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Does Your Ambulance Have One Yet?

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THE GRAND ISLAND (NEBRASKA) FIRE DEPARTMENT HAS JUST added another tool to each of their four front-line ambulances, a bone drill.

bone drill a independent Barrett

Division Chief Troy Shubert demonstrates the use of a bone drill on a
training bone, which features a foam rubber “skin” section
over the bone, at Grand Island Fire Station No. 1.
(Grand Island Independent / Barrett photo)

The small, hand-held drills cost them $6,300 for all four and already they don’t know how they ever got along without them.  The tools are used as a back-up means of establishing an IV line in patients that are too difficult to reach a vein in the traditional manner.

The Grand Island Independent continues:

A bone drill is used when a traditional IV cannot be secured on a patient. It could be because the patient is dehydrated, diabetic or under extreme trauma, Shubert said.

The bone drill can be used to quickly insert an intraosseous needle directly into the bone to dispense fluids, medications or sugar.

“The procedure has been around forever,” Shubert said. “This is just a different tool to drive it in.”

Previously, paramedics used a small, handheld plug to literally ram the needle into the patient’s leg bone near the knee.

“If you’re just doing it by hand, it’s tougher,” said Dr. Michael McGahan, the department’s medical supervisor and an emergency room doctor and supervisor at St. Francis Medical Center.

The paramedics began by practicing on chicken bones and synthetic training limbs to learn the “feel” for hitting the bone properly.  Once the drills were in service, they had use for one within a week.  The hospital staff were so impressed with the results of the use of the drill that they ordered one for their ER.

Read the entire story in The Independent HERE.

Posted by on October 18, 2009 • Filed under: ambulances, EMS Topics • Tagged: , , ,

Another Fireworks Warehouse Lights Up

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IT’S BEEN A WHILE SINCE WE’VE REPORTED on a major fireworks ka-boom in Asia, but some folks in Pallipat, India, have got the firecracker season started.  Friday night a wholesale firecracker warehouse opened up for some retail activity in preparation for the annual Diwali celebration, a major Hindu festival where people traditionally set off firecrackers and fireworks.

The shop was packed with customers when something caused a firework to ignite and it rapidly set the entire shop ablaze.  Panic ensued and since there was only one exit, it was just moments before everybody was trapped inside the inferno.  So far, at least 32 people are known to be dead, many of them burned beyond recognition.

CNN News reports:

S. Radhakrishnan, a Tamil Nadu state police official, said three people were arrested in connection with the Friday evening fire, including the owner of the building and the owner of the fireworks store in the town of Pallipat, about 90 kilometers (56 miles) from Chennai.

Radhakrishnan said the fireworks store had been denied a government license to operate and was doing business illegally. The owner’s father died recently and the shop had been closed for a few days, he said. A rush of customers were at the store when it re-opened just before Diwali.

CNN also filed this video report:

Posted by on October 18, 2009 • Filed under: fire, Fires • Tagged: , , , ,

Morning Lineup – October 18

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Apparently the MONOPOLY – Firefighters Edition has started shipping because I got mine yesterday.  Of course, I had an early order in, but now we know that they’re boxed and being sent out.  I unsealed the box and looked through the game cards, etc., and got a kick out of it.  If you’re familiar with the original game (and who isn’t?) you won’t have any learning curve with this one.  The rules are the same and the game board is identical except that the names of the properties and streets have been changed to reflect the theme.

Instead of building houses and hotels, you build fire stations and after 4 of those you set up a Headquarters.  And what were the four railroads on the original are now four company units, an engine, a truck, a squad and an ambulance.  But the goal is the same cutthroat result as before,  drive your competitors into bankruptcy.

For some reason, that reminds me of an old firehouse game that we used to play called “Red-ass.”  You couldn’t buy it anywhere, it had to be homemade.  But it was one of those traditional things that spread through firehouses all around the country by word-of-mouth and had been around since Noah went sailing.  It was kind of a Parchesi-type game played with marbles.  The game board was a piece of plywood that somebody had made by drilling dimples into the board that would nestle the marbles that you moved around just like the Parchesi pieces.

I can’t remember the rules, or what made it different from the Parchesi, but I do remember that it was very rarely that you ever finished the game because there was always a moment when somebody reached a setback that so infuriated him that they’d pitch the board, marbles and all, across the room and then storm out.  They’d got the “red ass.”  Did your day room have a Red-ass board in it?

Well, you might want to get a Firefighters Monopoly board for the day room, anyway.  It looks like it’ll be fun to play.  Speaking of playing, the NHL has been playing for two weeks now and most teams have played about 8 games so far.  It’s time to start running the Top-10 goals, hits, plays, etc., now that they’ve got some action under their belt.  Today we’ll start with the Top-10 Goals  from last week. 

