THE CAUSE OF THE 3-ALARM FIRE at a cold storage plant in Spokane, Washington, yesterday has been determined. (See prior Firegeezer report on the fire HERE.) The weight of a recent heavy snowfall had caused a building awning to collapse earlier in the week. Tuesday a repair crew was dissembling the wrecked metal awning and using a cutting torch at the assmebly joints on the roof. It has been presumed that the torch started something burning inside the roof that led to the entire center structure to catch fire.
Spokesman-Review
The good news is that the fire was contained to the center building where the fire started. The two connected buildings on either side where the anhydrous ammonia tanks for the refridgeration units were stored were spared from the flames, mitigating the potential area-wide toxic air hazard that would have resulted if they had been breached.
KREM-TV Ch. 2 has the updated video report:
The last part of the video illustrates the state-wide problem the FD’s are having with fire hydrants buried by the recent snowstorm. The Spokane Spokesman-ReviewTELLS ABOUT the hydrant situation at the cold storage plant fire yesterday:
Eyewitness Ethan Kuebler was among a group of citizens who helped by clearing snow from fire hydrants. “People started showing up with shovels and a gentleman showed up with a little Bobcat to help dig out the fire hydrants,” he said.
Posted by firegeezeron December 31, 2008 •
Filed under: fire
A PARAMEDIC AND AN EMT IN SUSSEX, ENGLAND, were arrested and charged with “suspicion of wilfully neglecting to perform a duty in public office.”
Their problem began on November 29 when a 59-yr.-old man in Brighton called 9-9-9 complaining of severe chest pains. The ambulance staffed with the two men in question arrived promptly, not knowing that the man had collapsed while still on the phone and the line was still connected and recording everything.
The Daily Telegraph tells what happened next:
Minutes later the control staff heard the crew enter the house. A police source said: “What they heard after their ambulance crew arrived frankly astonished them.
“Apparently their first reaction was to comment on the untidy and unkempt state of the house. Then they are heard to comment on seeing Mr Baker and allegedly saying that it was not worth bothering to try to carry out resuscitation to try to save him. They then are heard discussing what to tell ambulance control and allegedly decide to say that he was already dead when they arrived.
“Obviously the crew did not realise that the phone was still connected and, of course, the 999 call was all recorded on tape,” said the source.
The unnamed ambulance staff were arrested after the tape was handed to the Sussex Police Major Crime Team.
The two men, ages 35 and 44, have been suspended from duty at the South East Coast Ambulance NHS Trust and they are currently free on bail while the police continue their investigation.
The Telegraph has the complete story HERE.
Sky News has a video report:
A 3-ALARM FIRE IN THE BENSONHURST SECTION of Brooklyn, New York, on Tuesday injured eight firefighers including one seriously when he “rode down” with a collapsing rear wall from the 3rd floor. The firefighter, a member of Ladder 148 who has been with the FDNY for three years, was taken to the hospital for serious, but nonlife-threatening injuries, fire officials said.
The fire began about 11 am in a sports card and memorabilia store and expanded rapidly throughout the entire 3-story building, bringing 150 firefighters to the scene. The fire was brought under control in two hours.
Initial investigation into the cause is not showing anything suspicious.
A 3-ALARM FIRE BURNED IN THE SHELTON, CONNECTICUT, HIGH SCHOOL Tuesday afternoon. The fire began in a second-floor storage closet and extended through some ductwork and pipe chases into the 3rd and 4th floors.
The fire involved a newly-built wing that was part of a $25 million renovation completed earlier this year and was noteworthy because the city failed to follow the state fire code which mandates sprinklers in classrooms that have no windows.
Firegeezer reported on November 15 HERE about this disregard for fire safety where we wrote:
New Haven tv station WTNH did an earlier report on this and the school officials seem to be running from the problem instead of addressing them. Specifically, the new addition has several classrooms without windows or any emergency egress to the outside. Code calls for these areas to be sprinklered. But Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti tried to downplay the shortcoming and stated: “I do know there are very few incidents that occur in a building like that. There is not much that can burn other than paper and people, some electrical components. Fortunately we have dodged any bullet that may have come in that regard.”
Not only is the mayor on the hot seat, but also the city fire marshal who claimed that the city had received a waiver from the state for the sprinklers. When confronted with the fact that they did not have a waiver, he then said that the code doesn’t require sprinklers. WTNH-TV Ch. 8 New Haven has been following this strange sequence and filed this video report on Oct. 30:
The fire marshal of neighboring Milford, who in fact wrote that section of the fire code, refuted that claim and pointed out the law in the code book for this tv report that was aired just six days ago:
The New Haven Register has the story on Tuesday’s fire HERE.
