YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, FIREFIGHTERS WERE CALLED OUT just after 9 am this morning (Monday) to Penn Township for a house fire reported for smoke inside and a “red” wall. When the first units arrived they found heavy smoke showing from a traditional 2-story cape cod.
Steve Roth photo
The first line made the second floor where they found the fire.
Truck 49 went topside to ventilate the building and when they opened up they found the attic cooking and let the man out.
photos by Steve Roth
The fire was apparently extinguished shortly after that. Steve Roth/911 Photography has a 270-image photo gallery HERE that documents the fire from its early stages on through to mop-up.
A LEALMAN (PINELLAS COUNTY), FLORIDA MAN is in critical condition Monday morning following an explosion in an apartment that burned him over 30% of his body. The small apartment was on the top floor of a 2-story building and located over a vacant business occupancy.
Mike MacLeod, 27, was periodically checking on a friend’s apartment while he was out of town and he stopped by early Sunday morning to see if everything was ok. When he opened the door, however, a destructive explosion occurred that blew the roof off of the apartment and knocked down one of the walls. MacLeod went running down the street to a gas station and called for help.
WFTS-TV
The Lealman Fire Department responded and found a well-involved fire in the building. Paramedics treated MacLeod and transported him to a Tampa hospital where he is being treated for the burns. He has been placed in an induced coma, but is expected to recover.
WFTS-TV Ch. 28 has this video report from the scene:
Arson investigators spent all day Sunday looking for the cause, but they have not released any information yet.
That’s because one of the articles that is posted here today will be Posting #10,000! A true milestone and an achievement that I am unashamedly proud of. In a time span of just under four years we have gone from a start-up one-man, barely read blog to one of the country’s leading fire and rescue-oriented websites with nine contributors currently online.
As a way of marking this day, I asked each of our contributors to have something ready to post this morning so that we could give everybody a spot on the Big Day. Instead of pointing to one specific posting as being Number 10,000, I am designating all of them as THE notable entry. So here they are for your edification and enjoyment. This collection of contributions takes up more than one webpage, so make sure you click on the NEXT button when you get to the bottom of the page and then you won’t miss a single article. It will take you right down to this Morning’s Lineup.
Have fun and thanks so very much for checking in with us regularly. We truly appreciate it and I hope you stay with us through the next ten thousand articles.
Oh… you may be wondering when Post #1 was published. It was on March 25, 2007.
We should establish a policy on when to release the last words of a working firefighter to the public
Twelve nights ago I was sadly sitting in my office. Someone I occasionally worked with died while performing a primary search during a well-developed apartment fire in Baltimore County.
If you worked with Mark Falkenhan, or listened to the eulogies, this was a profoundly skilled and experienced firefighter/paramedic and teacher.
To process this loss, I listened to a digital recording of the radio traffic and started a timeline.
Dramatic audio on civilian rescues (Squad 303 + Truck 1)
Two civilians in distress in first floor, one civilian physically removed from second floor over ladder (side Alpha), one or two on side Charlie
“303 portable to command … a lot of heat on ????? >>>covered by another unit calling for a medic unit>> “303 asks which floor is rescue” [2 Alpha] “303 continuing search on (third) floor”
“Truck 8 urgent” (multiple units transmitting – getting water supply to Side Charlie, ems crew to side 1 for civilian rescue, Engine 17 arrives asks for orders)
Truck 8 makes 2 or 3 additional urgents .. one sounds like a low air alarm in background
rescue complete on second floor “heavy fire in the hallway”
“All units evacuate the building” (18:41 hrs) – tones
If you were there, or listened to the unedited digital recording, you know that the first Mayday call is made by Mark (Squad 303 portable 1) immediately after command calls for the evacuation.
WHEN SHOULD THE LAST WORDS OF A FIREFIGHTER BE SHARED?
Josh Tomon TFPA 78 - Tidewater Fire Photographers Assoc
This is a significant event where the digital recording is posted before the event is declared over. The first 72 minutes were available before the municipality could announce that there was a LODD.
Even a mainstream media source announced the death, pulled down later but not before the comments section included condolence messages naming the deceased firefighter.
Our local subject matter expert, Dave Statter, points out that mainstream media will quickly file Freedom of Information Act requests to get fireground and 9-1-1 recordings.
Back in the day, you would not hear the actual recordings until months later, as part of an American Heat case study or attached to a comprehensive after action report.
FDNY resisted releasing radio transmissions and oral histories from the 9/11 tragedy, claiming the release would violate firefighters’ privacy and jeopardize the prosecution of Zacarias Moussaoui. (USA Today August 11, 2005 “FDNY releases 9/11 oral histories, recordings”
Hearing the actual voices carries a stronger impact than reading a transcript.
If we do not want to see it, why do we want to hear it?
A recurring issue on STATter911 is the use of on-scene images when reporting incidents. Dave Statter repeatedly points out that mainstream media is trending away from pictures of gore or dead bodies.
The last time this discussion occured was in response to the actions of a state trooper to a local news camera team:
With almost 200 comments, I would say that the issue was discussed.
“No one should see this”
Jules Naudet was creating a documentary film on Probationary Firefighter Tony Benatatos, assigned to Tower Ladder 1. Engine 7 and Battalion 1 are also in the house.
Naudet was riding with Battalion 1 and got the closest picture of the first plane hitting the WTC. It occurred while Battalion 1 and other units were investigating an odor of gas in the street.
