Well, that didn’t take long. We wrapped up yesterday’s Lineup with a discussion on using YouTube as a training resource with me asking, Hey, has anybody posted a video on checking out the equipment? It wasn’t long before Chief Billy Goldfeder, who I swear has catalogued and cross-referenced every YouTube video related even remotely to Fire/Rescue/EMS (and don’t get him started on house sirens), sent me this video clip titled GFD Station 3 truck checks:
Granted, it isn’t quite ready for in-station training, but it’s a start.
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Yesterday we posted a photo story on a 2-alarm fire in the Chicago area that started in a dollar store-type business. This particular one was a Family Dollar Store facility. But I got to thinking later on that there have been a LOT of fires in dollar stores lately. Not all of them have been covered on this site because we don’t post all the hundreds of fires that occur every day. But I have posted some and lately have been reading quite a few write-ups on them. More than is expected for a narrowly-defined occupancy like that. And then thinking back some more, I recalled a multi-alarm fire last year (also in Chicago) that destroyed a huge warehouse that supplied discount goods for dollar stores.
Now pardon me, but I don’t want to sound like some looney conspiracy theorist. However, you have to keep in mind that the dollar stores are not only expanding exponentially in the nation, but sales are skyrocketing right now as well. Where there’s fast money and plenty of it, you’ll find organized crime right around the corner. I don’t know if there’s a battle going on for control of the distribution lines, or if it’s just an amazing coincidence that these places are bursting into working fires suddenly all across the country.
But if I had a dollar store in my 1st due (and who doesn’t these days?), I sure would be out there doing some pre-planning. Just in case, you know.
And it all begins with checking out our equipment, so let’s get started. I’ll go run another pot of coffee. (Does anybody know where we bought that stuff?)
