A family pet, “Baby” the tabby cat awoke her owners early Monday morning to alert them to a fire in the house and permitted them to flee safely. The woman is six months pregnant with twins and because of her discomfort they were sleeping on the living room couch instead of in their bedroom where the fire started.
The 1-½ story house is located in the Chicago suburb of Wonder Lake, Illinois, and they had just purchased the home less than a month ago. Shortly after midnight Monday morning, Baby jumped on the couple and insistently pawed and nudged at them until they awoke. They knew something was wrong because the kitty normally is very shy and usually hides under furniture instead of being so aggressive.
When they woke up, the man tried first to attack the fire with a portable extinguisher, but failing in that, he called the FD. Both of them plus their pet dog got out of the house safely and the Wonder Lake FPD had the fire out within 30 minutes. But Baby was having no more excitement for the night and she took off without leaving a forwarding address. But since she’s an indoor cat, they believe she will be coming back looking for the rest of her family.
WGN-TV filed this video report:
The house suffered enough damage to make it uninhabitable until it can be repaired. The house was equipped with smoke detectors, but nobody heard them, so it’s unknown if they were operating.
The Chicago Sun-Times has the details of the STORY HERE.
THE MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN, FIRE DEPARTMENT arrived on the scene of a commercial fire at 3:30 am Central this morning (Tuesday) to find the building already heavily-involved with fire.
WITI-TV
The primary tenant is a restaurant on the ground floor, the popular Pizza Man, and there are about 10 apartment units above. The volume of fire prevented any entry by the FF’s, but it was recently announced that all the tenants are believed to be out and accounted for. The fire response was rapidly increased to four alarms and just recently it was elevated to a fifth alarm.
The fire has extended into four other commercial occupancies and there have been two separate partial wall collapses so far.
The fire is not yet under control, so there is no more information available on the origin, etc.
WTMJ-TV filed this video report from the scene at 7 am Central time:
This video report includes the press conference held by acting fire chief Michael Jones along with some additional fire footage:
I’m getting off to a late start again this morning. I just added an update to the French LODD story from yesterday, the FF has been identified and the father of two young children perished on his birthday. Scroll on down a few postings to see the latest.
There is an avalanche of news coming out of Haiti about the USAR’s these past couple of days. There are dozens of American teams down there now, mostly units that have never been deployed outside the country before. FEMA has two basic distinctions between the USAR teams with about half-dozen of them assigned as International teams and the remainder of the 28 teams usually limited to working within the borders of the U. S. But the magnitude (and likely the proximity as well) has encouraged them to deploy even more teams to assist. Along with the U. S. there are similar teams working there from UK, France, Germany, Chile, Canada and others.
Something that I have observed is the fantastic success rate that they are achieving down there. It is not at all unusual for a team to spend 4 or 5 days in a disaster zone and only retrieve one or two people who are still alive. But in Port au Prince they are pulling them out in batches, as many as five or more from individual sites. That kind of success has to be especially rewarding to the rescuers. Most of you know that “pumped up” feeling you get when you make a good “save,” just imagine having a string of such successes.
If you want to view a collection of videos that are centered on the rescue teams, I’ll refer you to the STATter911 website HERE. As you know by now, Dave Statter’s website is hosted by a major tv station in Washington, WUSA-TV and using the resources of their news gathering operation, Dave’s colleague Emily Cyr has been loading video reports on these operations onto his website with at least a dozen or more on there already. You’ll find them over on the right sidebar near the top of the page where you see the video player. Just underneath it is a scrolling list of thumbnail images where you can browse through and watch them when you get the opportunity.
We’d better get started on this equipment check now. I’ll get more coffee going.
THE FOUR VICTIMS FROM THE HOOVER, ALABAMA, Days Inn motel fire Saturday night (see Firegeezer report HERE) have been identified. The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office has confirmed that they were all young women who were students at the Mississippi University for Women. Three of them were age 18 and the fourth was 19 yrs. of age. They were returning to the school following a trip.
The Associated Press filed this video update:
The investigation into the cause is still ongoing.
