We’ll put aside any philosophising this morning because of this heart-wrenching report out of White Plains, New York, that just came across the news desk. It seems that they have just suffered a terrible fire loss that has the entire community upset and when you see this video report you’ll understand why our priorities are with them today:
On that somber note, I’ll remind you that we’re beginning a new month today, so get the fresh daily check sheets ready and we can get this equipment checked out. I’ll make some more coffee.
THE TRIAL AGAINST NICHOLAS GIANQUITTI for murdering Cranston, Rhode Island, Fire Lieutenant James Pagano resumed Monday (see Firegeezer report HERE).
The prosecution finished presenting its case by bringing forensics officers back to complete testimony on the distances involved, including how far across the yard Pagano ran when trying to seek refuge behind a car. Another witness testified that they saw Gianquitti come out of the house with a gun in his hand before any shots were fired.
Nicholas Gianquitti demonstrates to the jury
where he was carrying his pistol.
(Providence Journal photo)
Monday afternoon the defense started presenting its case by cross-examining forensics officers about bullet trajectories and Gianquitti’s clothing. Next, they brought Gianquitti’s wife to the stand to relate what she saw and heard during the incident. She claimed that both men were inside her house when the shooting started.
After a brief testimony from the Gianquittis’ daughter, Nicholas took the stand to testify in his own behalf. Following some introductory testimony, the trial was adjourned until Tuesday morning.
Tuesday morning – The trial resumed with the rest of Gianquitti’s examination. WPRI-TV Ch. 12 has the coverage of his testimony today:
The defense then rested its case and the two sides presented their closing arguments after the lunch break. The judge then gave the jury their instructions and turned the case over to them and their deliberations have begun. At the time of this writing (5:30 pm Eastern) there has not yet been a verdict announced.
A FREEPORT, MASSACHUSETTS, MAN THOUGHT IT WOULD BE a good idea Sunday to burn down his own house. So he took a portable propane torch and set the house afire.
His wife did not think that was a good idea, though, and put the fire out with a fire extinguisher. This seemed to enrage Richard Ramsey, 49, who then fired up the torch again and chased his wife and some other family members back into the house with the blue flame. That, in turn, enraged his family members who then called the police. The officers soon got everybody rounded up and arrested Ramsey, charging him with arson and assault with a dangerous weapon.
WPRI-TV Providence carried the story in this video report:
Posted by firegeezeron March 31, 2009 •
Filed under: fire
DESPITE THE RELUCTANCE OF CORRUPT POLITICIANS and bent code enforcement officials, the word is finally starting to seep out into the public about the fire hazards of today’s building materials.
Firegeezer would like to think that just perhaps someone connected with a local fire department got through to the staff at television station KTBC in Austin, Texas. They have just broadcast an excellent, informative piece on these very hazards and include showing a very dramatic laboratory burn done by the Underwriters Laboratory. Take a look:
Now ask yourself, wouldn’t it be great if hundreds thousands of fire departments started getting this information out to the uninformed public?
IS THERE NO PLACE SAFE TO DRINK ANYMORE? A Newark, Ohio, man thought he’d be ok as long as he remained seated on a barstool. But then he made the mistake of driving his barstool down the roadway, and when you’ve already got a suspended license, that’s a no-no.
The Newark Fire and EMS responded to a report of a man who “sustained injuries from a crash.” They found 28-year-old Kile W. Wygle had been operating the barstool on Kelley Lane when he wrecked it while trying to make a turn.
Newark Police Dept. photo
Wygle claimed the barstool could reach speeds of 38 miles per hour but that he was traveling at about 20 miles per hour when he crashed. The police report that was filed says that Wyglie admitted to having drunk 15 beers prior to his late-night drive.
The police issued him a citation for OVI and driving under suspension.
A 2-ALARM FIRE THAT BURNS ITSELF OUT IN 90 minutes is not particularly newsworthy, but the situation in North St. Louis last night was unusual.
