FALL RIVER, MASSACHUSETTS, FIREFIGHTERS RESPONDED to a triple-decker around 4 am this morning (Friday) and found fire showing on the top floor. They were able to rescue a woman and a 4-yr.-old girl, but the toddler died at the hospital shortly after from her burn injuries.
Two firefighters were also injured, but they have been treated and released.
Channel 10 Providence has assembled some good clips of raw video:
This is still an ongoing event, so no further information is available yet. We will update the story when possible.
WFXT-TV Ch. 25 Boston also has some raw video documenting the fire spread inside the roof area:
If you’re planning on heading out to the shopping mall tomorrow, the retailing giant Sears is running a special 1-day promotion where they are giving a 10% discount on almost everything in the store (but not home appliances) to firefighters, police, teachers, military and hospital workers. According to a press release, they say it’s being honored at “select stores,” which means that for whatever reason some of them won’t be honoring the program.
If you want to find out more, they have a special webpage here: http://www.sears.com/shc/s/dap_10153_12605_DAP_Salute+to+Heroes where you can find out the rules and print out your savings coupons. Hopefully some of you will be able to take advantage of this nice discount. I see that power mowers are included, too.
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It’s a really strange event going on in northern Europe with this spreading cloud of volcanic ash drifting over the continent. In most cases, it wouldn’t be a problem other than a filtering of sunshine and creating some strange atmospheric effects. I recall about 18 or 20 years ago when a volcano in the Philipines blew its top (I think its name was spelled Pinatubo, or something like that) and it sent untold billions of tons of ash into the atmosphere. A couple of weeks later here in North America we had a few days where the sun was a nice ruby color. Very strange.
But this cloud is hanging low and has completely shut down air travel throughout all of Europe. I’m sure you have seen some news reports by now about the many thousands of stranded air passengers camped out around the globe. One of them is our colleague Mark Glencorse, publisher of the Medic999 blog and co-conspirator with The Happy Medic in the Chronicles of EMS video series. Mark and Justin were both in Denver all week for a conference with their sponsor Zoll, but when it came time for Mark to fly back home to the UK…..Buzzzz.
The ash zone will be constantly expanding throughout the day.
It was announced today that the continental air travel will be suspended again today with about 17,000 flights cancelled. The airport in Frankfurt set up 1,000 cots for stranded passengers and all of them were immediately put into use. What a mess, eh?
Well, we’d better make sure we don’t have a mess today and get this equipment checked out. I need to get more coffee started, so I’ll take care of that. We’ll meet back in the day room in a few minutes.
WEDNESDAY MORNING A FIRE SWEPT THROUGH THE WORKSHOPS of Ken Soderbeck, one of the nation’s leading antique fire apparatus restorers.
Citizen Patriot / Scott Park photo
Soderbeck’s business, Hand in Hand Restoration is located in Jackson, Michigan, and is sought out by fire memorabilia collectors world-wide. He not only repairs and restores early hand carts and horse-drawn engines, but he works on ancillary items like lanterns and extinguishers along with quality gold leaf decorating and artwork.
Ken Soderbeck at a public demonstration of
gold leaf artitstry. (Larry Shapiro photo)
The fire was discovered when the building’s alarm system sent a signal to dispatch around 2 am. The first units reported “a lot of smoke” and tried to enter the building through the rear, but as they were entering the ceiling collapsed on them and they had to retreat back outside. The Jackson Citizen Patriot tells:
….the fire started in the area of a wall between Soderbeck’s first-floor upholstery room where he had industrial sewing machines, and a darkroom for developing photographs. Late Wednesday morning, there was a hole in the roof above the apparent ignition point, and the floor in the upholstery room completely collapsed into the basement below.
In the basement, Soderbeck said there were four horse-drawn fire rigs people had hired him to restore. All of them date to the late 1800s or early 1900s. He thought they may be OK.
Antique lanterns were black from smoke and flames, which disintegrated old fire helmets, and burned written records and photographic negatives of fire trucks from generations ago. (The fire) wrecked the building where he did his work and damaged much of the contents — decades-old collections of firefighting tools and equipment.
The fire did not extend to two other buildings that he uses in the complex. The Citizen Patriot also reported that Soderbeck said that he does not have insurance.
Read the full story HERE.
Hand in Hand Restoration WEBSITE.
