THE IRISH GARDAI (POLICE) ARE LOOKING for the brazen thief who stole 450 full kegs of beer right out of the Guinness brewery delivery yard.

The now-empty brewery yard

In the run up to Christmas there are more than 250 truck movements in and out of the St James’ Gate complex every day. At around four o’clock on Wednesday, a man drove a tractor into the yard where there were three or four trailers loaded with kegs.  He hooked up one of the trailers containing 180 kegs of Guinness, 180 kegs of Budweiser and 90 kegs of Carlsberg, before calmly driving out the main gate.

It is the largest beer heist from the brewery itself ever.  The trailer was found yesterday afternoon…..empty.

WORLD-FAMOUS DAREDEVIL AND MOTORCYCLE STUNT MAN EVEL KNIEVEL died today after a lengthy illness.  He had been suffering from pulmonary fibrosis and diabetes for several years.  He also had a near-fatal bout with hepatitis C in 1999 that brought about a liver transplant.  During the course of his career he broke approx. 40 bones.

LA Times photo

Born Robert Craig Knievel in Butte, Montana, in October 17, 1938, he passed away at his home in Clearwater, Florida.

The Los Angeles Times has an obituary column HERE.

THIS SENTENCE IN THE ARTICLE SAYS IT ALL:

The Transportation Corridor Agencies, which operates a network of toll roads in Orange County, sent Los Angeles County Engine Company No. 116 (a) $100 ticket for not paying a toll on Route 133 during the October firestorms.

Is California that desperate for funds?  Read the full story from the San Jose Mercury News HERE.

*  The 5th Battalion Training page has a good coffee-table drill on Curtain Walls HERE.

*  EMS1 has a story about an ambulance driver who was cited for colliding because he failed to sound his siren HERE.

*  STATter911 has got some vintage videos today.  My favorite is the one showing three horse-drawn steamers responding in Brooklyn HERE.

*  VAFireNews has some fresh reports on fires in Virginia HERE.

*  It was a busy day in NYC yesterday and FirefighterSpot is on it HERE.

*  Housewatch has an interesting video and slide show about NYC’s new high-rise fire simulator and their academy HERE.

Firegeezer notes:  Yesterday I neglected to post the Seligman FD website link until later that evening.  If you missed it, it is HERE.

Also, in the recent past some people have posted the URL for the Bridge Canyon VFD website.  I am not going to do that because when I last went to it my anti-virus program went into a high-speed tap dance while the site was trying to download a malware program and a bunch of other garbage.  Anything on there that is worth exploring I’ll try and tell you about or transfer screen caps.

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How To Start Your Own Fire Dept. in Arizona

Out in the vast spaces of the western states where some counties are larger than many of the eastern states, there is still a gap in the laws governing the territory when it comes to fire departments.  The state of Arizona does not have any requirements that need to be met concerning organized fire protection with the exception of wildfire control and the state OSHA offices.

Yavapai County, in turn, has chosen to stay out of the fire protection needs altogether.  They are not required to provide any fire protection anywhere in the county, and they elect to keep it that way.  Communities, however, can establish their own legal Fire Protection District and collect a property tax to pay for it.  But these fire protection districts are delineated by specific boundaries.  Anybody who is outside the boundary and calls the fire department will be charged a state-mandated fee for the service.  Such fees as well as the real estate tax go directly to the state.

These fees are eventually returned to the fire department in the way of payments for responding to state-owned property, such as a school, or by responding to a wildfire.  Most of the Seligman FD’s income is from these state payments since there are a large number of lightning-generated brush fires in the area.  Go to the Seligman FD website and click on the Fire Coverage Areas link (HERE) to get a more complete description of how the tax and subscription service works out there.

Knowing that there are many people in the outlying areas that are not within the Seligman fire protection district, Frederick Cross saw an economic opportunity by creating his own private fire department and running calls to unprotected areas where he could hopefully charge for his services.

First he had to get some basic equipment, such as a fire engine and the necessary tools.  Nobody knows where he got his fire engine from, but he went on the fire forums and started begging for equipment donations.  And in order to play on the sympathy and good will of the donors, he began his deceptions.

we can DEFINATELY use equipment…and we will pay shipping to send it.
We are a Independent run Company with hardly no budget. :-O
You may visit our website at: http://www.fire-ems.net/firedept/view/SeligmanAZ/
What we mainly need is 2 1/2″hose (about 8 sections),a good used set of jaws(they can be older ones),a droptank for our tanker cuz we have no hydrants or water supply in the subdevelopment,and various other small things but this is just an example.

Donna C
Fire Chief
Bridge Canyon VFD

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Hi (XXXX)…We will take the 2 1/2″ hose,the 2 1/2″ nozzle and the SCBA air filler…we have NOTHING at all to fill our SCBAS…we hafta take those to a diving shop when we can to get those refilled.
As for the hose,that 2 1/2″ is what were looking for.Were pretty well set upon the 1 1/2,the 1″ and the 3/4″ booster lines.The 6″ we cant use unless it has 2 1/2″ reduced couplings(our pumper only has a 2 1/2″ suction outlet.Email me at don@tabletoptelephone or call us at the number on our website.If no answer just leave a message becuase were not there all the time…were not a “manned” station.