The Connecticut Post has a related story about some rescues required in the biology laboratory HERE.
Posted by firegeezeron December 31, 2008 •
Filed under: fire
Somehow we made it all of the way through the year. Despite the occasional brain-lock, I managed to make the Lineup every day. And this was a leap year, too. (Come to think about it, with that extra second being added on to the clock tonight and this being a leap year, this has been the longest year in the history of the world. No wonder I’m tired.)
We also published nearly 2,500 postings covering all facets of fire, rescue and EMS along with some other topics that we hope you found interesting.
For a while I was considering making a list of my favorite postings of the year, but I came up with a better idea. During the upcoming year I will be doing replays of some Firegeezer Flashbacks where we can share those “magic moments” again. One that comes immediately to mind is unforgettable “Beer can-tossing refridgerator”. There are many more like it that we can review over the next 50-odd weeks ahead. If you’ve got a favorite, tell us what it is and we can put it in the re-run que.
Over the 12-month span our readership has doubled, too. That is something that I am really pleased with and I have to thank all of you for checking in with us every day or so and coming back for more. During that time a lot of other fire/rescue-related websites have popped up and withered away. A few managed to stick around and we doggedly hung in there, too. The fire blogs that are left standing are all good places to go for news and information covering a variety of topics and viewpoints, and I think it’s great that all that is sitting out there for you to take advantage of. You can’t help but benefit from seeing viewpoints and learning about events that are outside your daily contacts.
A good New Year’s resolution would be for each of you to bring one person into the fire blog world and show them your favorite websites, and maybe some that aren’t your favorites but might be theirs. They just might be surprised at what they can find out here in internet land.
Again, thanks for joining us and sometimes responding to us. And keep watch for our upcoming improvements over the next few weeks.
Now let’s get the equipment checked out. I’ve got to get the coffee started.
Two court decisions made this week as Philadelphia reduces services:
SEVEN FIRE COMPANIES WILL CLOSE
In a battle that started with a 2004 injunction filed by Philadelphia IAFF Local 22, a judge ruled yesterday that the city can close five engine and two ladder companies.
From today’s article in the Philadelphia Daily News:
(Judge) Di Vito wrote that he was convinced by the testimony two weeks ago from Deputy Fire Commissioner John Devlin that the elimination of five fire engines and two ladder trucks would still maintain “sufficient coverage of all areas of the city.” Di Vito’s order goes on to say that an expert brought in from Local 22’s national office used a flawed analysis of Fire Department data when studying the closures.
Rest of article HERE. The original goal was to disband four engines and four ladders in order to staff eight additional 12-hour paramedic ambulances. Also from the article:
Mayor Nutter has said the fire company closures are necessary as part of a larger plan to close a gap in the city’s five-year financial plan that has grown to more than $1 billion. No fire stations are being closed and no firefighters are being laid off. The closures will save the city $10.4 million per year in overtime costs as firefighters staffing the five engines and two ladder trucks will be reassigned to fill other posts.
As Firegeezer readers know, Philadelphia has the busiest ambulances of any large fire-based system. It was mentioned in my first blog entry HERE as well as HERE, HERE and HERE.
Four years later Philadelphia is closing companies just to reduce overtime expenditures and not increasing ambulance coverage through reassigned firefighters.
In court ruling today, a judge prohibited the Mayor from closing eleven libraries:
Common Pleas Judge Idee Fox heard more than a day of testimony before finding that the mayor is bound by a 1988 ordinance that prohibits him from closing any city-owned building without City Council’s approval.
You can read the rest of the Associated Press story HERE. Hopefully, the library staff can get an AED and fire extinguisher training.
SPOKANE, WASHINGTON, FIREFIGHTERS ARE ON THE SCENE of a 3-alarm fire at a frozen-food storage facility. The fire broke out around 10 am Pacific time and is still ongoing as this is being posted.
KHQ Ch. 6 image
The cold-storage plant is divided into three sections with the office area in the center and two storage warehouses on each side. The fire started in the office area and the FD is working hard to keep it contained to the center of the complex.
The two storage warehouses on each end have large anhydrous ammonia tanks in them and that is the concern at the moment. All civilians within a 2-block radius of the plant have been evacuated.
The initial attack was hindered by a recent 30-inch snowfall that had covered all of the hydrants and they had to be located and dug out before water supply could be established. There was also a partial roof collapse shortly after the arrival of the FD units.
KREM-TV Ch. 2 has this up-to-date video report:
Posted by firegeezeron December 30, 2008 •
Filed under: fire
* STATter911 has a novel report on a 10-story-high corn cob pile that’s been burning in Indiana for several days. I’ve never heard of one of those before, but the folks in Indiana have. This is the second time this particular firm has had a mountain of corn cobs burn with a loss into the $ millions (?).
