THE ENTIRE TOWN OF FERRANDINA, ITALY, was on standby to be evacuated earlier this week when the thick, noxious smoke from a burning factory created a serious health hazard downwind.
The fire was in a factory that makes made polyurethane insulation boards and the major blaze emitted a volume of smoke that created a health emergency. The fire started around 10 am when there were approx. 20 employees working inside. After trying to extinguish the fire with on-site extinguishers, the plant was evacutated and the fire brigade called in.
There were 24 fire companies on the scene including two tankers, two foam units and a CBRN (Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear) specialized unit. Utilizing the benefit of the foam, the fire was knocked down in just under four hours. The fire was successfully contained to the manufacturing zone where it started.
Il Quotidiano has the STORY.
The Vigili del Fuoco (fire dept.) has MORE, plus a photo gallery HERE.
A SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, AMBULANCE GOT CAUGHT UP in a fatal collision Saturday morning while it was returning from a call. It was around 2:45 am when a BMW came flying down Interstate 5 at an “extremely high” rate of speed and clipped another car on the freeway. The glance sent the BMW into a wild spin and it struck the rear of the Seattle FD ambulance while it was moving.
KING-TV images
The driver of the BMW, a 24-year-old man, and the passenger, a 23-year-old man, were both pronounced dead at the scene. The driver and passenger of the medic unit were taken to Harborview Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries. They were both treated and released from the hospital.
KING-TV Ch. 5 has this video report from the scene:
Later after sunrise, the investigators were still combing the wrecked BMW:
LONDON, ENGLAND, IS THE HOME OF HARROD’S DEPARTMENT STORE, easily one of the most famous retail establishments in the world. And a tad exclusive as well. The London landmark that is a prime tourist attraction in itself has been owned for the past 25 years by the Egyption multi-millionaire Mohamed Al Fayed. Two months ago Fayed sold the business for just under $3 billion to the multi-billionaire royal family of Qatar, an oil-rich Arabian Emirate that makes money faster than the entire family can spend it.
A few days ago, a couple of the prince’s dropped by their new playhouse and casually left their custom automobiles parked right outside the front door. Ah…. if only they had taken advantage of Harrod’s valet parking service. Instead, within minutes a parking warden showed up and booted both cars for being illegally parked. That event drew crowds of gawkers and the curious who came to witness the rare event which would undoubtedly bring a quick visit to the clink if it was done in Qatar.
The Daily Maildescribes the cars for us: On the left is a Lamborghini Murcielago LP670-4 SuperVeloce, worth £350,000. In front of it is a bespoke specification Koenigsegg CCXR, one of only six in the world and worth a staggering £1.2million.
The Koenigsegg is built to customer requirements, right down to body-contour matching seats. Potential CCXR buyers are flown to company HQ on an airbase in Sweden, where boss Christian Von Koenigsegg takes them for a spin. Such is his confidence in the car’s stability that he accelerates to 200mph and slams on the brakes – without putting his hands on the steering wheel.
The Qatar version of the car is said to produce more than 1,064bhp, does 0-60mph in 2.9 seconds and has a top speed of 249mph. Petrol consumption – of less concern in the oil rich Middle East than in London is around 14 mpg.
The Lamborghini has a top speed of 213mph and is capable of 0-60 in 3.2 seconds. Only 350 have been built. Both cars are finished in the Al-Thani royal family’s hallmark ‘baby blue’ colour, although it would be unfair to have expected the clampers to know that.
Read the full report along with more photos in the Daily MailHERE.
One of the sightseers had his personal video camera with him and documented the event:
FIFTY SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, FIREFIGHTERS TURNED IN their gear and uniforms Friday as the city chose to shut down a firehouse and eliminate three engines and a truck company in an attempt to balance their budget.
San Jose Mercury News photo
Nearly 200 city employees are being laid off and another 500 are being reassigned to other positions, most with a pay cut.
“It’s a very sad day,” said Mayor Chuck Reed. “But we needed to balance our budget because our expenses are still going up faster than our revenues.”
Most of the city’s 11 unions consented to 10 percent compensation cuts to avoid even more job losses. Meanwhile, three unions — representing firefighters, librarians, custodians, and clerical workers, among others — have yet to reach a deal with the city.