He stayed with Battalion Chief Joseph W. Pfeifer as they entered the WTC lobby. The video shows the members reacting and looking to the right. Two civilians are screaming and on fire.
Between 100 and 200 occupants jumped or fell from the towers in the first 90 minutes. It appears Naudet catches the first one about the 39:25 minute mark in the documentary. It is a startling loud noise that echos through the WTC lobby/fire command post.
When “9/11″ was first aired on CBS in March 2002, the Naudet brothers mentioned an effort to minimize the number of jumper impacts heard.
In dozens of memorial pictorials collected after the disaster, there is just one image of a detached foot in a shoe. Some narratives talk about the carnage in the plaza.
The other day I picked up a copy of Dennis Smith's Firefighters: In Their Own Words while browsing at a used-book store. If you don't know the book, it's basically a bunch of interviews with firefighters about various aspects of the job. Because it was written in the mid-1980s a lot of the interviews come from guys who served in Vietnam and whose dads served in WWII. The first part is devoted to tales of how they came into the fire service; one recurring theme there is their blue collar background. Implicit in the stories is the role of the fire service in lifting these men and their families from the lower-middle class or even lower class into the middle and upper-middle classes. They and their siblings (and certainly their parents) didn't go to college but their kids might.
This is a common tale in the fire service and a theme that I've seen talked about in a lot of older fire service writing. Once upon a time the civil service was even a pathway for minorities (once including white ethnics like Irishmen and Italians) to earn enough to own a home and a car or two. In my observation it is no less salient today but for some reason this is no longer regarded as a societal good. Or so it seems. You no doubt have noticed the war of the local officials on the fire service. In Houston the mayor is blaming firefighters' pension for causing her to make public works take mandatory furloughs. Last week she spoon-fed the local media a story about how severance payouts on unused sick leave for firefighters were going to drive the city to ruin. This is all simply calculated inaccuracy but that is no matter. The undercurrent is that the firefighters are pampered, privileged, and taking the taxpayers for a ride. Nevermind that the guys cashing out that sick time saved it up over 25- or 30-year careers instead of abusing it or that the pension was part of the bargain that kept them in a career field with no portability and limited lateral opportunities.
For them, too, the fire service has been a path to a stable middle class existence. More of them have college time than their counterparts 30 years ago but this is a world where college, and especially some hours short of a degree, is no guarantor of success. But for many of the commenters on the nation's newspapers' websites it seems that public sentiment is turning against the traditional fire service path out of near-poverty. The local officials have succeeded in many places in implanting the meme that firefighters are nothing but overpriced bed weights, playing dominoes and laughing all the way to the bank. No part of that statement is true but what is true is that the fire service is a path to success for poor kids from blue collar backgrounds and mediocre or bad schools. Why is that success now being seen, with increasing traction, as a bad thing?
Let's not forget the importance to society of this pathway and the upward mobility that leads to a more productive citizenry. The elimination of fire service jobs is wrong for a number of reasons, chiefly the failure of the social contract between the people and the state that obliges the latter to provide for the public safety. While that social mobility is not as important or immediate, it does play an important role in maintaining a healthy middle class and most people would consider that a social good worth maintaining.
ON CHRISTMAS DAY THERE WAS A FIRE in the ceiling of a 5-star hotel in Reinbeck, Germany, that sent 400 guests running from their Christmas banquet in the luxury dining room. The fire was handled ok with the damage mostly limited to the ceiling and about 900 sq. ft. of this unique roof was destroyed.
These photos published in Bild newspaper give you a good look at the very different construction of the roof tiles and they can provide you with a nice 15-minute drill in the day room.
It is time. It is time for the American fire service to begin shifting our efforts to a broader business portfolio. True or false, many of our constituents and political leaders see the fire service as a profession that waits for something bad to happen (which rarely does), only to arrive too late to save the people they are sworn to serve. I am not sure I agree with that perception, but if the perception is there, then we need to do something about it. If there is any measure of truth to this perception then this is a red flag issue.
It is apparent to most informed fire service leaders in this country and internationally, that mechanical firefighting is not a growth industry. Simply, fires are down in number. They are down at the rate of about seven percent a year for the last five years. Since 1981, unwanted fires are down more than 53% in this country. The interesting fact is the severity of fires (especially structure fires) is on the increase. So we may be headed toward an environment of low frequency, high risk incidents. So what is the answer? One of the possible answers is for the fire service to consider diversifying their portfolios in an effort to increase their value and support from their community and community leaders.
What We Can Learn From the Scots
Our brothers and sisters across the Atlantic are experiencing remarkable success in reducing the impact of fire, while at the same time taking an all-hazards approach to risk faced by their citizens. In England, Norway, Scotland and Sweden the fire service has embraced pre-incident public assistance. These countries first identified the most at-risk populations by making use of a private for-profit marketing analysis corporation. They identified high at-risk populations by tracking the spending habits of the most at-risk populations, then using geographic mapping, illustrated the most at-risk census tracks.
Local fire service personnel are assigned to focus on these at-risk census tracks exclusively. By focusing efforts I mean relentless persistence and personal interaction. Firefighters work in concert with citizen groups and referrals from social services. Fire firefighters engage high at-risk citizens through scheduled home visits designed as a check up on them to ensure they are safe from fire. They also ensure the general welfare of the citizen is addressed by checking the home for general health and other risks, such trip hazards (a number one cause of injures to seniors). They make sure the resident is aware of other local, state and federal government services. An example of measured success occurred in Scotland where Scottish firefighters have produced a 41% drop in fire deaths since 1997.
