………. Fire Engineering, February 1956
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Looking Back Bonus!
Chrysler Air Raid Siren – 1954
Thanks to Andrew E. for sending this one in.
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Erie Drops “Dual” Firehouses
Comments OffTHE ERIE (PENNSYLVANIA) BUREAU OF FIRE HAS BEEN operating two of their downtown fire stations in a “musical chairs” type of response. The two stations each had a truck and an engine, but only one company of firefighters that would respond on one or the other, depending on the type of call and the location. The other four stations each have one engine assigned.
The new apportionment that went into effect Wednesday morning eliminates the dual-assignment role and takes one of the trucks out of service, leaving the firefighters in Central station operating the engine only. The other station had their engine removed from service and they are now operating as a dedicated ladder company.
The South Central station now houses the only ladder in service.
This change is part of a settlement that has been debated between the city and the firefighters union for nearly two years. In January 2009 a labor arbitrator declared that the city increase the minimum number of firefighters on every unit from four to five, if it maintained six or fewer companies, or keep the number of firefighters per unit at four and add an additional company, beginning Jan. 1 of this year.
With this compromise, each engine will have a minimum of four and the truck will have five on duty. There are five firefighters assigned to every shift, so sick and annual leave is usually covered with a minimum of overtime.
The Erie Times-News adds:
Fire Chief Tony Pol said the elimination of the dual companies would not adversely affect response times. “We’re not closing a house. Response times will remain the same. We’ll get anywhere in the city within four minutes. We’re going to continue to provide the same service to the citizens we always have,” he said.
No firefighters lost their jobs because of the change, and the city continues to operate six firehouses — now five engine companies and one ladder company.Also as part of the agreement, firefighters will no longer serve as first responders to certain areas of the city except in life-threatening cases, such as cardiac arrests. In the downtown area, the ladder truck needs to be free for emergency calls requiring the use of the truck, Pol said.
Read the full (complicated) story in the Times-News HERE.
Erie Fire Department WEBPAGE.
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Firegeezer gets annoyed when fire chiefs or elected officials mislead their citizens with statements like Chief Pol is reported to have said, “We’re going to continue to provide the same service to the citizens we always have…” They have just taken a ladder truck out of service and announced that a major portion of the downtown area (which is probably pretty heavily populated on weekdays) will no longer get a ”nearest unit” response to a medical emergency. Hardly what I would call “the same service.”
A mere 20 years ago, Erie ran 12 engines and 4 ladders. Now they are covering with 5 engines and 1 ladder.
FF’s Feeling Heat From Strip Mall Fire
Comments OffA 3-ALARM FIRE IN A CARMEL, INDIANA, STRIP MALL has wiped out one end of the shopping center Thursday morning. The fire is knocked down, but units are still on the scene mopping up at the time of this posting.
WXIN-TV
The Carmel FD responded to the Dunkin Donuts shop around 2:15 am, two hours after the employees arrived at work, for an odor of smoke. The firefighters found no cause for the smell and permitted the employees back into the building before they left. At 4:28 the Dunkins workers called again, this time reporting visible smoke in their shop.
When the FD returned there was signficant fire in the roof area and was spreading to a wine-making shop next to it. The fire grew rapidly as extra alarms were called and a concerted effort to contain the blaze was set up. Within a short time the roof over the doughnut shop had collapsed and the wine-making business was destroyed.
WRTV Ch. 6 Indianapolis filed this video report from the scene this morning:
The firefighters, aided by units from Indianapolis and Noblesville on mutual aid, did contain the fire to the two businesses.
WXIN-TV has a 15-image photo gallery HERE.
THE TROUBLED MEMPHIS (TENNESSEE) FIRE DEPARTMENT continues to find ways to bring shame and disrepute upon itself. This latest adventure in misfeasance includes a battalion chief and a careless investigator following a fatal car crash involving the batt. chief. B.C. Alan Bradshaw was responding in his buggy to a grass fire last month when he broadsided a car at an intersection. The driver of the other car, Walter Dunlap died five days later.
