THE BEER MADNESS BREW-OFF JUST CONCLUDED its 3rd round of the tasting competition.  (If you missed the original report, see Firegeezer HERE.)

We are delighted to report to you that Hook & Ladder Brewing’s entry, Backdraft Brown handily downed the Samuel Adams Honey Porter and will be moving into the Semi-finals this week.

This round marks the winners of the four categories, so Backdraft Brown finishes this week as the champion of all the Dark Beer entrants.  Next round will pit them against the winner of the Specialty & Fruit bracket, the Ommegang Hennipen, a spicy Belgian-style ale from Cooperstown, New York.

In the other brackets, Raven Lager won the Lagers category and will be going up against the winner of the Ales bracket, Troegs Hopback Ale.

Firegeezer notes:  This should rank Hook & Ladder as the favorite for this next round.  After all, how could anything in a “Specialty & Fruit” category ever beat out a real beer?

A WINTERSVILLE (OHIO) FIRE DEPARTMENT AMBULANCE was on an emergency call Saturday morning when it was involved in a collision in Steubenville with an automobile.

The 52-yr.-old driver of the car was stabilized at Trinity Hospital in Steubenville and then flown to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center where she died 9 hours later of blunt-force trauma to her chest.

The ambulance crew were uninjured and were already working on the victim when the FD arrived.  The driver had to be extricated with the jaws-of-life tool.

Wintersville F & R photo

No information has been released yet on the cause of the accident.

The Steubenville Herald Star has the STORY.
Wintersville Fire Dept. WEBSITE.

A HOUSE FIRE EARLY SATURDAY MORNING IN NEWARK, New Jersey, has left a family destroyed.

Fire broke out in the 2nd floor of a multi-family dwelling shortly after 4 am.  When firefighters arrived they found five residents trapped inside and a sixth on a porch roof.  The victim on the roof and two people in an upstairs bedroom were evacuated safely by the FF’s.

Also on the 2nd floor, they found a young couple and their 6-month-old infant unconscious in the kitchen.  All three were carried out and transported to the hospital where they have since been transferred to a burn center.

The two adults suffered burns over one-third of their bodies and are both still in a coma.  The infant has 3rd-degree burns to its hands and is listed in critical condition.

The residents of the first-floor apartment got themselves out safely before the arrival of the FD.  One of them told the Star-Ledger that the house did not have any smoke alarms.

The full story is in the Newark Star-Ledger HERE.

Good Morning.  Sunday mornings are often associated with a more leisurely breakfast and perhaps a special selection for the meal.  At home it’s when our favorite breakfast combo. is fixed up.  And in the firehouse it is often a group project culminating with a large brunch that makes the rest of the day more pleasurable.

But there was a dark spot in the sky over the breakfast world this week when it was announced that Herb Peterson died peacefully in his home at the age of 89.  Mr. Peterson’s name might not trigger any particular memories for you, but he had an impact on everybody when, back in 1972, he created the infamous Egg McMuffin.

Peterson was a vice-president with the D’Arcy Advertising Agency in Chicago when they were handling McDonald’s national ad campaigns.  He was the writer who penned their first national slogan, “Where Quality Starts Fresh Every Day.”  Impressed with their potential for growth and success, he left the advertising business and established his own chain of six franchise McDonald’s in Santa Barbara, California, with his son.

Wishing to expand the business hours of his restaurants, and also being a fan of Eggs Benedict, he developed a teflon ring that would hold an egg while it cooked on a hamburger grill and then combined the broken-yolk egg with a slice of cheese and a piece of Canadian bacon on an English muffin.  A cultural icon was born.

When McDonald’s president Ray Kroc visited Peterson in 1972, Herb showed him his creation and Kroc fell in love with it right away.  It was the ideal finger-food for a breakfast offering and perfect for the restaurants’ menus. 

The Egg McMuffin became the anchor of McDonald’s new breakfast menu. And when it was rolled out nationally in 1976, restaurants were able to ring up sales for several additional hours every day. Today, breakfast accounts for about a third of McDonald’s total sales.

Herb Peterson with a tray of
his favorite breakfast food.

It’s hard to imagine, but everyone under the age of 35 has never lived a day without the availability of the Egg McMuffin.  Herb Peterson was one of those accidental folk hero’s whose simple desire to make a better product ended up permanently affecting an entire culture.  Good job, Herb!  May he rest in peace.

Now let’s get the equipment checked out.  I’ll start the coffee and then we can send the ambulance out for a bag of McMuffins.

A BURLINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA, FIRE INSPECTOR discovered a disaster waiting to happen last month.

FireNews.net is carrying the story that leads off with:

A routine inspection in an industrial park last month found a chemical supply that could have killed hundreds of people and harmed thousands more.On Feb. 14, a Burlington fire inspector found 856,000 pounds of sodium hydrosulfite, a highly combustible powder that can ignite a fire if exposed to moisture in the air. The plume of sulfur dioxide gas produced in such a fire would likely kill those close by.

A recent report from Burlington Chemical Co. to state and local agencies showed the amount of sodium hydrosulfite reached at least 957,000 pounds at one point, but officials say some has since been removed.

On Friday, Alamance County officials said that the combustion of nearly 1 million pounds of sodium hydrosulfite — the “worst-case scenario” — could kill or permanently injure those within 1.5 miles, assuming wind did not carry the plume farther in one direction.

This “dead zone” would encompass Alamance Regional Medical Center, E.M. Holt Elementary School and hundreds of homes.

Read the entire article HERE to learn how the situation was mitigated.

A CADDO PARISH, LOUISIANA, FIREFIGHTER DIED FRIDAY when the tanker he was driving to a fire overturned.  Traveling an unfamiliar road on a mutual-aid response, Eric Speed lost control when he entered a severe curve in the roadway.  The 3,000 gal. tanker rolled into the ditch and wedged into a pine tree that penetrated the truck cab.