Some news-making items on other fire/ems blogs and news sites today:
* FireNews.net has a disturbing update to last month’s story (HERE) about two Blowing Rock, North Carolina, volunteers who died when their car struck another car head-on. Investigators have disclosed that they were drag-racing another car of vols. who failed to stop at the accident to render aid. Read the update HERE.
* STATter911 has an interesting story about a 9-1-1 dispatcher who took a call reporting a house on fire. What makes it unique is that the call came from his wife and it was his house that was burning. Read what happened next HERE.
* Not something that we usually respond to, but 9-1-1 always gets plenty of calls when things like this happen: CNN is reporting on a massive fireball that lit up the skies over several Midwestern states last night. It was visible for 15 minutes and they have posted this video of the phenomenon:
* The Ambulance Driver Files has posted one of those academically popular “Critical Decision” charts that should be place in the day room of every station. CLICK HERE to check it out (and steal the chart for your kitchen wall).
IN SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, AN AMBULANCE DRIVER is on trial charged with murdering his wife. During the opening arguments on Tuesday, the prosecuter told the court that he was a husband who described his wife to friends as “pig ugly” but “filthy rich” and took her camping just so he could throw her off a cliff.
Ambulance driver Des Campbell, 52, has pleaded not guilty to the 2005 murder of his wife, 49-year-old Janet Fisicaro.
Fisicaro’s death came just six months after the wedding and allegedly after he had bilked her of most of her savings. The camping spot was just metres from the sheer drop from which he said she fell.
On the day of the funeral, which Campbell did not attend, he first renewed his subscription to an Internet dating site and then left on holiday with one of his three girlfriends.
Janet Fiscaro (l.) and Des Campbell
“The crown case is that the accused, Des Campbell, never had any real intention of living a proper, normal, long-term family life with Janet Campbell,” the prosecutor said. “The crown alleges the motive for this killing was sheer greed for money.”
Despite his denials originally, it was brought out that Campbell and Fisicaro were secretly married in September 2004. Her relatives had been trying to dissuade her from having a serious relationship with Campbell because of his reputed record of past associations. Referring to that episode, the Crown Prosecutor alleged Campbell began seeing a woman, June Ingham in 2001 when he found out she was due to receive more than £100,000 in a family settlement. Ingham moved to Australia from the UK and bought Campbell a Lotus sports car and a house, which he later sold after breaking up with her by sending her a text message.
In Tuesday’s testimony, an acquaintance of Campbell’s, Colin Sander said that after hearing that the couple had become engaged, he approached Campbell to congratulate him, but Campbell refused to shake his hand and appeared to be “edgy.”
“I went up to Des and congratulated him on his engagement,” Sander testified. “Des said he’s not engaged, he would never be engaged to Janet and if she keeps stalking him he’s going to put an AVO on the bitch.”
In testimony continuing Wednesday, Campbell’s former sister-in-law, Toni Sanderson told the jury that Campbell said “he couldn’t bring himself to shag her”, despite the fact she was “loaded” and had promised to buy him a car.
The trial is continuing today.
Digital Journal has more from the early days of the trial HERE.
WHEN 6-FT. 4-IN. PERFORMANCE ARTIST KALI BURNS was awakened last Thursday and told that his home was threatened by a house fire directly behind him, his first thought was to don his gorilla costume before he fled.
The fire in a beach house in Hampton, New Hampshire, was the 2nd fire in two days in the house but neither or them are considered to be suspicious. While the circumstances of the same house burning twice is newsworthy itself, it was Burns’ attendance on the fireground that generated the most attention.
Firefighters wrap up at the scene of a fire at 15 M. St. where a home was gutted by two fires this morning.
Right, Wayne McGowen, who was sleeping in the basement of the house when it caught fire, watches firefighters at the scene along with neighbor Kali Burns, who was dressed as a gorilla.
(Manchester Union-Leader / Schreiber).
He tells people that he saw a lot of children watching the fire and they “looked like they were ‘down’,” so he started cavorting around to cheer them up. His antics seemed to have worked, but a lot of people are questioning the propriety of his making light of a serious event where people’s property is being destroyed. The Manchester Union-Leader reports:
Last week was the first time he wore the suit to a fire. But after boosting the spirits of the children and other spectators who watched the fire, Burns said he plans to show up at more fire scenes.
However, he said he’ll make sure not to interfere with firefighters.
“I’ll wait until after the fire’s out,” he said, “and then I’ll put it on.”
