…..DOESN’T MEAN THEY KNOW ABOUT MOVING WATER.

Some folks in Newton, Massachusetts are wondering today what it takes to become a city water department worker.  The entrance exam seems to have been simplified.

Last Thursday morning they woke up to find standing water covering their street and spilling over into their yards.  It turns out that the water department has disconnected some storm drains while they work on a neighborhood expansion.  With nowhere to run off, the heavy rains from the night before just sat there, flooding the block.

Phone calls to the water dept. brought two of their ace workers out to the scene and the immediately began poking around in the water with long probes until they found what they were looking for, another water hole.  After removing this handy manhole cover the flood waters started draining rapidly …. into the sanitary sewer lines.  Within seconds, water backwashed into at least four homes.  We’ll let one of the residents, Jessica Peters, describe what happened next:

(One of my neighbors came) running outside with his hands up screaming, “What are you guys doing?  I’ve got sewage coming out of my toilet!”

I went downstairs and sure enough I had two inches of brown, murky, poopy water flowing through my basement.

Irate homeowner questioning the
waterworkers’ parentage.
(photo by John Kett) 

While the waterworkers admitted that it was their fault, the City is denying responsibilty and is resisting repayment for the thousands of dollars that the homeowners had to spend to get the “brown, murky, poopy water” removed from their homes.

The Newton Tab has the complete STORY.

That’s the way it looked at first to Dave Statter when he started on the story.  It turned out that there are two Shiloh Fire Departments that had the same event happen to them on the same day.  News crews are setting up now in front of the third Shiloh FD in anticipation of breaking events.

STATter911 got it all sorted out and has both stories along with a video posted HERE.

FOR THE THIRD TIME IN THE LAST NINE DAYS a mobile home in Chesapeake, Virginia has burned. 

WVEC image

The unoccupied trailer located in a mobile home court was first struck on July 22 when a room was burned out before the FF’s could extinguish it.  The next day, on the 23rd another small fire cropped up, but was quickly put out.

Early this morning, around 1:30 am a neighbor saw the trailer burning again and called the FD.  This time it was a total loss.

The former resident was evicted shortly before the first fire, but that was because he has been in jail on an unrelated charge and hadn’t paid his rent.  The trailer was scheduled to be hauled away this afternoon, but that plan may have to be altered.

WVEC-TV Norfolk has this video report:

A “NATURIST” IN HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND HAD TO BE RESCUED BY FIREFIGHTERS after he fell headfirst down a slope and landed upside down with a metal spike stuck in his groin.

Gavin Rigby, 34, was doing some naked sunbathing with a group of pals in a discreet location near Haslar Lake yesterday afternoon.  When he decided to go for a little stroll, he went a ways from the others and lost his footing on a slope.  Toppling head-first down the slope, he landed on an 8-inch metal spike that was protruding from the ground.

Gavin is quoted:

‘I wandered off briefly and the next thing I knew I was falling and I landed upside down on top of this rusty spike.

‘It went about three inches into my groin but I couldn’t free myself. I was just lying there upside down on this spike for about half an hour.

‘It was certainly painful. ‘

Yes, it probably was.  His friends heard his cries for help and went to his aid, but were unable to do anything.  They called the emergency number and the Hampshire Fire and Rescue Department answered the call along with an ambulance.

After cutting off the spike that was keeping Rigby earthbound, the firefighters turned him over to the ambulance crew who took him to the hospital.  He was released later in the day.

The Daily Mail has the full STORY.
 

A LYONS, NEW YORK, VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER has been arrested and accused of setting at least five fires in Wayne County.

The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle REPORTS:

Justin Confer, 20, of Geneva Street has been charged with five felony counts of third-degree arson, according to Wayne County sheriff’s deputies. Confer is a member of the Lyons Fire Department.

Deputies had been investigating Confer in connection with a series of suspicious fires. Lt. Bob Hetzke of the Sheriff’s Office said they followed him to an abandoned trailer on Fink Road about 6:35 p.m. Monday, and Confer set the trailer on fire.