The police union only agreed to reduce compensation by just less than 4 percent, nearly all of which is one-time savings. By contributing an additional 5.25 percent toward their retirement pensions for a year, officers will delay 70 layoffs.
Members of San Jose Fire Fighters Local 230 are infuriated that they’ve been rebuffed after offering the city what they said was an almost identical offer to the police union’s. As a result, they said, the department is being forced to mothball one fire station, three engines and one truck — and sack the personnel attached to each, union president Randy Sekany said.
Reed disputed the union’s characterization of their offer. “They wanted a no-layoff guarantee,” he said, “which would have required us to lay somebody else off in the city to save the firefighters’ jobs.”
Reed said he hopes a deal can be reached with the union to get the 50 firefighters back on the payroll.
Two of the layoffs are sons of battalion chiefs. Read the full story HERE.
IN THE BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS OF VIRGINIA, Amherst County artisan Ted Hughes has just finished building a replica of an 1861 Rucker ambulance. Mr. Hughes, 75, owns and operates the Chalklevel Carriage and Buggy Works in Piney River. After retiring from the Virginia Dept. of Transportation 19 years ago, he decided that he would like to restore and recreate horse-drawn vehicles from the past that were used before the age of gasoline-powered cars and trucks. And one of his most recent projects is the Rucker.
Ted Hughes applies the final coat of varnish to the
1861 replica Rucker ambulance in his shop.
(photo by Lee Luther)
Nolan Connelly writing in the Amherst New-Era Progress tells us:
He has just finished a yearlong, 500-hour project: a replica of an 1861 Rucker ambulance, the most popular ambulance used by the Union army during the Civil War.
The ambulance is nine feet tall, weights about 3,500 pounds and could carry eight (sitting), or four (litter), soldiers. The ambulance requires six horses to pull it, or Hughes’ 1988 GMC truck. Hughes will use his truck to deliver it to a private collector in Appomattox.
The plans for the ambulance came from the U.S. Army Quartermaster Museum in Fort Lee, which houses an original Rucker ambulance. “It’s not as complete as this one,“ Hughes said. The only ambulance parts that were not built on site were the wheels and axles.
If you have read the updates to yesterday’s story (HERE) about the Los Angeles explosion that demolished a light industrial building, you know that the cause has been identified as an illegal tap onto the gas main. On Thursday, the gas company cut off the service for non-payment and then early Friday morning somebody jury-rigged a bypass around the shutdown meter. When the regular street pressure of 28 psi hit the interior furnaces and appliances that are designed for 1 psi, it blew them out and filled the shop with gas.
Firefighters know about that type of incident because good fire schools teach about gas meter construction and the related hazards. But the ordinary citizen knows nothing about meters or psi’s and does not give a thought to the possible consequences of illegal piping. It’s just like water, right?
But what I’m leading up to is the antics of the Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa who is undoubtedly the most useless and inept mayor in the city’s history. Villaraigosa is a do-nothing publicity hound who does nothing all day but flit around from place to place for photo ops and self-promoting talks. Naturally, when he got word of this particularly-newsworthy event, his travel team parachuted into South L. A. for the inevitable appearance before the cameras. The Los Angeles Times tell us that he, …. arrived at the scene Friday afternoon, called the explosion “a poster incident” for why customers should not tamper with their gas meters. He praised the Fire Department and said the damage “could have been a lot worse.”
Wow! Have you ever seen a more profound thought before? You shouldn’t steal gas and the damage could have been worse. Well, maybe that does impress the dunces who voted for him and still can’t figure out why the city’s financial situation is in the toilet. But the do-nothing mayor didn’t stop with that exhibit of logical thinking. Again, from the Times: Villaraigosa and Councilwoman Jan Perry, in whose district the explosion occurred, said they would consider a plan to educate South Los Angeles business owners about safe practices.
That’s right… this huge city that is bankrupt, bust, broke, whathaveyou, is being managed by people who think that it would be wise to spend even more taxpayers’ money to set up classes and projects to teach people to not steal utililty service. Or at least do it safely.
