IN SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, ANDREW LEITCH WAS WALKING along the sidewalk pushing his 4-month-old son in a stroller with his grandparents walking just ahead. They paused at the entrance to a shop and Leitch picked up the infant and held him. Just then a motorist suffered a heart attack and his car went out of control, careening down the sidewalk and plowing into the family.
Andrew caught a glimpse of the car coming and turned his body to shield the child from the certain impact. As the car wedged him against the building, it mowed over the now-empty stroller and knocked the two grandparents in the air and down the walk. Leitch told the Herald Sun:
Mr Leech said he instinctively turned to protect his baby son in the split second before the car hit.
“I can take the hit, that’s what I was thinking, I can repair, there’s no way he’s gonna repair. So I thought if they hit the back of me, that’s fixable. He’s not fixable.”
The event occurred in July 2008, but the surveillance camera videos were just made public last week when Leitch appeared on a television program for an extended interview. Watch this video of the tapes where you will see the entire event unfold. The two people you see being sent flying are Leitch’s grandparents and you can imagine what the results would have been if the baby was still in the stroller at the time.
The baby was uninjured. Andrew suffered a broken leg, but recovered. His grandparents were severely injured and spent several months in the hospital recovering, but are ok now. The driver of the car recovered also.
IF YOU’RE GOING TO HOLD UP THE MINI-MART on your way home from work, make sure to change your clothes first. James Rabbitz of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, forgot that basic piece of advice when he decided to hold up the Turkey Hill convenience store in Luzerne County early Friday morning.
WNEP-TV reports:
He poured himself a cup of coffee then told the cashier he had forgotten his wallet in his car. Investigators said he left the store and went to his car. When he returned he allegedly flashed a knife at the cashier and left with $200.
Troopers said Rabbitz was wearing his work uniform at the time and he was later identified on the store’s surveillance video by one of his bosses. “That amazes me, I’m not really happy with it to begin with for obvious reasons,” said Rabbitz’s employer, George Denke. “I’m just amazed.”
Denke said it was the general manager of his company who identified Rabbitz to police. Denke added Rabbitz has been an EMT and ambulance driver with Denke’s company, Tech Transport, for about two years. “He’s been a great employee, he’s been employee of the month a number of times,” said Denke. “I’ve gone on calls with him, he’s a very good EMT. He knows his stuff pretty good.”
Rabbitz was arraigned by Magisterial District Judge Thomas Sharkey on charges of robbery, aggravated assault, theft, simple assault, disorderly conduct and harassment later Friday morning and is being held in the county jail on $25,000 bond.
A CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, PEDESTRIAN was striding to the beat Sunday morning with his earphones on when he stepped off the curb and into the path of a fire engine that promptly flattened him.
A fire department spokesman said that the unidentified man was listening to an “electronic device” while walking at 11 am Sunday at the same time that a CFD firetruck was approaching with its lights and siren activated, responding to a fire call.
The man apparently did not hear the firetruck and stepped off the curb at the intersection of South Damen Avenue and West 63rd Street, setting up a meeting on the spot. He was transported to the hospital in critical condition.
THE CONTINUING SCANDAL OF FALSIFYING EMT recertifications in Massachusetts is spreading. Late last week the owner of Trinity EMS, a private firm that provides emergency EMS for nearly a dozen communities in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, voluntarily suspended several employees after looking into their own recent recertifications. The Lowell Sun reports:
Trinity co-owner and President, John Chemaly told The Sun that about 25 employees have been temporarily suspended from their duties since Monday. The newspaper learned yesterday that the state’s Office of Emergency Medical Services is investigating “recertification issues” mainly stemming from the company’s Haverhill office. At least five employees have been temporarily pulled from ambulances in Lowell as well, Chemaly said.
One of the company’s employees under investigation is a state-certified instructor who has falsely issued certificates without actually training people, Chemaly said.
News that surfaced last week about the owner of a Billerica EMT training company who is under investigation for improperly issuing certificates raised a red flag, Chemaly said. On March 6, The Sun reported that Mark Culleton, of 17 Wildbrook Road, Billerica, issued CPR certificates to Lexington firefighters who did not attend the state-required recertification course, according to Lexington Town Manager Carl Valente.