There are several published reports that clearly describe the specifics of this program and the results of the good work being done in Great Britain, Norway and Sweden. Check them out.
This approach may be just the approach we need to take when everybody else in government service is shrinking services using lack of money as an excuse. It may be something we may can learn from. It is just what I have been thinking.
All of the pump people that I learned from stressed the importance of the pump and its components. Every now and then I hear stories about a pump operator wanting to use something and it won’t work. The first question is, “When did it last get used? All too often the answer is, “I don’t know.” Everything on the pump needs to be used or it won’t work when you need it to. In most career departments and many volunteer departments this isn’t an issue because daily checks are done and that’s part of the checks. But in other departments where there’s no one in the station, sometimes for days on end, it’s can be a different story.
In my last blurb I talked about circulating water in sub-freezing weather. My own personal practice is to do this any time I pull up to an incident. If I don’t expect to be putting the pump in service, or going home right away, I do the following: Go into “Pump” mode. Open the “Tank to Pump” and crack the “Tank Fill.” Operate the primer, if only long enough to hear it run. Set the (ours are electronic) throttle to about 100 psi (in pressure control mode). Operate the transfer valve and note that as it changes, the engine speed changes to maintain the set pressure. If you have a discharge side relief valve, bring the discharge pressure up enough to open it. That will ensure that when you want them to work, they will.
Congratulations to Firegeezer on its 10,000th posting! I know that Bill and the rest of the crew do a lot of work to keep the website up and current. That hard work pays off in having an excellent site where firefighters can come to look at news and hopefully pick up something, some nugget of information that will make their job safer! Congrats Firegeezer!
Last time we talked about what McMansions are and started some discussion on construction issues. One thing that you also have to keep in mind is their size. There is no hard and fast rule but I would consider them to be over 3000 square feet and to have significant open areas. Look at some of the buildings going up that can be classified as McMansions and think about that open space. The buildings that many of us, especially us geezers have grown accustomed to fighting fires in are the ranch style, split foyers, and Cape Cod homes. Many of those homes that we grew up in may have hit the 2000 square foot mark, but typically were around 1800 square feet. Now we are looking at buildings that vastly overshadow them. The ability of a fire in a Cape Cod to be contained can be easily seen, small rooms in a very compartmentalized home. Now look at the typical McMansion and look at the open floor spaces, huge! Think of the fuel requirements necessary to bring these areas to flashover. Significant!
When looking to make an interior attack on a fire in a McMansion we need to remember the basics, and one of the most basic things we can do is to perform a good 360-degree size up, prior to advancing a line into the structure. Knowing where the fire is where it is going is important, and how it will affect our ability to extinguish it. Another construction aspect that I want to pass on to you that is directly related to this size up of the exterior is vinyl siding. Many new homes especially the McMansions have a significant amount of vinyl siding on the exterior.
Vinyl siding while it may not contribute a great deal to the fire, burns away rapidly and allows the fire to access the OSB (oriented strand board) located underneath. Once the fire gets to the OSB, it has a chance at getting into the attic. Another thing that the OSB does is it contributes a great deal of fuel for the fire. The rate of spread on the exterior to that attic is impressive and can have a profound effect on the firefighters as they try to get ahead of the fire. In most circumstances, we are right on, the money with that call, but in cases where the fire has started on the exterior, we need to hit it from the outside to keep it from getting inside.
There have been several fires in recent years in the McMansions that have actually started on the exterior, but due to conditions moved up into the attics and have punished crews trying to put lines in service from the interior. We need to learn from that and make sure that we do the lap, get a good size up and then initiate our attack. In cases where you have these fires on the exteriors that move up the vinyl siding, get a line on them and make sure it is at least a 1 ¾” line. This allows us to knock down a great deal of the fire and to cut off the production of heat and combustible gases from getting into the attic.
Ok, now do not forget “take a lap”, make a good size up. This may very well be where the firefight is won or lost, the ability to see what the situation is and make good decisions based on good tactical and strategic priorities is very important, it could save a life.
Read Part One of Chief Mullins’ articles on McMansions HERE.
The top news in Washington, DC this weekend was of an outraged parent whose three-year-old child has been tossed out of a pre-school due to a lack of toilet training. Mom has to temporarily “close down her business” presumably to stay home and either change undies or teach her child to potty on demand. By-the-way: Three years old? Isn’t that PRE-pre-school? If this trend continues they will be attending classes while the umbilical cord is still intact.
But, in our fit of boredom and lust for interesting news we are saved by Silvio, as in Berlusconi, the “vigorous” Italian Prime Minister (PM) who is in the press once again. Or shall we say his women are in the press. Berlusconi, you may recall, is the always tanned and coifed, super-rich, 21st century IL Duce who seems to own all of Italy that matters. The 74-year-old is being charged (this time) with, among other things, paying for sex with a 17-year old and covering it up. (One certainly hopes it was covered up.)
Italian magistrates are leaking steamy and incriminating transcripts faster than an infantry division can surrender. They are accusing Berlusconi of hosting a series of lavish get togethers (“Bunga Bunga” parties) that descended into sex-filled evenings where the PM would enjoy the company of very beautiful and very young ladies some of whom , according to the authorities, spent the night. Yesterday’s headline in the Guardian, “The women now thrust under the media spotlight”, details the allegations that the PM keeps a stable of beauties in Milan, giving them cash and other gifts.