Every now and then I point out that most municipalities are not closing firehouses, or laying off firefighters and police officers. Mainly it’s the cities that have a history of being steered by ineptitude and questionable practices by people whose priorities are far different than what we think they should be.
Our priority right now is to get this equipment checked out. I’m going to get the coffee started. See you back in day room in a little bit.
A LENGTHY FIRE IN TIVOLI, ITALY, near Rome kept firefighters busy for over 15 hours Thursday night and Friday morning.
The fire started in a stand of brush and spread rapidly across the land into a storage building filled with plastics and insulation. While the warehouse was coming alight, the brush fire kept growing also. Ten fire departments were brought to the scened along with 40 civil defense volunteers and some tanker trucks from the vigili del fuoco of Rome.
Before it was brought under control late Friday morning the fire advanced from the warehouse partly into a Renault auto dealership that adjoined it. Only part of the auto dealer’s was damaged though, along with 6 of the new cars in the showroom.
THE BANKS ALONG THE SEINE RIVER IN PARIS, France, came to a standstill Thursday evening when an Austrian tour bus rolled out of a parking lot into the river close by the Eiffel Tower.
None of the tour’s 51 passengers were on board. It is believed that the driver hadn’t set the parking brake properly, allowing it to take a dip. Within minutes the police and fire department were on the scene and strapped the bus up to be raised from the river.
An English tourist was standing by with his home video camera:
A MASSIVE EXPLOSION LEVELED A 2-STORY industrial building in Los Angeles this morning. The blast destroyed a welding security fence shop shortly after 6 am Pacific and left one person dead and another in critical condition. One man was killed when the blast hurled him into the street and another man died after being electrocuted by a downed power line.
NBC News
The Los Angeles Fire Department USAR team has been brought in to search the large collapse for any people trapped in the debris. It is believed that there might be at least one more worker in the rubble. Two other people were literally hurled out of the wood-frame building by the blast and were found wedged underneath automobiles in the parking lot.
The fire department responded with 100 FF’s and had the resulting fire extinguished in about a half-hour. Investigators are saying that early indications point to a natural gas explosion. Update: Gas leak caused by tampered natural gas line. The Associated Press is reporting:
The gas meter at the building was shut off Thursday, and someone installed an illegal line to the meter that allowed natural gas from a street line to enter at excessively high pressure, said Denise King, a spokeswoman for Southern California Gas Co.
The gas line bypassed the meter’s shut-off valve and its regulator, which was designed to reduce pressure to safe levels, King said. She did not know why the meter had been shut off. It is now suspected that natural gas or an industrial gas may have been leaking and collected overnight in the building then ignited when operations resumed in the morning.
(Elizabeth Alvarado, a manager at JL Spray) said she had spoken to Gas Co. employees when they shut off the service Thursday afternoon. “They told me the bill wasn’t paid,” she said.
Investigators at the scene Friday morning could immediately tell that the meter had been tampered with in a way that allowed for “energy theft,” Lord said. A maintenance valve was turned on so the gas could bypass the meter and regulator.
The appliances in the building were designed to handle about a third of a pound of pressure, Lord said, but after the tampering, the full 28 pounds of “street pressure” was released. “And then they probably went inside and tried to light something,” he said.
The business, J.L. Spray, has four employees and makes metal security fences, doors, windows and gates, said Elizabeth Alvarado, a secretary for the business. She was not at the site when the blast occurred but said the owner, Jaime Lara, arrived every morning to start a propane furnace that is used to heat-cure a paint-like powder coating that is used on the metal. The plant is next door to a welding shop.
The Associated Press and KTLA-TV have filed this early video report:
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Updated, 5 pm. Scroll down. Also video added.
IN NORFOLK, MASSACHUSETTS, TWO THREE PEOPLE WERE seriously injured when a condominium building under construction was leveled by an explosion. The blast occurred around 12:30 pm Eastern.
WBZ-TV
The two injured were airlifted to hospitals and there are reports from the scene of “several” other injuries. At the time of this posting at least one person was still trapped beneath the rubble. There is no more information yet while the FD’s are still working the incident.