A 33-YR.-OLD FIREFIGHTER WAS KILLED EARLY THIS MORNING (Monday) in the French seacoast city of La Rochelle. The fire was in a seafood processing plant, Dem Atlantic, that cooks and packages frozen shrimp. A hose crew was working inside the plant when what the fire department is reporting as a flashover ignited inside the large processing room that was filled with wood and styrene packing supplies. The fireball downed the unidentified firefighter and ignited the entire interior with the other FF on the hose line barely escaping. Immediately after, a wall fell on the unfortunate man, trapping him further.
SDIS 17 / Guillaume Largeau / Sylvain Roussllon
It took the other firefighters about 45 minutes to knock the fire down enough to get in to retrieve the victim. Using a thermal-imaging camera, they located him underneath a large section of sheet metal wall that had collapsed on him.
Update, Tuesday morning:
The fallen firefighter has been identified as Sebastien Couturier, age 33 and father of two children ages 6 and 8. His demise occurred on his birthday. His rank was caporal chef (senior corporal) and he was assigned to the CSP Mireuil station in La Rochelle.
Sebastien Couturier (Sud Ouest photo)
His partner is hospitalized in serious condition with burns to his face.
The fire which began around 3 am (local time) was attacked by 60 firefighters and was largely extinguished by 7 am.
France3 TV has a video report from the fireground HERE.
Sud Ouest / Cottin & Chauveau
Additonal sources:
SDIS 17 WEBSITE (the responding fire department).
Sud Ouest STORY. (includes a good photo gallery)
Sud Ouest / Cottin & Chauveau
Hat tip: Laurence D. – the Fireball for assistance.
AN AMBULANCE IN NASHUA, NEW HAMPSHIRE, COLLIDED with a car that was merging from an exit ramp and may have been trying to cut across the lane. The Milford Ambulance was transporting a patient to the hospital with it’s lights and siren activated when it struck the automobile in the side.
WMUR-TV
The two medics were transported for minor injuries, but the man driving the car suffered serious, yet non-life-threatening injuries. The patient was not injured as a result of the crash.
THE SMALL COMMUNITY OF CUMMINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS, (Population 1,500) was rocked Sunday morning when they awoke to see the community Congregational Church in full blaze.
Worthington FD photo
The house of worship has been an anchor in the area since 1840 when it was built and was a central part of the town’s life. Whatever the cause of the fire, once it started it took off through the aged-wood structure.
photo by Carol Lollis
WWLP-TV Ch. 22 Springfield has some on-the-scene footage of the fire in this video report:
The alarm was received in an unusual manner. One of the town residents looked out their window and saw the flames reflected on the windows of a neighbor’s car. Thinking that the car was on fire, they called it in as a car fire and the FD responded accordingly. They immediately saw what was happening and upgraded the response.
The church’s minister, Stephen Philbrick told the Daily Hampshire Gazette:
By the time he got there, firefighters were already on the scene. Philbrick said it was hard to tell where the snow stopped and the piles of white foam and fire retardant sprayed by firefighters began.
“It was like whipped cream up to your ankles,” Philbrick said. “I don’t know if it was water or tears that ran down the hill and began to freeze.”
Read the complete, excellent report from the Gazette HERE, including the story of the “healing quilt.”
Currently the fire is not considered to be suspicious, but the State Fire Marshal office is conducting an investigation into the cause.
It apppears that fire and ambulance departments aren’t the only ones who are having difficulty screening applicants. Dave Statter at STATter911 has a very bizarre story this morning about a small-town police captain who showed up at a VFD banquet, uninvited and drunk. Security cameras show him outside stealing a FD command car and driving away in it. I suppose we should refer to him as a “former police captain,” now. Read Dave’s entire article about this weird situation HERE and learn from it.
There is one item in the article that I’d like to point out: On a Web page created on the popular social networking Web site LinkedIn, Mosher lists himself as a “volunteer operations captain” with Prince William County fire department, but sources say he has not been an active volunteer firefighter for at least nine years.
I point that out because it is a good illustration of why most private corporations are now utilizing internet searches as part of their background investigations into both new-hire applicants and periodic reviews of the upper-level managers/officers. One of the common personality traits of dubious characters is their desire to be noticed on a universal level and they do that by either inventing things about themselves or bragging about some questionable activities they have been engaged in. If this clown’s PD had run a routine check on him, including a social media search, they would have come across that claim and his basic lack of honesty would have been exposed.
