A MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN, AMBULANCE WAS struck by a car Monday while it had a patient inside. The patient and a paramedic were both injured as a result of the crash.
WTMJ-TV has a brief video report:
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A CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, MOTORIST STRUCK A CFD ambulance broadside Monday morning sending three people to the hospital. The ambulance was transporting a patient with its lights and siren on when it was struck.
The crash injured the driver of the car along with the paramedic that was in the back of the ambulance. The patient also suffered some injuries as a result of the crash. All three of them were hospitalized.
Police say that the driver of the auto was cited for failing to yield to an emergency vehicle.
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A RURAL/METRO AMBULANCE AND A Ford Cougar met at a controlled intersection in Louisville, Kentucky, Monday morning and crashed. The accident left the Ford demolished and the ambulance on its side.
WHAS-TV
The ambulance was not on a call at the time and did not have a patient on board. Both ambulance workers and three people in the car were mildly injured and were transported.
Police say that probably one of the vehicles drove through the red light, but they have not yet determined what happened.
DESPITE MANY CITIZENS’ CALLS FOR DISMISSAL, the Carlisle, Iowa, city council decided last night to retain the 6-month suspension of their fire chief rather than fire him.
Scott Burger (KCCI photo)
The problem began on April 29 when Chief Scott Burger, who is also one of the department’s paramedics, responded to a medical emergency while he was drunk. The victim’s husband file a complaint later saying that Burger just made the situation worse. KCCI-TV reported earlier this month:
The man said his diabetic wife was having convulsions around 12:15 a.m. because her blood glucose level dropped to a dangerously low level. When he called 911, two people from the Carlisle Fire Department responded. But, he said, one was slurring his words and couldn’t even draw blood from his wife. ”He starts squirting this gel into her mouth and she starts choking. She was gagging on it,” the man said.
That fire department member turned out to be the Carlisle Fire Chief Scott Burger…
The man who called 911 to report his wife’s diabetic shock said he didn’t know that the emergency responder who came to his home intoxicated was the fire chief. He said the man wasn’t being much help and was actually getting in the way.”He made two attempts and both times, he didn’t have the dexterity to put the blood on the end of the strip,” the man said. “At that time, I said, ‘No, let me do this.’”
The police officer that also responded to the call wrote up a report on the situation and the chief’s conduct on the scene. In his report he stated that, “Mr. Burger provided a sample of breath, which indicated his breath-alcohol content at 0.152.” The legal limit in Iowa is 0.08, nearly half of the test result. [Burger was not driving a vehicle that night.] In the report, emergency crews from Frasier Medical Services who also responded to the 911 case said Burger was acting unprofessionally.
“They described Mr. Burger’s behavior as ‘just not right’ and ‘goofy,’” the report said. “They advised that Mr. Burger’s behavior was unprofessional because he was very close to the individual’s face with his own.”
You can read the entire police report (in .pdf format) HERE.
On May 11 the city council voted to suspend Burger for 6 months, receive mandatory alcohol treatment, and banned him from attending medical emergencies for one year. Shortly after that, the EMS medical advisor notified the council that he was unaware of the police report when he advised them that he saw no indication of Burger performing outside his legal level of care. He had only been given Burger’s own statement of the incident and he, the MA, believed he was misled and requested council to reconsider their decision to suspend rather than dismiss Burger.
Last night (Monday) the council reconvened and listened to the statement from the doctor and the city administrator before voting to reaffirm their original disciplinary action.
WHO-TV Ch. 13 Des Moines filed this video report on last night’s action along with some background information:
Wow! This Facebook Fan Page project really took off like I never would have imagined. Our first public announcement of it was HERE at yesterday’s Lineup, and now a mere 24 hours later we have 230 fans already signed up and joining in. That’s simply amazing to me. Before we started it, I didn’t fully understand what a “fan page’s” purpose was. But Fireball convinced me that it was a worthwhile venture, so with my blessings she set it up. Now I am seeing what makes the fan pages so popular.
