Last morning in his Quick Takes column, Dave Statter touched on a story HERE that I found disturbing and really upset me personally.  It was a report generated by KTUU-TV in Anchorage, Alaska, about a criminal act perpetrated against a wildfire team.  The Pioneer Peak Hotshots is one of those elite crews that travels all over to major wildfires and is planted behind the fire lines to work on containment.  Hot Shot crews normally work 2 weeks straight on the fire and then get a 4-day break back home before going on the next assignment.

But when the Pioneer Peak crew arrived back at their headquarters building the other day, the 25 firefighters were greeted with devastation.  While they were out working the fire, some cretins went into their property and thoroughly trashed the station, stole thousands of dollars worth of personal belongings  along with five of their personal automobiles.  The rest of the cars were heavily vandalized.

This just makes me sick.  I have no doubt that the Alaska State Police will spare no effort in bringing these uncivilized bums to justice.  Let’s all hope they catch them, and soon.

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Meanwhile on the other side of the continent,  the Baltimore, Maryland, police department is showing where all those budget-cutting savings are going that the city has been implementing.  While the fire department has been laying off firefighters and closing down stations, on-duty police officers from the helicopter unit and the marine division staged a phony “raid” on a private boat owned by a state delegate who wanted to thrill his girlfriend while he proposed to her.  The Baltimore Sun has the full story HERE.

Naturally, while you’d put this in the “What were they thinking of ?!” file, I would expect that the firefighters’ Local would jump all over the mayor and city council for permitting a culture within the police dept. that squanders resources like this while fire stations are taken out of service.  It probably won’t do any good, but I’d sure be beating the big bass drum for a while over this fiasco.

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Lastly, we have an update from the technology front.  Back in October of 2007 we briefly talked about the new Sony OLED (organic light-emitting diode) television being developed HERE.  This fascinating tv has a picture screen – monitor- that is only 3mm thick, about the thickness of an old silver dollar.

The other day Sony announced that they are withdrawing the OLED’s from the production line because of costs and manufacturing problems.  The little 11-inch sets were being offered in Asia and Australia for about the same price as a 50-inch LCD set, so they weren’t selling so well.  Not only that, but 40% of the screens coming off the production line had to be dumped because of flaws.  Read CNet’s latest report on this HERE.

 Sony had originally planned to introduce them in North America later this year.  Sony’s tv division is also on track to lose money for the 6th straight year, too.  So stopping production of this device makes sense.  Anyway, the LDC’s are getting thinner, use far less energy and still have brighter pictures.  Adios, OLED.

Now let’s make our own picture brighter and get this equipment checked out.  I want to get some more coffee started.  See you in the day room.

R. I. P. – R. D.

It was made public yesterday that Reader’s Digest will be filing a Chap. 11 bankruptcy and turning its ownership over to its primary creditors.  Most of us didn’t even know they were still in business anyway.  The one-time publishing giant that put Pleasantville, New York, on the map has been on a free-fall into oblivion for many years now.

It was 87 years ago that the small, pocket-sized magazine started publishing monthly selections of condensed articles from other magazines.  At a time when people could not afford to subscribe to several magazines, the RD brought a wide range of topics and information into millions of homes for a modest price.  It wasn’t until 1955 that they carried any advertising at all, the cost of publishing was entirely borne by subscription and newsstand sales.

For many decades it was easily identified by its practice of printing the table of contents on the front cover.  That was a slick sales gimmick.  Magazine rack browsers would pick one up and instantly find that there were some articles inside that interested them.  And their monthly selection of stories was marvelous in itself.  It just seemed like everything that they published was interesting.  And then of course they had their own specialty entries such as the Humor in Uniform column that they started up during WW II and continued afterward.  And who could ever forget the My Most Unforgettable Character stories every month?  A catch-phrase that still bounds around the world today.

It was this terrific ability to compile a selection of intriguing stories each month that not only brought a stable of the country’s best editors to Pleasantville, but propelled the magazine into the situation where the back issues were always kept and never thrown out.  In everybody’s home there would be a table over in the corner that held a pile of years-old issues of RD.  That’s because you could pick up any copy at any time and find something good to read.  They were ideal for doctors’ waiting rooms due to their condensed articles that could be read in five minutes or so.  I believe that National Geographic is the only other magazine that has that kind of longevity.

In the 1950′s they capitalized on their reputation and ability to “shrink” stories and started publishing the Reader’s Digest Condensed Books which were hardbacked books that had four or five of the recent best-selling novels abridged down to 50 or 60 pages.  

And don’t forget the sweepstakes games where you’d mail in your entry to try and win gazillions of dollars in their secret drawing.  They were proud of the fact that it was published in 21 languages and distributed all around the world.

But somewhere along the way, after the founding Wallace family retired in 1973, the magazine changed its focus and that started the migration of its readership base away from the legendary publication.  Two years ago the RD was purchased in a leveraged buyout by a private equity group for $2.8 billion, most of which was debt assumption.  Their current plan is to turn over all their assets to a group of debt-holders who will infuse another $1.5 billion into the restructured company and then attempt to turn the business around and restore the RD to profitability.  I’m not holding my breath on that one.

But time marches on and most good things eventually come to an end.  We were lucky, we got to experience the Reader’s Digest.  Now let’s start experiencing some equipment checking.  I need to get more coffee started.

We’ll start off today by pointing out a “must read” article on another blog.  Today marks the 50th anniversary of what is called the Southwest Boulevard Fire in Kansas City.  It involved a gasoline fueling depot that used above-ground tanks and the hot, mid-summer fire killed five firefighters while destroying most of a city block.

One of the things that makes it a landmark event was that the resulting explosion of one of the gasoline storage tanks led to the creation of the term BLEVE.  Dave Statter has taken a lot of time to prepare an excellent accounting of the fire including some news film footage and local television programming of the day, and he has it posted this morning in remembrance of the tragic event.

It took place near the Missouri/Kansas state line and units from both K. C. departments were working the fire.  Of the 64 firefighters that were injured by the explosion and rocketing tank, the Fire Chiefs of both departments were two of them.  Today there will be a special ceremony at the permanent memorial that sits at the site conducted by both departments.

Dave’s special remembrance and history is detailed and filled with information, so it will take more than a minute or two to read through it.  After we get the equipment checked out and you get a fresh cup, take the time to read this fine article at STATter911 HERE.

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I hope that the readers of this site who work in fire marshal’s offices have taken heed of yesterday’s article about a cellphone triggering the igniter of a gas stove HERE.  This is an example of how the internet can truly benefit the sharing of knowledge in a timely manner and get the word all over North America in an instant.

Previously, we would have never heard of this incident and similar situations could be springing up here and there with never a hint of what and why they happened.  But now, with me posting an obscure story from a local newspaper and then you relaying the information onto, say, specialized fire marshal web forums, within hours this new possible source of fire-cause is known everywhere and field investigators have another clue in their quiver to use onsite.  I think that’s great.

And I also think that it’s time to get this equipment checked out, too.  I’ll go start some more coffee and catch you later in the day room.