WFXT-TV Ch. 25 Boston has also been following the story and filed this video report:
One of the joys of participating in volunteer fire department activities is going to the various fire department parades in the Spring and Summer months. Everybody gets their best engine all shined up and the supply line re-loaded so that it’s perfect and you join the parade through town, hopefully close to one of the marching bands. The firefighters all put on a good show, and the citizens in turn provide a good post-parade party for the firefighters. Lots of fun for all.
Anybody in the Mid-Atlantic region who has ever been either a vollie or a member of their high school’s marching band, is very well familiar with one of the country’s largest fireman’s parades which is held in Winchester, Virginia. The annual Apple Blossom Festival, a 6-day event that is held at the end of April is, to put it mildly, a very big deal. The little city at the northern end of the Blue Ridge Mountains has been holding the festival for more than 80 years and early on, they built it into a grand event. For several decades they were noted for having world-renowned entertainers appearing as the parade Grand Marshal on Saturday afternoon. We’re talking about performers like Bob Hope and others equally accomplished. And it seemed like every high school from Pennsylvania to Georgia had their band in the parade. Well, maybe not every school, but a couple hundred of them from as far as 300 miles away would be there.
The night before, on Friday they present the fire engine parade and since they already have all those bands in town, they fill it up with scores of fire apparatus and marching bands and that really kicks off the weekend party celebrating what used to be Winchester’s primary industry, apple-growing. This week the Festival committee publicly announced that this year’s Grand Marshal will be actor and Emergency! star Randolph Mantooth. From their press release:
Festival Officials have tried to bring Randy Mantooth to the Festival for many years; but, from the late 1980s on, he found constant work with long-term acting roles on the well-known show “The City”; and, in an incredible array of soap operas: “Loving”, “As the World Turns”, “General Hospital” and “One Life to Live.” In actual case, Randy was busy again this year; but, persistence finally paid off; and, Festival President, Elaine Aikens, was thrilled to hear from her Celebrities Department that he had been able to re-arrange his schedule to make the trip to Winchester. His appearance, fittingly, is sponsored by GearClean, a full-service professional cleaning company that specializes in repair, inspection, and cleaning services for firefighter turnout gear.
One of my more interesting memories relating to fire engine parades has to do with the time that another FF and myself decided, after the night parade, to visit the hotel where the 20 or 30 Fesitival Princesses were being housed. My tale involves a woman whose day job was apparently “prison guard” and a stairwell where all the doors are locked from the inside. It does have a hilarious ending, but I’ll have to tell you in person because it would be wise to not commit it to the permanent archives of the internet.
EARLY WEDNESDAY MORNING, THE CREW MANNING THE PUMPER of the Good Intent Fire Company in Llewellyn, Pennsylvania, were returning to quarters following a 1 am call for an auto accident when they spotted flames coming from an industrial building.
Republican Herald / Barrett photo
It turned out to be the warehouse for Cressona Textiles, a rag manufacturer. After calling in the alarm, they were joined by companies from several neighboring departments and set up a containment operation. The low water supply in the area mandated a drafting operation from the nearby Schuylkill River.
WNEP-TV Ch. 16 filed this brief home video of the crews working the fire:
The warehouse that was filled with rags and linens was completely destroyed. A state fire marshal was expected to arrive on the scene today to begin an investigation into the cause.
THE SMALL CITY WILMINGTON, OHIO, HAS HAD to slash its budget and lay off dozens of city employees. This week they have let go of four of their full-time firefighters and all 11 of their part-time FF’s, decimating the FD from 33 to 18 uniformed firefighters. Wilmington FD is the only paid department in Clinton County and has primary responsibility for 120 sq. mi. of territory.
Wilmington FD photo
The city of 12,000 took a major hit last year when international delivery carrier DHL Express relocated its hub operations from the Wilmington Air Park to the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. That move drained 8,000 jobs from the rural community, leading the city to slash all agencies across the board. The county supervisors “sacrificed” themselves by taking a 10% pay cut while sending many city employees to the unemployment office.
WKRC-TV Ch. 12 Cincinnati filed this video report on the WFD’s change in fortune:
Matt Brown of the Wilmington Firefighters Union Local told WLWT.com that the layoffs cut the city’s firefighting staff in half. But Raizk said public safety was not at risk. “Not only has our revenue diminished, but also the demand for our services, including safety services,” Raizk said.Laid-off firefighter Patrick McCall said he received an award for heroism from the Shriners and the city of Wilmington for pulling a handicapped man out of a burning building just four weeks ago. Now the same city that honored him, has told him he’s out of a job.