It’s a shame that it has come to this, but as our cultural integrity continues to decline, we have to do things we never had to before. Will organizations routinely do similar searches of all their members eventually? Or perhaps only people applying for promotion? How about anybody who is already in a position of leadership or influence? There is no privacy issue here. Once you post something online for the world to see, anybody in the world is allowed to look at it.
Let me switch focus here and mention something that has always been a pet peeve of mine. I’m referring to the practice of some people wearing sunglasses when they are performing a function where their use creates a distracting impression. A couple of examples: Take a look anytime you see a group of uniformed firefighters participating in a parade and marching down the street. There will always be a significant number of them wearing sunglasses and, to me that destroys the whole image of a positive apperance and uniformity. This is especially egregious when the group is particularly demanding of attention like a pipe band is. It’s a “fingernails on the blackboard” effect on me when I see a handful of marchers wearing their shades. It disrupts the entire visual effect.
The other example that brought this to mind was exposed in a video that we posted yesterday that showed an engine company pulling a hand line. It was obviously staged for the camera crew and presented as a “drill.” But the nozzleman was not only missing his SCBA in the video, but he was wearing sunglasses. Why? Why did he have them on in the first place? It completely trivialized the importance of the whole evolution. That bugs me!
We’d better take our shades off now and get this equipment checked out. We’re running late this morning and I have to get the coffee started. See you back in the day room.
IT HAS ONLY RECENTLY BEEN REVEALED that last month the FDNY has pulled the 35 volunteer ambulance squads in the city from its 9-1-1 dispatch system. In a memo to the dispatchers, a high-ranking EMS chief said that the volunteers “are no longer required” to help cover the calls sent out for emergency medical services.
The volunteer squads operate about 50 ambulances, mostly in Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island. They usually respond to more than 10,000 EMS calls a year, albeit most of them are not dispatched directly from the 9-1-1 center. When the city is overloaded, or sees a response delay, they sometimes call the vol. units on a phone line or the mutual-aid radio frequency. Most of the squads have their own emergency phone number and the citizens in their territory call them directly.
Flatlands Volunteer Ambulance Corps (Brooklyn) website photo
The medics who ride the units all have the same qualifications and certifications that any other medic units have. Many of the volunteers, in fact, are off-duty FDNY medics.
The New York Post has the full story on this recent revelation HERE.
The local city council members were caught unawares of this new policy and are already beginning to plan hearings on the reason for this puzzling decision. The volunteer squads are not only saving the city a lot of money, but they are seriously reducing response times in many instances.
Here are some selected websites for a few of the NYC volunteer ambulance squads:
A MAJOR FIRE RIPPED THROUGH A HOOVER, ALABAMA, MOTEL Saturday night leaving at least 4 people dead.
Birmingham News
The fire started shortly after 8 pm Saturday in a Days Inn hotel and officials are reporting that all four victims were trapped in the same room. Despite the FF”s efforts to search as many rooms as they could before the wing became untenable, this party was not found until after the fire had been knocked down.
A careful search of all the units was being conducted this mornng as the investigation began on the cause and point of origin. The victims’ identities are being withheld currently. Approximately 2/3 of the hotel was destroyed by the fire.
The Birmingham News has the story and a photo gallery HERE.
THE RENO, NEVADA, CITY COUNCIL DECIDED TO help make up for their budget deficit by eliminating some front-line firefighter positions. The order went out to implement the cuts immediately and on Friday Reno Fire Chief Tim Alameda personally delivered the bad news to 16 department employees, 2 civilian clerks, 2 fire prevention officers and 12 field firefighters.
While this type of activity is happening in more than a few FD’s these days, the Reno FD is stepping up and making sure that the taxpayers are made aware of what is happening. Chief Alameda met with local tv news crew from KOLO-TV and explained what is occurring and the station filed this VIDEO REPORT.
Furthermore, the rank-and-file and the union Local are making sure that the taxpayers are being informed of just how the City Council’s decision is impacting their safety and response times with this aggresive informational campaign:
Subtle pressure from the grass roots (the citizens) is often the best way to get the politicians’ attention.
Wireless telephony sprang back into the news again on Friday when both Verizon Wireless and AT&T announced some pretty hefty price drops in monthly calling plan prices. Not only is competition fierce, but industrial espionage is apparently alive and well in the cellphone industry because the both “just happened to” announce their price cuts on the same day.