Firegeezer is wondering if the FF’s raised the aerial and hooked up the “corn cob” pipe to attack it. Read Dave Statter’s story on it HERE.
* Milwaukee has just closed an engine company in the heart of its high-value district in order for the city to continue sending money to God knows what “vital” program that is more important than fire protection. Housewatch has a nice farewell for this sacrificial lamb HERE.
* FireRescue1 is wrapping up 2008 with a Year In Review page HERE and a slideshow of their best photos HERE. Lots of good stuff there to check out.
* BestFirefighterVideo has three good postings to check out. One is an attack on a car fire that attacks the firefighters right back. Next are some great shots of a warehouse fire in New Jersey, and lastly is a video that encapsulates Gary, Indiana’s, 7,000 fires in the past year. Watch them all HERE.
* VAFireNews has some new stories and lots of “hot shots” taken around Virginia in the past few days HERE including one about the fire companies who were dispatched to the wrong street while the house burns. (Something that’s happened to all of us at one time.)
WHAT DO KIDS DO WHEN THEY GET TOO OLD to enter the annual Soap Box Derby? In England they just make bigger carts and take them to the Downhill Soapbox Race.
photo by James Wardell
This event is held to to raise money for When You Wish Upon A Star, a charity for terminally ill children and its 5th annual race was held this past weekend.
More than 40 teams entered carts that are designed to carry two driver/passengers and on the 1/2-mile downhill course they sometimes get up to 40 mph. About halfway along the course is the haybale chicane that manages to narrow the field.
The fire brigade was represented
Prizes are awarded for the quickest cart, the best design and the one that travels the shortest distance before crashing, among several other prizes.
The West Midlands Express and Star has this nice video report:
LAKE PARK, IOWA, found its downtown covered in smoke Sunday morning as a fire destroyed three buildings in the heart of the commercial district of the village of 1,000 people near the Minnesota border.
Arnolds Park / Okoboji Fire Dept. photo
Immediately on arrival at the fire scene, Fire Chief Brandon Ehret found fire showing at a family health clinic and called for mutual aid companies for aerial assistance and water supply. Eleven more FD’s attended the fire.
During the 6-hour operation the town’s water supply was exhausted and the FD’s were relying on dry hydrants fed from nearby Silver Lake.
Along with the three buildings that were lost, the town’s post office was damaged and needs repair before the building can be used. All of the mail was saved and was moved to another location that will be used temporarily for mail service.
The Spencer Daily Reporter has the STORY.
The Worthington Daily Globe has MORE.
Posted by firegeezeron December 30, 2008 •
Filed under: fire
The carbon-based life form known as a career firefighter is facing unprecedented pressure. By now, every unfilled firefighter position has been eliminated in the current (FY09) budget. Hundreds of firefighter jobs have evaporated in the past nine months.
That may not be enough when Fiscal Year 2010 starts. Jurisdictions are looking at $87 of cash to cover $100 of expenses … AFTER all of the cuts were made in 2oo8.
The gap erodes to $74 of cash on hand if state and federal government payments to local government are reduced or eliminated.
BUDGETING 101
Local government spends half of it’s revenues on the K-12 school system. Of the remaining, about 70% is spent on public safety. In past recessions the bulk of the staffing cuts went to parks, libraries, social services and public works.
Reductions made during the 1981 budget crisis were never reversed. In my county, social workers saw an increase of their case workload in 1982. It was supposed to be “temporary” but was never changed.
The 2008 recession accelerated this fall and, since a vacant store makes no sale and employs no one, there is continued deterioration in the size of the revenue stream of property, personal income and general sales/gross receipts taxes.
Because of a poor 2008 Christmas shopping season, “… the worst in 40 years,” municipalities need to MAKE FURTHER REDUCTIONS in their revenue projections.
WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?
1) Learn as much as you can about YOUR local budgeting process and situation. IAFF published Surviving an Economic Crisis that was posted on their website April 03, 2008. Available for free download to IAFF members, the 26 page article provides detailed recommendations on developing a local action plan.
2) Strive to get accurate information. Firefighter discussion boards, blogs and firehouse kitchen table discussions that start with “A friend of my cousin who works in city hall …” are not good sources of information.
Most fire departments are agencies of local government, meaning that budget development is a public democratic process. In the old days, budgets were monitored monthly and adjusted quarterly. Now they are monitored daily and adjusted weekly.
Financial Diversification: What revenues or savings can we gain over the next five years?