Batt. Chief Bradshaw
The FD regulations require that any driver involved in an accident of any kind to be immediately tested for drug or alcohol use. However, the FD investigator did not have Bradshaw tested until several days later, after Dunlap died. WPTY-TV Ch. 24, which has been dogging the fire department for several months now, prepared this video report where they also disclose that Chief Bradshaw was arrested last year on a DUI charge:
The MFD has had more than 80 firefighters arrested for various crimes over the past five years including one who has been arrested repeatedly for burglary. The fire chief has stated on the record (HERE) that he’s aware there are firefighters with criminal records, and that he’s not against hiring felons in the future.
Firegeezer notes that employees of integrity would usually insist on having the mandatory test administered right away in order to not complicate the investigation and related matters later. Read our previous report from September 3 on a recent flap in the MFD HERE.
THERE ARE ADVANTAGES IN HAVING A LUXURY car maker in your first-due. The Munich Fire Brigade in Germany knows this as well as anybody from being the home of BMW. Last week the MFB received eight new BMW X3′s to be used as rapid-response cars for the emergency paramedics.
The all-wheel drive speedsters are a gift from the factory and came painted, marked and equipped with the warning lights. The cars have 2.0-liter, four cylinder diesel engines with a power output of 177 hp and maximum torque of 200 Nm (150 lb-ft). On the top is a Hansch DBS LED lightbar, while Hansch Sputnik nano grill lights were installed at the front. The vehicle also has two sirens: an electronic Hansch Typ 520 and an air pressured Martinshorn.
photos courtesy of BMW
BMW has a long history of providing vehicles for the fire brigade and this continues the tradition.
Auto Genau has the STORY.
Hat tip: Christian L.
Morning Lineup – November 11
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VETERANS DAY
From everybody at Firegeezer to all of you who have put on the uniform
and served to protect our great country and our precious freedoms,
we extend our heartfelt appreciation and a big
THANK YOU!
THE OHIO EDISON POWER COMPANY IS CLEANING up and refining the Mad River Power Plant in Springfield, Ohio. Part of the project is to remove a 275-ft. tall smokestack that was built in 1927 and is no longer needed. So they did two things. First they brought in one of those blasting companies that brings tall buildings down in a single boom, then they brought in a crowd of curious onlookers to witness the grande collapse on Wednesday, November 10.
But it didn’t quite go according to script. The initial blasts meant to aim the collapse left it standing and the subsequent ka-boom designed to bring it down, did. But not where they had planned for it to land. The video camera that was set up to record the event did just that:
Power was knocked out to 4,000 people in the area. Officials confirmed that all the charges planted did detonate, but they need to investigate why the stack went the wrong direction. They are speculating that cracks in the base of the stack caused it to rotate the wrong way when the structure finally began to fall.
One of the casualties was a group of transformers that was crushed by the falling smokestack:
(Note the fleeing workers in the background) AP
….along with one of the operating equipment buildings:
The original power plant was one of the largest generating plants in the country when it was built, but was taken out of service in 1981 and has been largely idle since then. Some of the generating units and a substation are still in use on the property, mostly in a backup capacity.
WHEN A KEIZER, OREGON, POLICE OFFICER stopped a Salem woman on a traffic violation two weeks ago, an unlikely chain of events was triggered. The woman identified herself as Tammi Renee Aguilar but could not produce any identification. After some questioning, she next told him that her name was Teresa Ortiz and some family members in the car confirmed that was her real name.
When she produced a fake driver’s license with the Ortiz name on it, she was arrested and taken to the station for booking. When her name didn’t match any of the document records, a fingerprint match was requested from the national database and the results exposed her as a woman who has been a fugitive for more than 22 years named Tracy Marie Humphries, age 46.
Tracy Marie Humphries
(her real name)
She is wanted for crimes in Oregon and Washington and has been living under the alias since before she got married and had children. Her husband who owns a forestry firefighting contract service had no idea that his wife was living a double life.
KATU-TV ran this video report on the unraveling of her identity and the arrest:
Humphries was arrested this past Friday and has been charged with parole violation, theft, two counts of identity theft, eight counts of forgery, eight counts of criminal possession of a forged instrument, and two counts of giving false information to police.
The Salem Statesman Journal has the full story of how this case went down HERE.
Car Chasers Crash Into Ambulance
Comments OffAN EVANSVILLE, INDIANA, AMBULANCE WAS RUN INTO by a pickup truck that ran a red light while it was being chased by a third vehicle early Wednesday morning. The ambulance did not have a patient onboard and was not responding to a call.