The fire department was called at 8 pm Monday to the Dial Corp.’s local plant where a laundry detergent and their Renuzit brand air freshener are made. A fire had started in their “soap dryer” leading to the 9-1-1 call and eventually expanding to a 2nd alarm and a haz-mat response.
The factory has a massive natural gas-fired dryer that is used to evaporate moisture from laundry detergent and leaving it in granular form. Apparently some of the product got jammed in the dryer and began burning. After it was determined that there was no hazard, no injuries, and no opportunity for any further fire spread, the FD elected to let the fire burn itself out.
KMOV-TV has this video report:
Posted by firegeezeron March 31, 2009 •
Filed under: fire
I’m sure that by now you have heard about/read about the horrific collision between two fire trucks in Houston yesterday. If you haven’t, scroll down or click HERE to see what I’m talking about. But surely, every emergency worked in every station should be seriously having a discussion in the day room today about this accident.
Within the span of just five months time, there have been violent collisions where fire trucks have run into each other at intersections in New York City, St. Louis, Philadelphia, and now Houston. Every instance involved two trucks going different directions and one of them busting a red traffic signal.
I’m not going to be doing any preaching, but you should sure be talking about it – and remembering it.
* * *
We have a couple of updates for you this morning. The first is concerning the bill in the Washington State legislature to raise the telephone tax to pay for enhancing the statewide emergency telephone system (see yesterday’s Lineup HERE). Since it involves increasing taxes, it requires a 2/3 majority to pass. Needing 65 votes in the senate, it failed 58 to 39. However, using a parliamentary procedure, proponents had the bill scheduled for a “reconsideration” which will allow another vote on it. This gives the supporters time to try and convince some Nay’ers to switch their vote. As of this morning, it hadn’t been brought back up again.
The other update focuses on the other coast where the Boston FD has slipped to #2 already. We’re talking about yesterday’s story HERE about Boston spending more than any other city per capita for fire protection. Well, it seems like somebody in the Columbus, Ohio, city government added a “1″ to a big number, increasing the total amount spent on EMS by $100 million.
“At least as far as the spending per person, there was a significant mathematical error,” said Joel S. Taylor, director of the Department of Finance and Management in Columbus. “I feel bad about it. I’m really sorry.”
That’s a major “Whoops!”
The Boston Globe has the story on the miscalculating government worker HERE and they point out that Boston still has the highest number of fire and EMS personnel per square mile and per resident. But when it comes to total costs, San Francisco – who recently absorbed the EMS system into the FD – is now number 1 and Boston eases down to the second slot.
We’d better get our numbers up (or down) and get this equipment checked out now. I’ve got to increase the expenditures on coffee supplies and make another pot.
Update: Video added. Scroll down.
Update #2: More info. and photos added.
TWO HOUSTON FIRE DEPARTMENT TRUCKS, ONE PUMPER AND AN AERIAL, had a violent collision at approx. 11 am Central time. The crash injured nine firefighters and a passing bicyclist.
The crash rolled the ladder truck onto its side, crushing an occupied auto. The driver of the car miraculously appeared to only have slight injuries. Two of the firefighters suffered serious injuries. One of them was apparently thrown out of the pumper.
KHOU-TV
The crash happened at an intersection where both vehicles met while responding to the same alarm that was transmitted as an apartment fire. District Fire Chief Tommy Dowdy said that it appears at first that the pumper ran into the side of the aerial and that both trucks suffered significant damages. The resulting collision took down a power pole cutting electric service to the surrounding neighborhood.
This raw video is from KHOU via CNN and has no sound:
Update: The apparatus were Engine 7 and Ladder 16 and the accident occurred just a couple of blocks from Station 16.
The Houston Chronicleis reporting that there are no skid marks at the scene. The engine is one year old, purchase price $400,000, and the truck is only 6 months old, purchased for $800,000.
The driver of the auto, a 48-yr.-old woman, is expected to be released from the hospital later today.