Gaining Efficiencies
Service Reductions
2009 STIMULUS PACKAGE MAY PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES
When New York City was forced to permanently eliminate 900 firefighter jobs on July 6, 1975, it found a way to temporarily engage some of the laid-off FDNY members as federal contract workers. The city obtained a Housing and Urban Development grant to preserve the housing stock damaged by fire. The HUD contractors were trained to install window, door and roof panels on fire-damaged housing in order to preserve the housing stock.
The delivery system to get these technicians to the work site were the ladder companies that lost positions at the start of the FY76 fiscal year. Since these contractors were experienced FDNY firefighters, they were allowed to perform ancilliary duties … like forcible entry, search and rescue, laddering, and checking for fire extension between board-up assignments.
Somewhere within the infrastructure repairs, anti-terrorism, community emergency preparedness and (gasp) public health economic incentives there may be opportunities to preserve staffing to meet our core suppression mission.
AN UGLY FEW MONTHS
Metro cities will reveal their proposed FY2010 budget during the next few weeks. It appears that some proposed budgets will include firefighter and police officer layoffs when FY10 starts July 01, 2009.
A few smaller municipalities may emulate Vallejo, California, and declare bankruptcy to negate existing labor agreements and pay plans.
This pressure will make some of us diamonds. Firegeezer (Bill) and FossilMedic (Mike) will keep looking for diamonds-in-the-making as we endure this economic restructuring.
Mike “FossilMedic” Ward Diamond or Dust budget series
THE HORRENDOUS HOUSE FIRE in Philadelphia that took seven lives Friday night was started by using the wrong fuel for the kerosene heater that was being used to warm the basement apartment. (See Firegeezer report HERE.)
Still another kerosene heater stands outside just to the right
of the door that leads to the basement apartment’s
only egress. (Inquirer / Kaczmerak photo)
Fire investigators are saying that one of the people visiting the resident had gone out earlier in the day and bought five gallons of gasoline. Apparently this is what was being poured into the heater’s tank when the fire began.
The tenant’s estranged husband Alfred Teah told the Philadelphia Inquirer in a telephone interview that his wife rented a room in the house. “She just moved in a month and a half ago,” he said.
He said she was trying to pour fuel into a kerosene heater “when the flame became so big, she grabbed it to take it out, and it exploded.”
It has further been disclosed that six of the seven victims were just visiting the resident Christiana Teah.
Early last month I was back in my hometown for a few days and had the chance to look around and see what has changed in the ten years since I visited last. It’s one of those older, substantial small cities that expanded with the industrial revolution and is filled with those lovely Victorian-style homes that have a half-dozen bedrooms for the large families of the era.
Nowadays all the newer homes are on the fringe of the city that has no suburbs of its own, and as the younger generations mature and get married they tend to drift to these more modern neighborhoods to settle in. The grand Victorians in the center of town are now divided into multiple living units and rented out to college students or other younger people who are starting out their working careers. The exterior of the homes looks the same, but the insides are drastically different than they were twenty years ago.
What brought this to mind was an article that I read in the Sunday newspaper about how this twisted new-homes market is further suffering from a change in living habits by the people who would normally be buying those huge woodchips-and-glue McMansions that are sitting vacant in rows across a former pasture. It’s beginning to look like those tracts of unsold homes just might have to be re-packaged before they will be used.
Earlier this year FossilMedic wrote (HERE) about how these exurban neighborhoods will become the next “suburban slums” with the over-sized homes being converted to multi-family uses and the related property uses that follow. With this optimistic spurt of home building that took place a few years ago leaving all these white elephants sitting around, I’m wondering if just maybe we’ll be jumping directly into this final step of the housing evolution. Tomorrow’s Victorians are here today. It would be worth your while to go back and read FossilMedic’s article again.
Not far from where I live sits one of those projects. About one-fourth of the homes are occupied and the remaining houses have been sitting vacant for two years. The builder, out of desparation, has continued to lower the selling prices to where they’re just over half of what those early residents paid for their homes. (I wonder how they feel about that?) There is speculation that in order to save their financial hides, the builders will have to reconfigure these empty houses to accomodate “extended” families with many more members than were first considered when the tract was laid out. They (the builders) might even have to rent them out instead of selling them in order to preserve their investment and get the cash flowing again.
Getting the neighborhood rezoned to allow that will be no problem. The local politicians will be glad to revise the rules if it means restoring the tax collections that they’ve budgeted for but never saw. So you can probably picture what’s going to be happening out there in Happy Land Acres before too long. And these new homes filled with flimsy gusset plates and composition board floor joists…. well, you know how it goes. Keep up with your ladder drills.