It’s the dynamic group participation on the page that I really like the most. Yesterday one of our readers from Istanbul, Turkey, posted some photos of his fire station and apparatus with some of the firefighters included in them. I like that kind of stuff. I think everybody enjoys looking at pics of fire and EMS life in other countries. The differences are fascinating, but the end results….putting out the fire…..are the same. It’s also a place where we here at FG Central can post links to items that don’t quite fit the criteria of the website, but we think you would enjoy reading them anyway.
But the Fan Page is foremost the fans’ page and we are leaving most of the posting on it to you. It’s where you can initiate your own topic to discuss or share your thoughts about current events (staying on topic, of course). So help us get this page, your page, up to speed by joining up and then posting your thoughts and photos. You could start off by putting up some shots of your fire or rescue squad station. Really….we’d all love to see them.
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A brief item caught my eye this morning from New York. It seems that Yankee Stadium has added iPads to the list of prohibited items that cannot be brought into the ball park. They are classed as laptop computers which are already banned. Their excuse for this is that it’s a “security-and-safety issue.” For the life of me, I can’t imagine why somebody carrying an iPad would suddenly become an insecure or unsafe person. I suspect that the real reason for it is something else entirely and they don’t want to disclose it. But I still can’t think of what it could be. Help me out, here. Does anybody know what the real reason might be?
It’s getting late, so we’d better get this equipment checked out now. Besides, I need to get some more coffee started. So let’s get started and I’ll see you back in the day room in a little while.
This is the next in a 3-week series of daily reports chronicling the adventures of F. G. Gnome as he travels with his boss Steve Marshall chasing storms in Tornado Alley in Oklahoma and Kansas during the tornado season.
Yowza, Firegeezer Fans. Those twisters remained elusive yesterday. The weather was there and conditions were ripe, but they never developed beyond the lightning storm phase. We had some tremendously strong winds including one gust that blew Steve’s camera over…. that was bad news. We spotted a few funnel clouds, but nothing newsworthy. A great lightning show, though.
The excitement for the day came after we were back at the hotel in Colby, Kansas, where we spent the past two nights. When the weather system moved over us, the winds blew some shingles and stuff off of the roof of our hotel and lightning struck the hotel across the street from us. It started a small fire which brought the local FD to the scene and generated a full evacuation of the hotel.
The chase crews from The Weather Channel and a big government team known as Vortex 2 were staying there and they had to stand outside until nearly midnight. Between the two of them, they have at least 100 people in their combined group. Talk about a mob! Sure makes for some traffic problems when we’re trying to chase a storm cell.
Today was uneventful, too. We searched as far north as North Platte, Nebraska, but nothing fired up all day. We’ll see what tomorrow brings. The boss hasn’t told me yet if he has any plans. So check back tomorrow evening and see what we’ve been up to.
………. F. G. Gnome
Previous reports are archived in the Gnome Report category listed on the right sidebar, or you can CLICK HERE.
A fire ravaged the Mountains d’ Arrée in France Sunday, bringing 180 firefighters and 55 fire trucks to the scene. One brush truck was destroyed and two firefighters were injured, however both were treated and released later. At 7:30 pm the fire was contained.
”It’s very very hot. We had flames up to 110 feet (33 meters) high.” said a fire department spokesman. “A team of firefighters from Landivisiau is monitoring blackened remains of the Arrée Mountains to prevent new outbreaks. In the distance, on the other side of the ridge, we saw large clouds of smoke. It is now there that firefighters are fighting vigorously to retain the progress of the fire. It has devoured the countryside between the towns of Botmeur and Commana, and in the heart of Finistere and Brittany Regional Natural Park. The firefighters Landivisiau are positioned a few meters from the origin of the fire. The steaming shell of a truck dedicated to the fight against forest fires is there to show the rapid progress of the flames. It belongs to the firestation of Brasparts.”
The firefighters of Brasparts arrived first on-site, around 1:00 pm, but the local firefighters, were perfectly versed in this type of terrain, were surprised by the spread of fire pushed by the winds. They had to abandon their vehicle and two firemen were slightly burned on the legs.