Update, 5 pm:
Eight injuries have been reported after the FD has cleared the scene. Two of the injured were firefighters, but not serious. The type of injuries has not been reported. The Attleboro Sun Chronicle is reporting this evening:
…. three construction workers were transported by medical helicopter to area hospitals- two to Brigham and Women’s Hospital and one to Massachusetts General Hospital.
One of those construction workers suffered burns and was trapped in the basement of the smoldering duplex at the Village at River’s Edge condominium complex for at least two hours before firefighters pulled him out of the rubble.
Construction workers were working the half of the duplex that was leveled during the explosion. A woman residing in the other half of the building, which is still standing, escaped without injury but declined to talk to reporters.
The explosion occurred at around 12:20 p.m. Each unit in complex, which is designed for older adults, has a propane tank, but it was not clear whether a tank was the source of the explosion. State Fire Marshall Stephen Coan is on the scene, but declined to speculate on the cause of the explosion.
WELL, HERE WE GO AGAIN…. Another news photo that even stumped the news service’s headline writers. But they sent it out anyway, leaving it up to us to describe what is going on here.
I don’t know if they are demonstrating the Power of Prayer or what, but I’m sure that many of you can probably help us out. As always, post your suggested caption for the photo in the Comments.
AN ELDERLY MAN IN THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND died Thursday afternoon when the ambulance he was being transported in was involved in a collision.
The early reports say the the ambulance was transporting the man to a hospital under emergency conditions when it went through a red traffic signal at an intersection. An automobile passing through on the cross street crashed into the ambulance.
The patient who was in his late 70′s died later at the hospital. The ambulance driver, the paramedic and the motorist were all transported, treated and released.
The Irish Independent has the details of the STORY HERE.
A TURKISH TOUR BOAT CAUGHT FIRE and sank in the Mediterranean Sea on Wednesday night. Turkish officials say 18 tourists and five crew jumped into the water after flames engulfed the Kayhan-9 on its way from the Turkish resort of Marmaris to Fethiye. One person, a Spaniard, is missing at sea and three other people were slightly injured in the mishap.
The three injured passengers have all been
released from the hospital. (World Bulletin)
The fire broke out for a reason still unknown in the evening. Today’s Zaman (Turkey) reports:
The crew called the Coast Guard for assistance as the fire spread. People arriving on the scene managed to rescue all passengers and crew, except for a Spanish tourist. The boat sank shortly after the passengers were rescued. They were taken to the Fethiye State Hospital. According to news reports, most of them were discharged from hospital on Thursday and accommodated in a hotel.
The Turkish coast guard continues to search for the missing passenger.
A MICHIGAN BEEKEEPER GOT IN A STINGING SITUATION recently, causing a response by the local FD to get her out of her sticky problem.
In Pittsfield Township, Antoinete Rucillo was fully clad in her bee suit as she tended a large hive Tuesday evening when the swarm turned on her. Apparently the bees felt that their queen was being threatened and mounted a counter-attack on Rucillo. Even though she had her bee suit on, she failed to properly protect the openings at her feet and ankles, leading to intrusions and stings from more than 50 of the bees.
Pittsfield Twp. FD photo
He husband, seeing that she was in distress, ran inside and called 9-1-1 leading a couple of dozen of the bees into the house with him. When the firefighters arrived she directed them to spray water as if it was rainfall because the bees don’t like rain. The engine company did that until the bees slowly disbursed and returned to their hive.
WJBK-TV Ch. 2 Detroit filed this video report:
In an interview with another television reporter from WDIV-TV the Rucillo’s told:
Antoinete Rucillo, who uses the bees to harvest honey, said she doesn’t blame the bees. “They’re bees, they’re just protecting their hive. I was the one who wasn’t prudent. I’m not mad at them at all,” she said. She added that beekeeping is her hobby and that if she thought they were a threat to any of her four children that she would get rid of them.
However, after this incident, her husband said he’s had enough of the bees. “My hope is that we won’t have the hives anymore out of an abundance of caution,” he said. “Apparently this is extremely rare and if she insists on having them, I will have no problem as so long as when she goes out there, our kids and I are 10 miles elsewhere.”
It sounds like a family pow-wow is in order. Read the full story and view more videos HERE.