Garcia Polanco and Her Tattoo (EPA photo)
Garcia Polanco, age 25 and one of the women caught up in the allegation pulled down her shirt to reveal a tattoo across her shoulders which says, “Never Give Up.” If that was a past (or future) exhortation to the PM, in or out of bed, she needn’t worry. He won’t.
By “Mainstreet” Marshall
Professional Storm Chaser, Fire Chief and Gnome Wrangler
For some, off-duty hours are used to work a second job. For others, it’s a chance to start a business. But for a lucky few…the days off are used for escape. Some of us use the time to climb on our Harley and hit the road. For others, the subtle movement of a fishing bobber on a glass-smooth lake surface captures our hearts. But for me, none of the regular diversions have much appeal. Nope, I’m looking for Dryline Magic.
My interest lies west of Interstate 35 which is also known as the “Great Wall of Chasing”. The “wall” runs from Laredo, Texas northward to Salina, Kansas, with a few change-ups along the way. We call it “the Great Wall of Chasing” because east of I-35, the terrain is comprised of trees, hills, cities and people…all impediments to chasing tornadoes at reasonable speeds. West of I-35 lies the prairie. Few trees, fewer people, roads laid out in a nice orderly grid and some of the nicest people I’ve ever met. It’s a great place to forget your worries and enjoy an America that few city people ever get to see.
Each spring, the warmth of the Great Plains beckons me, for I know, that when that warmth clashes with the cold air coming from the Rockies, we will have that “Dryline Magic” and there is nothing like it anywhere else on the planet. Most of us are familiar with the ingredients for tornadoes and severe storms but there is a special area where those rules of nature don’t necessarily apply.
The Dryline is a phenomenon that sets up in the western plains in the spring.
West of the line, the dew points may be in the 30s, to the east they may be as high as 70 and the area that separates those two air masses may only be 20 miles across. When a disturbance in the atmosphere goes across the Dryline, a massive supercell may erupt, and THAT is what I’m after. The storms that go up here are frequently alone, standing out there with few other clouds around to inhibit the view. While many chasers, in fact most other chasers seek a tornado, I’m something of an oddity among chasers. I’m a structure freak. I love a storm that’s pretty. Don’t necessarily care if there’s a nader under it, as long as it’s pretty.
Some DryLine Magic
Those of you who live in the east and have never ventured out to the great American plains, haven’t a clue what these monsters could look like. Our storms out east are usually lost in all the other clouds…not these guys.
Prior to the advent of Doppler Radar, locals knew that these areas were prone to massive storms on short notice, but no one really knew why or how. With Doppler radar, minute disturbances in the atmosphere can now be tracked.
I’ve been a Storm Chaser for many years…even before the movie “Twister” came out. Chasing severe storms comes naturally to me. My father grew up in Oklahoma and I spent many a summer there as a kid. My Dad loved a good storm and we spent many hours sitting on the porch, watching Mother Nature’s fireworks. It wasn’t until 1972 that it occurred to me to get in the car and actually follow the storm. Imagine my surprise when I discovered other wackos…err I mean researchers who also chased after the storms. Before “Twister”, you never told “civilians” what you were doing. If you did, they would inevitably all ask the same question…”what do you do when you catch one?” In the post “Twister” world, not only do they understand what its all about, they pay me good money to take them out to see the storms up close and personal!
I guess you could call Storm Chasing the ultimate sport. Other sports have become so well regulated that they are a mere shadow of their former selves. Not Storm Chasing! It’s you and your gadgets versus Mother Nature, going nose-to-nose on the biggest playing field on the planet…and this spring looks to be the Super Bowl of Storms thanks to a very strong La Nina. I’m counting the days!
And this is my target! We call this a “Mother Ship”
National Geographic photo
* * * * * * *
Firegeezer adds: Steve’s posts are archived under the category Gnome Report. You can click on that category over on the right sidebar and scroll down to last year’s storm chase to sample his “escape.”
Those innovative folks at the San Ramon Valley (California) Fire Protection District IT section have gone and done it again. I’m referring to their imaginative and ground-breaking uses of the internet and cellphones to bring their FRD into the mainstream of everyday life of their citizens. In May of last year we told you about their terrific WEBSITE HERE that is packed with information, and then on July 7 we reported HERE about their cellphone app that taps directly into their dispatch center with live posting of active fire/rescue activity, what units are on the call, maps of the locations, and even a live audio of the dispatch and fireground radio. And yes, the app is free and available to everybody.
If you missed it the first time around, please take time to click on those links and see what they have been doing with this internet thingy and make sure that you watch the video. Then check out this latest addition to their citizen partnership policy, a CPR notification signal. This new app utilizes the GPS technology that is built into cellphones and is installed on the phones of people who are certified CPR performers. To just explain it briefly, if there is a 9-1-1 call for a cardiac incident in the San Ramon Fire District territory, the dispatch will also send an alert to people who are registered in the program and in the immediate area at that moment. It will tell them three things: Where the incident is and what it is, a map showing where the address is located, and a map showing where the nearest AED is available.
