park.  That’s right….one half acre.  A lot of citizens are curious to see which friends and relatives get the landscaping and outdoor furniture contracts for that one.

Last week at the City Council’s regular meeting, they voted to spend $220,000 for……a study to see how much the City’s employees should be earning.  They hope that it will be completed by early next year so they can consider any pay raises for next year’s budget.

In other words, the firefighters are being put off for another year and the politicians are refusing to do anything before the election.  Local 129 has work to do.

The Wilmington Star-News has the STORY.
WWAY Channel 3 has the VIDEO.

THE PELOPONNESE HAS BEEN taking the biggest hit by the hundreds of wildfires in Greece.  No families on the island are untouched by the disaster and the economy, largely dependent on tourists visiting the picture-perfect beaches, has been destroyed.

Reuters is relating this poignant tale:

“What is there to do now? My life has been turned upside down,” said Panagiotis Panagopoulos, who lost his mother and sister in the flames.

“We stood in awe as the flames rose to tens of metres and just scorched everything.”

Sitting at his hotel and surrounded by relatives and friends, Mr Panagopoulos said the two women had gone to save their goats just north of the town but had no time to escape the racing flames.

His silent father, sitting near him, nursed burns on his hands, face and feet. He had attempted to retrieve them but it was too late, relatives said.

“There was no time to do anything,” his 17-year-old son Thanassis said. “The flames just grew and grew in seconds and we could do nothing. We lost them.”

“We fought a losing battle and in the end we were left with this,” he said pointing to the nearby forest of blackened tree trunks. “How do you rebuild that? You can’t.”

BANDERA, TEXAS CALLS ITSELF THE “Cowboy Capital of the World.”  The old settlement suffered a downtown fire last night that destroyed the town’s oldest building along with another business and inflicted severe water damage to one of its major tourist attractions, the Old Spanish Trail restaurant. 

The fire was well underway when the FD’s were called and the surrounding volunteer fire depts. were able to contain the fire to those buildings.  None of the departments out there has a ladder truck, so they pressed into service some line trucks of the Bandera Electric Co-op and created some aerial streams.

The San Antonio Express-News has the full STORY.
TV station WOAI has a VIDEO.

“Where are my gloves? ….my coat?”

Make up your own caption for this picture and put it in the comments.

LAST NIGHT JUST BEFORE 9 PM (Pacific) near Palm Springs, California, and American Medical Response ambulance was responding to a call with full lights and siren going.  While going through an intersection with a green light, a Ford Thunderbird went through the red light at a high rate of speed, swerved around the stopped traffic and struck the ambulance head-on.

The two front seat passengers of the car were killed instantly and one in the back seat was ejected from the vehicle while a fourth was not. 

The driver of the ambulance and the paramedic were entrapped and seriously injured.  The driver has some broken vertebrae, but his spinal column is listed as ok.  The paramedic had her arm trapped under the ambulance.

Witnesses said that the auto was speeding erratically and weaving for several miles before the collision.

The Desert Sun has the complete STORY.

Palm Springs Desert Sun photos