Four hours later, the 180 firefighters were still engaged directly with fire. At the command post, Colonel Mahoudo was responsible for coordinating the activities of the companies involved. “The fire line was blocked on the right flank,” he said. Reinforcements were brought in along with fifteen more vehicles. More importantly, the firefighters used the Canadair based in Marseille, the tanker plane that drops retardent.
Finally, at 7:30 pm the firefighters had stopped the fire.. Thanks to the joint action of Canadair and firefighters on the ground, the fire seemed contained. In total, nearly 500 hectares (1,500 acres) have gone up in smoke. On the ground, firefighters were preparing for a long night of watching to prevent a recurrence of fire.
This video captured the Canadair in operation on the fire:
Ouest France has several more videos from the fire posted HERE.
Maville has a 20-image photo gallery HERE.
Le Telegram has the STORY and more VIDEOS.
A BRITISH LAWNMOWER HAS CUT ITS WAY into the record books for the fastest riding power mower. The Kawasaki-powered Countax machine first broke the old record set 4 years ago by posting an 86.09 mph two-way average over a one-mile measured course. The next day, Don Wales took it back out on the Pendine Sands at Carmarthen Bay, Wales, and set the record even higher with an official speed of 87.833 mph.
Don Wales celebrates his record-setting run aboard Runningblade
The racing team’s goal was to hit 100 mph, but soft sand conditions and a stiff headwind prevented that from happening. But they are confident that they can achieve it on the next attempt.
The qualifications require that the machine has to be built primarily of lawnmower parts and as it is being driven to the course it must cut a swath of grass at the museum building that sponsors the event.
The Press Association had their camera on the scene to capture the run:
AN OFF-DUTY FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP, INDIANA, FIREFIGHTER died Sunday evening following a violent crash involving his pickup truck in the city of Indianapolis.
David Joseph Newsom, 34, was driving his truck at a high rate of speed at 6:30 pm when a state trooper clocked him at 81 mph on the city street. He attempted to pull Newsom over, but he hit a curbstone, started fishtailing, then smashed into another car that had a woman and two children in it. After that first collision he spun into a utlility pole, knocking it over, and then crashed through the front wall of a strip club. The nightspot was closed, but the band was having a full rehearsal on the stage just on the other side of the wall when the truck came plunging through.
WNDY-TV
WXIN-TV adds: “At first it was just really loud because we were playing really loud and then it was just a big, bright flash and a huge explosion,” said Lee Mylin, who was playing with his band when the truck slammed into the building and onto the stage.
Lee says two of his bandmates were hit by flying debris. One was taken to the hospital with minor injuries, but he says he still can’t believe no one inside was seriously hurt. “If that guy had gone maybe a foot the other way you know it probably would have taken out three of us for sure,” Mylin said.
Somewhere in the later part of the crash scenario, Newsom was ejected from his truck and fatally injured. The crash also severed a gas line in the club, but it was quickly shut off by the IFD.
Indiana State Police do not know why he was speeding through town. He leaves a wife and a 2-month-old daughter surviving him. Newsom was a logistics manager for Indiana Task Force One and had been with the Franklin Towship FD since January 2002.
WE HAD ANOTHER D of S ATTACK this morning and were down for a couple of hours, but we’re back online again now. All of the FireEMS Blogs sites were affected as well as a few thousand other websites.
We’ll resume posting now as we get the stories ready.
Some good postings that showed up over the weekend that we’d like to share with you:
* Last week we posted an early notice of a downtown fire in progress in Baldwin, New York. STATter911 has followed up with some good videos of the fire HERE.
* Wildfire Today has an interesting item about the 747 Supertanker relocating from Oregon down to the Gulf coast in anticipation of being used for aerial drops of dispersants on the oil spill. Check out the story and video HERE.
* The Ambulance Driver has been getting some good fashion advice lately. See what it is HERE.
* John at Fire Daily is flustered over the progressive state of Tennessee’s reluctance to mandate a 16-hour training session for new volunteers before they start running into burning buildings. Catch his commentary HERE.