”(I was) really heartbroken. (I) didn’t know really what to think, what to feel — sad,” McCall said.
THE BORDER TOWN OF NOGALES, ARIZONA (pop. 21,000), was threatened with a near-conflagration Tuesday when a house fire started spreading through the neighborhood.
KGUN-TV
When the Nogales FD arrived on the scene they found several houses on fire already. As the fire was building, a propane tank exploded accelerating the blaze as several fire departments from miles away were called in on mutual aid.
In a rare occurrence, the Bomberos Nogales from across the border in Mexico responded to assist in the successful effort to contain the fires. At least six homes were damaged or destroyed in the block directly across the street from the Mexican Consulate building. The Consulate’s offices were evacuated as a precaution, but they did not suffer any damages.
KGUN-TV Ch. 9 Tuscon has a video report HERE.
KOLD-TV Ch. 13 has more video including eyewitness interviews HERE.
It is believed that this was the worst fire in Nogales in modern times.
Story collated from several new sources by Firegeezer.
Over the course of the past six months, we’ve been in an adjustment period as the FireEMS Blogs network has come together and progressed to become a major anchor point in the emergency services blogosphere. The folks at Firegeezer have been both pleased and honored to have been partners with FireEMS Blogs from the beginning and I believe that collaboration has benefited you, our loyal readers.
At the JEMS EMS Expo last month, several of the FireEMS Bloggers attended to get together and visit with each other as well as the visitors to the Expo. I was only there on Saturday of the event, but the night before at a get-together FossilMedic himself, Mike Ward carried the Firegeezer banner for us and was interviewed by Chris Hebert of Go>Forward Media, our sponsor in all this blog organization:
You can tell that Mike’s an old hand at the video-appearance game. If you want to view some other clips taken that night, just CLICK HERE and you will find some thumbnail links over on the right-hand side that will activate more videos.
As we’ve grown within the FireEMS family, I’ve been posting the occasional primer on how best to navigate around the FireEMS Bogs website, so I won’t be redundant and do it again here today, but I would like to point out the quickest way to browse through the blog gathering. Naturally, the first place you go each day is here, the Firegeezer home page to get caught up on what we’re talking about in the Digital Day Room. Then, after you’ve digested our latest postings (and sent recommended links to all your buddies), scroll up to the top of the webpage where our banner is placed. Right above it on the left side you will see the FireEMS Blogs logo….
That is also a button that you can click on and it takes you directly into the family room where you can browse through the 26 blogs that are currently featured. Look around and check out the “Hot Bloggers” as well as the dynamic listing of all the headlines of the most recent postings with links directly to them. There is plenty of good information there to keep you well informed and entertained, so get in the habit of checking it out each time you come online to keep up with the “latest.”
Right now, though, we have to check out this equipment. So let’s get started with that while I go get some more coffee going. See you back in the day room in a little while.
A SCHOOL IN CLAYES SOUS BOIS, FRANCE, WAS largely destroyed in a spectacular fire early Saturday morning. It has been determined that it was the work of an arsonist.
SDIS78
The Victor Hugo elementary school served about 194 students who will be divided among other schools in the region. The fire started around 3 am and was handled by the local FD, SDIS78 who had 60 firefighters, 4 engines and 2 tower ladders on the scene. They were able to save the principal’s offices and the room where all the student records were stored, but most of the top floor and a portion of the ground floor including four classrooms was lost.
SDIS78
Whereas many fire departments have their own photographers now, the SDIS78 is unique in that it has its own television station. You can view their very professional video taken at this fire HERE on their online tv website. They also have a 12-image photo gallery HERE.
La Parisienne has five short, home videos HERE. They also have the full story and more pics HERE.
FDNY firefighters doing a full-building search yesterday located the body of a man on the top floor of one of the buildings that burned in Chinatown Sunday night. STATter911 has this update as well as the link to his complete fire coverage earlier in today’s Quick Takes HERE.
There is also an update from TheBravest.com that has more good photos and updated information HERE.
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The landslide that led to yesterday’s fatal train wreck in Balzano Province, Italy, (Firegeezer report HERE) has been confirmed to have been caused by a broken irrigation pipe that washed out the lower layers of ground at the hillside. A 15-meter swath of muddy land slid down onto the tracks at 9:01 am just as the train was entering the same stretch of rail. No further deaths have been reported beyond the nine announced yesterday.
la Republica
La Repubblica has a good 25-image photo gallery taken after the rescue effort had concluded showing the area around the entrapped train HERE.