“As a result of what occurred in Billerica, we did a self-study here,” Chemaly said. “We took samples of recertification credentials and found that some employees were involved with a rogue instructor that took their money, but some of the classes were not conducted. But they still got certification.”
A MORRISTOWN, NEW JERSEY, HOME THAT HAD been converted into apartment units broke out in fire Sunday morning around 4:30 am. The fast-growing fire in the 3-story plus basement wood-frame building trapped most of the 20 occupants inside, many of whom didn’t realize the magnitude of the danger and were reluctant to leave.
When the first units arrived fire was showing and the immediate rescue problem was apparent. The firefighters and two police officers had to literally go through the building and forcibly remove the endangered occupants.
The 2nd-floor fire escape was blocked at the
doorway, preventing exiting at that point.
(Morristown Daily Record)
The Morristown Daily Record reports:
After the residents were down and out, firefighters made a push up to the interior to attack the fire, according to Captain Prachthauser.
”It was an absolute team effort,” he said, “with everybody involved in the fire scene. Everybody did their job. I couldn’t be prouder of all the guys I worked with that night. They all did a great job.”
Fire Capt. Robert Whitehead said that battling the blaze was so brutal that firefighters each went through an average of three “air bottles” that generally last for a half-hour apiece, or 20 minutes when a firefighter is breathing heavily.
Ultimately, firefighters on the scene were assisted by additional Morristown Fire Department volunteers who arrived after a general alarm was sounded.
One firefighter was injured when a ceiling collapsed onto him, knocking his face mask and helmet off. He was transported and treated for cuts and smoke inhalation, then released.
Investigation soon disclosed that the fire was deliberately set. In addition, the city’s code enforcement unit and the state agency that regulates rental housing had both been there recently. The city has pledged to open an investigation to see why the building was overcrowded as it was. Morristown Mayor Tim Dougherty addressed the press about this situation Sunday afternoon:
Read the full story in the Daily RecordHERE.
Morristown Firefighters Local 43 WEBSITE.
It’s not unusual in our business of emergency work for people to perform happily at the job for 25, 30, or sometimes even 40 years. In the case of volunteers, they will sometimes go longer than that by switching to ancillary roles in the department or squad, and still make the monthly meeting nights with a smile. There are not many occupations where that kind of satisfaction is so widespread.
But how about working and loving your job so much that you carry on successfully for 97 years? You got it right, that’s a nine and a seven…. 97 years following your calling. That was the case with professional musician Rosa Rio who began working professionally as an organist when she was 10 years old. Born ElizabethRaub in New Orleans on June 2, 1902, she later changed her name to one that would fit more easily on a theater marquee and kept it through the rest of her life.
Her early performances were on stage variety and musical shows playing the piano that she had learned by ear at the age of 4. While in her teens, she was studying classical piano at Oberlin College in Ohio when she went to a theater one day a heard for the first time in her life a theater-size pipe organ. She was immediately enthralled by it and soon began attending the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where she learned the art of accompanying silent films that were just beginning to appear nationwide. From then she worked steadily in theaters around New York, constantly in demand due to her exceptional talent.
Rosa Rio at the theater organ during the silent movie era.
(St. Petersburg Times image)
The sudden and rapid transformation from the “silents” to sound movies necessitated a career change for Miss Rio and she next began a long run at NBC where she worked as the staff musician playing the background organ for scores of radio programs including more than 20 soap operas. At one point she even had her own program. In the 1960′s the broadcast networks no longer needed live background musicians and studio orchestras, so she and her husband Bill Yeoman moved to Connecticut and she became a successful piano, organ, and voice teacher.
In the 1980′s her long career came full cycle when the advent of the home videcassette brought her a contract to compose and play the background music for 400 silent films that were being recorded onto videos for home sales. She was truly back in her element and also began performing live again in the restored movie palaces that began appearing around the country. In 1993 she and her husband moved to the Tampa, Florida, area where she continued to play at the restored Tampa Theater right up until last August when illness forced her retirement at age 107. Miss Rio, the last of the original silent movie theater organists, passed away last Thursday just three weeks short of her 108th birthday. Can you just imagine the impact that one little lady has had on the American culture, performing both live and via broadcast for literally millions of people for 97 years?
This video of Rosa Rio was recorded during one of her performances on the theater organ five years ago when she was only 102 yrs. old:
Her obitiuary that was published in the Washington PostHERE doesn’t mention how much coffee she drank, but it must have been a lot. So I’ll get us another pot started while you get this equipment checked out. We’ll meet later in the day room for a musical interlude.