Deputies arrested Confer when he returned to fight the fire.

In every instance of the arsons, Confer was the first to arrive at the fire station to respond on the alarm.  After being interrogated by the sheriff’s deputies, he confessed to setting four other barn fires in the same area.

The married father of two is being held under $40,000 cash bond.

WHAM-TV Ch. 13 Rochester has a video report:

WHEN THE AMUSEMENT PIER AT WESTON, SOMERSET in England burned down Monday (see Firegeezer report and videos HERE), it was only a matter of hours before rumors began circulating about lost treasure.

The arcade on the Grand Pier contained 370 slot machines which are known to sometimes hold as much as £1,000 in coins in each of them.  Couple that with the wild stories going around that the company safes containing a quarter-million Pounds in them had dropped through the burning floor into the surf below, and you’ve got a mad scramble on the seashore of treasure seekers.

In reality, the slots (”fruit machines” in local parlance) are still on the pier, all of them melted by the fire along with their coinage into big blobs of metal.  The pier’s owner, Kerry Michael, said that the only safe in the pier that did partially fall through the floor is wedged among steel pilings just beneath and is not yet accessible.

Along with the rumors, those fabulous English tabloids have whipped up the treasure tale even more and now thousands of people are swarming onto the beach in hopes of a lucky strike.

The Avon and Somerset Police have cordoned off the entire pier with a 1,000-ft. exclusion zone to keep the treasure seekers away from the danger of falling debris and hazardous chunks of torn metal and nails hidden in the sand beneath the pier.

The good news is that the landward end of the pier is safe for use and business are reopening on it.  A cafe and a gift shop are already back in business.  Mr. Michael says that he will be keeping all of his employees on the payroll and they have also started setting up some amusements and shopping venues on the pier.  Using the wreckage as a tourist attraction, he began doing business again Thursday morning.

Kerry and Michelle Michael hold a press conference prior
to re-opening the pier this morning.  (Mercury photo)

The cause of the fire is still undetermined, but the owner publicly stated that arson has been ruled out.  But the fire officials have denied that, saying that they cannot yet rule that conclusion in or out.  Investigations are just getting underway.

Sources:
The Daily Record
BBC News
Weston & Somerset Mercury
Press Association

The PA interviewed a couple of shop owners on how the fire has impacted their business:

The end of another month already.  That means just 3 weeks or so of summer heat and humidity.  And only 15 days until the drugstore chains start putting up their Christmas displays.  When I was a youngster it was an unwritten agreement among the retailers to wait until Thanksgiving before setting up the Christmas decorations and pushing the commercial aspect of gift purchases.

And then somewhere around the 1960’s the seasonal starting bell began creeping back earlier and earlier.  As it approached Columbus Day in mid-October, some wag began an organization that he called the “Save Christmas From The 4th of July Committee.”  Recognizing that Labor Day would soon fall, he set up the defenses farther back in order to effectively dig in.  Apparently he has failed.

Now you can go to any tourist trap and find within its shopping district a “Christmas Shoppe” that sells the tree decorations and related stuff all year-round.  Just can’t get enough of those decorated balls.

The advent of the internet shopping experience has encouraged sites such as THIS ONE to spring up.  And you know what?  They are successful.  It just reinforces what I’ve always said, you can find everything on the internet.

But you still have to step away from the keyboard long enough to get this equipment checked out.  And I need to get the coffee started.

SIBERIA IS NOT KNOWN FOR HEAT WAVES.  In fact, they have so little hot weather that air conditioning is unheard of.

So when an unusually hot day struck the city of Omsk yesterday, the apartment dwellers had all their windows open for ventilation.  Unfortunately for some of them, when a careless driver clonked into a fire hydrant they got an unexpected housecleaning.

…….OUR TIME AT THE FIREHOUSE EXPO WAS A LOT MORE ENJOYABLE.