YouReporter also has some raw video taken of the beginning of the recovery efforts after the rescue operations were finished:
THIS PAST THURSDAY, ON APRIL 8 TWO TRUCKS collided on I-35 near Dallas, Texas, leaving both of them in flames and the cab of a tractor-trailer dangling off a bridge.
Take a look at the highway traffic camera video of the wreck first before we explain what happened. Watch at the top of the screen where you will see the tractor-trailer coming down the onramp leading onto the freeway where it collides with a dump truck:
Here is what happened: As the 18-wheeler is entering the freeway, there are two highway department trucks driving slowly along the right shoulder. One of them is a street sweeper and directly behind it is the dump truck that is serving as a barrier to protect the sweeper. As they meet the onramp, the dump truck darts over to the right to act as a buffer from the melding traffic, but he failed to see the tractor-trailer and drove right into its path.
The collision ruptured the diesel tank and ignited the fuel that in turn caught both trucks on fire. The 18-wheeler, carrying 20 tons of frozen chickens, careened out of control heading directly to the concrete guard rail and the edge of the bridge. Just a half-second before the cab hits the wall, the driver bailed out. He received some scratches and bruising, but no real injuries.
WFAA-TV has this video follow-up report with some later video showing the fire and a helicopter view of the wreck scene:
SPRING IS HERE AND THAT MEANS family barbecues will be picking up. Barbecued family season has kicked off too, with two incidents on Sunday, one in Minnesota and another in South Carolina:
A MOORHEAD, MINNESOTA, MAN IS DEAD AND A 12-yr.-old boy is hospitalized with severe burns after the boy used gasoline to try and start a charcoal grill Sunday night.
The resulting explosion set the boy’s clothes on fire and the sound alerted a neighbor. Dane Tvedt, 21, looked out his window to see what caused the ka-boom and, seeing the boy engulfed in flames, he ran next door to help. Just as Tvedt arrived at the burn site, he dropped dead from a sudden cardiac arrest as the boy ran inside to get into a shower to cool off his burns.
KXMB-TV Bismark has the video report:
The burn victim, Devan Vanbrunt was flown to a Fargo hospital and then later transferred to a burn unit in St. Paul. His burns are critical, but not considered to be life-threatening. Tvedt’s family say that he had no known medical problems and are puzzled as to the cause of his death.
IN GREENVILLE COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA, a man and his niece are both hospitalized after he poured gasoline onto a charcoal grill then tried to light it on Sunday evening. The explosive flash-over burned the 5-yr.-old girl and left the man with 3rd-degree burns over his upper body. Both were flown to the burn unit in Augusta, Georgia, where they remain today.
EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA HAS BEEN TAKING A HIT LATELY with several unrelated arrests of arsonists who are also volunteer firefighters. The unfortunate chain of apprehensions continued Monday following the arrest of Daniel Parsons, 19, of New Milford, a small town along I-81 near the New York border.
Parsons was arrested just hours after a devastating fire that destroyed a popular restaurant where he worked and two other businesses Sunday night. The fire was already beyond the capability of the FD when they arrived on the scene with Bingham’s Restaurant fully involved. Parsons, who worked as a dishwasher there, has allegedly confessed to starting the fire by lighting a pile of cardboard outside the building, then going to the firehouse to join in the response to the alarm. The Scranton Times-Tribune reports:
The fire also destroyed two adjacent businesses, Country Landmarks Real Estate and The Outdoorsman, a sporting goods store. More than 100 firefighters from 12 departments responded to the blaze, which began about 9:40 p.m., police said. Harford Fire Chief Rick Moser said the building was fully engulfed when the first firefighters arrived.
“When we rolled in it was through the roof and shooting out the windows,” Chief Moser said. There wasn’t much that could be done to save the building, Chief Moser said. The primary goal of the firefighters was defensive, to keep it from spreading, he said. In addition to the intense heat from the flames, Chief Moser said firefighters also had to deal with ammunition inside the sporting goods store set off by the fire. The exploding shells forced firefighters to keep their distance from that section of the building, he said.
Chief Moser said no one was in the building when the fire started, and no one was hurt while battling the flames.
WNEP-TV Ch. 16 Scranton filed this video report from the fireground Sunday night:
The restaurant was located by the Interstate interchange and was widely popular with travelers who especially prized their baked goods. Read the full story in the Times-TribuneHERE.
