SOME ITEMS AND STORIES THAT CAME IN TOO LATE for yesterday’s deadline along with brief reports that need no more comment:
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A CLEARWATER, MINNESOTA, FIREFIGHTER is in critical condition after being struck by a car while working an auto fire on an Interstate highway. The car struck him, pinning him against the blocking pumper and breaking both his legs. He is expected to be in a wheelchair for 10 to 12 months. Dave Statter, who works all night, has put together the story along with audio and video recordings HERE.
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A HOUSTON, TEXAS, WOMAN IS UPSET and cannot understand why nobody would come and help get her cat off the top of an electric pole. After seeing dozens of replays of the Los Angeles firefighter plucking a dog out of a raging river, she wants to know why no one would crawl through the maze of 10,000-volt wires to save her kitten.
“You just heard, ‘pow,’ and all the electricity went out,” she told the tv station. “I scaled my back fence and she was, she was just fried.” KHOU-TV has this story and a good video report including some footage of kitty on top of the world HERE.
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A WALLINGFORD, VERMONT, FIREFIGHTER was thrown out of the department and banished from the FD property for going through the chain of command to lodge complaints about department procedures. He also points out that the VFD membership has plunged from 40 to 10 in recent years. Read the STORY HERE.
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A FORMER FIREFIGHTER IN WIGGINS, COLORADO, pleaded guilty to setting several fires and was sentenced last Friday. He drew his colleagues” attention quickly because he was suddenly always the first one on the scene. Bob H. sent us this STORY.
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A CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, FIREFIGHTER was caught stealing a gas meter from a fire scene and using fraudulent documents to use it to get “free gas” for his home use. The details of the story are HERE. A quote from the article that we’re not seeing coming out of Memphis these days: Stewart is on unpaid administrative leave but is “in the last stages of the removal process. He probably won’t be with the department much longer,” Langford said.
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A HOMELESS VETERAN WHO DIED in a house fire after he saved five occupants has received a military burial after his remains went unidentified for several weeks. His estranged family was able to locate him and the full story is HERE.