After you watch those, then we’d better get the equipment checked out.  I’m going to see how the Sunday breakfast is coming along and get some more coffee started.

Posted by on October 18, 2009 • Filed under: morning lineup • Tagged: , ,

Needs More Lessons

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A STUDENT DRIVER IN EVERETT, WASHINGTON, FAILED HER FIRST TEST late Thursday night when she piloted her minivan into an electric transformer.  The hard crash started a fire in the engine and when the cooling oil leaking from the broken transformer flowed into the fire area, everything ignited causing a spectacular blaze for the neighbors whose power had just gone off.

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KIRO-TV

The driver and her passenger, who was supposedly giving her driving lessons at 10:45  pm, were both able to get out of the van ok, but not before the stunned pair were coaxed out by a restaurant employee who heard the crash.  The responding firefighters had the fire out in six minutes after they began applying foam to the fire.  But by then, over 1,500 electric customers had lost their power.

KIRO-TV has the details of the STORY HERE.

KING-TV Ch. 5 has some good, raw video of the fire and the extinguishment:

Posted by on October 17, 2009 • Filed under: fire, Fires, HazMat, Videos • Tagged: , , , , , ,

You Don’t Say !

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 “Love makes the world go ’round,” they say.
But then, so does a good
swallow of tobacco!

*  *  *

*  *  *  *  *

Posted by on October 17, 2009 • Filed under: You Don't Say

Dual Deli Damage Suspicious

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TWO DELI / BAKERY SHOPS IN NEARBY CONNECTICUT TOWNS had fires early Friday morning just a half-hour apart.  In one of them, the bakers were at work in the Purdy Hill Bakery & Deli in Monroe at 2 am when they smelled smoke and found an incipient fire.  The FD was called and it was extinguished with very little damage.

Just down the road in Beacon Falls it was a different story.  Less than 30 minutes after the fire in Monroe, the Beacon Falls Bakery & Deli was completely gutted by a fire.

deli a repubamerican

Waterbury Republican-American

Arson investigators say that there is positive evidence that the Monroe fire was an arson attempt the the burnout in Beacon Falls is suspicious.  They also disclosed that both bakeries are owned by the same person which opens up the possibility of a grudge or revenge motive.

WTNH-TV Ch. 8 has a good video report on the fires:

The Waterbury Republican-American has the DETAILS.

Posted by on October 17, 2009 • Filed under: arson, Fires, Videos • Tagged: , , ,

American LaFrance Maroon

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SINCE THE HAPPY MEDIC PEEKED OUT OF HIS DIGITAL CLOSET, I want to share a San Francisco based story.

When I started on the job, we had American LaFrance rigs with a rich maroon color. I fondly remember riding the 1969 100′ tiller at Station 22.
1969-lafrance-truck-22_web

The county tried to duplicate that color when they were buying their first Seagraves in the early 1970′s, but it was not the same.

CENTENNIAL EDITION PAINT FINISH

To commemorate the Great Earthquake and Fire, San Francisco Fire Department and American LaFrance used paint chips from a museum steamer and hose cart to duplicate the original maroon color. American LaFrance delivered ten pumpers with a special Centennial Edition Paint Finish in 2006.

SFFD_brown_web

ABOUT THAT ACCENT WALL

I was getting my apartment painted and wanted ALF maroon for an accent wall, a dark background for the hi-def television.

While on a business trip I visited the museum that is part of San Francisco Station 10. Looked at the color on a 1893 4th size, double 550 gpm, steam engine. Also looked at the centennial paint job on Engine 10. Determining the right hue was as difficult as looking at paint swatches at Home Depot.

Had to laugh at the sign on the inside of the watchroom: R U AIQ? Immediately recognized the message, a question asked in every fire station that uses a computer aided dispatch system.

Found a shade of burgundy that seemed close enough, a friend suggested I should have added gold leaf trim on the corners of the wall. Another suggested a white V-stripe like the front of Truck 22.  Great man-cave ideas.

Now I just need a recording of an unmufflered 900 series ALF tiller  taking in the box when the exhaust was louder than the siren. That would be a great alarm-clock alert.

Mike “FossilMedic” Ward

Posted by on October 17, 2009 • Filed under: apparatus, Fire Rescue Topics, fun, Vehicle Operations & Apparatus • Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

Atlanta Arsonist Identified, Still Sought

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ATLANTA, GEORGIA, FIREFIGHTERS RESPONDED TO A FIRE in a small, neighborhood market Friday morning where they found signs of arson throughout the store.  A burglar had stolen a large quantity of lottery tickets and then poured flammable liquids around the shop and set it alight.

