EARLY SATURDAY MORNING A TRAGIC FIRE IN WEXFORD, IRELAND, left a family of four dead.

R.T.E.

Dermot and Lorraine Flood, ages 41 and 38, and their two children Mark, 6, and Julie, 5, were discovered by firefighters when they arrived at the house fire around 5 am.

Preliminary investigation disclosed that the two adults had other injuries not related to the fire.   The police ruled the deaths as “suspicious.”

Julie and Mark Flood from a family photo

On Sunday, while the post mortems were still being carried out, the police said that the father had killed his wife and then set the house on fire.  The children died as a result of the fire.  But husband and wife had “massive” injuries, presumably from shotgun wounds.

BBC News has the latest account HERE.
The Irish Times has MORE.

THE MOROCCO MATTRESS FACTORY FIRE IN CASABLANCA (Firegeezer story HERE) yesterday has brought about the arrests of the company’s owner and his son who was the plant manager.

AP photo

The death toll has been confirmed at 55 so far with 17 injuries.  The fire was caused by an malfunctioning electric saw on the ground floor where foam rubber, wood and glue were stored.

It has been determined that the factory officials had:

• locked all the exits to prevent employee theft, thus preventing escape from the fire.
• placed heavy wire mesh guards over all the windows.
• left all fire extinguishers empty.
• failed to maintain equipment, notably the saw, used in the business.

In some cases, men used compressed gas bottles to break the wire barriers away from the windows and leap to safety.  But most of the women were afraid to jump from the upper floors and perished.  35 of the 55 deaths were women.

AP

Firefighters had to breach the walls in order to gain entry to the building because of the barricaded doors.

“The plant’s owner, Adil Moufarreh, and his son Abdelali Moufarreh, who was the manager, have been taken into custody after having been questioned by police,” said a security official. “We confirmed during our examination that the owners of the premises failed to respect legal requirements for this kind of industry including staff training,” he said.

The Associated Press reports:

Firefighters said many victims were trapped in the spiral stairwell of the building. A 29-year-old worker who managed to escape said many deaths occurred on the third floor, where women sewed.

“We ran to the door. It was blocked, to the elevator, it was blocked. Then, oops, the lights went out,” the woman, Rachida Darif, told The Associated Press.

She saved herself by crawling through a space to the roof, then jumping down from a neighboring building that was under construction. She used a construction cord to lower herself part way, she said.

 
AP

The latest report is from Agence France Presse HERE.

Click to play video report:

WITH MOTHER’S DAY RAPIDLY APPROACHING, it’s time to start thinking about getting Mom (or your wife) that perfect gift that she will embrace and always think of you whenever she uses it.

And nothing encompasses that better than:

LawnBott

The robotic lawnmower that cuts your grass automatically without fuss or muss.  She’ll love you for it!

The LawnBott is electrically powered by it’s rechargable battery and only uses $7 to $10 a year in electricity.  No longer will Mom have to stop by the gas station and fill up her gallon can of high-priced gasoline.  She’ll love you for it!

LawnBott mulches the grass as it cuts it, thus fertilizing the lawn at the same time.  Mom doesn’t have to go back out and spread those unfriendly fertilizers any more. She’ll love you for it!

The LawnBott is completely quiet so it won’t disturb your sleep or your neighbors.  Mom will be able to hear the tv just fine while LawnBott goes to work, following its programmed schedule.  She’ll love you for it!

The LawnBott will come out of its docking station whenever you want it to, or you can set a certain scheduled time with the programmer, then it will cut the entire yard, up to 33,000 sq. ft. on a single charge, and then return to it’s docking station and replenish its batteries for the next assignment.

And one of the best features is the rain-guard.  LawnBott will continue to cut if a light drizzle starts falling, but if the rain picks up and becomes harder, then the ‘bot will stop mowing and scamper back to its docking station.  Mom won’t have to run out in the rain to put it away.  She’ll love you for it!

The most practical model to get is the LB3200 which includes the rain sensors and the lithium battery pack.  It retails for only $2,749.00.  Certainly not too much to spend for Mom or dear Wifey.  She’ll love you for it!

Learn more about LawnBott HERE.
To find the dealer closest to you, click HERE.

A LACKAWANNA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER was arrested Friday and charged with setting a series of fires that caused more than $3.5 million in losses.

The Lackawanna County District Attorney Andy Jarbola said in a news conference that Benjamin Christensen, 25, of 171 Belmont St., Carbondale, allegedly started the fires out of boredom and, sometimes, anger.  Oftentimes he would set a fire and then go back home and wait for his VFD to dispatch the call when he would put on his turnout gear and return to the scene to help fight the fire.