* Medic 999 relates a tale about how Murphy’s Law jumped right up and bit him recently HERE. (they call it Sod’s Law in the UK.)
* Mike Legeros at the Raleigh/Wake Firefighting Blog has started a list of funny FD names that are in use. Check it out HERE and then send in any that you know of. I have to pass along to him the Frog Level VFD here in Virginia….always one of my favorites.
Here we are with a new week and a new adventure. Firegeezer.com now has a Facebook Fan Page up and running. Our European cyberspondent Fireball has set it up and we’ve given it a test drive over the weekend. Now we are all set for those of you who prowl the pages of Facebook to drop by and chat a while.
What is a Fan Page and why do we have it when Firegeezer and FossilMedic already have their own FB pages? Well, to put it simply, our individual pages are just that, personal pages where we can communicate directly with our Friends. The Fan Page is an institutional page for the Firegeezer website and it is a sort of “clubhouse” for people who are more than passive readers. You will be encouraged to interact with each other and post your own news and notices on the Fan Page Wall.
We won’t necessarily be posting links to every article that’s on the website because we know you have already viewed it, unless it’s something that merits a special notice. But we will be letting you know of some other things that are going on in Geezerville as well as some news items that didn’t make it to the website for whatever reason. It’s also a place where you can post notices about fire/ems happenings that you want the others to hear about and leave comments on any of the topics that are mentioned on the page. And keep in mind too, that while you are visiting the page you are automatically available for the chat room. So you will have the opportunity to chat with other people who share your interests in all things Geezer. It’s an ideal spot for our readers to connect directly with each other and do what the internet allows best, share information directly with each other and expand our knowledge and skills by communicating through the Firegeezer Fan Page.
So enter Firegeezer Fans in your FB search box and then click on the Follow button (or Join, or whatever it says) and become a member of the Firegeezer Fan Club. Fireball is all set up to accept your applications today and get the fan club rolling. If you aren’t already aware of it, but after you join, whenever you log onto your Facebook page, just look over on the left-hand column and click on the Groups link to get the entrance to the fan page. This looks like it can be both fun and informative, but you are the ones who will make it that. So let’s get started!
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One more tidbit for the lineup: Last night all of the FireEMS Blogs websites were offline sporadically for a while. That’s because the ChiComms (Red China) launched a cyber-attack on the server farm that hosts all of our websites. It’s bad enough that the b*st*rds send us tainted food, but to attempt to shut down our freedom to communicate with each other demonstrates that those people in charge of that oppressive regime have no intention on being friends with the western world. Says Firegeezer.
Ok, let’s get this equipment checked out now. It’s Monday, so we need to use the long form. I’ll get the coffee started and see you back in the day room later.
This is the next in a 3-week series of daily reports chronicling the adventures of F. G. Gnome as he travels with his boss Steve Marshall chasing storms in Tornado Alley in Oklahoma and Kansas during the tornado season. Check with us each day for the latest adventure from the G.A.A.S. (Gnome Atmospheric Adventure Squad). Previous reports are archived in the Gnome Report category listed on the right sidebar, or you can CLICK HERE.
Hey, Firegeezer fans….thanks for checking back with us.
We left Hays, Kansas, yesterday morning and headed west to Oakley where we spent last night. Western Kansas had the best conditions for storm activity yesterday, but it fizzled out. Nothing but blue skies all day long! Well, that happens sometimes. But it doesn’t happen for days on end this time of year, so we’ll get our shots before long.
Since it was a nice day and we were there, we stopped by the Monument Rocks just south of Oakley. It’s a weathered outcropping of limestone from a pre-historic river that once flowed across the region.
It didnt have that hole in it before I got here with my shovel….
Makes a nice place to watch the sunset, though. The temperature hit 92º while we were there. That fellow taking my picture is Dave from the BBC in London. He’s traveling with our caravan this year along with some great cameras that he brought with him. In fact, he’s the one who took that terrific panorama photo that we’re using for the lead banner of our daily report.