Alas, the thief hadn’t disabled the surveillance cameras, even though he had tried to, and he was immediately identified by the store’s owner as being an employee.  The police now have a name and are looking for the dummy.

WAGA-TV Ch. 5 has the story along with the surveillance tapes:

Posted by on October 17, 2009 • Filed under: arson, Fires, Videos • Tagged: , , ,

Morning Lineup – October 17

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Chilly weather has certainly arrived in my part of the world.  I’m certain that summer’s heat is behind us now, so I held the annual “Burning o’ the Dust” event.  That’s what happens when I fire up the furnace for the first time of the coming cold season.  When the firebox lights up and heats up all that dust that’s been settling inside the furnace over the summer, it sends out that distinctive burning dust aroma through the house announcing the seasonal change.  I guess it’s safe to go ahead and pack away my short-sleeve shirts and get out the winter-wear now.

*  *  *

Let me take a moment to thank all of you who sent us emails and left comments telling us that you like the new look of the website.  That’s nice to hear and all of us who work on Firegeezer appreciate it.  As I mentioned the other day, we’ll be gradually introducing new features over the next few weeks, too.  So stay tuned and keep letting us know what you think about our efforts.

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Earlier on the 5th of this month, we told you (HERE) about the debut of the Chicago Area Fire Depts. photo website and how it will be continually growing.  I have an update for you today.  In the twelve days since then, they have added another 55 fire stations to the archives, and 18 of them are Chicago FD stations.  So you see that there is a lot to keep up with there.  You can click HERE to go to their website, but we also have them listed in our Blogroll on the left sidebar so that you can log in at anytime.

Speaking of fire photography, I see that the New Jersey Metro Fire Photographers Association is holding their 24th annual Photo Night this evening.  This looks like it would be fun to check out.  It’s being held at the Harry P. Becton Regional High School at 120 Paterson Ave. and begins at 3:30 pm.  Go to their website HERE for more information and directions on how to get there.

Don’t forget that Saturday is Hamburger Day.  I never forget that.  So let’s get this equipment checked out now and I’ll go get the coffee started.  See you back in the day room in a little while.

Posted by on October 17, 2009 • Filed under: morning lineup, News, photography • Tagged:

What A Reunion! 40 Years

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AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT ….. 

The five surviving members of the infamous Monty Python comedy troupe gathered last night (Thursday) on the stage of the Ziegfield Theater in New York to celebrate the 40th anniversary marking the founding of their collaboration.

python a reuters lucas jackson

from left, Michael Palin, John Cleese, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam
and Eric Idle.  Graham Chapman died in 1989. 
(Reuters / Lucas Jackson photo)

The occasion was triggered by the premier screening of a 6-part documentary, that will begin showing on Britain’s ITV channel this Sunday.  The Press Association posted a video interview with the gang taped at the reunion:

The Times tells us today:

Monty Python is now generating more money than at any time in its past, largely through DVD sales and television licensing rights, according to Roger Saunders, the troupe’s manager. It is also exploring new ways to generate cash from its back catalogue.

The team’s success stems from copyright ownership of the original 45 television shows as well as all the rights for Monty Python’s Life of Brian film and shared ownership of the rights to Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

python b 1969 AP

The founding Pythons in 1969.  (AP)

Frazier Moore of the Associated Press filed an entertaining and informative essay on the group HERE.

And finally….Firegeezer’s all-time favorite MP skit – The Dead Parrot:

Posted by on October 16, 2009 • Filed under: culture, News • Tagged: , , ,

The NHS Nails Another One

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THE EAST MIDLANDS AMBULANCE SERVICE in Nottinghamshire, England, failed to dispatch an ambulance for a 53-year-old man who was having a heart attack on the street in Newark last week.  After waiting an hour for the ambulance, he was taken by auto to the hospital where he died 4 hours later.

The Newark Advertiser reports this morning:

The family says a paramedic in a 4×4 car arrived within ten minutes and tried to put a line in to give Mr Allen medication but was unable to find a vein.

The paramedic also tried to give him an ECG but electrode pads would not stick to his chest because he was so cold.

….the paramedic called for an ambulance on his radio but was told there wasn’t one coming.

The paramedic tried to get Mr Allen, of Kirkby-in-Ashfield, into the 4×4 but couldn’t carry him.  Mr Mickey Allen said the paramedic called a friend who drives a patient transport service ambulance — which has no medical equipment or siren — and the three of them carried his father to it on a stretcher.