The driver and officer in the Engine 7 were the two FF’s that were most seriously injured. Their status has not been made public yet. The civilian on the bicycle, also a woman, was pinned in the wreckage and is in critical condition. Unconfirmed reports say that she may have perished.
AN AUSTIN, TEXAS, FIREFIGHTER WAS RESPONDING TO A CALL Thursday night when he spotted a man burning a police uniform and some other questionable items in a fire pit.
The call was made to the police who soon found the culprit and gave chase. Before long they captured him and found that he was the one who broke into a parked, unmarked police car and had stolen guns, body armor and other equipment and ID’s. They later arrested two of the man’s relatives who had assisted in the crime. All have been charged with multiple felonies.
KTBC Ch. 7 has a good video report on the situation:
BANDAI, THE JAPANESE TOYMAKER, HIT THE BIG TIME a while back by capitalizing on the inherent desire of human beings to pop bubble-wrap insulation sheets. They saved people the bother of seeking out fresh sheets of unpopped bubble-wrap by making the Mugen Pop Pop, a plastic toy shaped like the addictive wrap that permits you to keep re-popping the the nodes that both feel and sound like the real thing. The Pop Pop comes with a handy key chain.
Learning how to profit from silly, yet entertaining activities, they followed that up with the Mugen Peri Peri, a similar cathartic that simulates the tab ripping of a shipping envelope…. over and over.
But as Ron Popeil used to tell us: WAIT, THERE’S MORE! No doubt keeping the firefighters and paramedics in mind, Bandai has just introduced the Mugen Kan Beeru, a simulated beer can pop-top that you can open and re-open continuously.
Feel like you need a pop-a-top fix and you’re still on duty? The Kan Beeru is just for you! It will be going on sale in June, just in time for Father’s Day! The expected retail price will be around $9.
And you heard about it first on Firegeezer. For more fabulous gift suggestions, go over to the right sidebar and click on the Shopping category.
“JOB ACTION” WOULD BE A MORE ACCURATE description of what the British Columbia paramedics will be doing, but on Saturday the 3,600-mamber Ambulance Paramedics of B. C. voted overwhelmingly by 96% to 4% to issue the required 72-hour notice of a “strike action” to begin on Wednesday morning. The notice was released yesterday, Sunday.
The medics will continue to answer emergency calls and give the usual full care and treatment that the citizens deserve. However, they will begin job actions to paralyze the administrative functions of the Provincial service, such as not recording standard paperwork of the calls, issuing billing information and refusing voluntary overtime.
BCAS photo
The current work contract expires Tuesday night and negotiations have been ongoing for months with no tangible progress. The medics are asking for a 4-year contract with a 4% pay increase in each of the four years. The government is steadfastly demanding a 1-year agreement with only a 3% pay raise. The union says the province’s latest offer would make B.C. paramedics the lowest-paid emergency-service workers in the province.
The paramedics are able to put increased pressure on the legislature because it is facing a mandatory April 14 deadline to dissolve in preparation for the next election. Any contract approval will have to be met before that happens.
CTV News has a good summary of the situation HERE.
Ambulance Paramedics of British Columbia WEBSITE.
British Columbia Ambulance Service WEBSITE.
A REPORT SHOWING THAT THE BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, FIRE DEPARTMENT is the nation’s most expensive FD has recently surfaced. The study was done by city officials in Columbus, Ohio, who were looking for some cost comparisons to see if they were spending too much or too little for their city’s fire protection.
The report recently started making the rounds of municipal officials around the country and shows that the Boston FD spends more per capita than any other department in the U. S. They also have far and away more FF/Medics per 1,000 residents than any other big-city department. The Boston Globe put together this graphic showing the comparative expenditures of the “Top 10″ and added in NYC and Los Angeles:
Now that the information has surfaced in the Hub City, there are fresh accusations flying between the Mayor, the Fire Commissioner, and the ever-feisty union president.
Samuel L. Tyler, president of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, blamed the Fire Department’s high spending on the firefighters union, which he said has repeatedly blocked meaningful reform, and on mayors, including Thomas M. Menino, who he accused of giving in to union demands rather than deal with a public fight with firefighters.