WEHT-TV image
Two men in the other vehicle, a car, were chasing the truck after they thought they saw the man and woman in the truck trying to steal a car. The chase began in Newburgh and continued into Evansville where the collision occurred as the pickup clipped the front end of the ambulance. The two people in the truck and one of the paramedics were slightly injured and transported.
The two men in the car were arrested, one for disorderly conduct and the other for public intoxication.
WEHT-TV Ch. 25 has the early STORY.
Fire Gets a Grip on Grippo’s
Comments OffTHE CINCINNATI, OHIO, AREA IS GOING to be without one of their favorite munchies for a few days (or weeks) following a fire at Grippo’s Potato Chip factory Tuesday night.
Cincinnati Enquirer
The Colerain Township firefighters were called out around 9:20 pm and found fire coming from a fryer vent on the roof of the plant when they arrived. An employee said that the fire started over the potato chip fryer and some employees attempted to extinguish it, but it grew into the vent. The fire triggered some sprinkler heads in the building and added some water damage to the loss. The finished chips are stored on pallets and were spared the damage from the water.
WKRC-TV filed this video report:
This facility cooks and packages Grippo’s regular and barbecue-flavor chips and will be shut down until the fryer is fixed. The employees are being brought back to work today to clean up and try to restore the operation as soon as possible. They turn out 1,400 lbs. of potato chips per hour. Grippo’s pretzels are produced at another facility and will not be affected.
Grippo’s mechanics will be checking today to see if the fryer can be repaired or if it has to be replaced, while roofers will be on the job repairing the roof damage.
The Cincinnati Enquirer has MORE.
Morning Lineup – November 10
Comments OffLong-time readers know that one of our favorite fire departments that we follow is the North Pole Fire Department, way up north (in Alaska), of course. Located in the Arctic climes where there are only two seasons, Winter and July, these dedicated firefighters and EMT’s have been protecting their citizens since 1957. At first they operated out of a space shared with the police dept. in City Hall over on Snowman Lane, but now they are in a newer and larger facility on Lewis St. just a block off S. Santa Claus Lane.
Naturally, they have a Moose Lodge in North Pole.
They operate a combination department with 5 full-time career firefighters on each shift and a vibrant contingent of volunteers supplementing the force, and not one elf among them. They have a good, informative website online, too. Pay a VISIT HERE and check it out.
What brought this topic up today was the story of a working fire on Monday that was reported by KTVF-TV Ch. 11 in Fairbanks:
You can rely on Firegeezer to keep you current with the happenings in North Pole.
Now let’s get our own equipment checked out. I need to get the coffee started.
2 Semi’s … 2 Fires … 0 Injuries
Comments OffTWO SEMI-TRACTOR TRAILERS COLLIDED in a Los Angeles freeway interchange Monday night with one of them rolling over and both of them ending up on fire.
The wreck was caused by one of the trucks coming around the on-ramp at too high a speed and rolling over when it entered the freeway. As the truck skidded along on its side, another semi- traveling on the freeway plowed into the wreck, striking the first truck’s diesel tank and starting a fire that moved into both rigs.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department was quick on the scene and had the fires knocked down in a timely manner, but the flames had extended into the trailer of one truck that was hauling tires. With a tire fire going in the forward part of the trailer, a band of firefighters was deployed to manually empty the tires from the rear until they removed all the unburned stock. That operation is shown in part of this video report from KTLA-TV:
Traffic was shut down in both directions as well as on the overpass because the fires were directly under the bridge and the flame impingement was enough to warrant an inspection before traffic could be allowed to resume. Both highways were shut down for nine hours and for all we know, the traffic hasn’t cleared up yet. Both drivers walked away from the crash unhurt.
Weirdest Touchdown of the Season (so far)
Comments OffWHEN THE DRISCOLL MIDDLE SCHOOL football team in Corpus Christi, Texas, lined up after benefitting from an offsides play, the opposing team couldn’t figure out why the center decided to hand the ball to the quarterback who then started pacing off another five yards. They found out soon enough… as you will too after you watch this video of the best trick play of the season:
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EATON TOWNSHIP, OHIO, IS NOT FAR FROM CLEVELAND. With the suburbs apparently creeping their way the Township’s WEBSITE displays on its banner the following motto: “A rural community growing into the future.” It looks like they still have some growing to do though, because town hall is still permeated with barnyard politics.
