A GERMAN FIREFIGHTER WAS KILLED SUNDAY MORNING and seven of his colleagues injured, three of them critically.

They were attending a fire in a grain storage silo at a malt plant in Worms that had suffered an explosion at 7 am.  Two hours later, while the fire brigades were still attacking the fire at 9 am, a second explosion occurred in the silo injuring the firefighters in the structure.  One of them, a 24-yr.-old volunteer firefighter, was thrown out of the silo and more than 100 ft. down onto the pavement below and was immediately buried by the debris of the damaged structure over 100 ft. up.

The fire officials have determined that due to the instability and danger posed by the silo, they will wait until Monday to retrieve the dead firefighter.  The other injuries were caused from being struck by flying debris from the explosion.

The fire was knocked down by Sunday afternoon.  More than 250 firefighters were involved in the operation.

SWR.de has the STORY.
SWR also has a VIDEO.

One of the firefighter’s helmet serves as a memorial
as his colleagues stand vigil.

A THUNDEROUS BLAST ROCKED A LANCASHIRE, ENGLAND, neighborhood Saturday night when an apartment filled with natural gas then detonated.

BBC News

The resulting explosion destroyed three apartments and started a fire that took 80 firefighters nearly three hours to put out.  At least eight people were injured, two critically.

The Manchester Evening News is reporting:

A 26-year-old man suffered serious burns and has been taken to Whiston Hospital where he remains in a critical but stable condition.

A 43-year-old man is being treated at Wythenshawe Hospital for burns and is described as serious but stable. The injuries to both men are not thought to be life-threatening.

The others were treated for the effects of smoke inhalation and panic attacks at Wigan Infirmary.

Several neighboring units had to be evacuated during the fire operation.  Rescue crews spent the entire night searching the collapsed building for any other victims and have reported an “all clear.”  It is not yet known how many of the units will have to be torn down due to the extent of damage.

The Manchester Evening News has the full STORY.
BBC News has some raw VIDEO.

 Now THIS is a Great Shot

BILL TOMPKINS, PHOTO-JOURNALIST for Firefighter Spot/Best Firefighter Video, took this terrific photo at a house fire in East Orange, New Jersey, on Friday morning.

He’s got a full gallery of shots just as good as this one along with the story of the fire, including a close-call with a collapsing wall, on BestFirefighterVideos HERE.  Click over and take a look.

AN ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO, POLICE OFFICER and an Albuquerque Ambulance EMT got into a disagreement Thursday evening over the proper care of a patient.  When it was over, the EMT was in handcuffs and is being charged with battery on a police officer.

They were on the scene with a reportedly-suicidal woman and while the EMT was evaluating her the cop tried to restrain the woman.  The EMT then pushed the policewoman and told her to “let go of my patient.”

KRQE Ch. 13 has the video report:

NORWICH, CONNECTICUT, FIREFIGHTERS ARE STILL WORKING a multi-family/commercial building fire in downtown this morning.

WFSB Ch.3 / Anthony Tran photo

The 3-story building that was built in 1896 has a convenience store on the ground level with eight apartments above, seven of which were occupied.  The fire call came in at 2:30 am Sunday as an auto fire and the responding company had to upgrade the alarm as they approached the scene.  When they arrived they found the first two stories completely involved and went directly into rescue operations while assisting companies were being dispatched.

Two firefighters were slightly injured while attempting a rescue on the 3rd floor of a woman who suffered critical burn injuries and has been airlifted to Hartford Hospital.

WTNH-TV New Haven has this on-scene video report:

WVIT Ch. 30 Hartford has an early REPORT.

WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA FIRE CREWS from four counties are still on the scene this morning of an overnight fire in Spruce Pine.  The fire is in a quartz/feldspar processing plant and has caused “substantial” damage to the plant.

The Unimin Corporation site contains the plant, a mine, laboratories and an office building.  The fire which began around 11 pm Saturday night is contained to the plant building which only operates on weekdays.

Because of the nature of the fire and its toxic hazard, residents within a 4-mile radius of the facility were evacuated from their homes during the night and are still being kept away.

Update:  FireNews.net has the full updated story HERE.

Today we’ll finish up our little chat on the infamous Woodie’s Warehouse Sales (WWS) that we started yesterday HERE.  I was telling about the poor, elderly lady that had gotten trampled when the shopping mob tore into the building as the doors were opened.

Well, as the shift schedule worked out, our crew was working again the very next year when the big annual sale event took place.  But this time Woodie’s had learned their lesson after the previous year’s debacle.  They had better control on the entrance and were letting people in by batches in a more orderly way.  And about 15 minutes after the starting bell we relaxed.  A smooth start.

About an hour or so later, we got our first call of the day to the warehouse for a man down.  That called for both ambulance and engine to respond and sure enough, there was this poor soul in the rug department on the floor and no vitals.  So we began the full-blown CPR routine on him.

While the six of us were all doing our assigned tasks and concentrating on trying to get this guy back for a second chance at life, some woman comes over, grabs his ankle and lifts his leg so that she can pull out a rolled-up area rug he was laying on that she wanted to look at.  (I am not making this up.)  After she tugs the rug out, she lets his leg back down and walks away without a second glance at what’s going on.

We were all so busy with the CPR, and it happened so quicky, that none of us really noticed at the time what this dame was doing.  It didn’t register with us because it was so surreal.  It wasn’t until we got back to the station and started comparing notes and our recollections of the incident that we were able to piece together exactly what happened.  And then we were just flat-out flabbergasted.

There really are no words to describe what it felt like after realizing what went on.  You see an awful lot of strange things when you’re an emergency responder, but this was a genuine head-shaker.  Keeping in mind that these two events that I shared with you occurred about 30 years ago, you can see that civilization really hasn’t progressed much since then.

Just the same, we need to get this equipment checked out.  Sunday schedule today, turkey and biscuits for breakfast.  I’ll get the coffee started.

THE TINY TOWN OF WOODSTOCK, NEW BRUNSWICK, (pop. 5,200) is stuck with a $2,246 repair bill on a new fire vehicle that hasn’t even been put in service yet.

While driving their brand new equipment van back from the shop that installed the body on a GM chassis, the truck broke down and couldn’t be restarted.  A call to the GM hotline advised them to have it towed to Robert’s Chevrolet in Grand Falls.  It all went downhill from there.

Nobody is taking credit for causing the problem:  A kinked gas line.  GM says they didn’t do it.  The body builder says that not only did they not do it, but they can prove that GM did it.  The dealer that sold the truck says they’re not responsible for non-warranty work.

Bugle-Observer / Dumville photo

When questioned about the seemingly-high cost to repair a kinked gas line, Robert’s Chevrolet says that they normally don’t work on trucks (even though GM instructed the FD to have it towed there).

Read about this sorry Mexican Standoff in the Woodstock Bugle-Observer HERE.

Thanks to Firehall.com