If you’d like to watch this latest food fight, read the article in the Boston Globe HERE.
FOR THE SECOND TIME IN THREE MONTHS, A FIRE hit a shopping center on White Plains Rd. in the Bronx, NYC. This time the result was completely devastating, gutting more than a dozen businesses in the “taxpayer” strip mall.
The fire began in a cocktail lounge that was undergoing renovation and got up into the common cockloft that connects the entire block of shops, racing through it and greeting the first-arriving units at 1 am on Sunday morning. The 3-alarm fire kept 140 FF’s busy containing it, but all the occupancies were lost.
WNYW-TV filed this video report:
Investigators are still trying to determine the cause of the fire. The previous blaze in December was found to be an arson.
Posted by firegeezeron March 30, 2009 •
Filed under: fire
There have been a couple of times in the past when I have gently suggested that emergency call centers should be able to receive cellphone photos and also have the capability to forward them on to fire/rescue apparatus. My stock example is the haz-mat incident where people on the scene when it happened might have photographic evidence of exactly what is going on, and maybe even an image of the placard.
Same thing with serious accidents, showing how many injured, or any remarkable mechanics of injury, etc. You can easily come up with dozens of possible scenarios yourself where you could benefit from this kind of advanced information. The people who make it their business to anticipate these kinds of enhancements are both getting vocal about it and even going farther along the innovation path to call for additional call-taking abilities.
With a hat tip to our PacNW correspondent, Frank B. passed along to us a measure that will be voted on today in the Washington State legislature to raise the fees that are collected to pay for the state-wide 911 emergency telephone system. Currently all phone bills, both land line and cell, are taxed 70¢ monthly with 20¢ going to the state system and 70¢ for the counties’ emergency centers. This new increase of an additional 25¢ will be directed toward upgrading the call centers to recieve not only cellphone pics, but cell phone videos and text messages.
Jim Quackenbush, director of Thurston County’s Department of Communications, said the additional money is needed to begin what is expected to be a six-year-long overhaul of the state’s E-911 system.
Quackenbush said a 2008 study commissioned by the Legislature showed that new technology is needed for the 911 system as more and more people migrate from land lines to cell phones and text-messaging devices.
“They have the ability to take photos. They have video. We have companies putting in telematics that shows where the vehicle is located, and information on the vehicle like whether people are wearing seat belts,” he said.
There is a six-year plan to make the conversion to newer technology, he said.
Last month the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) held their winter meeting which included a panel discussion on this very subject. While most agreed that this is the path that call centers should be taking, they emphasized that along with enhanced 911 they will need to have enhanced training for the call takers. No longer will basic typing and clerical skills be enough for hiring standards. Emergency call takers will have to learn the vast array of acronym-based abbreviations that are commonly used in text messaging.
The panel also noted that text messaging takes many different forms—from instant messaging to short message service—and uses many different protocols, all of which the public eventually will expect 911 centers to be able to accept. While call centers need to be able to receive all forms of text messaging, it is important that call-takers be able to respond to any type of text message by using a single interface, which would increase efficiency in processing information.
It was also pointed out that a call taker handling text messages can communicate with several people at one time as opposed to taking information from only one caller at a time in voice mode. Just imagine the information flow that could be generated for responding units and batt. chiefs with just one communications clerk gathering and sending photos, videos, and constant information from the scene. It boggles the keypad.
Let’s get our old-fashioned equipment checked out now. I need to start a fresh pot, soon. Then we can meet in the day room and u cn tch me this nu way of txtng.
4 INJURIES – 3 CRASHES – 2 KILLED – 1 FIREFIGHTER sent to the hospital. That was the outcome early Saturday morning when a series of mishaps involving alcohol and lack of seatbelt use occurred on Chicago’s Dan Ryan Expressway.