This past Friday the township Fire Chief Phillip Slack, who has been with the FD for 41 years, caught everybody by suprise when he walked in and tendered his resignation effective immediately. In his letter, Slack wrote that he has “a clean record during my many years with the department, (but) this year I have been suspended twice, largely upon the initiative of Trustee Donna Hicks, who, as many of you know, is friends with a former member of the (fire) department that I disciplined for insubordination.”
Slack wrote that Hicks wrote him up for failing to respond to her e-mail, despite her sending it to the wrong address, so that he never received it. He was also disciplined for taking too long to get the departments two pumpers repaired. Slack addressed that by saying that he didn’t want to take both of their only two fire engines out of service at the same time, instead he fixed one and then the other. The pumpers are 14 and 29 years old and the township has no plans to replace them.
The Eaton Fire Department operates out of the single-story brick
building behind the Town Hall seen in this Google street view.
The Lorain Chronicle-Telegram continues:
Slack’s letter, which was addressed to the citizens of Eaton Township, referred to division within the fire department itself.
“Some members have actively, and they mistakenly thought secretly, fed information, regardless of whether it was accurate, to at least one of the trustees,” his letter stated.
“I have heard too many times about one firefighter meeting with a trustee to deliver information and discuss his future in the department and about trustees bad-mouthing me behind my back. They don’t seem to realize that folks can hear raised voices even when the office door is closed. At this point there are too many people with their own agendas and ambitions for my taste. Politics, either in the township or in the workplace, has never been to my liking.”
Slack was suspended July 7 to 21 for failure to perform his duties satisfactorily, and from Oct. 6 to Nov. 2 for the same infraction plus disregard for the safety and comfort of fellow employees, according to Eaton Township Trustee Del Roig as reported by the Morning Journal.
Slack also claimed that some of the trustees’ actions were mean-spirited, including an incident in which Eaton Township Trustee Linda Morrison admitted she asked him a trick question to see how he would answer it. All this after more than 4o years of blemish-free performance.
Read the full story in the Chronicle-Telegram HERE.
The Morning Journal has MORE.
Moose Chronicles
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TWO PEOPLE DIED NEAR EDMONTON, ALBERTA, Saturday night October 30 when the truck they were riding in struck a moose. The accident occurred around 8:30 pm when the moose walked out onto the highway and the truck ran into it. The driver lost control of the vehicle after the collision and it went into a ditch where it rolled several times. Two passengers were ejected from the tumbling truck and died at the scene. The driver was wearing a seatbelt and suffered a broken arm.
Two other vehicles then struck the moose as well, but there were no other injuries.
The Edmonton Journal has the STORY.
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IN BRIDGER VALLEY, WYOMING, THE LOCAL GAME WARDEN is asking the public’s help in solving a moose poaching case. The Bridger Valley Pioneer reports:
Beach said a two-year old bull moose with small antlers was shot and left between Meeks Cabin Dam and Van Tassel Lake sometime between late morning on Oct. 28 and mid-day Oct. 29.
“Tracks in the snow indicated the suspect shot the moose west of the two track road leading to Van Tassel Lake from Meeks Cabin Dam,” Beach said. “The suspect then followed the moose for a few hundred yards, but stopped their pursuit just a few feet east of the two-track road. The moose was found dead just 90 yards from where the person stopped following the tracks.”
Bridger Valley Pioneer
Game Warden Beach speculates that whoever shot it had thought at first is was a cow moose, but when they got close enough to see the small antlers on it, they panicked and left.
The Bridger Valley Pioneer has MORE.
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NEBRASKA IS GENERALLY TOO FAR SOUTH for moose because of the warmer climate, but on Friday November 5 an 1,100-lb. cow moose was the first one to be sighted in two years. Unfortunately the first person to see her was driving an SUV and plowed into on a highway near Scotts Bluff. The impact killed the moose on impact, yet the carcass continued to be a danger as a following Chrysler sedan also crashed into it.
The SUV had several thousands of dollars in damage and the Chrysler was totalled. Both drivers escaped injury, however. The extraordinary weight of the beast made it difficult to move it off the highway. A Bobcat front-end loader was brought in and used to lift it onto a flatbed trailer, then carried away.