Occasionally we’ve talked about DVD’s in the course of our observations of the digital tech world. I’m still watching for the kiosks to show up that make the DVD right there after you choose your title from their list of “thousands” available that the machine downloads from Central Headquarters. I’m wondering if the cost of that kind of production is still too high to make it practical, because it sure is a good idea. And then maybe they are showing up in limited areas where it is more econimically feasible to plant one. An airport would be a likely spot, I would think.
On the other hand, maybe the fickle public isn’t buying into that plan (yet). Renting a DVD is still extremely popular. Sure, the Blockbuster stores are going vacant all over and the mom-n-pops video rental shops are long gone. But Netflix is still going like gangbusters, renting out 2 million discs each day. That’s the physical rental through the mail, not including the growing practice of downloading movies through your cable box and, in some cases, onto your computer.
But something that is really surprising is that the nation’s public libraries that loan out DVD’s (for free, no less) are now loaning out the discs at a greater rate than Netflix. Public library distribution has now reached 2.1 million a day, easing ahead of the Netflix business. Naturally, the price advantage has something to do with the library’s popularity (“free” is always an advantage). But they have also been expanding their collections, doubling their catalogs in the past decade. In 1999 libraries stocked approx. 73.5 video items-per-thousand residents, but by 2008 that number had climbed to 166.7 videos-per-thousand.
Another advantage that the library has is the usual back-catalog of literary titles and classic documentaries that are not normally found at the pop rental shops. Or even vintage tv series that have been re-issued. In Connecticut the state library association says that DVD’s have a much higher circulation rate than books and now account for 27% of the materials on loan. Kim Velsey writing in the Hartford Courant tells us:
Jose Rosa, browsing the DVD selection in Manchester’s Mary Cheney Library last week, said that cost is a factor for him as well — he’s a big movie watcher and supplements a streaming Netflix subscription with the library’s variety of older titles. Largely, though, he likes the library because it’s a library. He can look at movies while his 12-year-old son finds books to take home.
He noted that it also provides a personal touch: The librarians are really helpful. With neighborhood video stores nearly extinct, libraries are one of the few places where people can flip through movies and trade recommendations with one another.
“Netflix will give you the newest releases,” said Library Director Douglas McDonough, “but there is a big social function to libraries.”
Notice that the man quoted says he also uses a streaming Netflix subscription. So we have 2.1 million per day from libraries, 2.0 for Netflix mail rentals, 1.4 million from Redbox and 1.2 million through Blockbuster. That’s 6.7 million DVD rentals per day just for those four outlets, plus the growing streaming market. That doesn’t leave a lot left over for the kiosks, does it?
And then there’s always the Amazon.com method. They have hundreds of titles marked down for a Friday Sale with prices marked down by up to 55% on both DVD and Blu-ray discs HERE . I see that the Complete Monty Python collection is one of them. I’m tempted.
We sure don’t need a DVD to show us how to get this equipment checked out, so let’s get started with that. I’m going to get another pot of coffee going.
* SConFire has a story of a race car shop that burned down, taking with it some antique cars and a lifetime collection of trophies and memorabilia of the owner’s HERE.
* STATter911 has a strange story about a FF who was fired because he helped a neighbor who was injured in an auto wreck. His sin was to do it on a day he had called in sick at the FD. See if you can figure out the reasoning HERE.
* Here’s a situation you may not have seen before. Wildfire Today is reporting on a large peat-bog fire that began spontaneously in Russia and has filled Moscow with smoke. If you are curious like I was, CLICK HERE to read about it. Strange.
* Raising Ladders has the latest update on the new SCBA flat-pack that will be going into production soon HERE.
* Firefighters Worst Enemy has a discussion on buildings whose physical features change over the years HERE.
* The Happy Medic is working on a concept that will award scholarship money for people who want to attend paramedic school. Sounds like a good project and you can check it out HERE.
THE CRADLE OF LIBERTY ANTIQUE FIRE APPARATUS ASSOCIATION will be hosting the Delaware Valley Fire Muster and Show at Rose Tree Park on Sunday, August 1, 2010 from 9am to 2pm. Rose Tree Park is located on Rt-252, Media (Delaware County) PA (just north of US Rt-1 Media Bypass).