Mr Allen said: “He drove like a bat out of hell, driving on the other side of the road. All the time Dad was asking me to put him to sleep because the pain was so bad.”

But finally getting him to the hospital wasn’t the end of the ordeal.  Mr Allen said his father was seen by a doctor at Newark Hospital who was unable to give him clot-busting drugs used in the treatment of heart attack victims because his medical notes from King’s Mill Hospital, Sutton-in-Ashfield, and Nottingham’s Queen’s Medical Centre, where he had previously been treated, could not be found.  (We’re talking centralized government  medical records, here.)

Read the entire, sad story of this fiasco HERE.

Posted by on October 16, 2009 • Filed under: ambulances, EMS Topics

Pin-Point Ka-Booming

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TWO CRUMBLING, UNSAFE SMOKESTACKS at a former mill building in Lawrence, Massachusetts, were demolished yesterday so that the complex can be redeveloped.  The task was done by one of those controlled explosives companies that do such a marvelous job with those demolitions.

WCVB-TV Ch. 5 Boston explained yesterday morning the why and what-for of the project:

After the big ka-boom later yesterday, WFXT-TV Ch. 25 filed this raw video taken from their helicopter of the impressive event:

Posted by on October 16, 2009 • Filed under: explosion, News • Tagged: ,

D. C. 1st Responders Get Double-Dose of Flu Vaccine

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THE WASHINGTON, D. C. POLICE, FIRE AND EMS workers were told to report to the city police & fire clinic to receive their swine flu shots earlier this week.  Naturally, the city’s first-responders were innoculated before the rest of the city employees.

But there was a hiccup with this one.  D. C. paramedics were brought in to help with the workload and somehow about 25 police officers were accidentally give children’s dosages which are double the sized dose that adults receive.  There are not expected to be any side-effects from it, but they are being monitored anyway.

WTTG-TV Ch. 5 ran this video report:

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Posted by on October 16, 2009 • Filed under: health & safety, Patient Management • Tagged: , ,

The Next Paramedic Shortage

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EMS 2.0 is a term coined our FireEMS Blog neighbors, The Happy Medic and Life Under The Lights earlier this year.

Here is Happy’s original description of EMS 2.0:

A concept started at HMHQ and spread through other media and users is EMS 2.0 This refers to the reboot and reload of the mission of EMS in the near future to accommodate the changing requirements put on the system. Whether Fire based, EMS based, hospital, clinic, SUV, bicycle…however it is that you deliver EMS needs to be drastically re-invisioned, re-trained and re-deployed. we are no longer an Emergency service but an Encompanying service, and Empowered service, an Evolving service. (go HERE for link).

Chris Kaiser, the Ckemtp in  Life Under the Lights, provides a great rant summarizing the issues in his first blog entry in the new digital neighborhood.  (read it HERE)

THE MEDICS ARE REVOLTING

I experience déjà-vu when reading about the professionalism of the paramedic trade. As an unfocused community college student I thought I wanted to be an engineer.

About a quarter of the Intro to Engineering class was devoted to the whine that Professional Engineers were not getting the respect or money that physicians or lawyers enjoyed. I also remember the 1971 picture of a professional engineer at work, wearing a loud sports jacket, wild tie and porkchop sideburns offsetting a receding hairline.

My heart ached when reading a 1990′s NFPA Fire Journal article about the Phoenix Fire Department. They seemed to have integrated paramedics into a fire-based ems system in a way that I felt my department would never accomplish.

It is clear, after visiting many urban ems systems, that the phenomena of “paramedic as second class citizen” is a consistent theme. Even in Phoenix.

Pay is an issue for many private, for-profit, hospital and third service agencies. Paramedics move into higher paying and more professionally flexible jobs as nurses. Fitch and Associates posted the JEMS 2009 Salary Survey, go HERE to download a copy.

Respect is an issue at fire-based agencies, regardless if paramedics are single role or dual role.

I appreciate Chris providing a vivid picture of the gap between EMS 2.0 and what he deals with daily.

WHO IS GOING TO EDUCATE THE EMS 2.0 PROVIDERS, PROFESSORS AND ADMINISTRATORS?

At this point, the discussion revolves around getting undergraduate and graduate degrees. There are a handful of academic institutions that offer EMS or related areas of study.
(insert shameless plug for my institution here).

The medical professional model is similar to the engineering professional model. Our United Kingdom firefighter colleagues adopted the engineering model in 1918 with the Institution of Fire Engineers. Most UK chief fire officers have graduate degrees in hard science or engineering. Most USA chief fire officers are working on their bachelor degree.