Thanks a billion,

Donna C
Fire Chief
Bridge Canyon VFD

Firegeezer will make no attempt to explain the existence of a “diving shop” in the Arizona desert.  But tomorrow we will introduce you to the method of dispatching out there and Frederick’s attempts to circumvent it.

ONE OF WISCONSIN’S TEN-MOST-WANTED CRIMINALS was brought to the Harris County courthouse in Houston, Texas, yesterday in an ambulance for an extradition hearing.

Judge Ross hears Timoth Riley’s plea
in the ambulance behind the courthouse.
Houston Chronicle photo

Timothy Riley, 46, was a fugitive from justice after violating his parole following a conviction for aggravated sexual assault of a child.  He fled to Mexico where he had some abdominal surgeries for an unknown ailment.  After three botched surgeries, he desparately flew to Houston where he checked in to Ben Taub General Hospital for remedial treatment.  A routine background check exposed him as a fugitive.

From there he was brought to the courthouse where Judge Sherman Ross along with the county attorney and Riley’s court-appointed lawyer crowded into the ambulance parked in the secure loading dock.  During the brief hearing Riley agreed to waive extradition and be returned to Wisconsin to face the charges against him.

 Update, 11:15 am, scroll down.

FIREFIGHTERS ARE STILL ON THE SCENE of a large fire that broke out early this morning in Wasaga Beach, Ontario.

CTV photos

The community is located on the southern shore of Georgian Bay, about 90 miles north of Toronto.  It has 17,000 residents and another 16,000 seasonal residents.

The fire began in a shopping plaza shortly after 1 am and has destroyed at least eight buildings.

Update: The fire was brought under control at 9 am, but at this writing there are still several pockets of fire being attacked.  Throughout the fire a stiff, off-shore breeze continued to fan the flames.

The current estimate of damage is 14 buildings completely destroyed and as many as 30 more severely damaged, representing about 75% of the seasonal shopping district.

CTV has a VIDEO REPORT.

GENEVA IS THE 2nd LARGEST CITY IN SWITZERLAND, after Zurich, and has built its reputation and economy as a neutral international center.

But they are certainly not concerned with their reputation for fire and emergency services.  The city’s newspaper, Tribune de Geneve, has obtained a confidential report that was recently prepared for Pierre Maudet, the administrative councilor who is in charge of security for the city.

The report is extremely critical of the state of emergency preparedness, but is especially harsh in its criticism of the Asters fire station.  Located in the heart of a high-rise apartment development, it says that the station is “Dilapidated, poorly equipped and unsuitable for the potential tasks it faces” and it “no longer guarantees a response in a sufficiently short time.”

The Asters fire station (Frautschi/Tribune photo)

And then it goes on to say that the entire city’s fire station facilities generally are inadequate and outmoded.  There are only 3 fire stations serving the city of over 188,000 population and of the three, only one is in service 24 hours a day.  The other two, including the Asters station, are only in service from 7 am to 9 pm.

You can read the full story HERE.

Wow, here we are at the end of November already.  This past month has really breezed by for me.  And my list of honey-do’s has gotten longer and longer.  I’ve never been a very good personal time manager, but I am starting to grasp the concept of “multi-tasking.”  I don’t like multi-tasking very much.  My pleasure in life comes from doing less, not more.

Speaking of life’s pleasures, make-believe chefs everywhere were shocked Tuesday when the Food Network announced that they were cancelling their prime-time show Emeril Live effective Dec. 11.

The Food Network people haven’t said why they decided to kick it down a notch, but after a 10-year run it’s not surprising that any show would be starting to slip in its popularity.  However, they emphatically point out that Emeril remains under contract to the network and they will continue to produce his other show, The Essence of Emeril, as well as “specials and other development opportunities in the future.”

I never could get much out of Emeril’s shows, myself.  When you watch a tv cooking show you don’t really write down every recipe or try many of the entree’s, but over time you grasp the cooking technique of the chef.  And if it’s a culinary style that you like, then you learn how to adopt his technique to any dish.

But for me, Emeril’s technique never came out on the show.  His program was always filled with so much flash-and-dash, along with a heavy emphasis on stage presence, that I still can’t tell you today just what makes his style unique.

I still think the reigning champion when it comes to firehouse favorites is the late Justin Wilson, the genuine Cajun who filled the airwaves at PBS for years.  He would always “garr-own-tee” that you would love his dish.  But that’s because no matter what he was fixing, whether it be beef, fish or even cheese, he would always begin by heating some oil and throwing in a handfull of chopped onions and green peppers.

Now I’m getting hungry.  Let’s get the equipment checked out.  I’ll go start the coffee.

BAM !!

THE HOME OF STEFAN LESSARD, BASSIST FOR THE DAVE MATHEWS BAND, burned down this morning.

Daily Progress photo

Fire broke out around 7:30 am in the house near Charlottesville, Virginia.  Stefan and his son were home at the time but got out safely.

Early investigation indicates that the fire started on the first floor and spread to the second story.  The exterior of the house was cedar, contributing to the fuel load.  It is located in an isolated area without hydrants and the five FD’s responding had to rely on water shuttles.  It is estimated to be a $2 million loss.

WVIR photo

WVIR Ch. 29 has three VIDEOS.
The Charlottesville Daily Progress has the full STORY.