The booth next to us on side B was occupied by the folks from GRT Restoration Company of Frederick, Maryland.  Their firm specializes in restoring and refurbishing concrete flooring.  Putting it simply, they cover the floor with a secret mix of epoxy-like coating that is stain and heat resistant.

While a lot of their business is working with architects and building contractors, their product is also ideal for engine bay floors and multi-purpose rooms.

Usually attending building trade fairs, this was their first foray into a firehouse-related exhibition.  Judging from the amount of traffic and interest shown at their exhibit, we would say that they generated a lot of interest at the Expo.  As you can see from the photo, they can inlay any custom logo into the floor coating.

By necessity, they are currently limited to working the Mid-Atlantic states, but if you want more information, check out their WEBSITE HERE.

BACK ON JANUARY 18 FIREGEEZER REPORTED (HERE) on the untimely death of the Nicol (Alabama) Fire Chief who became mortally ill while working a rescue scene in a town devastated by tornadoes.

Chief Steven Sullivan was a co-founder of the Nicol VFD and was the only man who had been the department’s chief.  He was exposed to a lengthy period of especially foul weather while searching the tornado wreckage and was hospitalized soon after where he died six days later.

The department had helped his widow apply to the state for a line of duty death benefit.  The current chief of the department has written to us with some good news:

Jackie Sullivan, widow of Steven Allan Sullivan, former Fire Chief of the Nicol Volunteer Fire Department who passed away in January of 2008 shortly after assisting at a neighborhood disaster, received a line of duty benefit payment from the State of Alabama recently. Many thanks to Senator Phil Poole who contacted me a while back and wanted to know what was being done for the survivors and I advised him that the status at that time was not good.  Senator Poole took things in hand and got the benefits for the Sullivan family.
…… Chief Gaston Wilson, Nicol VFD.

Chief Sullivan and the famous “Dalmation Chicken”

AFTER 17 MONTHS OF REGULATORY HURDLES and lobbying, the long-awaited merger of the Sirius and XM satellite radio services was completed yesterday (Tuesday).  The new company is named “Sirius XM Radio.”

While this may be the only chance for the satellite radio format to survive and offer millions of dollars in savings, the new, combined stock immediately dropped yesterday when it was disclosed that the new corporation is starting out with $3 billion in debt.

The merger was in actuality an acquisition of XM by Sirius.  The history of large losses combined with a slowing of signing up new subscribers has left investors wary.  One of the concessions given before FCC approval was recieved is to offer an a la carte mode of subscribing that allows customers to chose which stations they want to pay for and receive.  So this may, with good publicity and advertising, encourage a wave of new subscribers to sign up.

Reuters has an analysis of the merger HERE.

LAST YEAR TWO OF MARION COUNTY’S TOWNSHIPS (Indiana) merged with the Indianapolis Fire Department.  Since they have done that, the townships have had a noticable decrease in budgetary costs for their fire protection.

Washington Township was facing a budget deficit last year but this year they are showing a $3 million surplus.  They are considering using part of that for an additional fire station.  Warren Township had a $2.7 million deficit threatening them, but eliminated it after consolidation.

Now several other townships are seriously considering joining the merger program with IFD.  The state firefighters union is in favor of having the seven remaining townships join quoting a study done that claims a $14 million a year savings on payroll alone if the entire county consolidated.

Note:  Beginning in 1994 the union locals in Marion County began merging with Indianapolis Local 416.  Today L-416 represents all union firefighters in Marion County and a few departments in two other neighboring counties as well.

However, three of the seven twps. have trustees who are resisting the concept.  This may become moot, though, because there is a bill before the state legislature to require all fire districts in Marion County to join the IFD.

Indianapolis FD station 29

Jeremy Herb has a very good article in today’s Indianapolis Star that goes into more detail about what all is going on with the county fire districts.  You can read it HERE.

Indianapolis Fire Dept. WEBSITE.
Local 416 WEBSITE.