The nursing model is not perfect, we see Nurse Practitioners, with master or doctorial degrees, competing with Physician Assistants for their share of the health care reimbursement pie.

A lasting lesson from the 1980′s extended practice paramedic experiment was that reimbursement drives health care. Wake County is trying a different approach with their 2009 Advanced Practice Paramedics (article HERE).

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HIGHER EDUCATION ECONOMICS

You need PhDs to deliver on a need articulated by Kelly Grayson in Ambulance Driver:

First of all, until paramedics define themselves by a unique body of knowledge rather than by a patch and a skill set, we’re not going to be taken seriously by other health care providers. That body of knowledge is going to require education far broader and deeper than most current EMS educational programs offer.
(quoted from this earlier Firegeezer blog entry HERE)

There is no Doctorate of Paramedicine. You need to sell the program to a university, showing that (a) there is a need (b) the program will generate more revenue (tuition, funded research) than expenses and (c) this effort is appropriate within the institutions goals and strategic plan.

We are slowly getting closer. About 40 members of the National Association of EMS Educators report an earned doctorate – a PhD, EdD, or other designation of academic achievement.

Mike “FossilMedic” Ward

Oct 19: Mark Glencorse (999Medic) adds to the discussion HERE.

Oct 21:  Fire Critic stirs the pot and asks EMS As A Profession?

Oct 21: The Happy Medic adds to the EMS as a Profession discussion and makes fun of my editing this blog!

Posted by on October 16, 2009 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, ambulances, commentary, EMS Topics, Fire Blogs, Training & Development • Tagged: , , , , ,

Morning Lineup – October 16

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Welcome to Firegeezer 3.0 and our new look!

Thanks to those of you who sent us emails telling that you like our new design.  It was time for a face-lift anyway, but this ties in nicely with our new adventure with FireEMS Blogs.  It is a collaboration with Go>Forward Media, the wizards who bring us Firefighter Nation and JEMS.  Over the next few weeks you will be seeing a greater integration of all three branches.

Starting off yesterday with our own Big Bang, there are about 15 top-quality fire, rescue and EMS-related blogs in this community.  You might have noticed already that some of your favorite blogs changed their appearance yesterday and have a mildly similar look to each other.  All of us are still independently operated and stand alone in the blogosphere like we always have, but we are gathered in the parking lot where we can swap links and let you browse the sites from one web stop if you wish.  You can always click onto us from your Favorites list just like you always have, but now there is the additional option to start out at the FireEMSBlogs.com homepage and see what’s up.  It is a dynamic site that has a running listing of the latest articles as they are posted, and soon there will be a cross-pollination of links where an article on one blog will automatically give you links to stories on a similar topic that are on other sites.

Let me touch on a couple other points for now, and then we’ll get started on today’s postings.

When the great digital migration machine moved our archives over from the old servers, it looks like a few of the recent Comments escaped.  I’m trying to round them up and get them back with the herd, but it’s not always possible.  We’re trying, but you know how it goes with this internet stuff.  You’ll notice that the Comments procedure has a slightly different look to it, too.  But it operates the same, you write down your thoughts and press the button.  However, soon you will find that this Comments setup will be expanded to other social network sites.  For instance, if you post a link to one of our stories on Facebook, and a friend of yours reads it, they can post their comment directly from their Facebook page.  When that stuff gets activated, I’ll explain more about it.  It’s a whole new era of integrated internet communications.

Another nifty feature that we’ve added is the Translator box that you’ll see on the right sidebar where all the flags are.  If somebody in, say Germany, links onto Firegeezer, then they just click on the German flag and the entire page is posted in their language.  I’m really tickled with this because on any given day Firegeezer gets visitors from 20 to 30 different countries.  This will open up our dialogue with firefighters from other countries and cultures so that we can learn more from each other.  We’re just getting started.

One more thing that I need to point out is that this new design displays just the last 6 postings on the front page.  So you’ll need to get used to clicking on the “Next>>>” button on the bottom of the page to make sure you haven’t missed anything.  Especially starting next week when we begin Part 2 of our renovation.

There will be more tips passed along in the next few days as even more features get introduced and I hope you get as much enjoyment out of this new way of getting your online information and entertainment as I will be getting from providing it for you.  One of our blog partners, Fire Daily describes our excitement perfectly in this posting HERE.  Take a moment to read it, then we’ll get started checking this equipment out.  I need to get more coffee started and then get to work with postings and doing some tweaking here and there.  And Thanks! for vistiing with us.