In the first fatal crash, Fire Media Affairs Director Larry Langford said a vehicle with three passengers was heading north on the Dan Ryan after a party at a high-rate of speed, weaving lane-to-lane, when the driver attempted to get onto an exit ramp. Instead the vehicle struck a guardrail and rolled over twice ejecting the driver and the front-seat passenger.
The ejected driver landed approximately 50 feet away from the vehicle. He was killed, and the front-seat passenger and two other passengers were all in serious to critical condition, Langford said.
As a Chicago engine company was arriving at the scene, another drunk driver smashed into the fire engine, injuring one of the FF’s on board. The FF was transported, but listed as “not serious.” The driver of the van that hit the engine was taken into police custody.
A few minutes later on the same highway, a female motorist was killed after her vehicle was struck by a semi truck as she traveled the wrong way in the traffic lanes.
Update:
Firefighter Nation has a good video report from the crash scene HERE.
A decade ago it was accurate to consider large non-fire ems 9-1-1 services as the best examples of high performance systems, utilizing innovation and technology to improve both patient outcomes and system efficiency. Fire-based systems were struggling with unfilled paramedic positions, shot-gun mergers, and unsophisticated administrators.
Wake County (NC), SunStar (FL), EMSA (OK), MAST (MO), and Richmond continue to provide excellence. Some large fire-based systems are also raising the bar.
HOUSTON HAS SOLUTIONS
Houston Fire Department was one of the first large fire departments to integrate GPS into their dispatching algorithm. (2001 paper HERE) The computer determined the distances of available units, rolling a fire company only if a transport unit would take too long. It was one of the first geo data-driven tiered dispatch systems.
Houston had early success with Automatic Crash Notification systems, building upon the geo data-based, computer aided dispatch system. (2004 presentation HERE)
FIRE BASED EMS: 2001 – now
A 2002 Tri-Data report resulted in establishing two-paramedic non-transport squad vehicles and a mix of ALS and BLS ambulances. (Huge TriData report HERE). HFD makes about 400 transports a day.
Picture by E-Mans av8pix.com Dec 2008. Wrecked January 22, 2009. Click on picture for link to accident info.
Houston is one of the sites for the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium (earlier blog HERE and Houston description HERE).
STRATEGIES TO REDUCE NON-EMERGENCY USE OF 911
Houston is trying various programs to reduce the workload generated by people who call for EMS and do not need out-of-hospital care. Doctor David Persse, City of Houston EMS Physician Director, spoke about Houston’s efforts in telemedicine, emergency ambulance routing and ems tiered deployment at EMS Today.
The presentation was rich in detail, providing real-world examples of what worked and what did not work in a huge and complex ems service. If you were not at EMS Today in Baltimore, you can catch a similar presentation at the IAFC Fire-Rescue Med conference in Las Vegas.
Big-city EMS continues to be faced with problems of overutilization, misutilization and new utilizations of prehospital emergency care. Dr. Persse will describe several aggressive tactics Houston has employed to try to further refine the art of being maximally efficient with EMS resources, including the use of telehealth nursing, emergency ambulance routing and tiered deployment with paramedic squads, as well as high-tech research. Tuesday, May 5 at 3:30 pm
A GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN, MAN UNWISELY CHOSE to step out in front of his house and wave a rifle around at a couple of people who were in the street early Friday morning. A taxi driver and his passenger were having a verbal dispute when Steven Meyer walked outside and brandished his weapon at the two men.
That brought the police to the scene where they arrested the 26-yr.-0ld man. When they started looking around the house they discovered several containers holding what they thought could be “explosive materials.”
That brought the fire department’s Haz-Mat crew who then ordered a neighborhood evacuation that lasted a few hours until they determined that the materials were relatively safe since they hadn’t been mixed together.
WLUK-TV Ch. 11 reviews the entire incident in this video report:
THE BUFFALO, NEW YORK, CITY COUNCIL HAS SUDDENLY discovered the costs of implementing a hiring freeze begun last year. The overtime costs for the year just ended ballooned to $10.7 million where it was only $2.2 million five years ago.