We left Oakley this morning and we’re now up by the Nebraska border and things are looking hot now! The boss thinks that we just might catch a cluster of twisters today. We’re setting up the equipment now including some time-lapse cameras, so I guess he thinks this one’s going to pay off. Make sure you check back tomorrow and see how we made out. I hope we’ve got some good shots for you.
Before you go, I want to show you this photo that Steve took the other night of the Guyman, Oklahoma, skyline. When he downloaded the pic and processed it, he discovered that he’d captured some UFO’s on it! Now I’ve got him to thinking that’s how I got here……heh, heh. He doesn’t know whether to believe me or not. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it. What do you think?
During the recent Tour of Italy premier bicycle race, a historical exhibit of “bicycle rescue”, used by the various municipalities in Italy, was set up in the stands near the Fire Department, located in Viale Crispi, L’Aquila, in proximity of the 11th stage of the race on May 19, 2010.
The “bicycle rescue” were, in the late nineteenth century and until the 1930′s, operated in cities that already had efficient water systems. They would dash to the fire scene to start laying the hose lines while waiting for the horse-drawn steam pumpers to arrive.
The national Fire Brigade still practices cycling, but now in sports competitions organized by the Sports Group Command of the fire service. They hold annual national championships for active firefighters.
The exhibit was set up at the Aquila stage because there are still 300 firefighters assigned to Aquila from around the country to help the area recover from the horrible earthquake that struck the ancient city on April 6, 2009 (See the Firegeezer video reports HERE and HERE). You may recall that more than 10,000 buildings were destroyed including some of the oldest structures in all of Italy. The Vigili del Fuoco is assisting in the safeguading of the buildings, removal of debris, demolition, and helping restore normalcy to the area.
Read the full story HERE.
The Vigili del Fuoco has a photo gallery of the exhibit HERE, HERE, and HERE. View more by pressing the “Successive” button.
A SHAWNEE, KANSAS, FIREFIGHTER PERISHED IN A HOUSE FIRE Saturday night when he became separated from his crew inside a burning dwelling while searching for victims.
Firefighters were dispatched to the fire at about 8:55 p.m. after getting calls from neighbors. When they arrived, firefighters were told there might be two people and a dog inside the house. One team entered the house to search and attempt a rescue while another team attacked from outside, according to the fire department. The house was filled with thick black smoke and fire was shooting from the lower level, firefighters said.
Kansas City Star
One of the firefighters called for help shortly after the search team made a second entry, the fire department said. The fire scene commander notified the Emergency Communications Center at 9:12 p.m. that they were looking for a missing firefighter inside the house.
The firefighter was found unresponsive near the rear of the house. Paramedics took him to Shawnee Mission Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead a short time later. The firefighter was a six-year veteran of the Shawnee Fire Department. He is survived by his wife and two children. His name was not immediately released.Firefighters were dispatched to the fire at about 8:55 p.m. after getting calls from neighbors. When they arrived, firefighters were told there might be two people and a dog inside the house. One team entered the house to search and attempt a rescue while another team attacked from outside, according to the fire department.
KMBC-TV Ch. 9 Kansas City filed this video report this morning:
The Shawnee Fire Department has scheduled a press conference today (Sunday) at 3 pm Central.
A SPONTANEOUS AND UNSANCTIONED job action took place in the Mobile, Alabama, Fire-Rescue Department Saturday when 31 firefighters called in “sick.” As a result, the FRD had to put 8 units out of service along with the 3 stations that have been closed recently by budget cuts.
The action is apparently a reaction to the city’s decision to “save money” by reducing minimums from 4 per unit to 3 by refusing to pay overtime to keep them staffed. There are about 50 vacancies on the roster with no immediate plans to fill them.
Paul Cumbaa, president of the Mobile Firefighters Association, told the Mobile Press-Register:
Paul Cumbaa, spokesman for the Mobile Firefighters Association, said the high absenteeism was not organized or sanctioned by the union. When asked if some firefighters may have organized a protest on their own, Cumbaa said, “It is possible, but I’m not sure.”
He added, “This is not a ‘blue flu.’ Had it been one there would have been more like 80 people or more out.”