Posted by on October 16, 2009 • Filed under: morning lineup, Technology & Communications • Tagged: , ,

Luck Runs Out for Lottery Winner

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A HOUSE FIRE IN THE BUFFALO SUBURB OF LANCASTER, New York, Wednesday claimed the life of a 51-yr.-old man who supposedly had won $1 million in a lottery some time previously.

lottery b WIVB

WIVB-TV image

When the Lancaster FD arrived on the scene shortly before dawn, the house was fully involved. The fire officials say that there was no chance to rescue anybody who might have been inside. After the fire was out, they found a body in the rear of the ranch-style home in what is believed to have been the family room. Neighbors say that Roger Grandy was the owner and lived alone in the house. He had said that he won a lottery several years ago and had used the winnings to buy his “dream house.”

The Buffalo News reports that records show no one with that name having won a large lottery prize. Detectives don’t know whether the resident had won the lottery. And if so, they don’t know how much, how long ago or even whether it was in New York. The body was burned beyond recognition, so the identity of the victim has not been officially released. But the police have reportedly advised Grandy’s relatives of the fire.

WIVB-TV Ch. 4 has this video report from the scene:

The Buffalo News has MORE HERE.

Posted by on October 15, 2009 • Filed under: Fires

Fire Hall, or Beer Hall?

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Update, Sat. 3:00 pm: We have been informed that unlike many of the fire depts. in that part of the country, Towamencin FD does not have a bar or beer vending machine attached to the station.  The land had been donated to the volunteers by a Mennonite family in the 1950′s and out of respect, the department had never allowed alcohol on the propterty.

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THERE IS CONTROVERSY IN TOWAMENCIN TOWNSHIP, PENNSYLVANIA, this morning after a former member of the Towamencin VFD told the Twp. Supervisors at their regular meeting last night (Wednesday) that two officers and a handful of other firefighters responded to fire and emergency calls “too drunk to drive” on multiple occasions.

Greg Martin told the supervisors that he had tried to get the FD’s officials to address the problem, but they wouldn’t take him seriously. The north Philadelphia area paper, The Reporter tells:

During the public comment section of the meeting, Greg Martin told the supervisors he was forced out of the company after attempting to force officials to deal with the situation. Martin said the same officers “who could barely walk and smelled like a brewery” voted him out as a form of retaliation.

“One of those officers put me in danger by giving me orders that didn’t make any sense,” said Martin, who served with the company for about one year. “It’s frustrating that the chief and president of the company are trying to brush this under the rug.”

On the other side, the VFD officers say that there has only been one such incident and it was taken care of at the time. They also deny that Martin was thrown out of the department. Martin says that he has documentation of several incidents. His purpose in bringing this up was to request that the supervisors pass an ordinance preventing firefighters from responding to emergency events when they’ve been drinking.

Read the full STORY HERE.

Towamencin Volunteer Fire Company WEBSITE.

Posted by on October 15, 2009 • Filed under: Command & Leadership, current events

Morning Lineup – October 15

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Today will be interesting here in Geezer country.  As you will soon learn this afternoon, our website is about to undergo a big change starting today.  After 2-½ years, we felt it was time for a face-lift and a fresh look to help enter a new phase of geezerdom.  But it’s going to be more than just a “new look.”  There are some other things that we’re going to incorporate into this change and I’m hoping that you’ll enjoy them, too.

This is a 3-part adjustment and will be carried out over the next two weeks.

  • Part One will  take place in just a few hours from now.  That will be the introduction of our new, fresh web page design that will be showing up after we switch from our old ISP to our new one.  Along with the new colors and layout, I’ve changed the header logo.  If you visited with us at the Firehouse Expo in Baltimore this year, then you saw it already on our new banner that was hanging in our exhibit booth.  A big part of this new design is the wider page that also has another sidebar added on the left side.  We are doing this so that we can incorporate some display advertising on the website and generate some income.  Everybody likes to generate some income, right?  But in this case, I’m going to be using that help move us into ……..
  • Part Two.  The new Firegeezer will be expanding our content to include some new features and adding more writers to give you additional viewpoints on things that interest you.  We’re not changing our basic philosophy of subject-matter and presentation, only adding to it and making Firegeezer even more inviting for a visit.  You will see this phase gradually being introduced after this weekend and all our design bugs are smoothed out.  And that leaves us with ………
  • Part Three.  Ah, we’re saving the best for last in our Big Change.  This one is still a secret, though.  You’ll be getting the official word from us about this revolutionary web event before long, but  I can tell you that it will be the most exciting part of this 3-part introduction and I’m really pumped up over it.  We are entering an entirely new and dynamic age of bloggery and I’m very proud to be part of it.