A SMALL PLANE THAT HAD JUST TAKEN OFF from an airport in Clearwater, Florida, Sunday morning came right back down, clipping the roof of a subdivision house and crashing in the back yard.
Clearwater Police photo
The entire area heard the loud “bang” and then the neighborhood filled with smoke. The plane was carrying three people along with a load of relief supplies bound for Haiti. There were six people at home inside the house and none of the nine total were injured.
WFTS-TV reports:
The Mirage Piper aircraft hit a power pole, two trees and the roof of the home at 305 Patricia Avenue before crashing into the backyard just before 10:30 Sunday morning, according to officials.
The front end of the plane split off from the rest of the plane before landing between two nearby homes.
WFTS-TV
Some workmen who were constructing a fence nearby came running over and pulled the three passengers from the plane. Part of the home did catch fire, but a fast response from the FD knocked it down quickly and also extinguished outside fires in the vegetation before they spread into neighboring property. The house suffered significant structural damage on one side and has been temporarily quarantined.
Clearwater Police photo
WFTS-TV also filed this video report from the scene:
THERE IS NOTHING LIKE A TAR FIRE on a multi-acre roof to make everyone stop and look.
BariLive
That was the case earlier today (Sunday) in Bari, Italy, when a roofing fire took off across the top of a huge exhibition hall that is still under construction. Included within the structure is a new fire station built into the facility that will no doubt have a delayed opening after today’s blaze. The fire completely destroyed the roof of the large pavillion going up in the town center, and brought 25 engine companies to the scene plus a foam unit from the airport and 4 helicopters that were used for observation and support work.
Luca Turi
Several nearby fire departments were called for assistance including three aerials. Bari has units still on the scene working the hotspots and investigating the huge structure for any hidden pockets of fire. Overall, the structure itself appears to have suffered no major damage other than the roof itself and smoke-related losses.
La Gazzetta
This home video provides a good depiction of the magnitude of the fire and the massive amount of smoke being generated from it:
So far there has been no announcement of what the cause of the fire was or the amount of expected damages.
The Bari fire department (Vigili del Fuoco) WEBSITE.
THE FIRE MUSEUM OF GREATER CHICAGO held it’s Grand Opening on Saturday May 1. This new attraction is the work of many dedicated retired Chicago firefighters who refurbished an old firehouse that was built in 1916 and had been vacant since 1974. Working through the efforts of the local Alderman, they swung a deal to lease the building from the city for $1 a year, then they went to work sprucing up the house.
After years of collecting items to exhibit and restoring a 1923 pumper, they have set up a nice exhibit and pleasant place to visit. Along with the pumper they have several smaller exhibits such as an old street pull box and a scale model of the Our Lady of Angels school where a fire killed 92 children in 1958.
FMGC photo
The first floor is finished and open for visitors now. Next comes work on the 2nd floor that needs refinishing yet and will provide room for expansion as the need arises. The museum hopes to expand its collection to include artifacts from the suburban departments as well. Retired Chicago firefighter Jack Connors told The Southtown Star:
The museum “is so we don’t forget the people that did this job. A lot of people could care less. It’s just a job for some people, but not us,” Connors said. His father, four uncles, two brothers and two sons were or are firefighters. “It’s a family thing,” Connors said.
Read the entire article in The Southtown StarHERE.
FMGC
The Fire Museum of Greater Chicago is located at 5218 S. Western Ave. in Chicago, but their operating hours are still a bit sketchy. So you may want to wait a bit before you drop by. Their official website is here: http://www.firemuseumofgreaterchicago.org/index.html . Perhaps they will post their schedule soon. You can go to that home page and then click on the Photos link to see the pics taken at their opening on the 1st.
AN ELEVATED WATER TANK IN MADISON, WISCONSIN, caught on fire Friday and led to the evacuation of about 40 homes amid fears that it might collapse.
photo by Fred Underhill
The tank was empty because of a major maintenance project that had begun to clean and repair the 100,000-gallon tank prior to painting it. A welder was working in the stem just beneath the tank itself and sparks from his torch set fire to telephone and cell phone cable insulation. The fire spread throughout the area disrupting communications and bringing the Madison Fire Department to the scene.