The price cuts apply to their unlimited calling plans and are a hefty 30% drop from the current rates. Beginning tomorrow – Monday – the rate for unlimited talk will drop from $100 a month to $70, and in Verizon’s case, unlimited talk and texting comes down to $100 from $120. Personally, I don’t understand why people feel that texting privileges are worth and extra $20 a month, but apparently enough of them do, so the extra charge is still tacked on. I believe that before too long, the texting fees will be wrapped into the basic calling plans.
But getting back to this new pricing, it is obvious that they are going all-out in competing for the smartphone customer base. And that makes sense because the universe of data exchange is moving rapidly in that direction. While these plans include unlimited internet access, Verizon is still going to charge an extra $10 mo. for the ability to download multimedia such as videos. I wouldn’t be surprised to see that one melt away within six months, too. So, if you haven’t already, start deciding on which is your favorite now – iPhone or Droid – and watch for more price cuts. They’ll keep coming down until everybody has signed up. The price-cutting will take another plunge when Google’s Nexus One starts making a dent in their sales.
All of this headlong move to advanced wireless communications has revived another digital feature that has been dormant lately. That is the concept of a single phone number for all of your phones and devices that you can take with you wherever you live or travel through. The ability to do this exists now, and it can be easily implemented. But…… There is often a “but.” This number portability is strongly opposed by the telephone companies, especially the traditional land-line services. You see, they control the numbers now with the legality of “owning” the numbers that they issue. Number portability removes one more facet of service that keeps customers from drifting to competing companies.
But once this concept is finally adapted, not only will you be able to connect all of your phones to a sole number, making it easier to receive calls, but you can use that same number for all of you internet log-ins, such as your Facebook account or your Yahoo! email log-in number. Just think, no more lists of 40 passwords to keep track of…..just that one number that belongs to you and you only, world-wide. If you’re interested in reading more about this technology that is already to go, read THIS ARTICLE that begins with an interesting history of the “phone number” and then goes on to explain how we are able to dial anywhere in the world now and how we will be incorporating our personal phone number into all of our log-ins.
Catch up on that while we’re waiting for the big Sunday breakfast. Right now, though, let’s get this equipment checked out. I’ll check with cook and get more coffee started. See you back in the day room.
NO? WELL HOW ABOUT MACARONI AND CHEESE ICE CREAM? For most people, Rum-and-Raisin would be a better choice. These are just a few of the wide variety of ice cream flavors that are available at the Coromoto Ice Cream Parlor in Merita, Venezuela. Coromoto, you see, is officially recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as offering more flavors of ice cream than any other shop in the world – 860 in all.
You read that right, eight-hundred and sixty flavors. Of course, you don’t get to choose from that many on any given day, but as they rotate the selections each day, choosing flavors according to the season, they will offer that many over the course of a year.
Each day there are approximately 60 flavors available for anxious customers, including beef flavor which is a big hit any day. Naturally there are the traditional flavors, but when you go to a place like Coromoto, you don’t waste your opportunity on strawberry. Not when can choose from Tomato, or Mushrooms in Wine, or Cream of Crab. Nosiree. So far, I haven’t found out what I’m Sorry, Darling is supposed to taste like, but I’m sure it’s an adventure.
photo by Edmundito
Coromoto was established thirty years ago in 1980 and has become a major tourist stop along with their legion of local customers. Here’s a locally-made video advertisement that displays the shop quite well:
BBC News has a good article that describes the place and tells you about their operation HERE.
A VACANT HOUSE IN PROSPECT HEIGHTS, ILLINOIS, was the scene of a suspicious fire early this morning. The fire itself wasn’t particularly noteworthy, but Chicagoland’s ace fire photographer Larry Shapiro was on the scene and it’s always worth taking a few minutes of your time to view his unique photos of any incident. His “firefighters at work” shots are always tops.
He has posted an 87-image gallery from this incident HERE.
THAT’S WHAT THE FIRE CHIEF HAS CHARGED, ANYWAY. On Thursday afternoon, a Newton Falls, Ohio, Fire Department ambulance was dispatched on an emergency call to the farthest reaches of their district. Just one block from the station, however, they came across a car that was stopped in the middle of an intersection and blocking them from continuing.