Shreveport Times photo

A 12-year volunteer member of Caddo Fire District #2, Speed was one of the best-liked members of the department.

The Shreveport Times has the full STORY.
TV station KSLA has more and a VIDEO.
KSLA also has a background story on Eric Speed HERE.

THE CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA, FIRE DEPARTMENT announced yesterday that they have suspended a captain for 2 weeks without pay for not wearing his SCBA at a car fire Tuesday.  A second firefighter who was under his command received a written disciplinary warning for the same infraction.

Post and Courier photo

Charleston FD was strongly condemned for allowing firefighters to operate without donning their gear properly when a furniture store fire led to the deaths of nine of them last June.  The department has just recently spent over $1 million purchasing new SCBA’s and put them in service.

The captain admits that he was wrong and will accept the punishment without appeal.  The union local president has agreed that the punishment was appropriate.  The issue came to light after the local newspaper ran the photo showing the safety lapse at the car fire in a local parking garage.

The Charleston Post and Courier has the full STORY.

IT WAS ALSO ANNOUNCED THIS WEEK that the Charleston Fire Department has hired a new chief training officer from outside the department.

The Post and Courier reports:

Battalion Chief James T. Ghi, former of the Fairfax County, Virginia Fire and Rescue Department has been hired to direct all training for the Department. The appointment of a new training director was one of the primary recommendations of the City of Charleston’s Fire Review Team Phase I Report issued last fall.

Ghi was selected from a pool of 57 applicants from the Charleston Fire Department and around the U.S. and Canada.

The Fire Review Team was established under the direction of Mayor Joe Riley, Jr. to provide a comprehensive independent review of the tragic June 18th fire that claimed the lives of nine Charleston firefighters.

Chief Ghi will head a newly expanded training division which will consist of Chief Ghi and three soon-to-be-named captains who will develop and lead all training for the Charleston Fire Department. He is expected to begin his duties in the Charleston Fire Department in mid April.

The full details and story are HERE.

THE LEADING PROVIDER OF PRIVATE FIRE AND AMBULANCE EMERGENCY services is showing signs of financial disintegration.

Rural/Metro, headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, has been having difficulty meeting budget projections and has also been losing some of its more lucrative contracts to aggressive competitors who have been underbidding them on emergency medical contracts when they come open.

Couple that with some multi-million-dollar fraud settlements with the Federal government over billing practices along with a massive debt load, and you have a problem.  The company’s stock value has dropped more than 60% in the past year.

Ken Alltucker of the Arizona Republic (Phoenix) has just written a well-researched article on the current travails of Rural/Metro.  It exposes a company that has faltered when faced with competition and suffered from some managerial mistakes.

Firegeezer recommends that you read his article HERE.

Rural/Metro corporate WEBSITE.

A TANKER LOADED WITH GASOLINE WAS CAUGHT UP in a multi-vehicle crash on Interstate 91 in Chicopee, Massachusetts, Friday morning.

AP / Republican photo

A mal-functioning automobile attempted to enter the freeway and stalled where it was struck by another car and then the tanker collided with it.  The truck then jacknifed into the guardrail and began burning.  It was carrying 9,600 gallons of gasoline and another 1,000 gals. of diesel.

AP / Republican

Initially the truck driver was trapped in the cab while the fire was building.  Numerous bystanders kept trying to rescue him even though the flames were repeatedly driving them back.  Finally they got him free before the tank itself started blowing.  The driver of the tractor trailer, whose name was not released pending notification of his family, was being treated for serious burns and other injuries at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield. (An unconfirmed report says that the driver died this morning…..FG)

AP / Republican

The Springfield Republican has the complete STORY.
MassLive.com has an excellent photo gallery HERE.

A MAJOR FIRE AT A CHEMICAL WAREHOUSE IN MT. VERNON, NEW YORK, Friday night generated a precautionary evacuation of the surrounding area.

Journal News/Kennedy photo

The KEM Chemical Corp. headquarters was believed to contain hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, sulfuric acid, alcohol and acetone among other materials.  The 2-story building was gutted and collapsed during the operation.  The 4-alarm fire spread to two other buildings in the industrial area before it was brought under control.  One fire captain was reported to have been injured with a twisted knee.

Workers and the few residents within a three-to-four-block radius of the building were told to evacuate, and the area was cordoned off, firefighters said. Smoke from the fire blew in the direction of neighboring Pelham, and the department initially advised residents there to remain inside and shut their windows.

In neighboring Pelham, the fire forced an abrupt end to a student production of “Hello, Dolly!” Police came into Pelham Memorial High School auditorium and stopped the play, telling everyone to leave because of the fire, said Pelham schools spokeswoman Angela Cox.  “They said it was a precaution. Everybody got out safely,” she said.

Initially, the FD hesitated to apply water directly on the fire because many of the stored chemicals were reactive.  Instead they directed the flows onto exposures in an attempt to contain the fire.  Eventually however, they had to resort to a deluge attack on the fire building.  Bystanders commented on the bright blue, orange and yellow fires in the building.

 Air-quality tests and checks for any hazardous material leakage found no dangerous contamination as of early Saturday, according to authorities.

KEM Chemical was established in 1961 and specializes in servicing the microelectronics industry, according to its Web site. It is described as a chemical and laboratory supply distributor of “temperature sensitive and short-life materials.”

“KEM provides custom solutions, mixed acid etches and dilutions in instances where the volumes are too small for the primary manufacturers that KEM represents,” the site says.

The Lower Hudson Journal News has the full STORY.
There is also a 1-minute raw VIDEO.