Cumbaa was interviewed as part of this video report from WALA-TV Ch. 10:
One of our more popular arson stories is back in the headlines today. We’ve been following the travails of the Grand View Topless Coffee Shop in Vassalboro, Maine, that burned down last June (Firegeezer video reports HERE and HERE). It was confirmed in December that it was an arson job, but we weren’t told what the circumstances were. Finally, we learned earlier this month that it wasn’t sagging sales that instigated the crime, but a disgruntled former boyfriend of one of the waitresses. Naturally it was a waitress. Topless waiters never generate that kind of passion.
Anyway, the boyfriend, Raymond Bellavance was busted while he was on the lam down in South Carolina on May 5 and extradited back to Maine (Firegeezer video report HERE). On Friday he begrudgingly made his first court appearance after first refusing to leave his cell. But the bailiffs encouraged him to step into a nearby room where he was connected to the judge via video for his arraignment. He didn’t plead his case, but merely was ordered held on the charges on $200,000 cash bond. WCSH-TV covered the procedings and filed this video report Friday:
You folks who are familiar with the story probably picked up on the part of the report where it is claimed that Bellavance was angry that his girlfriend was having a “sexual relationship” with the shop’s owner, Donald Crabtree. You will recall that at the time of the fire, Crabtree and six other people described as “his family” were living in the building that burned. After the affidavit was unsealed Friday in the courtroom, I suspect that more sparks will begin flying in Vassalboro pretty soon. Chances are good that this isn’t the last we hear about this real-life soap opera.
I’m sorry if I interrupted your Sunday morning tranquility with this bit of salaciousness, but we’re obligated to keep you up with the latest reports whenever we can, and we appreciate your support. But now we have to get this equipment checked out before we get started on today’s adventures, so let’s take care of that and I’ll go start some more coffee. See you back in the day room in a little bit for our Sunday breakfast.
This week’s Sunday photo art was submitted by
our traveling correspondent F. G. Gnome.
This is the next in a 3-week series of daily reports chronicling the adventures of F. G. Gnome as he travels with his boss Steve Marshall chasing storms in Tornado Alley in Oklahoma and Kansas during the tornado season. Check with us each day for the latest adventure from the G.A.A.S. (Gnome Atmospheric Adventure Squad). Previous reports are archived in the Gnome Report category listed on the right sidebar, or you can CLICK HERE.
Hey, Everybody….Thanks for checking back on today’s report from Tornado Alley.
I told you yesterday that we were in Pratt, Kansas. Steve wanted to stop there and check out their new fire station because he’s writing a story for Firegeezer about it. The Pratt Fire Department needs a new firehouse urgently because the old one is not only worn out, but they have trouble fitting modern apparatus into the bays. Like many towns, they don’t have the funds to build a new station. So they worked out a deal where the city bought a vacant grocery store and is purchasing all the building materials while the firefighters themselves contribute all the labor and renovate the building.
They’re doing a terrific job and the boss got some good photos of the interior as it’s nearing completion. He asked me to post these Before and After shots of the exterior so that you can see what we’re talking about.
Later next month he will have the full story for you. I hope you’re looking forward to it as much as I am.
One of the great things about the people who live in Pratt (pop. 6,570) is that they have a great sense of humor.
After we left Pratt, we moved on to Mullenville, Kansas, to M. T. Liggetts Political Statement Emporium. There are literally hundreds of hand made contraptions and whirlygigs, most all having some sort of political statement, in the fields surrounding the town. Gnome was impressed.
M. T. Liggett is an American folk sculptor. His works are often made of painted,welded metal and often contain re-used farm implements, such as combine discs. His art is often critical of politicians on the local, state, and federal level. Many of his works are kinetic and move with the wind.
We made it up to Hays, Kansas, where we spent last night. The weather systems that are building are suggesting that the next major outbreak will be in southern Nebraska, so that’s where we are heading, on the road most of today.
I’ll be checking back with you tomorrow with the latest, and I hope we will be getting some good storm shots for you. See you then.