You can see that I’ve got some work to do this morning, so let’s get this equipment checked out.  I have to get some more coffee started, too.  See you in a little while in the day room.

Posted by on October 15, 2009 • Filed under: morning lineup, News

Planning Next Year's Vacation Yet?

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IF YOU’RE STILL LOOKING FOR SUGGESTIONS, maybe you’ll want to consider taking that “special” once-in-a-lifetime trip in a private rail car.  Until the middle of the 20th century, the super-rich and the railroad executives traveled in luxury and comfort in their own railroad cars, hooked on to a regularly-scheduled passenger train that was going to where they wanted to be.

cannon ball

The Cannon Ball

Today, dozens of these exquisitely-appointed “rail palaces” have been saved from the scrap heap and lovingly restored by collectors who continue the practice of hitching up to an Amtrak train and riding in stress-free comfort to all points in the country.  Many of these car owners have policies of renting out their cars as a means to help pay for the upkeep and to make them available for others to enjoy.  They are usually members of the American Association of Private Railroad Car Owners (AAPRCO) which also serves as a clearing-house for car rentals.

alexander hamilton

The Alexander Hamilton

If the cost of a car rental is too steep for you, many of the owners schedule group excursions that operate on a per capita basis, such as one that runs trips from Sacramento to Seattle carrying baseball fans to games between the S. F. Giants and the Seattle Mariners.  They offer a 5-day trip including all meals and accomodations for just under $1,000 per person.  This 2-page article from Bankrate.com, published three years ago HERE, goes into more detail on how much it can cost to rent a private car and how to get your own locomotive if you want to go where Amtrak doesn’t.

j pinckney henderson

The J. Pinckney Henderson dining area

The AAPRCO website is HERE.
A listing with photographs of their cars that are available for rental is HERE and includes a brief history of each car.

Posted by on October 14, 2009 • Filed under: fun

Punished for Calling 9-1-1 Without Permission

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A JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA, WOMAN WAS THE VICTIM of a deliberate poisoning Friday night in the Wendy’s restaurant where she is the assistant manager.  Sara Barahona recognized the problem right away and called 9-1-1 to request police and an ambulance.  It was later found that her drink had been laced with an oven cleaner-type substance.

But the response she got from the store’s district manager was just as upsetting.  According to Barahona she was called in to a meeting of store managers and rebuked in front of the others for calling the police without checking with her district manager first.  “I was told the police being there damaged the public perception of Wendy’s,” Barahona said in an interview with First Coast News. “I can’t believe the way I was treated.”

A spokesman for the Wendy’s chain says, however, that the district manager did not punish her, but instead reminded the others that when there is an emergency they should notify the district manager immediately after calling 9-1-1. 

There is apparently a misconception of what was actually said.  While the corporate office looks into what happened in the personnel action, the police are investigating the tainting of Barahona’s drink.  She suspects an employee who had gotten into an argument with her a short time before it happened.

First Coast has this video report and interview with Barahona:

Posted by on October 14, 2009 • Filed under: crime

Ford Recall a Day Late

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A RECALL OF FORD AUTOMOBILES ISSUED IN 2008 for a faulty cruise control switch that could cause a fire was expanded this week to include an additional 4.5 million Ford, Lincoln and Mercury automobiles for a record-setting total of 14 million cars recalled.

It was just a day late for a woman in Puyallup, Washington, when her 1996 Lincoln broke out in flames while parked in her carport last week.  The fire spread into part of the house causing $200,000 in damages.  The fire marshal determined that the fire began in the electronic control box near the driver’s seat and now the insurance company will take it for an exhaustive examination.

The owner had an appointment with the car dealer to correct the recalled part on the next day after the fire.

KING-TV has a video report on the fire:

Posted by on October 14, 2009 • Filed under: fire

"Exhibits Poor Driving Skills"

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A SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, MAN IS IN a “heap o’ trouble” this morning after crashing his car into an ambulance that was loading a patient.  The driver came upon a traffic accident in the town of Pala and struck a California Highway Patrol officer who was directing traffic around the scene of the accident at 9 pm Tuesday night.

After striking the officer, he tried to speed away from the scene and crashed into the ambulance that was working the original wreck.  The driver was quickly arrested and is currently being held pending charges.  The CHP officer is in the hospital being treated for an ankle injury.

KGTV Ch. 10 has the early REPORT.

Posted by on October 14, 2009 • Filed under: ambulances

Teen Arrested for Trying to Blow Up His House

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A 17-YR.-OLD MANSFIELD, TEXAS, BOY WAS ARRESTED Saturday after his father called police to report evidence found in his house that the boy had tried to blow it up while the family was asleep inside.