Nebraska State Patrol photo
The Omaha World-Herald has the DETAILS.
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A NEW HAMPSHIRE MAN WHO WAS never taught that wild animals are ….. well … wild, pulled his car over and stopped to look at one the other day. The North Andover (Massachusetts) Eagle Tribune tells us what happened:
A Northfield man driving along Rockingham Road received a surprise Saturday when he saw a moose on the side of the road shortly before 4 p.m. and pulled over to take a look at it.
While John Skomurski was gazing at the large animal, the bold moose suddenly came toward him. The moose then slammed its head against the windshield, damaging Skomurski’s car, according to Londonderry police Lt. Robert Michaud.
“The person just stopped and the moose just came over and head-butted the window,” Michaud said. “No one got hurt, but it cracked the windshield. Then it got up and just walked away,” he said.
The moose was last seen disappearing into the woods from which it never returned.
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You want a moose for yourself? All you have to do is call one. Here’s how to do it:
Review previous reports from the Moose Chronicles HERE.
THE PRATT (KANSAS) TRIBUNE RAN THIS PHOTO in Monday’s edition HERE. The story is a report on a 13-yr.-old boy who was struck by a car while riding his bicycle between traffic on Friday.
The caption reads: A Pratt police officer snaps a photo as an EMS crew prepares 13-year-old
Austin Hornof for transportation to Wesley Medical Center in Wichita.
As far as we know, the pic has not been posted on Facebook, however.
Posted by Gnome Handler.
New Item in Firegeezer Shop
Comments OffThe FIREGEEZER SHOP has just added another item to the stock that will be of special interest to dispatchers and scanner buffs alike, as well as anybody interested in historical fire department events.
On May 31,1985, the emergency services of NW Pennsylvania faced a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions, a tornado outbreak the likes of which are rarely seen in the east. 41 tornadoes touched down in 6 hours across Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Ontario Canada. 66 people lost their lives with thousands injured.
The dispatch radio tapes were stored on cassettes for two weeks before being scheduled to be re-used by the dispatch center. Firegeezer contributor Steve Marshal was able to secure those rare cassettes before they were wiped and saved them. This year, with the 25th anniversary of the centennial storm arriving, Steve remastered them and recorded them onto a CD. Most of the CD’s were purchased this past Spring by residents of the area and first-responders who were there.
But there are some left over and we are carrying them here and making them available for anyone who is interested in rare dispatch activity. This 30-minute track contains multiple dispatches for tornado touchdowns, incoming calls to the center requesting rescue, warnings that “a large tornado is headed your way” and the dramatic “I’ve got total devastation down here” radio call used by ABC news in their coverage.
The price is a very reasonable $10 which includes the postage and handling costs. You can order it using your credit card through our PayPal account. Just CLICK HERE to visit the sales page in the Shop to read more and order yours.
A RAGING HOUSE FIRE IN MARION COUNTY, FLORIDA, Monday night claimed the lives of five children ages 6 to 15. The home is located in the small community of Citra, near Ocala.
Ocala Star-Banner
Three adult women escaped the fire, but were hospitalized for smoke inhilation and burns. The fire was reported at 10:34 pm but it was already well ablaze and spreading rapidly when the alarm went in. The Ocala Star-Banner reports that two of the women were awake and heard the children screaming that there was a fire. When they looked to the front of the house they saw it filled with fire and escaped by fleeing out their bedroom windows.
When firefighters arrived they were able to get to two girls ages 6 and 12 and rescue them, but they both died later at the hospital. Three boys ranging in ages 8 to 15 perished in the fire.
Ocala Star-Banner
The State Fire Marshal investigator is on the scene, but has not yet determined the cause. One of the surviving residents said that she thought a portable space heater may have had something to do with it. WFTS-TV Ch. 28 Tampa filed this video report:
The Ocala Star-Banner has the STORY HERE and also posted this video report from the scene:
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Video posted by IAFF Local 48:
The CFD peaked in the early 1900′s with 55 fire companies, 16 truck companies, and a rescue squad.
Since then, the city has gradually reduced the numbers to 26 fire companies, 12 truck companies, and 2 rescue squads.
The city now wants to reduce that number even farther (cutting as many as 12 more companies), yet the size of the city in square miles has not gotten smaller. When is enough, enough?