This year they will pay tribute to 100 years of American-LaFrance, with a special appearance by ALF’s Serial # 1, a 1910 American-LaFrance Chemical and Hose Wagon Type 5, still owned by the Lenox (MA) FD. They will also be honoring Gold Leafing Artisan / Master Gilder (and Delaware County resident) Charlie Mullin.
There will also be a flea market and after the muster, later in the evening there will be a concert in the park’s amphitheater.
For more information visit the Cradle of Libery AFA’s website HERE.
Firegeezer adds: It would be worth the trip just to see that ALF #1.
PROBABLY NOT AS QUICKLY AS ANDREW BOHRER gets into his. Andrew is a bar manager and noted bartender in Seattle, Washington. He classes himself as a “craft bartender” who can do extraordinary things while he plies his craft behind the taps.
Seattle Met Magazine
One of his unique talents is opening a beer bottle faster than anybody else in the world. Doubt it? On this video that starts with him creating an ice sculpture for the bar, he issues a public challenge (turn the sound all the way up) for anybody who thinks they are faster than he is. To eliminate any doubt about his skill, he demonstrates his cap-removing move at about the 32-second mark. But don’t blink!
LAST MONTH FIREGEEZER REPORTED (HERE) on the travails of the Avenel-Colonia First Aid Squad as they were suspended by Woodbridge, New Jersey, Mayor John E. McCormac. The suspension was immediate and indefinite while the municipal council decides whether to permanently shut down the squad.
The event that triggered the suspension was described in our earlier report:
The volunteer rescue squad is facing allegations that members – including two top officers – took an ambulance on a “joy ride” to Edison, then broke into an old roller skating rink, all while on duty. Later, they posted pictures of themselves inside the rink on Facebook pages. Two of the participants are also the only two full-time employees of the squad.
Seven members were charged in that incident with criminal trespass. At that time, township officials said that this was just the latest of a series of complaints they have received about the squad over the past few years. The Somervile Courier Newsreports on the compromise offered at first to the leaders of Avenel-Colonia:
Township Business Administrator Robert Landolfi said officials were hoping to keep the squad open provided all seven accused individuals — as well as board member James Powers, who condoned the actions during a meeting with the township — resigned and the squad allowed a township-appointed supervisor to manage its day-to-day functions.
The misbehaving officers of the rescue squad decided instead to call the council’s bluff and refused the offer claiming that they cannot agree to having no say in who would be the overseers.
The township, showing that it means business, then publicly released some other damning reports on the rescue squad that they have been keeping mum on up until now. The Courier News continues:
An investigation by Woodbridge police Det. John Nisky led to a Kenilworth man, who is not a member of the squad, being charged July 14 with promoting prostitution, a third-degree offense.
Officials say Stanley P. Misiuk, 58, brought women to parties at the squad building where they danced nude and were available to perform sexual acts for money. Police are aware of several of these parties in the past two years, officials said, but they declined to provide further details.
Police this month also charged two squad members with causing false alarms to which the Iselin Chemical Hook and Ladder Fire Company in Fire District No. 11 responded. Dale Eckensberger Jr. was charged with two counts of causing false alarm while his brother Randy was charged with one count. Eckensberger Jr. and his father were among the seven squad members charged with trespassing (last month).
The municipal council has scheduled a vote on the fate of Avenel-Colonia at its regular meetin on Tuesday August 3.
RAY CASON THOUGHT HE WAS JUST “GOIN’ FISHING” when he took his 14-ft. jonboat down a canal in the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia recently. But the trip quickly turned exciting when he came across about 300 alligators in a feeding frenzy.
A rare occurrence was taking place when there was a confluence of gators, low water, and a concentration of food. Cason had fortuitously taken his video camera with him and documented his cruise throught the terrfying pool of aggitated reptiles. When asked what he did when he found himself in the middle of this weird event, he responded, “I just eased on through and went fishin’.”