Adam Porterfield allegedly turned on the gas burners and had lit candles in several areas of the house during the night.  Not only are his (adoptive) parents surprised at his behavior, but all of his friends and neighbors say that he was always a good child and never exhibited any deviant tendencies.

porterfield a

One close friend of his told Ch. 11 news that he never spoke ill of his family and ”The only thing he ever said was that he loved them and he was blessed he was in that great of a family.”

Porterfield is being held in jail without bond after being charged with “attempted arson of a habitation,” a 2nd-degree felony that can bring 2 to 20 yrs. imprisonment.

KDFW-TV Ch. 4 Fort Worth has a video report:

Posted by on October 14, 2009 • Filed under: arson

Morning Lineup – October 14

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Are you familiar with the “trivia facts” that are printed inside the Snapple bottle caps?  Snapple’s peach-flavored iced tea is about the only soft drink that I keep at home because I really like it.  Not as much as beer, of course, but when I crave a chilled soft drink, then it’s a Snapple.  And they only use natural flavorings and filtered water in their tea drinks, no artificial flavors.  Believe me, their peach flavor is so true that you can taste the fuzz.

Anyway, back to what I was talking about.  Snapple prints these little trivia nuggets inside the bottle cap, but for a long while they were stuck running the same couple of hundred snippets over and over.  It seemed like it was at least 4 years of repeats.  Well finally, earlier this year they started a fresh batch of trivial marvels and they’re a little more interesting than previously.  Don’t start daydreaming now, I’m leading up to something.  One cap that I opened recently had a fact that I’m surprised that I had never heard of before.  I will reprint it in its entirety:  The “Valley of Square Trees” in Panama is the only known place in the world where trees have rectangular trunks.

Now that really amazed me.  While it’s not usual for us to be familiar with obscure parks in Central American countries, don’t you think that somewhere along life’s path I would have heard mention of square trees in Panama?  If I had, I probably would have been skeptical of the claim thinking it was a trick statement of some sort.  But this is the digital age and everything known to man is instantly available at our keyboard.  And sure enough, there is a park in Panama with square trees.

square tree a

They are members of the cottonwood family, but as yet nobody has any idea why they grow like this in this one particular area.  Reportedly, the University of Florida was trying to raise some from seedlings to see if they could replicate them in a different soil and altitude, but I haven’t seen any results from their experiment.  The Anton valley where they are found is located within the crater of a dormant volcano and is about 1,000 ft. above sea level.  Not only are square trees found there, but it is also known to biologists for its colony of golden-colored frogs.

gold frog

There’s a short travelogue-type video taken in the valley that shows some of these trees if you’re interested.  You can CLICK HERE to view it.  Oh, in case you were wondering, their tree rings are square, too.

Now before you start accusing me of being a block-head, we’d better get this equipment checked out.  I have to get the coffee started.  We’ll meet later in the day room where I’ll fill you in on an important announcement.

Posted by on October 14, 2009 • Filed under: morning lineup

Surgically-Adjusted Toes ???

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FOR MANY YEARS NOW, BEAUTY PAGEANTS HAVE BEEN plagued and pestered by entrants who are a little more than they seem.  Thanks to the “miracles of modern medicine,” artificial body enhancements have tilted the “beauty” part of the pageants more toward those who possess the funds and imagination to expand their opportunities.

But now there is a beauty contest that not only recognizes these plastic  surgeries, but has made them a requirement.  The Miss Plastic Hungary contest was held in Budapest this past weekend and a bouncing bevy of buxom beauties showed up to display their creative use of breast implants, nose jobs and face-lifts.

plastic a AP

AP

The contest was put on and sponsored by doctors and women who were barred from conventional beauty contests because they had plastic surgery.  But not all was rosy at the plastic pageant.  Australia’s News.com reports:

Blonde Alexandra Horvath, 23, tore a ligament when she tripped after passing the breast examination stage of the contest.

The Metro reported judges were congratulating Horvath’s surgeon, Dr Tamas Rozsos, on the lack of any surgical scars when the blonde toppled over on the catwalk and tore a ligament in her foot.

Laszlo Feher told the Metro: ‘Everyone was admiring her bodywork and then she started to topple – no-one was near enough to reach her and she fall badly. She was taken to hospital by ambulance.’

A friend said: ‘She had not got used to the extra weight on top and her new hair extensions got in her eyes – she just lost her balance and tore a ligament in her foot badly.’

Alas, they haven’t gotten all the wrinkles worked out yet.

The Associated Press has brought us a video report directly from the runway:

Posted by on October 13, 2009 • Filed under: culture