Yesterday we posted a story about two women whose car went off a 240-ft. cliff but was stopped by a tree just 30 ft. down (HERE).  It’s a remarkable story.  But I got to thinking about how it came about in the first place.  It was triggered by the driver mashing down on the car’s acclerator pedal instead of the brake, and thus causing the car to leap through the barriers and over the edge.  Now we all know that anything can happen once, but this press-the-wrong-pedal action occurs way too frequently these days.  And since it’s just about always old people who are doing it, I’m sure there is a ready explanation for why they do it.  Old-age brain muddling or something.

It’s a puzzle to me why they do that.  After decades of driving, a simple maneuver like applying the brakes is an automatic move that is easily done.  But I’m more interested in the story behind the story on this one.  I’m wondering why it has only been happening in relatively recent times, and why it seems to be accelerating (sorry) in frequency.

The first time that I ran a call for this type of event was in the mid-1980′s when we were dispatched to a car into a building in the middle of the afternoon.  That type of call isn’t all that unusual because out-of-control cars will occasionally end up in buildings, usually in the middle of the night, though.  But this one wasn’t for a drunk who had lost his muscular coordination due to an alcohol infusion in his blood stream.  It was just some old guy who had pressed the wrong pedal and created a new entrance into a supermarket.  At that time it was a very rare cause, for us anyway.

But I have noticed over the past five years or so that it is seemingly becoming more frequent.  Does it just seem that way to me, or do you think so too?  While I’m curious as to why it happens in the first place, I’m even more interested in learning why these accidents are occurring more often than before.  Or are they?  What do you think?

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Oftentimes on Sundays I will post an off-topic image under the heading of Photo Art here on the Lineup.  It’s an opportunity for me to display a pic that is interesting, not for the topic of the photo, but for the composition and enjoyment of the photograph itself.  Usually they are non-fire/rescue related shots.  But I received a photograph this week from a fire scene that fits the “photo art” definition and when I saw it, I immediately wanted to share it with you.  I was struck with the composition, symmetry and colors of the photo.

It comes to us from France and was taken by a fire dept. photographer in the western part of the country near La Rochelle, and his name is Guillaume Largeau.  Guillaume (‘William’ to us English speakers) works as a fire dispatcher for the SDIS 17, (Service Departmental d’Incendie et de Secours) in the Charente-Maritime region.  This picture was taken in May of this year at a large warehouse fire in a recycling center (we’re seeing a lot of those these days, too, aren’t we?).  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Guillaume Largeau / SDIS 17

If you’re interested, the SDIS 17 has put together a good, professional video from that same fire and posted it on their website HERE.   Veolia is the name of the company where the fire took place.  After you check that out, then let’s get the equipment checked out.  I’ll go see how the Sunday breakfast is coming and get some more coffee started.

The last few mornings have been teasingly autumnal here in my latitude.  The early morning air is cool, it’s still dark at 6 am and the sun is noticeably lower in the sky during the daytime.  While there will still be several more quite warm days ahead, at least there won’t be any more prolonged heat spells.  The other good news is, this is Saturday and that’s hamburger day in my household.  Ahhhh.

Do you recall that story we carried Thursday (HERE) about the air-head apparatus driver in New Jersey who crossed the double-line to pass an ambulance that was responding to the same incident?  STATter911 has followed up on the outcome of the police and prosecutor’s decisions on what to do about this near-death experience for the eight responders involved in the incident.  If you’re like me, you’ll be left wondering what’s going on up there?  Talk about responsible people failing to take responsibility, read Dave Statter’s posting this morning HERE.

I’m ready for some more coffee now.  Let’s get the equipment checked and I’ll go run the Bunn-O-Matic.

Do you remember the Chimfex (or Chimnex) flares that were used to extinguish chimney fires?  Apparently, they’ve been unavailable for several years because the factory burned down and the company that made them decided to discontinue the product.  One of our readers Rob J. in Sitka, Alaska, has passed along the information that the Chimfex is back in production and on the market again.

The Chimfex flare was primarily peddled to homeowners to keep by their fireplace hearth like you would any home fire extinguisher to be used immediately in case you had a chimney fire.  When I first came on the fire department, and for many years after, we always carried a couple of them on the fire engines, but I personally never had the occasion to use one.  We usually sent a shot of dry powder up the chimney with the draft, or lightly sprayed a booster line into it from the roof.  But they were good for the homeowners as a quick solution for the problem.

The Chimfex was produced by the Standard Railway Fusee Corp. whose start in the industrial world was by making railroad warning flares and torpedoes.  Somewhere along the way in recent times, Standard was acquired by Orion Safety Products, a name that you’re probably more familiar with (Orion WEBSITE), and was reorganized and incorporated in 1988 as Standard Fusee Corp. headquartered in Easton, Maryland, where Orion’s HQ is located.

Rob has tracked down the primary supplier for the reincarnation of the Chimfex:

Rutland Products
38 Merchants Row
P. O. Box 340
Rutland, VT  05702

ph. 802-775-5519

They have indicated that they are wholesale distributors only and cannot sell directly to FD’s.  But most likely a phone call will direct you to a local seller who can handle your request.

The only question left is, just where on the pumper do we have room for still more stuff?  We’ll see what we can figure out while we get things checked out this morning.  I have to get some more coffee.

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Railroad torpedoes were small explosive packets used by track workers to warn locomotive engineersthat a repair/maintenance crew was working on  the tracks ahead.  The device was gripped onto the rail by the lead straps about 1/2 mi. away and the force of the train wheel would detonate the torpedo.It was loud enough that the track crew could hear it also and thus be forewarned of the approaching train.