The first-arriving units reported black smoke issuing from the top of the tank. Firefighters said the blaze was especially difficult to fight, as they couldn’t enter the empty structure and had to rely on small access holes on the outside of the tower. The fire inside the tower burned hot enough to melt off paint from outside the tower, WISC-TV reported.
The fire was extinguished after about 3 hours and the total damage is expected to reach $400,000.
The State Journal has a good video report on the fire posted HERE.
WISC-TV has more photos and the STORY HERE.
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ALSO ON FRIDAY, A FIRE STARTED AT THE TOP OF A TELEVISION TOWER in Oxfordshire, England, shortly after a new mast transmitting digital signals was turned on. Shortly after 2:30 pm a half-million homes suddenly lost their tv signals and engineers on site saw smoke pouring from the top of the tower where the new mast was installed.
BBC News photo
The fire brigade responded to the incident, but the fire burned itself out.
A GROUND-SHAKING EXPLOSION ROCKED AN UPSCALE NEIGHBORHOOD in Amiens, France, Saturday morning when an apartment blew up, destroying a major portion of the former mansion that had been converted to several living units. The windows of many buildings nearby, including a school, were blown out according to the AFP correspondent on the scene.
Le Courrier / Picard
The blast occurred at about 10:15 in a residential street Ducange and was followed by a fire that was easily extinguished. A 30 year old man was badly burned at 90% and transported to the Percy hospital in Clamart (Hauts-de-Seine). He is the tenant of an apartment that is believed to be where the explosion occurred. Initially, authorities thought he was a passer-by who was injured by the debris and fireball while walking down the sidewalk, but it turned out that he was in the apartment and was blown out of the building and into the street.
Courrier / Picard
At first the fire/rescue and police believed that three people were missing and extensive search procedures were begun including the use of search dogs. But after a time the unaccounted-for residents were located elsewhere and were uninjured.
Courrier / Picard
Origin of the explosion remains unknown, although the gas is “likely involved,” according to the prefecture, saying the police investigation should determine the causes of the disaster. There were 80 firefighters called to the scene.
Fred-Lille sur Le Post filed this video report:
Le Courrier has additional video and a 27-image photo gallery HERE.
The AFP has MORE.
Hey, let’s not forget Mom! The Oxfordshire Fire & Rescue Service in England sure didn’t. This past Tuesday they gave a special award to Trudy Boyle, Jed Boyle’s dedicated mom who willingly bounded out of bed at night for two years to drive him to the fire station when the tones went off.
Trudy Boyle and son Jed
Jed joined the local brigade as a retained firefighter in 2008 before he got his driving license and he would respond to the calls on his bicycle in the daytime. But at nighttime Trudy would turn out, often in her pajamas, to drive him to the station where the rules require the members to arrive within 7 minutes after being toned out.
Those trips are now just something to recall and joke about since Jed got his driving license last month and can now respond on his own. But the local council took note of Trudy’s own dedication to the local fire protection needs and decided to publicly recognize her efforts. The Oxford Journal reports:
On Tuesday, May 11, the county council’s Fire and Rescue Service sprung a surprise thank you on Trudy by making her an honorary crew member, in recognition of ‘outstanding nocturnal service to the community of Banbury’.
Under the pretence of attending an open evening for firefighters’ families, Mrs Boyle was presented with a certificate honouring her as a member of the 01 Banbury Retained Fire Crew. The special appointment was authorised by John Parry, Oxfordshire County Council’s Chief Fire Officer. Darran Gough, Oxfordshire County Council’s Watch Manager at Banbury Fire Station, said: “We would all like to thank Trudy very much for her help over the past years and wish her many undisturbed nights in the future, so long as Jed doesn’t slam the door as he responds.”
Councillor Judith Heathcoat, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Safer and Stronger Communities, said: “This special appointment is a lovely gesture and recognises the amazing support Mrs Boyle has given to her son and to our Fire and Rescue Service over the last 18 months. It is a shining example of the vital role played by family, friends, employers and colleagues in enabling our retained fire crews to respond to emergency calls day and night.”
I thought that was a nice gesture by the council. Not bad publicity, either. Something for you to keep in mind as you seek opportunities for pleasant press releases. But there is obviously a cultural gap in the semantics involved between the US and the UK use of the same language. I worked in a battalion that had more than a couple of women who were known for providing “outstanding nocturnal service to the community…” but nobody was passing out any awards there.