And make sure the equipment’s ready for today’s activity. I’ll get a fresh pot of coffee going.
THE SPOTSYLVANIA COUNTY, VIRGINIA, SUPERVISORS approved a plan two years ago to provide funds to its volunteer fire and rescue agencies specifically for recruitment and retention of volunteer members.
Spotsylvania was until recently a mostly-rural area covered with farmland. However it has become a Washington, D. C. exurb filling up with housing tracts for commuters and people who work in the nearby market center of Fredericksburg.
Spotsylvania VFD Sta. 1 (Photo1)
The county recieves funds from a “revenue-recovery” program that bills insurance companies when fire and rescue personnel respond to emergencies. The county receives about $2 million annually from the program. In 2006 they voted to allocate a portion of the funds directly to the volunteer departments for a stimulus to encourage participation. This year’s allotment was $522,000.
But it has recently been disclosed that some of the volunteers have been putting in as many as 2,000 hours of time per year (nearly the equivalent of a full-time job) and taking home anywhere from $4,000 to $6,400 a year. While the supervisors don’t object to the program, some of then are concerned with the amount of time a few of the active volunteers are logging.
The county has a paid staff of firefighters and paramedics who man all the stations on weekdays. The volunteers are responsible for the nighttime and weekend operations.
Read about this program and what’s happening with it in the Fredericksburg Free Lance-StarHERE.
Posted by firegeezeron December 29, 2008 •
Filed under: labor
ARE YOU PLANNING TO RING IN THE NEW YEAR AT A PARTY OR DANCE THIS YEAR? Well, your partytime-goodtimes has just been extended a bit allowing you to enjoy the evening a little longer.The world’s official timekeepers have just announced that they will be adding one second of time to the clocks just before midnight Wednesday evening.
The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (whew) is the official body that keeps track of the earth’s relationship to the sun and maintains the precise time that is recorded on the 50 atomic clocks that are placed around the world. The goal is to make sure clocks vary from the Earth’s rotational time by no more than 0.9 seconds before an adjustment.
And this year is an adjustment year when a leap-second will be added at 11:59:59 pm on Dec. 31. The earth’s rotation on its axis is gradually slowing over time and the timeclocks have to periodically be adjusted to keep the time in sync with the physical relation of the earth and sun. These leap-seconds are added sporadically rather than regularly because the physical factors that cause the slowing are sporadic themselves. The braking effect of the tides varies along with the constantly changing weather systems that directly affect the earth.
The last time a leap-second was introduced was three years ago. For more about how all this stuff works, read this bulletin issued by the U. S. Naval Observatory which is the country’s official timekeeper HERE. If your brain can handle the advanced conversations of geophysical orientation, read more from the Earth Orientation Center located in Paris, France, HERE.
A DOUBLE-TRAILER GASOLINE TANKER crashed and burned its load early Sunday morning on I-5 just south of Portland, Oregon.
KPTV Ch. 12 Portland has some footage of the fire:
The tandem rig was carrying 10,000 gallons of unleaded gasoline when it drifted off the right-hand edge of the highway, traveled across a merging on-ramp and struck an ice berm. From there it continued another 70 ft. and rolled over into a depression. The tanks fractured during the crash and a massive fire broke out immediately engulfing the entire vehicle and the cab.
This Oregon State Police photo shows the rig’s tire tracks along
the right shoulder leading to its fall into the depression where
smoke is still wisping from the debris.
The driver, William Adams, 56, was killed within moments. The responding fire units from the Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue department were on the scene in three minutes after being dispatched, but they were unable to initiate any form of rescue attempt. Not having any indication what the product was that was burning, they stayed back until the haz-mat units arrived who then guessed that it was probably gasoline and the decision was made to let the contained fire burn.
Very little remains of the tandem tanker after the fire.
(Oregon State Police photo)
The Interstate was closed for 5 ½ hrs. while the product burned off. The Statesman-Journal has a recent REPORT HERE.
Posted by firegeezeron December 29, 2008 •
Filed under: fire
A TINY VILLAGE IN HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO, near Cincinnati is losing its fire department at 9 am this morning (Monday). The hamlet of Arlington Heights has only 826 residents and few businesses along with an all-volunteer fire company that has been in service for over 70 years. The VFD currently has nine members.
But the village can no longer afford to maintain the FD, having to dip into the town’s sparse treasury for an additional $100,000 this year to keep it operating. The town has two 3-mil. levies for fire protection and they will discontinue collecting one of them and use the other to pay for a contract with the Reading FD to cover the town.
The current fire hall, located in the municipal building, will be used by Reading to store apparatus and the new arrangement will also bring in 24-hour paramedic coverage that they didn’t have before.