WNEP Ch.16 took this picture of Christensen
working crowd control at one of the major
fires that he has admitted setting.

Christensen was charged with 27 felony counts of arson and related offenses and is being held in the county jail in lieu of $500,000 bail.  If he is convicted he could be sentenced for life imprisonment.

A multi-county task force of police detectives along with state police and fire marshals worked the case for 14 months.

The Scranton Times-Tribune reports:

A major development came April 15, after Carbondale Police Detective Aaron Haley interviewed Mr. Christensen for an unrelated charge stemming from the alleged statutory rape of a 15-year-old girl. Police charged Mr. Christensen with unlawful contact with a minor, indecent assault and statutory sexual assault.

It was during this interview that Detective Haley and state troopers uncovered Mr. Christensen’s role in starting these fires, police said.

A state police affidavit says that Mr. Christensen talked about his involvement in the fires, leading the detective to obtain a videotaped verbal confession from Mr. Christensen.

 
This fire attributed to Christensen
destroyed seven businesses.

There are still some other open arson cases in the area and they are trying to determine if Christensen or an accomplice are connected with them.

The Times-Tribune has a complete description of the case and the fires connected with Christensen HERE.
 

The most amazing thing happened yesterday.  I’m referring to that large apartment building fire in Norwich, Connecticut.  If you haven’t read yesterday’s report on it yet, click HERE to check it out.

I call it “amazing” because nobody was killed or injured in the fire.  Now when you consider the time of day of the call - around 1:30 am, the number of residents - over 150, and the very rapid rate of fire spread, then you have a real head-shaker there.

One of the things that those people had going for them was what appears to be a top-notch fire department.  I watched the Fire Chief’s press conference shortly after noon and it is clear that he definitely has his act together.  Their immediate actions to keep the fire spread in check as much as they could while most of the resources went into rescue operations and the overall challenge of getting water to the fire looked exemplary from this viewpoint.

All large fires have an extensive post mortem session shortly afterwards where everything is recreated and discussed by the participants.  During these sessions it is usually the case to bring out any mistakes or shortcomings that occurred during the incident.  And there always are some, it can’t be avoided.  For both the good points and the minus ones, I’d like to be able to sit in on that one.  Wouldn’t you?

Hey, it’s Sunday…. no walk-thru’s or inspections today.  Let’s get the equipment checked out.  I’ll go make some more coffee.

For your weekend reading pleasure, dip into these websites for some good fire and rescue news:

*  STATter911 has the bizarre story of a Philadelphia fire lieutenant who is being disciplined because he saved a life instead of just watching HERE.

*  Firefighter Spot’s BestFirefighterVideo page has just posted an additional 50 videos in the Training section HERE.  (click over on the left-hand column.)

*  EMS1 has an unusual story about an Australian hospital that has been forced to shut down temporarily because of a spider invasion HERE.  (Yep, you read that right.)

*  Wildfire Today has a recent update and details on the single-engine air tanker that went down in Colorado last week killing the pilot.  Read it HERE.

A FIRE IN A MATTRESS FACTORY IN CASABLANCA, MOROCCO, Saturday morning has killed at least 55 employees and seriously injured 12 others.

AFP photo

MAP, the official news agency of Morocco, is reporting that the fire broke out around 10 am in the four-story building and spread rapidly because of certain chemical products stored and used in the factory.

More than 100 firefighters tried to gain an upper hand on the fire as flames spread through the Rosamor Ameublements factory in the Hay Hassani neighborhood of Morocco’s economic capital.

Around 100 of the factory’s 150 employees were on site when the fire broke out, the news agency reported.

A VIRGINIA BEACH, VIRGINIA, VOLUNTEER EMT was arrested Friday afternoon for breaking into the drug boxes in two fire stations and stealing morphine.

Early Friday morning at shift change the medic crews at both the Kempsville and First Landing fire stations discovered that their drug boxes had been broken into and some drugs were missing.

First Landing Fire Station, Va. Beach FD photo

Police detectives, after interviewing the FF’s and medics at the stations determined that Shaune Kelly Zenzel, 38,  was their prime suspect and arrested him at his home at 2 pm Friday.

Zenzel readily admitted that he committed the crime and says that his addiction to pain killers led him to it.  He has been a volunteer EMT for about 8 months.

Shaune Zenzel

WAVY Ch. 10 has published an interview with Zenzel where he explains what all happened HERE.

Virginia Beach Fire Dept. WEBSITE.
Virginia Beach F. D. Monster Fire Truck.