The whole idea of course, is to get life-saving help to the victim as soon as possible and perhaps start CPR several minutes before the ambulance arrives. Watch this video demonstration of how it works:
Since we first posted the stories on this department’s tech enrichment, thousands of other FRD’s have been exposed to it. So far, I haven’t heard of anybody making any moves to a similar style of public awareness, but I’ve sure seen a lot of stories about how the firefighters are doing things that alienate their communities. If your department is moving in the same direction that SanRamon is, please tell me about it so we can share your story too.
Ok, let’s get this equipment checked out now. It’s Monday, so we have the weekly checks to make as well. I’ll make sure we’ve got plenty of coffee ready. See you back in the day room.
Some Recommended Articles From Other Fire/EMS Websites
* Dave Statter has a posting about some antsy politicians in Tulsa, Oklahoma, who don’t like firefighters helping their opponents campaign against them. So they passed rules forbidding the FF’s and police from assisting people who are running for office. It smells. Read the story on STATter911 HERE.
* FireNews.net is first out with the story of a North Carolina firefighter who collapsed and died while on duty in a Robeson County firehouse last night (Saturday) HERE.
* Raleigh/Wake Firefighting Blog publisher Mike Legeros strays a little off-topic today (which is fine on Sundays) to reminisce about his years as a professional film critic. Take a break and enjoy reading it HERE.
* FireRescue1 has a video report about some city in China that spent a fortune on a huge water cannon that’s supposed to snuff fires right out….. flowing a mere 1,000 gpm, if they supplied the right numbers. Watch it HERE and see if you are as dubious of its value as Firegeezer is.
* The Backstep Firefighter has a good, thought-inducing piece on the necessity of keeping a sizeable, clear path from the nozzle back to the entrance HERE. This is one that everybody needs to take the time to read.
* Wildfire Today tells about an unusual event where the smoke from a prescribed burn was pushed down to ground level by an advancing fog bank, thus suddenly bringing the visibility on a highway to zero. A school bus slowed down alright, but a string of cars behind it created a chain-reaction crash. Here’s the STORY.
A SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, AMBULANCE WAS EN ROUTE to a hospital with a patient early Saturday morning when an oncoming SUV crashed into it.
WOAI-TV
Police say that the Chevy Avalanche was approaching the ambulance around 3 am when the driver of the SUV fell asleep at the wheel and sideswiped a car that was directly in front of the ambulance. The EMT driving the ambulance saw the wreck developing and swerved in an attempt to avoid a collision, but he was unable to do so and the car crashed into him.
All three people on the ambulance, the two EMT’s and the patient, as well as the two passengers in the SUV were injured, but not seriously. All five were transported. Nobody in the car ahead of the ambulance was hurt.
WHEN THE OWNER OF A MUNCIE, INDIANA, muffler repair shop arrived at the business around 6 am Friday morning, he smelled “a strange odor” and checked around the building. Finding nothing, he continued getting ready for the day’s business. More than eight hours later, around 2:20 pm shop employees noticed a smell of wood burning growing rapidly, then they began seeing smoke coming from the ceiling.
Still delaying calling in the alarm, the got a ladder and looked above the ceiling tiles where they found a fire raging in the roof area. It was then that they called 9-1-1 and brought the Muncie FD to the scene. When the first engine arrived there was so much smoke outside enveloping the building that the firefighters could not even see it.
Star Press photo
They located the fire and mounted an attack on it, but about 20 minutes later part of the roof collapsed. The Muncie Star Press reports:
The entire west end of the building, used for storage, was destroyed, Captain Adams said. But a block firewall separating the west end of the building from the east end — where the repair shop is located — prevented the fire from spreading to the entire building. “The fire never breached that firewall,” Adams said. “We saved the east side of the building.”
By 4 p.m., firefighters were checking the structure for hot spots, as most of the smoke and flames were extinguished. Adams said Friday evening that the official cause of the fire is still under investigation.
“I think it was in a concealed space in between the two roofs, and at this time, with the heavy fire damage that we have, (the cause) is undetermined,” he said.
AT LEAST TEN PEOPLE WERE KILLED AND 23 more were injured, 18 of them seriously, Saturday night when a passenger train collided head-on at speed with a freight train in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.
Bild photo
The crash occurred at 10:24 pm Saturday on a stretch of single-track and the sound of the collsion could be heard 5 miles away. The impact threw the entire passenger train off the tracks and according to a police spokesman, the trains struck at such a high speed that the passengers in the front of the train were killed instantly. Only two of the ten victims had been identified beyond reasonable doubt. The other eight dead proving to be difficult to identify because of injuries, said an investigator.
Bild
Every available emergency personnel in the region were dispatched to the scene and by 1:30 am Sunday all of the casualties had been recovered. A police official stated that the number of deaths is expected to rise.
Bild
It is not yet known how both trains ended up on the same track, but early speculation holds that most likely one of them passed through a red signal somewhere. Investigators from both the state police and the Federal Railway Authority are on the scene trying to piece together what happened.
This unattributed raw video was posted on YouTube:
Bild.de has the story plus a 21-image photo gallery HERE.
Don’t ask me what made me think about this because I really don’t know myself. But I’m sure you have had similar moments when your brain flies off to some obscure event or experience from years ago and then throws it out for you to think about again. It’s kind of like Google’s I’m Feeling Lucky search button. And it’s usually fun when it happens.