The department has about 67 unfilled positions currently, including spots filled with long-term-disability personnel. They are also hampered by some sort of citizen envy of their expanded paychecks due to the heavy use of overtime just to keep the minimum staffing on the apparatus.
WIVB-TV Ch. 4 illustrates this puzzlement:
City Finance Commissioner Janet Penska tells the Buffalo News, “I’m almost at the point where I think we should put enough firefighters in the budget to eliminate overtime — period.”
“They basically created the problem by not hiring,” said Martin Barrett, spokesman for Local 282. “They’ve apparently found a solution. If it was that simple, they should have done it years ago.”
The city says that maybe they will start hiring and begin a recruit class in September that would put more FF’s in the stations in December.
Read the full account in the Buffalo NewsHERE.
Buffalo Fire Dept. WEBSITE.
Local 282 WEBSITE.
Firegeezer adds: Buffalo is a decaying city that has lost half of its population in the past 50 years. The city currently has 10,000 vacant buildings.
THE TINY COMMUNITY OF HOUSTON, ARKANSAS, (Pop. 1,700) is suddenly without a fire department after the fire chief and practically every member of the volunteer fire company quit last week.
Fire Chief Scott Erwin resigned in protest over the town council’s appointment of Jerry Lawson to fill a vacant seat on the council. Following his lead, nearly every member of the VFD also left the department leaving the town without a fire department.
Their public explanation for their action is that they are concerned about a “conflict of interest” due to Lawson’s wife serving as the town’s Secretary-Treasurer. Taking into consideration the small size of the community, Firegeezer speculates that there is a strong resistance to this political move because of a more private reason.
Houston’s mayor has vetoed the appointment, but the council has the option of overriding the veto and voting Lawson into office next month. Weighing in on the controversy, Lawson stated that the firefighters “…. just need to grow up a little.”
Neighboring FD’s are providing coverage to fill the emergency needs of Houston while this saga plays out.
Do you watch those videos that I post on the top of the right-hand sidebar? I have been having so much fun watching and listening to the current video of the Water Baby Boogie that I left it up for a while longer than usual. But alas, I will have to replace it later today.
Some of you might be interested to learn that the geezer playing the fiddle in that video is Don Maddox, the last surviving member of The Maddox Brothers and Rose musical act. Billed as “America’s Most Colorful Hillbilly Band,” they hit their peak of popularity in the 1940′s and 1950′s making hundreds of records and steady radio appearances. They were known for their very energetic performances with lots of action and upbeat music that never left a dull moment on the stage.
The six siblings were born in Alabama in the teens and 1920′s and were still very young when their parents migrated to California during the great depression to work as migrant crop workers. Growing up in the San Joaquin Valley with the thousands of Okies that had escaped the Dust Bowl, they just naturally formed a family band that developed its own distinctive sound and repertoire that came to be called Country Boogie.
It seemed there was no end to the number of songs that they knew and could perform. And while they played every type of country style, their signature was their unique, high-energy novelty songs such as That’ll Learn Ya’, Durn Ya’ and Why Don’t You Haul Off and Love Me (One More Time). And naturally plenty of their boogie-woogie like the Texas Guitar Stomp and of course the Water Baby Boogie.
This recording of Looky There Over There is a good sampling of their style:
The oldest brother Cliff died at a young age, but the remaining five siblings kept their act and popularity going right on up through the 1960′s.
And if we want to remain popular, we’d better get this equipment checked out. I’ll go see how the Sunday breakfast is coming and start some more coffee.
A MAN IN MARBLE FALLS, TEXAS, WAS WAITING AT AN INTERSECTION Friday afternoon when a fire engine approached from behind him. The firetruck had its lights and siren on, traveling to an emergency.
Knowing that his obligation is to pull to the right and make way for the engine, the man pulled just around the corner, clearing the way. Unfortunately he also pulled into the path of an ambulance responding to the same call and coming down the cross street. The Burnet Bulletin tells what happened next:
After striking the (man’s car), the eastbound ambulance struck a vehicle waiting to make a left hand turn onto Avenue N, spun it around, and then collided with another westbound vehicle.
