IN A REMARKABLE DISPLAY OF LET’S-DO-IT, THE F. X. MATT BREWERY in Utica, New York, has got its bottling line back in operation.

You may recall that the brewers of Utica Club and Saranac beers suffered a major fire in their bottling/canning building just 31 days ago.  (See the Firegeezer reports HERE, HERE and HERE.)  The fire was confined to the bottling building, so the brewery operations were able to resume within a couple of days.  Matt made quick arrangements with the High Falls Brewing Co. in Rochester to can the product.

Observer-Dispatch

Even though the roof came down onto the third floor during the fire, destroying the canning machinery, the bottling lines on the 2nd floor suffered much less damage.  Now, after reconstruction, a temporary roof and fresh paint all around, the bottles are being filled again.  Canning will continue at High Falls for a while yet.

June is usually the highest-sales month for Matt and they will be taking a hit this year because they haven’t been able to build up store stocks leading up to this week.  The draft business was able to be maintained, but that is mostly local.  Currently the brewers are working double-shifts, but the bottling isn’t expected to be back to full production until the end of this week.

WKTV

The Utica Observer-Dispatch tells all about it this morning HERE.

WKTV has this video report:

IT WAS JUST OVER A MONTH AGO that the Fulton County (Kentucky) Rescue Squad had to shut down its operations for lack of a reliable truck. Their current vehicle was judged unsafe to drive by the members.

Firegeezer covered the shutdown HERE and told of the membership resigning en masse when the town of Hickman wouldn’t assist in providing the funds for a replacement.

The rescue squad did not provide any medical or ambulance service.  The all-volunteer company responded to calls for vehicle extrication, river search and rescue, setting up helicopter landing zones and performed the town’s weather spotting.

We are happy to report that an agreement has been made by the town to pony up some funds and the volunteers are back helping their community.

WPSD Ch. 6 Paducah has the good news video report:

FRENCH AMBULANCE WORKERS WERE PUT TO WORK SUNDAY when a French Marine public demonstration went awry.

The Third Marine Parachute Regiment was giving a public show on how they free hostages from terrorists.  The demonstration has been given five times previously and is performed with blank cartridges in their rifles.

But one of the magazines was loaded with live ammo and when the marine discharged his weapon which was aimed at the crowd of onlookers, the bullets sprayed the civilians and left 17 laying in a bloody heap.  Fortunately, all of them have survived and the most-seriously injured of the people have been stabilized, including a 3-yr.-0ld child.

French marines collect shell casings
at site of accidental shooting.

The soldier that fired the live rounds has an exemplary record and for now there is no suspicion of his actions, but the possibility of foul play has not been ruled out.

Agence France Presse has the latest REPORT.
AFP also has some reports from civilians HERE.

EARLY SUNDAY MORNING NEAR WINNIPEG, MANITOBA, a house suddenly exploded violently and burned down.  The 3 am blast brought the neighbors to their windows and some of them saw a figure running away engulfed in flames.

A trail of bloody, barefoot prints were found leading away from the house and down to a nearby parkland.  Police say that a severely burned youth, age 19, was found about an hour later and taken to the hospital where he later died from his injuries.

The house has been the center of attention before due to a neighborhood conflict involving several homes, some of which are allegedly connected with drug activity.

The victim was identified as the nephew of the owners of the house who were not at home when it blew.  The nephew was reportedly visiting from Nova Scotia.  A man whose yard contains some of the bloody footprints says that he saw a man dressed in black running away from the scene.

It’s hard to tell the players without a scorecard, but the Winnipeg Free Press tries in this report HERE.

A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM IN NASHUA, NEW HAMPSHIRE, SUNDAY EVENING sent a lightning bolt onto a direct hit at the fire department’s radio and dispatch center.

The NashuaTelegraph reports:

A lighting strike damaged the fire department’s radio dispatch system during yesterday’s severe thunderstorm.