At about that time, the firefighters recognized that the car was being driven by the town’s mayor, Pat Layshock. According to the ambulance’s driver, they motioned several times for hizzoner to move the car out of the way, but he refused to move. Instead, after about 30 seconds or a little more, the mayor called out an obscenity to them before speeding off in his car.
Mayor Layshock (WYTV)
By the mayor’s account, he said that he stopped in the intersection because that’s what “you’re suppose to do for an emergency vehicle.” He said that he couldn’t go anywhere because the ambulance didn’t have it’s turn signal on and he didn’t know which way the ambulance wanted to go.
When the ambulance returned from their call, they reported the incident to their chief, Fire Chief Richard Bauman. The chief then met with the police chief for advice on how to proceed, and after conferring with the town’s attorney Chief Bauman filed charges against the mayor with the Trumbull County Sheriff.
In this video report from WYTV Ch. 33 Youngstown, the sheriff sounds a little miffed over being dragged into the affair:
The Newton Falls prosecutor’s office will make the decision on whether to press charges against the mayor.
The Warren Tribune Chronicle has the details of the STORY HERE.
POLICE IN PONCA CITY, OKLAHOMA, HAVE TAKEN a 9-yr.-old boy into custody and charged him with arson. They say that he and another boy broke into a vacant house and set it on fire. There is no information on whether the other boy has been found yet.
He is being held until the authorities can find a state facility that can take him.
One of our readers, David J. sent me an email Thursday telling me that California Governor Schwarzenegger had recently vetoed a bill passed by the state legislature that would effectively ban the so-called novelty lighters. I have to be honest and admit that I was not familiar with the issue and really wasn’t quite sure what a novelty lighter is. I just haven’t been following the controversy.
But people who are involved in, and interested in fire prevention activities are certainly following this topic. In fact, there is a growing movement to outlaw the things entirely and some states have passed statutes that make it illegal to manufacture or sell them. The manufacturing clause is just a way of preventing such plants from starting up, because they are currently being made by the millions in …. you guessed it … China.
David tells me that the legislative movement began in localities with several cities and towns in Arkansas and California banning the sales of them, and then a few states have joined in – perhaps Maine and Tennessee, for example – by outlawing them on a statewide basis. Already, many state fire marshal agencies have been actively informing the citizens about the undesirability of these “toys” and are mounting aggressive campaigns to illustrate the dangers. As an example, the New York State Office of Fire Prevention and Control ran this 30-second PSA on the television stations two years ago:
Their state put new regulations into effect this past June and that webpage that I linked to above explains the ordinance along with this legal definition of what a novelty/toylike lighter is:
Novelty lighter is a lighter that has misleading design, audio effects or visual effects, or has other features that may make the lighter appealing or attractive to a child less than 10 years of age.
Misleading design means a lighter has a shape that resembles or imitates an object other than a lighter.
Audio effects include music, animal sounds and whistles, buzzers, beepers or other noises not related to the flame-producing function of the lighter.
Visual effects include flashing lights, color-changing lights and changing images.
In that same section of their website they have THIS PAGE that has photos of scores of examples of these “toys” like these:
How do you like that dalmation wearing the fire helmet?
So now I’m coming up to speed on the problem. But I’d like to know what else is being done around the U. S. and Canada to address the issue, especially any laws being put in place. So send me an email telling me what’s going on in your area and I’ll update everybody on occasion with your information so that we can all see what’s going on with this.
Meanwhile, Inquiring Minds want to know why Ahnold vetoed California’s law. Can anybody tell us?
Well, we’d better get this equipment checked out now. I need to get some more coffee started, too. See you back in the day room.
Update notice: I’ve just added a 2nd video to yesterday’s posting about the fire in Alton, Illinois, (HERE) that includes an update and some more information about the old hotel’s history that you might find interesting.
* STATter911 has a terrific video along with the story on a rowhouse fire this morning in Baltimore that injured 5 firefighters when a flashover rolled out the front door HERE.
* Medic999 has an interesting concept that he calls Guest Posting. People who write well and have something interesting to say, but don’t have a blog of their own to post it on, have the opportunity to give it a shot on Mark’s site. Check out the most recent guest post HERE.
* With all the attention on the USAR teams in Haiti, Command Safety offers a concise explanation of what they are, how they operate and a brief history of how the USAR concept was developed HERE.