The other three vehicles then piled on in the chain reaction accident.
The only serious injury was to the driver of the first car that pulled out in front of the ambulance.
THE TRIAL OF NICHOLAS GIANQUITTI, CHARGED WITH THE MURDER of his neighbor, Cranston, Rhode Island, Fire Lieutenant James Pagano, began this week. On May 18 of last year Firegeezer reported on the murder HERE and the subsequent bail hearing HERE and HERE.
WFXT-TV reported from the scene on the day of the shooting:
The trial began this past Tuesday with the prosecutor eliciting testimony from some of the eyewitnesses to the event that took place in the front yard of the house during a childrens’ birthday party. Pagano’s sister Jean Verdi was one of them and she told the court (in part):
Pagano and his father, she said, turned to leave, but then apparently something was said from inside Gianquitti’s house.
Verdi said she couldn’t hear what, if anything, was said, but that she heard her brother say, “Don’t swear at my kids. Just don’t swear at my kids.”
“And then he said, ‘Just don’t (expletive) swear at my kids.’ ”
Then, the door opened and Pagano took a step inside the house, Verdi said. He was gone for two or three seconds. Anthony Pagano stayed outside. Next thing, Verdi said, “I saw Jimmy jumping out of the house. He was flying … trying to get away from the house.”
James Pagano ran down the steps and around a white Mitsubishi; Gianquitti was close behind, holding a gun, she said.
“He shot him,” Verdi said, adding that she saw a small puff of smoke after each pop.
Verdi said she had started running toward her brother, but seeing the gun, she sought shelter behind the fence that separates both properties. Then, she noticed her 5-year-old nephew, Charles, by a flower bed. She grabbed him and took him back to the house. By the time she reached James Pagano, her parents, Rosealba and Anthony Pagano, were kneeling at each side of her brother. Gianquitti was nearby, still holding the gun.
“I screamed at him to get the hell out of here. He [Gianquitti] looked at me, then at my parents, all with the gun still drawn.”
Meanwhile, her brother moaned, she said.
The second day finished up the eyewitness’ testimonies and started hearing from the police officers who responded to the call. They told of the evidence that indicated the shooting took place outside on the front yard and that the shot that killed Lt. Pagano was a hollow-point bullet that entered his back, confirming that he was running away when it was fired.
Cranston Police Officer Anthony Bucci identifies
the pistol that he confiscated at the murder scene.
(Providence Journal photo)
Thursday’s session covered the forensic evidence that was collected at the scene and the autopsy records. The trial did not convene on Friday.
WPRI-TV Ch. 12 has been covering and taping the trial and reporting by video:
The testimony continues with the playing of the 9-1-1 tapes:
Forensic evidence is presented on the third day of the trial:
The trial is being live-blogged by Providence Journal reporter Maria Armental and you can read the full account of these first three days’ testimony on her blog page HERE. You will find it enlightening.
The trial is scheduled to resume Monday when the State is expected to finish its case.
THERE IS A NEW PRODUCT ON THE MARKET that does a terrific job of cleaning the glass on your computer monitor. The only drawback is that it has a limited shelf life, but you can compensate for that.
If you want to see how it works, CLICK HERE to see a demonstration.
Wood-Chips-and-Glue Awareness Grows
10 commentsDESPITE THE RELUCTANCE OF CORRUPT POLITICIANS and bent code enforcement officials, the word is finally starting to seep out into the public about the fire hazards of today’s building materials.
Firegeezer would like to think that just perhaps someone connected with a local fire department got through to the staff at television station KTBC in Austin, Texas. They have just broadcast an excellent, informative piece on these very hazards and include showing a very dramatic laboratory burn done by the Underwriters Laboratory. Take a look:
Now ask yourself, wouldn’t it be great if hundreds thousands of fire departments started getting this information out to the uninformed public?