IF YOU’VE GOT THE CASH IN HAND, IT APPEARS to be a good time to go shopping for fire apparatus. But if you are relying on borrowing or bonds to finance the purchase, you just might be shut out.
The Bedminster Township, New Jersey, officials were pleased when bids for a new ladder truck and a pumper both came in under budget. But when they went to solicit bids for the bonds to pay for them, a different obstacle arose. In the past two months several counties in New Jersey have been unable to get anybody to bid on municipal bond offerings at any rate, let alone an acceptable one.
Township officials said they hope to award bids for the firefighting vehicles, already received, at tomorrow’s Dec. 30 township committee meeting in order to lock in lower 2008 prices.
The contract to order both vehicles, however — if approved tomorrow night by the township committee — will include a contingency clause that the township must successfully sell short-term notes in January before committing to the purchases. The township committee had given final approval on Dec. 15 for a $1.5-million bond ordinance to finance a large truck with a 100-foot-high aerial ladder for the Far Hills-Bedminster Fire Department and a smaller pumper with firefighting foam capabilities for the Pottersville Volunteer Fire Company.
“Our bond counsel expects us to get bids (for borrowing) in January and he expects them to come in at an acceptable rate,” Mayor Robert Holtaway said Monday, Dec. 22. However, the mayor said he realizes there are no guarantees in a tumultuous credit market for all borrowers, private or public.
For entities with triple-A credit ratings, the bond sales seem to be reviving with some being sold recently with 3% interest rates. But municipalities that have lower ratings are only qualifying for short-term notes at much higher rates.
Besides the story of the Bedminster townships search, this article gets into the current trends in municipal funding that may affect your department in the upcoming year. Read the full story HERE.
This morning we will conclude our 3-part discussion about where next year’s news will be found. (See parts one and two HERE and HERE.) Newspapers as we know them now are dropping out of sight already. While hundreds of smaller papers have been falling by the wayside, the illness in the industry has spread to the “majors” with some already shut down. In the past year one of Cincinnati’s majors died along with another in Albuquerque. As we mentioned yesterday, some of the really big papers are on their last breaths. Once one of the supers goes, it will be like dominoes.
Ok, we’ve already shown that the internet has crept by the newspapers to take over the #3 slot of influential advertising mediums. But many say that the internet new sites are almost wholly dependent on the print media and the AP to get their stories in the first place. So how will the websites get their stories to publish if the papers are gone along with the AP which is also withering?
Don’t forget all those hundreds (thousands?) of out-of-work journalists. They were born and trained for newsgathering and they’ll find a way to keep doing it. But the route that their stories take will be a different one. Take for example the new paperless newspaper in San Diego that calls itself Voice of San Diego. ( http://voiceofsandiego.org/ )
A meagre non-profit organization that employs only 11 people, Voice has been digging into city scandals and scooping both the tv stations and the city’s major newspaper the Union-Tribune for three years. Besides the local news, they run features, sports news and commentary. Beyond their salaries, expenses are minimal. Located in an old warehouse away from downtown and no printing plant or delivery trucks to operate, they require a bare fraction of the expense of a newspaper by sticking solely to the internet.
Similar online news sites are showing up in New Haven, Minneapolis, St. Louis and many more places. As more and more journalists join the ranks of the laid-off and these early pioneering sites work out the kinks, we’ll be seeing their numbers multiplying rapidly now.
And that’s just the beginning. Look at what’s rolling in fast along with the static websites: It’s the Tri-Caster, a complete live television production studio that comes in a box about the same size as your home theater system came in.
With one of these systems, a free-lance tv reporter can go anywhere and set up a remote studio to cover events that the big tv stations are ignoring. Now those few people who are truly interested in volleyball playoffs will be able to log online and watch those volleyball tournements that were previously unwatched for lack of coverage. Already, many colleges are using Tri-Casters to live-stream their athletic teams’ contests onto the school’s computer network.
The basic beginner’s Tri-Caster costs only $4,000. The system allows you to mix multiple cameras and insert graphics (that are already loaded into the system when you buy it) along with transistions and special effects. Within a few years (very few) we’ll be seeing a lot more of these roving bands of journalists with their Tri-Casters sending live video back to their old warehouses to be inserted into their online newspapers. There’s no limit to what all we’ll be seeing that we never could before. Let your imagination take off with it.
But we’ll still have to check this equipment each morning. Our opposible thumbs will not be going extinct anytime soon. I’ll use mine to get the coffee going.
THE DETROIT LIONS FOOTBALL TEAM has gone and done it. They have become the first NFL team since 1976 to lose every game of their season.