Cincinnati Firefighters “A Rough Road Ahead”
Proposed layoff of 169 firefighters and closing 15 fire stations.
At the 5:00 minute mark in the video each of the 169 affected firefighters are identified.
Mike “FossilMedic” Ward
Updated: Fire Leaves Cruise Ship Dead in Water
Comments OffUPDATE, TUESDAY 1:30 PM: Coast Guard makes contact. Passengers will be transferred. Scroll down.
THE GIANT CRUISE SHIP CARNIVAL SPLENDOR was left adrift without power Monday after a fire in the engine room crippled the propulsion system.
The fire broke out around 6 am Monday while the ship was in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico. The fire was extinguished quickly in about three hours and nobody was endangered, but the ship was dead in the water without any power or propulsion except for some basic power provided by auxiliary generators. The minimal power supplies the control room and necessary navigation devices, but the passenger quarters are heavily impacted with lack of air conditioning and flush toilets.
Stock photo of Carnival Splendor by Getty Images
The 952-ft.-long ship had departed Long Beach, California, Sunday on a seven-day cruise of the Mexican Riviera ports. The 3,300 passengers and 1,100 crew are being provided with bottle water and cold food while waiting to be towed to Ensenada, Baja California. It is not yet known how long that will take.
The Associated Press filed this video report:
The Independent has the STORY.
Update, Tuesday 1:30 pm:
A U. S. Coast Guard cutter has come alongside the beleagured cruise ship and two officers have gone aboard to assess the passenger situation to determine a course of action to get the 2-yr.-old ship back to port.
Two ocean-going tugs are expected to arrive sometime early this afternoon and begin operations to tow the Carnival Splendor to Ensenada, Baja, a trip that could take as long as two days. ABC News is reporting:
A U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan, has also been diverted from current operations to provide assistance, the Navy said in a statement. The ship will transport 35 pallets of supplies to the area which will then be taken to the Splendor by helicopter. The supplies came at the request of the Coast Guard, the statement said.
The Coast Guard cutter will stay with the ship until it is docked, to ensure that the potentially hazardous open-water tugging operation succeeds.
ABC News also filed this updated video report:
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The Ka-Boom That Went Viral
Comments OffA CLASSIC EXAMPLE OF HOW A STORY and video can literally cover the earth in minutes took place overnight. Yesterday a video was made public from a railway accident in Poland that occured at 5:30 am Monday. Two freight trains collided head-on near the city of Bialystock causing a severe derailment and one of the trains contained 37 tank cars carrying petroleum product. Compounding the difficulties, the last tanker in the line jumped over to the next track into the path of a third locomotive and expanding the crash zone.
A fire ensued and the trackside surveillance cameras were directed on the fire when a series of tank explosions started triggering. Amazingly, the only casualties were some injuries to two of the trainmen, but they were non-life threatening. Reportedly there were 30 engine companies on the scene and despite the severity of the fire, the damage was contained to the railroad equipment. The fire was under control at 9 am.
PressTV photo
When Firegeezer logged on early this morning, videos of the incident were already filling up the websites and a batch of emails tipping me off to the story were waiting for me. By the end of today, almost every firefighter in the world will have seen them and Firegeezer is obliged to assist in the mission. So here it is…. The Viral Explosion Video:
PressTV has the STORY.
Thanks to everybody who sent me the links. Your remembering us is appreciated. And you can rest assured that you will never see a photo of Firegeezer standing around like this group of “officials.”
AP
Marin Čolak injured in fatal motorway crash
Comments OffFormer WTCC and European Touring Car cup competitor Marin Čolak has been injured in a motorway incident in his home country of Croatia, in which his 20 year old female passenger has died.
Posted by MatkoPez.
From Touring Car Times:
Croatian newspaper Nacional reports that on the afternoon of November 5th, Čolak’s Ferrari was involved in a incident with a Nissan on the A6 motorway near Bosiljevo.
Čolak was reportedly not wearing his seatbelt when the crash occurred, and was flung from the Ferrari, whilst his passenger was trapped in the burning vehicle and died of her injuries.
Index.hr reports that the passenger was 20 year old Ivane Obad, and that a subsequent police report has confirmed that Čolak veered onto the right hand side of the road, before leaving the motorway and travelling 100 meters into a field where the car burst into flames.