AN ELDERLY WOMAN WAS WAITING IN A VANCOUVER, WASHINGTON, McDonald’s restaurant drive-thru lane Wednesday at 11 am when her car started burning. At first the 80-yr.-old woman was unaware that her car was on fire, but a man in a pickup right behind her saw what was happening and jumped out of his truck to go to her aid.
Neil Oldaker was in the McDonald’s restaurant drive-through when he saw flames under the white sedan in front of his truck. The flames were quickly moving up the sides of the car. But the driver, waiting to get her food at the window, didn’t seem to notice. So Oldaker swung into action.
“I knocked on the window to get her attention. I yelled, ‘The car’s on fire!’ But she seemed confused,” he said.
So Oldaker dragged the 80-year-old woman from the car just as flames spread to the McDonald’s restaurant, ripping through the kitchen and gutting the building’s interior.
KGW-TV filed this video report from the scene:
The first engine arrived on the scene in six minutes and found the kitchen area well involved. The fire got up into the hidden space between the ceiling and the roof, and caused a total destruction of the restaurant. By 4:30 pm there was a demolition crew on the scene taking the rest of the building down.
A HOUSTON (TEXAS) FIRE DEPARTMENT ENGINE was positioned and operating at the scene of a truck fire early Wednesday morning when an auto drove right into the front end of the pumper.
The accident took place at 2 am while the engine’s crew was extinguishing a fire in an 18-wheeler on a freeway frontage road. Suddenly, the car drove into the front bumper of the firetruck, demolishing the front end of the auto.
The driver wasn’t hurt, but he was arrested for drunk driving and taken away to the lockup.
KRIV-TV Ch. 7 / 26 showed up and recorded this video report:
This morning I would like to remind you about this interesting new means of internet communications called “netcasting.” It really isn’t new, if you call 3 years ancient in digital timelines. But netcasting is refined now and starting to make an impact on how information is shared these days. To state it simply, netcasting is comparable to radio broadcasting….. an audio “program” is distributed via internet instead of regular radio waves, but otherwise they are similar.
But netcasting has a couple of very big advantages over radio. One is the ability to store the program after it’s created and then download it to your computer (or mp3 player) to be heard anytime at your convenience. The other unique feature is one that is used whenever the netcast is sent out via a service called Blog Talk Radio. If you are listening to the “live” netcast, you can log in through the Blog Talk and be connected with the producers along with the other listeners much like a group instant-messaging connection. While the program is unfolding, you can interact with the other listeners and the people on the netcast can also watch the IM comments and respond directly to them, if they choose.
When it comes to the Fire / EMS side of things, the fast-growing and popular netcast appropriately called Firefighter Netcast is leading the movement.
Firefighter Netcast is produced by two of our FireEMSBlogs colleagues, Rhett Fleitz the Fire Critic, and John Mitchell of Fire Daily fame. They got together earlier this year and made a committment to producing a top-notch show with quality guests and using the best available equipment to make it a truly professional production.
They were sharing our booth at the recently-concluded Firehouse Expo in Baltimore and where they set up and recorded more than a dozen interviews with notable fire/rescue leaders. It was great having them there with us and their production drew a lot of interest from the visitors who passed by our booth.
At first they were producing a weekly show netcasting on Wednesday or Thursday nights. But the popularity and potential of the format rapidly led to a plan to gradually expand the offerings. Along with Rhett’s and John’s weekly get-together, they are also serving up regular netcasts hosted by noted building specialist Chief Christopher Naum who premiered his “Taking it to the Streets” program earlier this week. Another regular offering is Firefighter Storytellers with Tim Sendelbach.
Tonight, Thursday July 29, they will be sending out a netcast hosted by Chief Art Goodrich, publisher of the Chief Reason Art blog. The “promo” for the upcoming show tells:
On Thursday, July 29th, Firefighter Netcast Presents The Voice of Reason will welcome special guest Shawn Longerich, Executive Director for the Cyanide Poisoning Treatment Coalition (CPTC) and can be found on the world wide web at www.FireSmoke.org. The mission of the CPTC is to “focus the required attention and resources on the issues, the CPTC aims to increase awareness about the risk of fire smoke cyanide exposure as it relates to Awareness, Prevention, Protection, Detection, Diagnosis and Treatment”. Please join me and my guest, Shawn Longerich at 9:00 pm EDT on Thursday, July 29th for a very special evening as we explore the poisons in what we commonly call “smoke.”