The strike hit the dispatch center at 38 Lake St. sometime between 5:30 and 5:45 p.m. said Deputy Fire Chief Micheal O’Brien.

The dispatchers were able to bring the backup radio systems online within five minutes. The backup systems were still in use as of 10:30 p.m. on Sunday night.

The damage will not affect service to residents, O’Brien said.

So far there is not estimate on the cost of repairing the system which is still underway.

Nashua Fire Rescue WEBSITE.

TWO AIR AMBULANCES, BOTH BELL 407 HELICOPTERS, COLLIDED IN THE AIR near a hospital in Flagstaff, Arizona, Sunday afternoon.

Flagstaff firefighters knock down remaining
hot spots of one of the helicopters.
(Flagstaff Police Dept. photo)

The latest count has six people dead and one critically injured.  The two aircraft were approaching the Flagstaff Medical Center when they collided around 3:45 pm local time.  One of the planes was operated by Air Methods Corp. of Englewood, Colorado, and had three people onboard including a patient.  All three perished.

The other aircraft was operated by Classic Helicopters of Woods Cross, Utah, and had four people onboard.  Three of them died and the fourth, a nurse, was critically injured.  Both helicopters were headed for the hospital and were less than a mile away from the facility when they hit and spun out of control.  Fire officials said one landed on Switzer Mesa - also called McMillan Mesa - and  other landed downhill in a heavily wooded area.

KTVK

A spokesman for the Flagstaff Police Dept. said two rescue workers were slightly injured in a secondary blast as one of the helicopters on the ground exploded.  “They were treated for minor burns injuries [sic] and were released from the hospital in good condition,” Sergeant Tom Boughner told a Reuters reporter by telephone from the crash site.

The crash started a brush fire that burned 10-15 acres before it was contained.

Flagstaff Police Dept. photo

The Arizona Republic has the latest REPORT.

The Associated Press has this video report:

 

Yesterday was the Big Event that I look forward to every year:  The season’s first BLT’s!  I’m talking about the genuine sandwich that has fresh, vine-ripened tomatoes on it.  Ahhhh, nothing says “Summer” any better than that.

Lettuce is still a little expensive right now, but sometimes you gotta bite the bullet and pay the price.  If anybody’s wondering, I only use the Oscar Mayer Thick Cut bacon.  That’s the same brand that Cracker Barrel uses and people wait in line to eat there.

*  *  *  *  *

A lot of our readers are IAFF members, and many non-members like to watch what’s going on with the labor front as well.  One of our readers, Dave S., passed along a good suggestion for you folks who like to follow this activity.  He thought it would be helpful to make you aware of a reference website that Firegeezer uses on occasions when I need to check up on one of the Locals.

There is a very good, comprehensive website that lists all the IAFF locals in a quick-reference format.  It’s called, surprisingly enough, IAFF Locals Online and they can be found at:  http://www.iafflocals.net/ 

The webpage is sorted out into two columns, one of them lists all the Locals in numerical order and the other lists them alphabetically by state.  All of the locals that have a website are underlined and linked so that you can click right over to their site.  There is a separate page for the Canadian Locals that is laid out the same way.

Click around some of the sites and, who knows, maybe you can get some good ideas on how to improve your own Local’s website.

But first let’s click around to the apparatus bay and get this equipment checked out.  I’ll make some more coffee.  How about we have some BLT’s for lunch today?

Here’s some good reading to round out the weekend:

*  STATter911 is giving full coverage HERE to the Chicago fire investigator who was shot last night while on the scene of a fire.

*  FirefighterCloseCalls has an instructive story about a Maine FF who was rescued by his crew when a roof fell on him.  He was in cardiac arrest and buried, but his PASS alarm saved him.  Read the full report HERE.

*  FireNews.net has updated a posting on a downtown fire in Maxton, N. Car., with a batch of good photos HERE.

*  EMS1 has a story on the call for a drastic re-structuring of the EMS service in Cheyenne, Wyoming and the surrounding area HERE.