A FIRE THAT STARTED IN A DUMPSTER IN ROTTERDAM, NEW YORK, Friday spread quickly into the eaves of the building next to it and burned out the entire business located inside. The Schenectady-area shop was used as a storage and work base for Alden Wood Floors and it was packed with floor boards and many cans of solvents and other combustibles used in the trade.
The fire started just before 2 pm while all of the workers were out on job sites, and the hot fire brought down the entire roof. Firefighters were attacking the blaze initially and had a crew on the roof, but they saw the signs of collapse appearing and withdrew from the building and roof in time.
WXAA-TV Ch. 23 has this video report from the scene along with some fire footage:
Later Friday evening the fire investigator determined that the contents of the Dumpster, notably sawdust, polydust, and 12 nearly empty polyurethane cans caused “spontaneous combustion,” and ruled the fire as accidental.
A VOLUNTEER MEMBER OF THE LYNDHURST, NEW JERSEY Police Emergency Squad, Haniel Lora, 30, admitted on May 18 that he had withdrawn $5,100 from the squad’s account. The Leader reports:
Lora originally reported the squad’s debit card stolen, but a police investigation pointed to Lora as the thief. When confronted with evidence, including video surveillance tapes from banks where cash was withdrawn, Lora admitted to taking the money himself, according to Chief James O’Connor.
The squad’s financial secretary had an instrumental role in bringing the theft to light, according to O’Connor. The financial secretary first noticed discrepancies in the account and urged Lora, who serves as a captain in the group, to go to law enforcement. He did, allegedly telling O’Connor on May 11 that the card had been stolen.
Lora had access to the squad’s pin number and debit card, and the money was withdrawn in New York, where Lora works, according to Detective Capt. John Valente. Bank surveillance videos show someone who bears a “striking resemblance” to Lora and made “feeble attempts to disguise his identity,” O’Connor said. Lora was called into police headquarters for an interview. When confronted, he admitted taking the money, according to police.
He has been charged with 3rd-degree theft and filing a false police report. He was released on his own recognizance and will be arraigned on Tuesday in Municipal Court. Lora has been a member of the volunteer squad for five years and was appointed its captain earlier this year.
PL Custom Emergency Vehicles photo
The borough’s volunteer EMS squad handles emergency calls from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. Monday through Friday and around the clock on weekends. The police department also has a separate squad of paid emergency medical technicians who handle emergency calls from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays. That squad was not involved in the investigation.
THE FIREFIGHTERS OF VIZILLE AND VAULNAVEYS IN FRANCE responded to a very different kind of fire call Friday afternoon.
The fire started shortly before noon when the driver of a bus was making a turnaround on the front ramp of the Brie firehouse, an unmanned volunteer station. Noting that thick smoke was suddenly coming from the engine compartment, he stopped too near to the bay doors when he jumped out with a fire extinguisher and attempted to put out the fire.
Le Dauphine photo
When the responding companies arrived on the scene, the bus was fully involved and the fire was spreading into the roof of the fire station. The FF’s used the first attack line to protect the firehouse and pulled a second line to knock down the bus fire. An aerial from Vizille extinguished the roof.
The firehouse had three units parked inside, but none of them were damaged. Only about 30 sq. meters of roofing was destroyed and the bay doors were damaged. The fire chief says that work to repair all will be performed promptly and regular service of the Brie Angonnes SDIS will not be affected.
Le Dauphine has the STORY.
SDIS Brie Angonnes WEBSITE.
“It’s only been 5 years?” That was my initial reaction when I read that YouTube is celebrating its 5th year online this month.
Gosh, it seems like it’s been around a lot longer than that, but I think maybe that is because it has become such an institution in the online community, and it is also hard to believe that it could have advanced its technology so far in that amount of time. When YouTube announced their anniversary the other day, they also disclosed that they are now serving up more than 2 billion video views every day. That’s hard to comprehend. Time magazine told:
That kind of reach must have been inconceivable for former PayPal co-workers Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim, who created YouTube as a Flickr-style sharing site for videos in February 2005. They posted their first clip, a 19-second shot of Karim at the San Diego Zoo, that April. By November, with the aid of neophyte-friendly uploading software, YouTube users were sending 8 terabytes of data flickering across the Internet every day — the equivalent, Hurley noted, of the entire contents of a Blockbuster store.