The random choice that came forward the other day was the principle of the playing cards maneuver known as the Perfect Shuffle. When I was a young child I became interested in magic tricks – what boy isn’t? – and accumulated a small collection of props and tricks. During the summer school vacations a classmate of mine and I would put on amateur magic shows for the neighborhood kids and sometimes my parents would let me do a couple of tricks for their guests if they were having a party. From that, part of my curiosity and interest naturally led to card tricks.
Fast forward to my early 20′s when I checked a book out of the public library that was written by a professional magician and covered only advanced card tricks. My own dexterity is not nearly good enough to practice that advanced form of manipulation, but I was entertained from reading about the topic and the methods used to force a card or move it around the deck. And that’s where my random “shot from the dark” came from and dropped the subject of the perfect shuffle on me.
If you are not acquainted with what a perfect shuffle is, let me paraphrase the definition. In a perfect shuffle, the dealer deftly picks the deck in exact half with 26 cards in each pile. Then he shuffles the cards in a perfect alternation with the cards interlacing exactly individually. That sounds like an impossiblity when it comes to skillful handling, and it almost is. But there are people who can do this consistently over and over. Some of them earn their living doing this as either stage performers or as shady card sharps playing “friendly” games of poker or pinnochle. My stray thought was telling me that if you do a perfect shuffle four times, then the cards end up in the same order that they were when you started. So I went online (today’s public library) to check on my recollection and I was not quite accurate.
The correct statement is that a perfect shuffle done eight times will bring you back to the beginning. I should interject that there are two common types of shuffles, one is the riffle where you place the deck halves on the table and flip the corners with your thumb while interlacing the cards together. That’s the most common type that we see in the U.S. The other shuffle is the Faro shuffle where you grasp each half-deck in your hands and force them together into one stack. A good card sharp can perform both types of shuffle perfectly and consistently. This YouTube clip shows one accomplished card sharp performing a perfect shuffle eight times to bring the card order back to its original count and he is using the Faro shuffle:
Following along in the internet library I learned some things that I hadn’t known about before and that is how the sharpsters move a selected card around the deck to wherever they want it to show up. It’s strictly binary mathematics, the same type of code that translates 0′s and 1′s into letters and pictures on your computer screen. Are you still with me here? I don’t want to bore you, but I think this is neat stuff.
Card manipulation uses two types of perfect shuffle, the IN shuffle and the OUT shuffle. The out shuffle always leaves the top card on top of the deck after each shuffle. The in shuffle moves the top card down to the number-2 spot in the order after each shuffle. So you can see that using combinations of in’s and out’s will move that top card to wherever you want it. For example, if you perform three shuffles IN - IN – OUT, then the top card ends up as the 7th card down in the deck. Ok, that’s all I’m going to say about this now. If you are curious about learning more or delving into the mathematics of the shuffle combinations, just enter Perfect Card Shuffle into the search engine and you’ll get plenty of explanations.
Myself, I’m ready to enter More Coffee into my own search engine, so I’ll go get another pot started while you get this equipment checked out. This is Sunday, so that means cook is fixing a big breakfast. See you back in the kitchen when it’s ready.
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Ok, one more. Here is a perfect riffle shuffle:
This is why it is always wise to know who you are playing cards with.
THE FIRE CHIEF OF CAMAS, WASHINGTON, was fired from his job yesterday (Friday) after serving as chief for six years. Chief Leo Leon, 65, made public the decison on Friday telling reporters that the decision for him to leave was mutual: “We mutually decided [that he would be fired] because I refused to retire or resign. I felt it was unjustified, unwarranted and that it would make it look like I voluntarily decided to go, and I haven’t.”
Leo Leon (Columbian file photo)
The Columbian reports:
“I appreciated that Leo accepted the position six years ago, and he accomplished much — especially in the first several years,” (City Administrator) Halverson said in the written statement. “More recently there have been setbacks, confidence has been lost, and now it is time for a change in the leadership of the Fire Department.”
But in looking at the challenges the city faces in all departments, such as declining revenues and increasing expenses, (Mayor Paul) Dennis said it became apparent he needed to make a leadership change.
“We’re facing a lot of challenges,” he said. “We really need to start thinking nontraditionally and start thinking about what’s the new norm and make strides that shift the department in that direction.”
There has been some speculation that Leon was willing to accept any further budget cuts that the city council was asking of him.
I lied about my age at 15 in order to become a volunteer firefighter. (They never found out and I stopped telling lies, mostly.) I graduated from high school at age 17 and was able to move away and start college only because a combination fire department there allowed me to live at the station till I turned 18 and could start riding. I did chores in the afternoon to “pay” my way. I lived there for almost two years.
At 19 I was hired first as a cadet by the county fire department (a part-time college student and quasi firefighter program.) I continued to live at the fire station during that time. About nine months later in the midst of a budget crisis the county ended the cadet program and gave me the option of going to recruit school or being “out in the cold.” I went to recruit school and wound up in the field at a career station. Along the way I joined the union but retained my volunteer membership to the dismay of some who unsuccessfully tried to get me to drop it. (It eventually lapsed when I no longer volunteered.)
I became very involved in the union, including holding the top local and state positions. I worked in combination stations along the way and my relations with volunteers were cordial and professional because I realized they had a substantive role to play. On a final personal note, it is true to say that being a volunteer firefighter gave me a purpose in life. The notion that I would indict or denigrate volunteering simply does not bear up under the scrutiny of my personal history or conduct.