Despite scoring a touchdown in the 4th period, the Lions allowed the Green Bay Packers to score 17 in the 4th and go on to win the season finale 31 – 21.
A Detroit fan pleads for help (AP)
The last team to go winless for the season was the expansion-Tampa Bay Buccaneers who finished up at 0 – 14. Since the league went to a 16-game season eight teams have had 1-15 records. The Lions are the only team to have a 0 – 16 tally.
But Detroit still has the Red Wings hockey team, and they are winners.
A FAMILY IN WILKES-BARRE, PENNSYLVANIA, thought it was just the kids playing upstairs when they heard some noises. On the day after Christmas however, they found out otherwise when a strange man came down from their attic wearing their clothes.
On Christmas morning they had noticed that some cash, a laptop computer and an iPod were missing, so they called the police and gave a burglary report. The next day the police were called back when the lady who lives there found a footprint on her closet floor. The police brought a K-9 with them this time and in short order a man named Stanley Carter was found in the attic where he surrendered.
“When he came down from the attic, he was wearing my daughter’s pants and my sweat shirt and sneakers,” homeowner Stacy Ferrance said. “From what I gather, he was helping himself to my home, eating my food and stealing my clothes.”
Carter had previously been staying with Ferrance’s neighbors who live in an apartment that shares a common attic with them. Carter had apparently relocated to the attic and lived there for about a week. Conveniently he carefully kept a list of everything that he took, labeling it “Stanley’s Christmas List.”
IN TEXAS CITY, TEXAS, A COUPLE heard a car pull into their driveway around 10 pm on Christmas night. The next morning the car was still there and it was blocking their own two cars in, so they called the police.
The police told them that since the car was on private property, the residents would have to arrange for it to be towed themselves. While they were waiting for the tow truck to arrive, they started looking through the car to see if there were any identifying papers for it. When they opened the trunk they found a dead body stuffed inside. Immediately closing the trunk lid, they called the cops again. This time they showed up.
A PIKE TOWNSHIP, INDIANA, FIRE ENGINE was responding on a medical assist Friday morning when it traversed into a patch of black ice on a winding road in Eagle Creek Park near Indianapolis.
WTHR image
The engine went into a slide and left the roadway where it struck a tree. The engine was heavily damaged and the four firefighters on board all suffered minor injuries. They were transported to the hospital for treatment and released later Friday evening.
WISH-TV Ch. 8 has this video report:
One observer, a retired FF from that department, believes that the tree actually saved their lives. “Had they not hit that tree, there’s a 30-foot drop off past the tree they could have hit which would’ve flipped the truck over,” he observed.
WTHR-TV Ch. 13 has the full story and two more videos HERE.
THE DRIVER OF A HOUSTON, TEXAS, AMBULANCE was just a little too tired Saturday when he took the wheel of a private ambulance.
While transporting a patient and his mother to the hospital, the driver for the unidentified ambulance firm fell asleep at the wheel, ran off the highway and rolled the vehicle over. The driver and passenger both suffered minor injuries and were hospitalized.
KTRK Ch. 13 has the early REPORT. This story will be updated when more information becomes available.
A BESSEMER, ALABAMA, FIREFIGHTER WAS found dead from multiple gunshot wounds in his Hoover condo apt. Friday night.
After being unable to reach him, his family had asked the Hoover police to check on his welfare. Entering the apartment at 6 pm Friday, they found David Alan Oliver, 49, dead on the floor. A rifle that the police believe was the murder weapon was found close by the body.
Saturday morning an arrest warrant was issued for Oliver’s roommate, Randall Johnson, 39. He was picked up later in the day by the Leake County, Mississippi, sheriff’s department and is being held for extradition on the murder charge.
David Oliver (left) and Randall Johnson (right)
The Hoover police do not know of any motive yet, but they are looking into the two men’s jointly-owned business. They don’t know how long he had been dead when they found him. There are no witnesses that saw or heard anything unusual in the apt. building.
Oliver has been a firefighter with the Bessemer FD since 1986 and was assigned to Station 4.
A 33-YR.-OLD MAN IN VASTERVIK, SWEDEN, is spending the year-end holiday break in a hospital burn unit. The man was at a party Friday night and decided to impress his girlfriend with his bravado and originality.
The woman told the police that her boyfriend poured some gasoline on his right arm and then set it on fire. “It obviously didn’t go well. He burned his arm and other parts of his body and was in a state of shock,” said Kalmar police spokesperson Reine Johansson to the TT news agency. “Don’t ask me what the point of the trick was supposed to be.”
Once the moonstruck paramour is able to talk to the police, they plan on charging him with “negligence which endangers the public.”
Will You Be A Diamond or Dust?