It is also believed that Čolak was racing against the Nissan, and that the driver of the other vehicle was also a racing driver, but has not been named.
click HERE for entire article.
Tip of the helmet to Dave Statter @ STATter911
for finding the video/news item.
Mike “FossilMedic” Ward
You had to know it was coming. I didn’t think about it, but it is so obvious once you do. Naturally they are now making automobile radar detectors with those miraculous little GPS receivers inside them that know exactly where you are, and are thus able to also alert you to red-light cameras and (the new, up-and-coming) speed cameras.
This particular model that I have pictured here is the Cobra XRS 9960G, but it isn’t the only brand doing this now. The Cobra model detects all 15 radar and laser bands and has the very colorful 1-½ inch display window.
Along with the GPS receiver tucked away somewhere in there is a translator that downloads pre-stored information on the locations of the red-light and speed cameras in your area and triggers the alert to remind you to start obeying the law. It has a voice alert that warns you so that you don’t have to take your eyes off the road to find out what the box is beeping for.
Some earlier detectors that do this need to be connected to your pocket GPS receiver to function, but Cobra has come out with this complete package. There is just no end to the uses of these new super-microchips. Personally, I have never had a problem with speed limits to the point that I felt the need to buy one of these devices, but I can understand that many people need the crutch to help them navigate the highways and byways.
As it happens, Amazon is currently offering this model on a special sale with a 54% price reduction. So if you’re interested in reading more about it and perhaps ordering one, CLICK HERE to check it out.
Ok, what sort of amazing electronic gadget will show up next? It’s getting close to the Christmas sales season where this kind of stuff comes available, so let me know what you think is just around the corner. Before we run out and buy one though, we need to get this equipment checked out first. I’m going to speed into the kitchen and get another pot of coffee started. See you back in the day room in a little while.
Around the Fire Web
Comments OffSome morsels waiting for you on fire and EMS sites around the web while you get adjusted to the time change:
* STATter911 has the story about the unit that caught the hydrant before the driver realized he didn’t have a pump on his piece HERE.
* Firefighter Nation has a sad story about a fire captain in Indiana who died inside the maintenance shop following a freak truck accident HERE.
* Wildfire Today tells about one of the most innovative rewards being offered for finding who was responsible for a major wildfire back in June HERE.
* Raising Ladders has found another video from the Super Sexy CPR Team HERE.
* Justin Schorr, the Happy Medic has done some research and give us a history lesson on why we have red lights on the fire engines and firehouses HERE.
* The Firefighters Own Worst Enemy wants to hear from you about how you’ve assembled the work space at the end of your aerial. Read the posting HERE and then join in.
WHEN THE WISSINOMING VOLUNTEER AMBULANCE SQUAD ran a routine transport last Tuesday, they didn’t realize that they were about to be national media stars for their 15 minutes of fame. They had just picked up Charles Gorby, 83, from the hospital where the retired physician had completed a 2-week stay and was headed home in Havertown, Pennsylvania. But it was election day and Dr. Gorby had never missed voting since he returned home after serving in the Navy during WW II. So he asked the EMT’s taking him home if they could do him a favor.
“I imposed upon the ambulance crew if they could take me about a block beyond where I live to the firehouse where we vote in my area. I made sure they didn’t have an urgent commitment that would make that request irresponsible,” he related. So they stopped at the Brookline Fire Company and one of the EMT’s stepped inside and asked one of the election officials if they could bring a litter patient inside to vote. After a quick consultation with the judge of the polling station, they got the OK and the whole place swung into action.
One of the registrars carried the registration book out to the ambulance and held it while Dr. Gorby signed it. Then one of the bay doors to the fire hall were opened and he was wheeled inside. Instantly, all the people lined up inside waiting their turn to cast their ballots stepped aside and directed the team to the head of the line. After selecting a booth, the EMT’s then steered the cot at an angle where he could roll over onto his side to press the buttons on the voting machine, and then cast his vote. “My feet and legs were sticking out,” he said later.
He was in and out in about five minutes, leaving the gaggle of voters and poll workers impressed with the man’s determination to cast his ballot. If he had not made it to the polls, Gorby said it would have been the first time he had failed to vote since he became eligible.
WPVI-TV Ch. 6 filed this video report:
The Philadelphia Inquirer has the STORY.
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