In many parts of America, mostly rural or small towns, all-volunteer fire departments are the only fire protection communities will ever have. They represent a crucial public service and literally survive hand-to-mouth on donations or extremely modest stipends. In thousands of other places the call volume or the desire for a guaranteed basic level of service prompts local governments to hire a core group of paid staff to supplement volunteers often for day-time operations.
It is the nature of economics for most people to want something in return for the money they pay and that, in tandem with the huge call volume that comes with an urban environment typically results in a growing career staff to provide a guaranteed response to fire and EMS calls. The vast majority of urban fire departments (combination or career) are funded through budgets derived from income or property taxes collected at the city or county level. Budgets are developed by staff, supervisors, council persons or selectmen, public hearings are held and the expenditures are overseen by multiple overlapping government agencies to ensure that the spending is necessary and appropriate.
Few would seriously contest that many efficiencies are gained by viewing the provision of fire protection (apparatus, staffing, stations) in the context of the community at large versus town-by-town. Community level budgeting also allows decisions about the spending of tax revenues to be competitive across the entire universe of community needs. Firefighters may be special, but so is everybody else.
There are a very few urban environments where the funding authority for fire protection has skipped this oversight model and is instead done at a lower level through “fire taxes”. Money equals power and can be used, if there is a sufficient amount of it, to create an alternate and parallel reality where tens of millions of tax dollars are used to fund individual, autonomous “departments” where the primary emphasis is on independence and individuality at the expense of a unified approach.
This, then, is not a discussion about the inherent value of volunteer fire fighters, for that is a given. It is rather an opportunity, in the midst of a dreadful economic downturn, to look at how citizens spend their money for basic community services and to ask the question if those dollars are being spent wisely and efficiently.
It would be interesting to know (were it possible to find out) the total amount of funds obligated to one of these urban enclaves through all of the individual taxing authorities. The provided services could then be compared with a peer municipality to determine the true value for the dollar paid. Let us not forget that in these cases it’s not what you are getting for what you are paying, but what you COULD be getting for what you are paying.
A professional can be volunteer or paid but the mark of a true professional is the willingness not to hide behind labels or to be thin-skinned in the face of alternate views. It requires that you be rational and dispassionate and be willing to go where the facts lead you when protecting lives is the mission. I recently suggested just such an approach for the City of Camden and they seemed to take it with a stiff upper lip. Either that or they simply ignored me. I’m fine with either response.
Ambulances Continue Failing Acceptable Response Times
THE EMERGENCY AMBULANCE SERVICE IN UK is an integrated part of the National Health Service (NHS) and the service has been crumbling for several years. While the medics they employ are skilled and dedicated to their tasks, they are also victims of an out-of-control bureaucracy that maked decisions based not on what works, but on what they think should work. The top-heavy bureaucracy is gradually strangling the entire emergency service and consuming huge portions of the budgeted funds that should be going for additional crews and better dispatching facilities.
Firegeezer did some checking in 2009 and calculated that on a weekday the London Ambulance Service had more desks staffed in their head office than they had ambulances on the street. Others in the brain trust issued silly regulations such as the now-famous mandatory rule that ambulances be taken out of service during each shift for a required “tea break.” This had led to some well-publicised incidents where people have died within site of an ambulance station unbeknownst to the crew inside. In some ambulance districts, the drivers are required to follow the onboard GPS directions to a location even if the driver knows a shorter or quicker route to the incident.
This system of muddled management has been the cause of dispatching breakdowns and show-stopping delays in responses. In recent days the following incidents made the news:
* A grandmother in Yorkshire is protesting the fact that three ambulances that were dispatched to a house fire that killed three of her grandchildren took more than 30 minutes to arrive (confirmed by the ambulance trust). The first ambulance arrived in five minutes, but they called for three more and that led to the complaint. STORY HERE.
* In Aberdeen, Scotland, attempts to shift the blame for a scratched call on the probational medic failed. He was on his official tea break when a woman died following a H/A just a few minutes away from the station. The ambulance service first told the public that the medic (who was alone on the ambulance that night) “chose” to decline the call. The poor scapegoat quickly refuted that by proving that he had never been dispatched nor advised that there was an emergency nearby. The Scottish Ambulance Service backtracked and admitted that was the case. But by then, the townsfolk were so enraged that the medic had to be transferred to another duty station. STORY.
* The Welsh Ambulance Service has been chronically the worst of all the NHS services for response times, despite a revolving door for the ambulance trust leaders who barely make 9 months on the job before they are replaced. In the month of December the entire agency only achieved the 8-minute onscene time for the level A calls 47% of the time with one region only making it 30% of the time. The South Wales Argus is REPORTING:
Since last Thursday the Argus has reported cases of patients waiting in agony for up to 10 hours for an ambulance, while one man with serious burns had to be taken to hospital in a fire engine because there were no ambulances available.
The Assembly government have admitted increased demand on services has led to delays, but Gwent assembly members said yesterday that the current situation was not acceptable and Newport West AM Rosemary Butler will meet health minister Edwina Hart to discuss the situation later this week.
They add that part of the problem is ambulances being unduly kept out of service because hospital ER’s get backed up and the ambulances sometimes don’t get relieved of their patients until two hours after they arrive.
THE TOWN OF SWEET HOME, OREGON Pop. 8,000, lost one of its few family entertainment centers early Friday morning when to local bowling alley burned down. The Sweet Home Lanes had been a fixture in town for 52 years.