WNEP-TV image
Parsons was a probationary member of the New Milford VFD who had joined the department six months ago. Chief Moser said that Parsons responded to the fire with the tanker.
Am I alone in this, or is anybody else fed up with all this squeeze-bottle stuff for food items? And not just the squeeze-bottles, but useless plastic containers in general. It struck me last night when I took the jar out of the pantry that I keep uncooked rice in. It’s a nice, large jar that I have used for this purpose for at least 25 years now, maybe even more. It’s the size, shape and color of those big jars that artificial creamer used to come in, so that’s probably how it started its long life.
But what I noticed about it is how it’s made….a nice, hefty glass container with a metal screw-on lid, substantial and durable. It got me to thinking about just how few useful containers are available to us anymore. Everything now comes in a throw-away plastic bottle or box, all useless crap. Even foodstuffs. Especially infuriating is this recent conversion of mayonnaise jars to squeeze bottles. A lot of purveyors have done this, I believe, in order to ensure that you throw away part of the stuff that you bought and then going out and purchasing a new one before you’ve used up your supply. Just think, if you have a million people throwing away an ounce of two of catsup every day, that leads to quite a sales increase.
Just as important to me, though, is the rapidly-declining availability of reusable containers that can be put into service for other uses than their original purpose. The first one of those to bite the dust was the wonderful cigar box. Those terrific compressed cardboard/wooden boxes that were paper lined and have a hinged lid on them. When I was just a lad, you could still go into the neighborhood drug store and ask the sales clerk for an empty cigar box. The glass sales case next to the cash register would be filled with a dozen or so varieties of cigars laid out nicely in their packing boxes that served as point-of-sale advertising as well, and if one was almost empty they would pull it out and replace it with a full one.
So few people smoke cigars anymore that you don’t see much of a counter display for them, but the cigar box started disappearing before the cigar smokers did. They began packaging them in packs of five made out of…..plastic. And the venerable cigar box was suddenly gone. Believe me, there’s nothing better for junk storage or oddball collections of bits of stuff than a cigar box. You can still get them at a pretty reasonable price on eBay and similar collectible sales sites.
The next good reusable container to leave us was the coffee can. They used to be squatty and of a larger diameter, but made to hold 1 lb. of ground coffee. It too, was a perfect size for thngs like odd hardwares such as screws and nails, and of course they were made of steel. You could use them forever. But for some unexplained reason that nobody could ever understand, the coffee companies, all at the same time, started packing their product in cans that were taller, but a much smaller diameter. Not nearly as useful, but still made of metal, even though you no longer got a lid with them. Naturally, even the 2nd-generation coffee can is gone now, replaced by the……you got it…..plastic cans that aren’t good for anything.
It’s the little things like that which are causing the gradual decline in the quality of life. With all this propaganda about recycling this and recycling that, there’s no better way of recycling anything than continuing to use it for the next 25 years. Why aren’t the environmentalists upset over that? It sure bothers me.
Now, since we’re recycling firetrucks and ambulances, we’d better get them checked out for the day. I’m going open the plastic can and get some more coffee started. See you back in the day room.
A COMMUTER TRAIN CARRYING 39 PASSENGERS IN ITALY was struck by a landslide as it passed through a mountain gorge Monday morning.
Alto Adige
The accident took place at 9 am local time near the town of Merano in Balzano Province close to the Austrian border. As the 3-car train was traveling on the Castelbello to Laces line, it was following a river gorge when the mountainside gave way and, tearing through a retaining wall, it hit the train knocking the lead car off the tracks and filling it with mud and rocks. (Note: some reports state that the slide occurred prior to the train’s arrival and it traveled into the mud pile.)
Note the litter has wheels designed to travel
on the rails. The victims were rolled down
the line to a location where the ambulances
were staged. (Alto Adige)
It was a stand of trees that saved the train from being swept down the hill into the River Adige below. The lead car was dangling over the edge of the cliff, held only by some trees, and the fire department had to rig cables to it in an attempt to make it safer to effect rescues. The firefighters were using shovels and their hands to dig through the mud inside the cars.
La Stampa
This raw video from YouReporter gives a good view of the train on the mountainside and shows firefighters shoveling the mud from one of the cars while looking for victims:
So far there are nine reported dead and 30 people injured, 7 seriously. Authorities say the death toll could rise as they find more victims.