We’d better get this equipment checked out now. I’m going to see how the Sunday breakfast is coming along and get another pot of coffee started. We’ll meet back in the day room in a little while. Enjoy this week’s Sunday photo art.
WHEN STEVEN ROGERS, 35, APPEARED IN COURT THURSDAY, everybody was expecting his trial to begin on the charge of arson placed against him. He had been arrested and charged with setting a major fire in downtown Morrilton, Arkansas, this past September 16. (Firegeezer posted the story with some impressive videos HERE.) But as the trial was about to begin he informed the court that he had changed his mind and wanted to enter a guilty plea.
The fire was set in a 4-story building that housed a furniture store and the large blaze destroyed three other buildings and damaged several more. The fire came very close to spreading into the entire block.
After accepting his plea, the judge then sentenced Rogers to 30 years in prison and a judgement for restitution of $886,978. Rogers must serve at least a quarter of his sentence before he becomes eligible for parole.
KLRT-TV Ch. 16 Little Rock has this video report on the procedings along with some additional fire footage:
US News and World Report editor Mort Zuckerman wrote an editorial posted in The Huffington Post that has generated almost 800 comments within the first 24 hours.
Investigative journalist Steve Malanga points out in the City Journal that California’s schoolteachers are the nation’s highest paid; its prison guards can make six-figure salaries; many state workers retire at 55 with pensions that are higher than the base pay they got most of their working lives. (article HERE)
ALL HAZARDS DESCRIBES NOTHING
A former communication specialist for a senator mentioned that “all hazards” carries no meaning to the public. I did not tell him how much rancor it creates in many departments.
He points out that “Neighbor-helping-neighbor” worked great for a large department in the east-of-the-Mississipi state served by his Senator.
So how can we be neighborly while getting shredded about hard-earned workplace conditions?
A 42-YR.-OLD WOMAN AND HER BOYFRIEND were riding their motorcycles together in Sarasota County, Florida, last Saturday May 8 when a turkey tried to share the road with them. They were traveling along a straight stretch of a 2-lane road when the turkey suddenly flew up into their path and struck Lori Hansen directly in the face. The collision-at-speed knocked her unconscious and her bike left the road sliding off the right shoulder and into a barbed wire fence.
WFLA-TV produced this video report on the horrifying accident:
Her friend saw what happened and was able to immediately come to her rescue and call for help. It’s being called the proverbial miracle because Hansen survived both the bird collision and the motorcycle crashing with her unconscious on it. She spent five days in the hospital, but has fully recovered. Troopers found the bird DOA at the crash scene.
Showing her injuries on her neck, face, and
arm, Hansen talks to WTSP -TV reporter.
WTSP-TV has this enlightening interview with Hansen where she tells of her accident and shows her injuries illustrating just how lucky she was:
She still has the 20-lb. bird and is having it stuffed and mounted. She plans on displaying it on the wall as a reminder of the event. You can read the transcript of her interview HERE.
IF IT’S A WILD ANIMAL LOOSE IN PARIS, you call the SAN, a specialized unit within the Montfort-L’Amaury fire division of the SDIS 78 that responds to animal-related rescues.
On Friday May 7 the SAN was called out by the National Board of Game and Wildlife whose agents had just seized two lions and an alligator from a traveling circus. The animals were not propely registered and licensed, and they showed signs of mistreatment. The SAN first tranquilized the lions before transferring them to cages.
SDIS 78 photos
The alligator was secured and transferred without need of tranquilizing.
SDIS 78
SDIS 78 has the story and a 13-image photo gallery of last week’s incident HERE.
The SAN unit is a specialized team of 40 members and 12 officers of the Montforte division who volutarily serve the unit without specialized pay. They are aided by 5 technical counselors. They respond to 150 to 220 incidents annually. They are trained and equipped for the capture and the salvage of any type of injured or aggressive animal.
Their webpage has a good photo gallery depicting a variety of incidents that they have handled HERE.
THE ENTIRE TOWN OF COLEBROOK, NEW HAMPSHIRE, WAS RATTLED Friday afternoon when a massive explosion blew up a business that makes guns and packs ammunition, killing two people and injuring a third. The blast occurred at 1:30 pm and was literally heard and felt for several miles away bringing curiosity-seekers pouring into the town.