The netcasts are normally scheduled to run from 9 – 11 pm Eastern, unless there is a special netcast coming along at a different time. I recommend that you take some time and go to the Firefighter Netcast home page HERE a little bit ahead of time and get acquainted with the layout and see how the past shows are archived for downloading. That is also where you can log in to the BlogTalk network to participate in tonight’s show while it’s live.
Personally, I am very enthusiastic about this concept and I’m also impressed with the professionalism and quality of John and Rhett’s production. Check it out. It’s definitely the format that will become the seminar of the future. Remember, that’s this evening at 9 pm Eastern time.
Speaking of checking it out, let’s get started on our morning equipment check. It’s still there and it still needs to be kept ready. While you get going with that, I will fix us some fresh coffee. See you back in the day room.
Update, 10 pm Eastern: The other two passengers have died at the hospital. There are no survivors. Update #2: Pilot’s actions prevent greater tragedy. Scroll down.
A MEDICAL HELICOPTER HAS CRASHED IN A TUCSON, Arizona, neighborhood Wednesday afternoon. The plane crashed onto the sidewalk in front of a home and burst into flames at 1:43 pm local (Mountain standard) time (4:43 Eastern daylight), according to the Tucson Fire Department.
KOLD-TV
Nobody on the ground was injured. There were three medical personnel on the helicopter and one of them was killed immediately. The other two were injured, but there is no early report yet on the extent of their injuries. Update: Both of the other passengers, a paramedic and a flight nurse, died soon after at the hospital. Early reports say that the aircraft was carrying organ donor packages and did not have a patient on board.
Witness reports say that the engine of the helicopter just stopped while in flight, leaving it to drop to the ground.
This home video begins just prior to the arrival of the FD:
The LifeNet Health aircraft was flying from Marana to Douglas and was in radio contact with Tucson control. There was no indication from the pilot that he was having any problem during the flight.
Update: The other two passengers have died at the hospital. There are no survivors. Update #2, Thursday am: Several witness are saying that the pilot appeared to have steered the falling aircraft away from the houses so that it landed in the street. The Arizona Daily Star reports in part:
Ricardo Carrasco, said the helicopter’s rotors stopped working and it started to plummet. He said the pilot managed to steer the helicopter away from the house.”If he (the pilot) hadn’t turned around he’d have hit the house,” said Carrasco, who ran toward the helicopter after it crashed but wasn’t able to get close because of “a wall of flames.”
Joe Furno, who lives on the same street as Townsend, said the helicopter originally was heading toward at least two houses. “The way it was going, it might’ve hit between two houses and maybe hit mine,” Furno said. “He took it right into the middle of Park Avenue.”
This aerial view of the crash scene shows the proximity of the fuselage to one of the homes.
TWO FAST-MOVING BRUSH FIRES IN KERN COUNTY, California, have raced through 17,000 acres and destroyed at least 40 homes. The most destructive of the two fires is near the town of Tehachapi and has claimed more than 30 houses and still threatens 150 more. So far, 2,300 people have been evacuated. Currently it is about 20% contained.
That fire began Tuesday afternoon around 2 pm and the high winds whipped it up and sent it moving so fast that the residents had no time to gather any belongings before fleeing for their lives. This early video report from AP interviews some of the evacuees and shows the initial damage:
The other fire began Monday afternoon and covers a much larger area, but it is sparsely settled and only 8 or 10 dwellings have been destroyed so far. As of this morning it was only 5% contained.
The winds rise as the sun burns off a dewy inversion layer of cooler air, and that could cause the fires to flare up, said Jeff Barlow, a senior forecaster with the National Weather Service in Hanford.
“It’s like opening a flue to a fireplace and that’s when you see these things really run,” he said.
Sacramento Bee
Years of drought in the Tehachapi area, along with tree diseases and bugs among the foothills’ pine and chaparral, have turned the area into a “tinderbox,” said county fire Battalion Chief David Goodell.
. I see that the Complete Monty Python collection is one of them. I’m tempted.
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