By the time Google paid $1.65 billion in stock for the company in the fall of 2006, the site boasted more than 700 million views a week. Today more video is uploaded to YouTube in 60 days than all three [major] U.S. television networks have created in 60 years.
Fortunately for the rest of us, it has advanced beyond the 90-second clips of babies and kittens doing silly stop-action dancing, but that is how a site grows. Audience participation has brought a refinement of users’ video and editing skills coupled with continual advances in the technology of the site itself, and it has become a valuable resource as well as a mindless diversion for the cubicle worker.
Everybody has their own views on the value of YouTube and I have to admit that if it wasn’t for this website, then I probably wouldn’t check in very much. But that would probably change if I got involved doing some video recording of my own. YouTube permits you to set up your own account to store your personal videos and, if you want, you can set them up so that only family members and friends can view them. Home movies on demand!
In our own universe of fire and EMS activity, you have to agree that YouTube has sure benefitted all of us, primarily as a training tool and an additional resource for sharing information. What you do with it is limited only by the breadth of your imagination.
I’m going to see if I can find that very first video that was uploaded by the founders. If I do, then I’ll post it on here when I can.
Now, though, we have to get this equipment checked out. Is anybody making a video of this? I’ll go get some more coffee started. See you back in the day room.
Update: Here it is…..the first YouTube video ever posted online…
This is the next in a 3-week series of daily reports chronicling the adventures of F. G. Gnome as he travels with his boss Steve Marshall chasing storms in Tornado Alley in Oklahoma and Kansas during the tornado season. Check with us each day for the latest adventure from the G.A.A.S. (Gnome Atmospheric Adventure Squad). Previous reports are archived in the Gnome Report category listed on the right sidebar, or you can CLICK HERE.
Hi, Everybody……
Wahooo! The boss let us visit the Oklahoma Firefighters Museum yesterday, and let me tell you, it is a fantastic place to visit! You gotta go there.
I had fun climbing on the antique fire engines, but my feet couldn’t reach the pedals.
But I’ve given this attraction the Gnome Seal of Approval. How do you like this mural?
Ok, from there the Gnome Atmospheric Adventure Squad made its way to Pratt, Kansas, today where the firefighters are constructing a new fire station themselves. The Gnome will have that story at a later date.
Tomorrow looks promising for big storms in W. Kansas, so we’re gettting ready. See you tomorrow, then.
A DOLLAR GENERAL STORE IN WEST POINT, MISSISSIPPI, burned down Thursday night along with the business next to it. The fire broke out around 7:30 pm while the store was open and customers were inside. The Columbus Dispatch reports:
Robin Pace, manager of the Dollar General, reportedly asked another employee if they smelled cigarette smoke approximately 15 minutes before a customer approached the front of the store and said “Your store’s on fire.” She looked back and could see the flames so she evacuated the store.
Unfortunately, Pace left her own car keys in the store and part of the store’s roof fell on her car.
When the West Point FD arrived on the scene there was already fire showing at the shop. They initiated an interior attack, but after 30 minutes they had to withdraw before the roof came in. The fire was out at 1:45 am and the building was a total loss.
* Fire broke out at the Family Dollar store in Shirley, New York (Long Island), on April 26. Reports say that sparks “dropped down from the ceiling” and set a rack of clothing on fire, sending smoke throughout the shopping center it was located in.
The Mastic Fire Department responded aided by seven other FD’s.
WE DON’T KNOW IF THIS IS A NEW Physical Fitness regimen, or what. This action photo arrived without a caption, so we’re not sure. It’s up to you, loyal readers, to supply the missing caption and tell us what is going on here. Post your caption in the Comments for our enlightenment.
(If you want to try your composing skills on some of our past contests, they are always open.
Just click on the “caption contest” link in the Categories box over on the right sidebar and give it a whirl.)
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