News & Sentinel
The Millenium Designed Muzzleloaders firm headquarted in Maidstone, Vermont, makes muzzle loading rifles and shotguns, as well as packing for retail supplies of black powder and bullets.
News & Sentinel
After the initial blast, a second one blew a few minutes later. When the FD units began arriving on the scene, the building was on fire with a continuing succession of explosions keeping the FF’s from getting inside to attack the blaze. The surviving occupant was found wandering around outside the building. The subsequent explosions continued for about two hours.
News & Sentinel
The three casualties were all company workers. The plant has six employees, but the annual National Muzzleloaders Assoc. convention is being held this weekend in North Carolina, so it is presumed that most of the company staff were down there when the event happened.
The Colebrook Chronicle got on the virtual air quickly with this video report showing some early footage of the disaster:
Later Friday afternoon the Colebrook Chronicle filed this updated video report that includes interviews with the State Fire Marshal and a couple who live across the road from the industrial park:
The Colebrook News & Sentinel has the STORY.
The Boston Globe has MORE.
On Thursday we posted a story HERE about the Naperville, Illinois, fire chief unveiling a plan to cut back on overtime costs by putting as many as two of their seven ambulances out of service temporarily when that month’s budgeted overtime allotment has been used up. The chief and his staff put a lot of thought and effort into designing the program and it looks like a reasonable solution – hopefully a temporary one – to the budgetary problems that everyone is seeing as a result of the dip in real estate values.
But I wish that when he made the scheme public he had been a little more cagey with his wording. I’ll give you a couple of “for instance’s”: First he said that he “feels comfortable the move won’t affect response times or service to residents.” Well, if I was John Q. Citizen my initial thought would be Why don’t they do this all month long, then? After all, he just said it won’t affect service.
Another conclusion that the newspaper implied was that those two ambulances aren’t really needed anyway. They write:
In an emergency, the closest vehicle would be sent to the scene – as it is now – and if transportation is needed the ambulance would be sent, too; it just may not be the first to arrive.
In a critical situation, Puknaitis said paramedics wouldn’t be transporting a patient immediately anyway, as it takes time to administer medicine and other care.
“We don’t just put somebody in the back of an ambulance and drive as fast as possible,” he said. “That’s ancient medical care and we don’t do that.”
Again, the question is bound to arise as to why not do this all the time? I’m sure there won’t be any problems from the citizens on this, but it’s the politicians that are always eager to find ways to grab your money to spend on pet projects and giveaways. I just hope that Chief Puknaitis manages to slip this one by without any trouble. Overall, I think he did a pretty good job with it.
* * * * *
Before we dismiss, I want to send along an interesting item that has nothing to do with fire or EMS, but has a lot to do with all of us. A group of television producers are presenting a special one-night live telecast directly into movie theaters this Tuesday honoring a special summer camp for children whose fathers were killed in the Afghanistan war. From their website:
NCM Fathom and Conrad Ricketts, Executive Producer of “Extreme Makeover Home Edition” with the support of Schwans and Ford are partnering on a one-night cinema event, Sons of the Fallen: A LIVE Tribute to Our Military Heroes. On Tuesday, May 18 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern / 7:00 p.m. Central / 6:00 p.m. Mountain / 8:00 p.m. Pacific (tape delayed) in select movie theaters nationwide, audiences will be taken on an inspiring and compelling journey to a picturesque Rocky Mountain camp where 25 boys gather for a week of camp to honor the memories of their fathers who made the ultimate sacrifice while serving our country in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A CARROLL COUNTY, IOWA, AMBULANCE REAR-ENDED a tractor-trailer rig Thursday morning, leaving the patient and a hospital nurse dead and two paramedics injured.
Daily Times Herald / Heman photo
The ambulance was transporting under emergency conditions with lights and siren activated on U. S. 30 near Beaver, Iowa, when it came up on the livestock trailer rig. The Daily Times Herald tells:
Authorities said the truck driver, Dennis Good of Ogden, had pulled into the left lane before making a left turn onto B Avenue. While checking his rear-view mirrors, Good observed the ambulance overtaking him and tried to yield the right of way by re-entering the right lane.
“The unfortunate part is the ambulance (driver) also saw the semi, he pulled to the right and they hit each other,” said Boone County sheriff’s deputy Brian Pontius.