The owners of the bowling center, Ron and Mary Ann Rettke, both age 61, lived in an apartment over the business and are lucky to be alive today. It was around 2:30 am when an “exploding sound” awakened them. Looking out their bedroom window they saw that the building was burning. With the hallway filled with smoke, their only escape route at that point was to break out the window and then drop down to a ledge 5 feet below it and await the arrival of the fire department.
When the engine arrived they found the building fully involved with fire showing in every window and doorway, and the Rettke’s standing on the ledge. The firefighters immediately raised two ground ladders and got the pair down safely before they had to re-position away from the intensity of the fire.
KVAL-TV Ch. 13 filed this video report on the fire:
The Rettke’s had surveillance cameras inside the building and have turned the tapes over to the fire marshal to assist him in his investigation into the cause.
The Corvallis Gazette Times has more details HERE.
Firegeezer wishes to remind you that when you have smoke showing in a bowling alley, you do NOT go inside. Bowling alley fires are notable for being in large, open areas; large unsupported roofs (usually a bowstring truss); and a floor area that is mostly covered with highly-oiled wood. Once a fire gets started in one of those you cannot put it out.
Allow me to finish up my thoughts on yesterday’s topic about criminal activity within a fire or ambulance department. (Catch up on what I was talking about HERE if you missed it.) I have frequently emphasized the importance of obtaining a background check on your applicants and most people are aware of that importance. And yet there are still a lot of departments, both paid and volunteer, that either fail to do that or choose to overlook some discretions or “minor” convictions on somebody’s record.
At one extreme is a story that we reported on a couple of years ago about a small career department in one of the Carolina’s where the fire chief made an exception and allowed a prisoner to work in the firehouse on a work-release program. To nobody’s surprise but the Chief’s, he used that as a means to burgle a lot of homes. And then there’s the silly antics of the Memphis fire chief who publicly stated that he doesn’t have a problem hiring convicted felons. And he has hired them, even keeping a couple on the roster after they continued their life of crime while employed by the MFD. Now the city is barraged with lawsuits and the FD has lost its image as a friend of the residents.
While those are extremes, I point them out to relate my belief that you are inviting trouble when you permit somebody whose personal character includes a tendency to drift into unlawful behavior. Some people will say that criminals who have completed their sentence should be “given a second chance,” but I don’t believe that second chance should include letting them wander around someone’s house in the dark. It’s too much of a risk.
And how many times have we talked about annual audits of volunteer organizations’ finances? Way too often the annual audit is nothing more than the company president “getting a committee together” to sit down one night and see if all the canceled checks match up with the checkbook. One complaint that is sometimes put out is that professional accountants cost too much and a small, already-struggling squad cannot afford it. But that can be solved in a couple of ways. For one, a professional audit can be scheduled every three years and be effective. Also, many vol. organizations operate with a collaboration from the local businesses by getting discounts (or sometimes donated supplies or services) from various firms like hardware stores, truck mechanics, even bank checking fees can be waived. The same approach could be done with a CPA who might be willing to donate a few hours a month to watching over the financial activity.
And consider amending your bylaws to require company treasurers to be limited to perhaps three years in the position. How many times have we seen where a “great fellow” and trusted long-time member is caught dipping into the treasury? Last month we learned of one who had been treasurer for over 20 years and never been audited because he was well liked by the members. He’s in jail now.
And the same goes for the performance bonds on all the company officers, not just the treasurer. They really don’t cost all that much for the protection you get. You already have insurance on your equipment and department liability, so talk to your insurance agent about bonding.
Ok, ’nuff said on that for now. I’ll probably be back next year saying it all again.
Meanwhile, we’d better get this equipment checked out. I need to get some more coffee going, too. See you back in the day room.
3 Convictions for Murder Conspiracey
2 Convictions for Arson
A COLUMBIA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, JURY CONVICTED Kristen Strausser on five charges Friday afternoon on the third day of her trial.
Strausser and her boyfriend were arrested in 2009 and charged with arsons and conspiracy while they were volunteer firefighters who wanted to make some “heroic rescues” by targeting homes accupied by elderly people.
Read the report on their arrests in 2009 HERE.
Wednesday’s report on the opening of the trial is HERE.
WNEP-TV Ch. 16 has this video report on today’s verdict:
A Milestone Day at Firegeezer.com
4 commentsWow! Can You Believe This?
TODAY IS A SPECIAL DAY HERE AT FIREGEEZER.COM.
That’s because one of the articles that is posted here today will be Posting #10,000! A true milestone and an achievement that I am unashamedly proud of. In a time span of just under four years we have gone from a start-up one-man, barely read blog to one of the country’s leading fire and rescue-oriented websites with nine contributors currently online.
As a way of marking this day, I asked each of our contributors to have something ready to post this morning so that we could give everybody a spot on the Big Day. Instead of pointing to one specific posting as being Number 10,000, I am designating all of them as THE notable entry. So here they are for your edification and enjoyment. This collection of contributions takes up more than one webpage, so make sure you click on the NEXT button when you get to the bottom of the page and then you won’t miss a single article. It will take you right down to this Morning’s Lineup.
Have fun and thanks so very much for checking in with us regularly. We truly appreciate it and I hope you stay with us through the next ten thousand articles.
Oh… you may be wondering when Post #1 was published. It was on March 25, 2007.