A provincial government official said the landslide appeared to have been caused by an irrigation pipe that had burst a few days earlier, soaking the hillside above the track.
Alto Adige
There were 150 rescuers on the scene including 60 paramedics with 18 ambulances and 5 doctors. The nine known fatalities have been identified:
Michaela Kuenz Oberhofer, 18;
Elisabeth Peer, 22;
Julian Hartmann, 25;
Francesco Rieger, 67;
Judith Tappeiner, 20;
Rosina Ofner, 36;
Regina Tschoell, 73;
Micaela Zosch,34;
Franz Hohenegger,73.
The railway line in the province of Bolzano, opened in 2005, is considered one of the most modern tracks in the country.
As usual, playoff picture wasn’t completed until after the final games of the season were played Sunday. Chicago needed a win and two points to take over first-place in the West, but they lost in overtime to Detroit and came up one point short. Detroit’s win kept them ahead of Los Angeles who also won, edging Nashville for 7th place.
In the East, the New Jersey Devils beat Buffalo in their head-to-head match for 2nd place. And in the big game between New York Rangers and Philadelphia with whoever loses missing the playoffs, Philly won the match in an overtime shootout that also jumped them up to 7th place, knocking Montreal down to the 8th and final playoff slot.
Philadelphia Flyers goalie Brian Boucher celebrates after defeating
the New York Rangers in a shootout period. (Reuters/Shaffer photo)
On Saturday afternoon, the Boston Bruins came out with a determination that was unstoppable for the Carolina Hurricanes. The Bruins needed at least one point to secure a playoff spot. After a scoreless first period, Boston took a penalty right at the beginning of the 2nd period, putting Carolina on the power play. “Power” really doesn’t quite describe it because for the first time in the entire history of the National Hockey League, Boston scored 3 short-handed goals on the same power play. Boston went on to win the game 4-2 and picked up the #6 seed in the playoffs. Here’s a video re-play of the power play showing the three shorties:
Here are the matchups for the first round of the playoffs. All series matches are best-of-seven contests. Numbers in parentheses are final season standing with the higher-ranked teams holding the home-ice advantage in scheduling:
There is almost always a big upset in the first round of the playoffs, so let’s see who can predict this year’s Cinderella team. Give us your prediction for the first-round UPSET winner and post it in the Comments. You only get one guess, so make it your best shot. I’ll get it started by predicting Ottawa takes the Penguins in six games. What do you say?
A HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO, SCHOOL BUILDING burned down Sunday night in the small community of Elizabethtown, near Cincinnati. The century-old building was vacated by the school system two years ago after it was determined to be too costly to renovate it. But everybody in the town went to school there and hundreds of them turned out to watch “their” school go down.
Enquirer / Hartong
The fire was discovered at 5:30 pm Sunday evening and when the first units arrived they found fire showing and starting through the roof. Extinguishment was severely hampered by the voids left by two dropped ceilings that allowed the fire to race through the entire building and the lack of any fire hydrants in that neighborhood. A tanker shuttle had to be set up for the water supply.
Enquirer / Hartong
Fire units from eight departments were on the scene all night working the hot spots and making it safe for investigators to get inside today.
A FIRE THAT STARTED SHORTLY BEFORE MIDNIGHT Monday morning swept through a 6-story building in the Chinatown section of Manhattan. The response was rapidly elevated to an eventual 7 alarms and the FDNY fought to contain the fire in the congested block as they mounted a massive rescue effort into the fire building.
New York Times / Boardman photo
Read the early reports along with updates and several videos of the rescues on STATter911 HERE.
The fire was marked under control at 2:20 am, but not until after two dozen or more injuries, most of them firefighters, were reported. About 250 firefighters were working the fire that spread to two adajacent buildings before it was brought under control.
NECN has some raw video from the early stages of the fire attack:
So far, no fatalities have been reported, but two residents are in very critical condition.
22:21 hours
Battalion 4: We’re opening up at this time, we’re trying to locate the source of the smoke. We’re not sure if this is even the right building at thie time. We have 1 line stretched, ready to go into operation.
22:25 hours
Division 1: We’re going to change the address to 285 Grand St, we have a heavy smoke condition throughout the building, still trying to locate the source. 1 line stretched at this time, start out an extra engine and extra truck.
E7, L11 S/C
7-5-259 – 22:29 hours
DC1: We have a 20×80 mixed-occupancy type 6 story. We’re still searching for the fire at this time. All-Hands at this time.