The front of the ambulance struck the rear of the livestock trailer. Both vehicles came to rest in the eastbound lane. The crash was reported at 11:36 a.m.
The 75-yr.-old patient was killed in the wreck. The driver and the other paramedic who was in the back were both injured, the driver needing air transportation. The nurse Sheryl Stoolman, 53, was mortally injured, but the paramedic was performing life-saving measures on Stoolman and their patient when the units began arriving at the accident scene. The Iowa Hospital Association published a nice tribute to her today on their WEBSITE HERE.
THERE WAS CHAOS ON THE A4 Venice-to-Trieste motorway in Italy Friday morning when multi-car pileups occured in a fog pocket.
There were two wrecks, one in each direction of the motorway at the same spot, leaving a large pile of 70 autos and trucks blocking the entire road.
Both occurred at Noventa di Piave (Venice). More than fifty vehicles were involved in the first crash, probably caused by poor visibility in the fog. According to preliminary information, 25 people were injured, three of them seriously. Most of them were admitted to the Hospital of San Donà.
Il Gazzettino
A second crash with several cars involved occurred shortly after the first one on the opposite lanes of the A4, also at Noventa di Piave, in the direction of Trieste. Here the vehicles involved were a dozen, including several trucks. The 30 children in a tour bus with foreign plates that were also involved in the accident were taken by coach to a hotel just off the highway.
Il Gazzettino
Traffic Police, firefighters, and highway service personnel worked for several hours to rescue the injured motorists and clear the damaged vehicles off the roadway. Both lanes were re-opened at 11:30 am.
IF YOU HAVE EVER RIDDEN in “The Seat,” then you can empathize with this German fire captain. Unfortunately we don’t know what exactly is going through his mind as they’re responding through “the burg” because the photo came across the ocean without a caption.
But if you think you know what he’s thinking or saying, then please complete the missing caption and post it in the Comments for us.
(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.)
Facebook: “You’re fired!!” Farmville: “You can’t fire me, I quit!”
A rocky relationship has sprung up between the current leader in social networking, Facebook and their premier games provider Zynga, the developers of Farmville, Mafia Wars, and several others. It stems from Facebook requiring Zynga to stop cross-promoting their games along with attempting them to make a commitment to using Facebook exclusively for their platform.
Zynga, in response is taking steps to set up their own game-only website where their games will appear exclusively. Geek.com is reporting:
Two weeks ago, Farmville creators Zynga lost 3.1 million monthly active users across it’s Facebook gaming empire. Just last week, that number grew to 4.2 million. But even with losses in the millions, Zynga still stands as the leading social game developer with more than 244 million monthly active users total.
Social media company Second Shares posits that the loss in gamers may be due to the “branded” games now coming to Facebook. For instance, Family Feud, introduced to Facebook two months ago, has already passed more than 4 million users.
Read Geek.com’s article HERE.
TechCrunch has more on the growing animosity between the two adversaries HERE.
Rockland USA says it’s all about the phony money and explains why he thinks so HERE.
And then….. reports like this one from KMBC-TV in Kansas City may have led to some defections, too:
AN OVERNIGHT FIRE AT A KAUAI, HAWAII, industrial area has caused several millions of dollars in property loss. The fire started around 4:40 am Thursday morning at or near a warehouse that was filled with newsprint stored for the Garden Island newspaper. When the fire was out, there were a total of four businesses destroyed in the blaze.
Garden Island photo
The Honolulu Star Bulletin reports that other businesses affected include Beachside Roofing LLC, a boat/surfboard repair shop and Hamco, a provider of plate glass windows. About 30 firefighters were at the scene and they had the fire extinguished by noon after bringing in a construction crane to pull apart the collapsed metal building.
Fire officials said the blaze started in the Kauai Freight business area. They were still investigating the cause.
Kozerski said the fire damage was “significant,” destroying enough newsprint for two to three months. But he said the newspaper has enough newsprint at its printing plant for seven to 10 days and that readers and advertisers will not be see the ill effects of the fire.
Oahu Publications Inc., publisher of MidWeek, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and The Honolulu Advertiser, has offered to provide some newsprint to the Garden Island.
The other businesses have additional work sites and will be able to continue their commerce.
So how can we be neighborly while getting shredded about hard-earned workplace conditions?
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