*  PhillyFireNews has an ace squad of photographers and you should be checking them out every day HERE.

A MAJOR IMPROVEMENT IN JET ENGINE DESIGN has generated excitement in aviation circles.  Dave Demerjian of WIRED magazine starts his story:

Pratt & Whitney has spent the better part of two decades developing the geared turbofan engine that burns 12 to 15 percent less fuel than other jet engines and cuts carbon dioxide emissions by 1,500 tons per plane per year. It’s being called one of the most exciting developments commercial aviation has seen in years…

“It’s technology like that geared turbofan that’s going to drive fuel efficiency forward for this industry in the short and medium term,” says Earnest Arvi of the Arvi Group. “Alternative fuels show great potential, but they’re decades away.”

What makes this fan jet different from the others is the geared turbine.   Current jet engines have fans that suck air into the combustion chamber, where it is compressed, mixed with fuel, and ignited. Then it’s blown through a turbine, generating thrust. It works, but it’s inefficient because the fan is connected to the engine and turns at the same speed as the turbine. Fans work best at low speed, while turbines work best at high speed.

Pratt & Whitney solved that problem with a gearbox that lets the fan and turbine spin independently. The fan is larger and it spins at one-third the speed of the turbine, creating a quieter, more powerful engine the company says requires less fuel, emits less C02 and costs 30 percent less to maintain.

 The new engine is expected to be in production by 2013.

Pratt & Whitney photo

For the full details, read the complete article HERE and you also learn some other interesting tidbits such as:  If every commercial flight in the U. S. could shave 1 minute off its flight time, there would be a savings of 1.9 million tons of fuel annually.

A BRUSH FIRE WAS STARTED ABOUT 20 MILES NW OF LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, Saturday when a private airplane crashed onto a mountain.

CBS / Rick Plummer photo

The single-engine Piper Cherokee had four people on board and was flying from North Las Vegas to Byron, California, when it struck a power line and crashed.  All four passengers perished when the plane hit and broke into flames at the 7,000 ft. level of Mt. Charleston.

CBS / Plummer

Fire officials say the fire spread and climbed the steep and parched terrain of the Spring Mountain Recreation Area and came within a half-mile of a housing subdivision.  Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman Kirsten Cannon says nearly 40 homes are threatened by the 12-acre fire.

CBS / Plummer 

Authorities have ordered an evacuation of the subdivision. They expect to fully contain the blaze by 6 p.m. Sunday.

Fox News has the STORY.
Las Vegas Channel 8 has a video REPORT.

AT THE SIX FLAGS AMUSEMENT PARK NEAR ATLANTA, GEORGIA, Saturday, a 17-yr.-old boy was killed when he was struck by the Batman Coaster inside a restricted area.

The Batman ride carries the passengers
upside-down through a series of
inverted loops.  (AJC photo)

The teen and another boy had left the park earlier in the day to buy some lunch outside.  Instead of returning through the entrance gate, they climbed over the park’s security fence in another area.  Once inside, they then climbed  a safety fence that surrounds the ride, even though it is plainly marked with Danger and No Trespassing signs. 

There is speculation that he was looking to retrieve a hat that he had lost earlier while riding the coaster.  While climbing around the coaster ride, the cars came by at about 50 mph and struck the youth killing him instantly by decapitation.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has the full STORY.

The AP filed this video report:

THE WARWICK TOWNSHIP FIRE CO. IN BUCKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, has its tower truck trapped inside the firehouse this morning.  About 8:10 pm on Saturday a pickup truck came careening into the front of the station, destroying the tower’s bay door and knocking down several chunks of the building’s facade.

WPVI Ch. 6

The tower suffered some body damage, but does not appear at first to be mechanically impacted.  There was also some plumbing and electrical damage in the station.

Police are attempting to figure out why the driver, who was alone in the pickup, drove into the building even though it is set back some distance from the roadway.  He was the only person hurt in the crash and was taken to a hospital for undisclosed injuries.

phillyBurbs has the STORY.