RAC1
Exposures are:
1 – street
2 – similar attached
3 – unknown
4 – similar
CIDs for 283 – 285 Grand St:
6 story 60×75 MD class 3. Rear fire escape. Solar panels on roof.
2-2-259 – 22:34 hours – Duration 20 minutes
Car 6 (AC James Esposito, Manhattan Borough Commander): Box 259, transmit a full 2nd alarm on this box, k. Box 259, right now we’re using, Heavy smoke in the cellar and 1st floor. Undetermined source of fire at this time, Trucks are still opening and searching for fire. This report by AC James Esposito, citywide tour commander.
Engs. 33, 5, 6, 10
E24 acting 9 w/ Satellite 1
TL9, L3 acting 6
Battalion 1 (Safety Officer)
Battalion 6 (Resource Unit Leader)
Safety, Rescue Battalions
Tactical Support 1
FieldCom, Command Tactical Unit
22:36 hours
Car 6: 2nd Alarm Box 259, 10-45 no code.
22:38 hours
Car 6: The satellite, let’s get them on Grand St in front of the park on Eldridge, get the manifold set up right in front of the fire building. I want the two trucks into the command post ASAP, with their tools, k, they’re going to work. Special call 1 additional truck on the 2nd
TL1 S/C
22:39 hours
E21 is 10-8 in E15′s response area
22:40 hours
The staging area is Grand St and Chrystie St
22:41 hours
Receiving apartment 4H at 45 Allen St reporting smoke.
22:42 hours
Car 6: Special call an additional truck above TL1.
L8 S/C
22:43 hours – Duration 29 minutes
Car 6: 2nd Alarm Box 259, another, 2nd, 10-45 no code
3-3-259 – 22:47 hours
Car 6: 259 box, transmit a full 3rd alarm. I want the entire third alarm to stage at the staging area
Engs. 4, 3, 16, 23 acting 55
L10, T5
Battalion 7
Battalion 35 (Staging Manager)
Battalion 43 (Air-Recon Chief)
Mask Service Unit
Click on the “read more” link to continue with this log
I’m sitting here with three piles of papers all in a row, set out to start filling out my annual income tax returns. Here in the U. S. the personal taxes from last year have to be paid (put into the mail, anyway) by Thursday the 15th and I always hang onto my money as long as I can. It doesn’t take a whole lot of time to fill out the forms to mail in, but it will take a couple of hours to gather the receipts, etc., and get them sorted into a workable order. Another hour to fill out the return, then wait until tomorrow to double-check my figuring. Some fun today, eh?
* * * * *
Harking back to that unusually-high response fire in Boston on April 7, if you watched the video that we posted taken from a news helicopter (Firegeezer story HERE), you saw the firefighters bringing a victim out onto the roof from the service penthouse and begin doing CPR, successfully reviving the woman they had saved.
WBZ-TV
The Backstep Firefighter, Bill Carey has posted a terrific follow-up on the story that you will find very worthwhile reading, I’m sure. He has an interview with the lady who was saved along with a couple of fresh videos related to the story, and as a bonus he has a rescue story from Boston that got lost because of the overwhelming coverage of the 9-alarm fire. A Boston jake on his way to work came across a house on fire, stopped and entered a 3-story home that was fully involved, and snatched a victim that he found on a quick search. It’s a great story. You’ll find both of those stories on Backstep Firefighter’s posting HERE.
I think we’d better get this equipment checked out now. It’s Monday and the weekly checks have to be completed, too. I’ll go get the coffee started. There will be a lot of things to cover back in the day room, so I’ll see you there later.
In Tuesday’s testimony, an acquaintance of Campbell’s, Colin Sander said that after hearing that the couple had become engaged, he approached Campbell to congratulate him, but Campbell refused to shake his hand and appeared to be “edgy.” 
But what I noticed about it is how it’s made….a nice, hefty glass container with a metal screw-on lid, substantial and durable. It got me to thinking about just how few useful containers are available to us anymore. Everything now comes in a throw-away plastic bottle or box, all useless crap. Even foodstuffs. Especially infuriating is this recent conversion of mayonnaise jars to squeeze bottles. A lot of purveyors have done this, I believe, in order to ensure that you throw away part of the stuff that you bought and then going out and purchasing a new one before you’ve used up your supply. Just think, if you have a million people throwing away an ounce of two of catsup every day, that leads to quite a sales increase.
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