CommentsThe carbon-based life form known as a career firefighter is facing unprecedented pressure. By now, every unfilled firefighter position has been eliminated in the current (FY09) budget. Hundreds of firefighter jobs have evaporated in the past nine months.
That may not be enough when Fiscal Year 2010 starts. Jurisdictions are looking at $87 of cash to cover $100 of expenses … AFTER all of the cuts were made in 2oo8.
The gap erodes to $74 of cash on hand if state and federal government payments to local government are reduced or eliminated.
BUDGETING 101
Local government spends half of it’s revenues on the K-12 school system. Of the remaining, about 70% is spent on public safety. In past recessions the bulk of the staffing cuts went to parks, libraries, social services and public works.
Reductions made during the 1981 budget crisis were never reversed. In my county, social workers saw an increase of their case workload in 1982. It was supposed to be “temporary” but was never changed.
The 2008 recession accelerated this fall and, since a vacant store makes no sale and employs no one, there is continued deterioration in the size of the revenue stream of property, personal income and general sales/gross receipts taxes.
Because of a poor 2008 Christmas shopping season, “… the worst in 40 years,” municipalities need to MAKE FURTHER REDUCTIONS in their revenue projections.
WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?
1) Learn as much as you can about YOUR local budgeting process and situation. IAFF published Surviving an Economic Crisis that was posted on their website April 03, 2008. Available for free download to IAFF members, the 26 page article provides detailed recommendations on developing a local action plan.
2) Strive to get accurate information. Firefighter discussion boards, blogs and firehouse kitchen table discussions that start with “A friend of my cousin who works in city hall …” are not good sources of information.
Most fire departments are agencies of local government, meaning that budget development is a public democratic process. In the old days, budgets were monitored monthly and adjusted quarterly. Now they are monitored daily and adjusted weekly.
3) Consider recommendations from International Association of Fire Chiefs. IAFC recently issued Weathering the Economic Storm: Fiscal Challenges in Fire and Emergency Medical Services. A 22 page members-only document, it suggests a three step approach:
2009 STIMULUS PACKAGE MAY PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES
When New York City was forced to permanently eliminate 900 firefighter jobs on July 6, 1975, it found a way to temporarily engage some of the laid-off FDNY members as federal contract workers. The city obtained a Housing and Urban Development grant to preserve the housing stock damaged by fire. The HUD contractors were trained to install window, door and roof panels on fire-damaged housing in order to preserve the housing stock.
The delivery system to get these technicians to the work site were the ladder companies that lost positions at the start of the FY76 fiscal year. Since these contractors were experienced FDNY firefighters, they were allowed to perform ancilliary duties … like forcible entry, search and rescue, laddering, and checking for fire extension between board-up assignments.
Somewhere within the infrastructure repairs, anti-terrorism, community emergency preparedness and (gasp) public health economic incentives there may be opportunities to preserve staffing to meet our core suppression mission.
AN UGLY FEW MONTHS
Metro cities will reveal their proposed FY2010 budget during the next few weeks. It appears that some proposed budgets will include firefighter and police officer layoffs when FY10 starts July 01, 2009.
A few smaller municipalities may emulate Vallejo, California, and declare bankruptcy to negate existing labor agreements and pay plans.
This pressure will make some of us diamonds. Firegeezer (Bill) and FossilMedic (Mike) will keep looking for diamonds-in-the-making as we endure this economic restructuring.
Mike “FossilMedic” Ward
Diamond or Dust budget series
Earlier posts:
The Budget Process
Los Angeles Wants Citizen Input: Dec 18
A Cruel Fall (proposed LAFD budget cuts): Nov 09
How do you spread thin resources? : (Phila and FDNY cuts) Nov 06
The Voters Do Not Really Care …. (Seattle Medic One, Phila EMS and San Diego ): Oct 08
More Consolidation Looming In Indianapolis: Jul 30
Fiscal Forecast – Mostly Cloudy: Jul 15
It’s The New Fiscal Year: Jul 08
City of Vallejo Files Bankruptcy: May 07
Snapshots from around the nation
Sleep Carefully, Austin (MN): Dec 26
Gary Goes Goofy Again (Indiana- staffing/contract compliance): Sept 24
Residents Fight To Keep Firehouse (West Hartford, CT): Sept 24
Warren (MI) Fire Chief Taken Out Of Service: Sept 11
Florida County (Collier) Eliminates Ambulance Service To Some Areas: Sept 11
It’s Gone! It’s Back! It’s Gone Again! (Atlanta Fire Station 07): Jul 14
Bay City (MI) Moves To Eliminate Career FD: April 30
Mike
Fossilmedic