WE HAVE TO ADMIT THAT WE’RE PUZZLED on this one. Can somebody please tell us just what this Italian firefighter is doing, or saying here? Post your answers in the Comments section.
A CINCINNATI ENGINE COMPANY AND A MEDIC unit responded Thursday afternoon for a medical call. When they arrived on the scene, a man came out of the house and began acting very strangely and not cooperating with the medics’ attempt to evaluate him.
When he continued his act, they called the police for assistance. While they were waiting for PD, the man jumped into the cab of the fire engine, locked the doors and tried to drive away. He revved up the engine several times, but didn’t know the sequence to put the truck in gear. The police arrived quickly and got him out of the cab and into the handcuffs.
WLWT-TV image
Makhtar Fall, 23, was taken to a hospital psychiatric ward for evaluation and then transferred to jail where he has been charged with felony theft along with resisting arrest. Fall has been arrested several times in the past five years for an assortment of petty crimes.
A FLOOR COLLAPSED WEDNESDAY NIGHT IN A VAXJO, SWEDEN, building that houses a Weight Watchers clinic after everybody gathered in the room to get on the scales to see how much weight they had lost.
Not enough, it seems. One of the dieters told the Smalandsposten newspaper: “We suddenly heard a huge thud; we almost thought it was an earthquake and everything flew up in the air. The floor collapsed in one corner of the room and along the walls.” Immediately the floor started failing in other parts of the room and before long the entire floor had fallen into the lower level. The dedicated Watchers managed to scamper out of the room to safety before it all fell in, however.
They also managed to grab the scales and take them along where they set them up in the hallway just outside the room and continued their weigh-in. This time the floor held.
The cause of the collapse is still under investigation, but according to the clinic’s director, they’ll have to find another premises.
Update, Saturday morning: Another video added that has an update and tells more about the building’s history. Scroll down.
ALTON, ILLINOIS, IS ONE OF THE OLDER PORT CITIES along the Mississippi River that was a key point during the haydays of riverboat traffic. One of the old neighborhoods that rose on one of the many hills was the home to many of the town’s wealthy as well as the Mansion House, a hotel built around 1834.
Last night (Thursday) at 7 pm Central a fire began that eventually led to the destruction of the city’s vintage landmark. The building was currently partitioned into four apartment units and while all of the residents escaped without injury, one of them “barely made it out.”
Telegraph photo
The Alton Telegraph reports from the fire scene:
“We’ve got all hands at this two-alarm fire,” Fire Chief Greg Bock said shortly before 9:30 p.m. “The building is going to be a total loss. The fire has come through the roof. We’re protecting exposures.
“We’ve been in a defensive mode for about an hour now,” he said. “Most of the active fire is knocked down, and we’re trying to get to the remaining fire now.”
Firefighters conducted a search of the three-story building and determined nobody else was inside. A short time later, about 7:40 p.m., the order was given to evacuate the building.
“All the guys on duty fought a very valiant fight trying to put this thing out,” Bock said. “They did a pretty extensive search and had everybody accounted for. They were fighting fire from the top to the bottom from the time we got here until we couldn’t do anything else.”
The Telegraph has the full story and some additional history of the building HERE.
KTVI-TV Ch. 2 St. Louis has this report from the scene:
ADDITIONAL USAR TASK FORCE TEAMS have been activated with some of them already in transit to the disaster area. The main airport at Port au Prince has been secured by the U. S. military, following the invitation and approval of the Haitian government, and necessary repairs have been made to allow for the landing of the jumbo air freighters that will be bringing in disaster supplies and equipment from around the world.
Here in the U. S. the following USAR’s have been added to the activation list following the deployment of Virginia Task Force 1, Florida Task Forces 1 and 2, and California Task Force 2:
Virginia Task Force 2
California Task Forces 5 and 7
Ohio Task Force 1
New York Task Force 1
Texas Task Force 1
Tennessee Task Force 1
WREG-TV has this report on the Tennesse unit from Memphis’ preparation:
KRIV-TV has this report on the Texas Task Force 1 from Houston having to wait for an available aircraft to transport them:
For the first time in its 25-yr. existence, the Fairfax County, Virginia, team has dispatched a second unit to supplement the initial force. WUSA-TV has this video report on the additional dispatch:
Several Canadian USAR teams are on standby awaiting clearance orders from the Canadian government.
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