So far, so good this morning when it comes to website availability. No sooner had I posted yesterday's Lineup than the server crashed again. There is a repeated DOS attack being carried out and it took another several hours to restore service again. But I have just posted one of the stories left over from yesterday that includes a video (the Camden warehouse fire) and it accepted it. So we'll see if the ISP's firewall adjustments continue to hold this morning.
We have a few more "leftovers" from yesterday that we want to share, even though they are a day old, so I'll get started playing "catch up" and get those online. While I'm doing that, you can get the equipment checked out before the Saturday shoppers start finding new ways to get themselves into distress. First off, I'll get some more coffee started…of course. See you back in the day room and thanks for you patience yesterday. Let's keep our fingers crossed for today.
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NHL Stanley Cup Finals
Vancouver Canucks – 1, Boston Bruins – 0
Vancouver leads best-of-seven series 3 games to 2.
Next game Monday night, NBC, CBC.
Last night's game highlights (there weren't a whole lot of them):
A FIRE IN AN ABANDONED WAREHOUSE WENT TO 12 ALARMS in Camden, New Jersey, Thursday evening.
NBC News
The fire was first reported around 4:30 pm and when the FD arrived they found a 3-story warehouse structure well involved and starting to spread into neighboring houses. As more alarms were struck and several neighboring fire departments were called in to assist, there were serious water supply problems because all of the hydrants in the area had been vandalized by brass thieves. Most of the water was supplied by drafting from the nearby Delaware River, so fire flow was limited.
Fox News
The fire quickly extended to another vacant building and then into a group of row houses. Adding to the challenge was the outdoor temperatures that were in the upper 90's.
Philadelphia Inquirer
After five hours, the fire was finally declared under control at 9 pm. By then at least ten houses had been damaged or destroyed by the fire. It has not been determined yet how many were occupied as there are several vacant homes in the area. So far, at least 12 families are being assisted by the Red Cross.
The building where the fire started was last occupied by a tire distributorship that relocated to the suburbs in 2009. It has been derelict since including some nearby buildings owned by the Board of Education that were also vacant.
The large building at the corner of Ross and Orchard Streets is the warehouse
where the fire began. It eventually damaged or destroyed all other buildings
within that perimeter and started some grass fires two blocks away at
the Old Camden Cemetery.
This raw video taken from NBC's helicopter shows the ranging effects of the fire and can be compared with the satellite image just above:
There's a growing dispute between firefighters, who say water pressure hampered their ability to battle the blaze, and city officials downplaying the problem – despite a news release last week urging citizens not to open fire hydrants because it was causing a water shortage.
The firefighters' union also says departmental cutbacks limited the second wave of responders arriving on scene until the fire had already spread.
This will be a quick lineup because it's late and we have a delayed start today. Most of you noticed that the website was down for several hours and your morning-geezer fix went unfilled. At it was, the entire FireEMSBlogs webserver was the victim of a denial-of-service attack (DOS) that struck shortly after 6 am.
As I am writing this, the blogs are slowly coming back online after 14-½ hours as the webfarm geeks patch up the wounded and get us back into action. By now I know that you've made sure that the rest of the equipment is ready to go and I'll see that some more coffee is ready. Then come on back to the digital day room.
Thanks for you patience and to everybody who sent us a heads-up to make sure we were aware that the site was down. It was appreciated.
AN ADULT BOOKSTORE IN WESTMORELAND COUNTY, Pennsylvania, was completely burned out early Thursday morning. Almost immediately, the State Police investigator received a tip that led him to the home of one of the shop's employees. Joseph Pahel, 44 of Latrobe who was the close-up man last night, was arrested later this morning and charged with several counts of theft, arson, criminal mischief and reckless endangerment.
None of the live girls were in the bookstore
at the time of the fire. (Post-Gazette photo)
WTAE-TV Ch. 4 Pittsburgh has the morning video report from the scene:
Police say that Pahel had taken $300 from the cash register just after closing, and set the fire to cover up his crime. While they have declined to say exactly how they learned of Pahel's involvement so quickly, when they interviewed him at his home he admitted that he had taken the money and started the fire. The business sells sex-related videos, publications and devices and employs several women who appear nude in viewing booths.
The Lloydsville VFD was the first-due company and when they arrived on the scene the fire was already through the roof.
The Pittsburg Tribune-Review has the story HERE.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has MORE.
Lloydsville VFD WEBSITE.
Many are familiar with the basic details of the death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman in the mountains of Afghanistan on April 22, 2004. It was attended by a series of unseemly cover-ups before the US military was finally forced to admit that Tillman, for all of his apparent bravery, died at the hands of his fellow soldiers in a confused and running fire fight.
Tillman comes to mind this week because the trial phase is ending in the case of three contractors charged with manslaughter in the deaths of FDNY firefighters Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino who died while fighting a fire at the former Deutsche Bank Building located at 130 Liberty Street on August 18, 2007. The original 41-story building was damaged during the 9/11 attacks. At the time of the fire it was being de-constructed and was down to 26 stories.
The Gothamist
Those contractors, Jeffrey Melofchik, Mitchel Alvo and Salvatore DePaola, are to Beddia and Graffagnino, what the Afghan soldiers were to Pat Tillman. They were players in a life and death drama but singling them out as the proximate cause of the fireground fatalities is effectively the same as asserting that the Afghanis fired the weapons that killed Tillman. Saying it does not make it so. Like the enemy troops who set the stage for Tillman’s company to mistake him for the enemy with deadly consequences, these contractors are simply the lowest hanging fruit on the tree of guilt. Where professional firefighters are concerned, they are nothing more than convenient scapegoats that nobody should feel good about.
Cover-ups can take many forms from the destroy the evidence and lying type in the Tillman affair to the more subtle sort characterized by internal reports that receive little real scrutiny or the attachment of primary blame to persons with tangential responsibility. The latter is surely the case with the Deutsche Bank fire.
FDNY, with all of its blemishes and imperfections is the nation's most experienced fire department. The level of activity and the size of the enterprise have resulted in a firefighting force that is characterized by great professionalism and superb capabilities. Ironically, it's no stretch to consider them the "rangers" of the American fire service. But rangers, as the Tillman case proves, can also make terrible mistakes.
What happened on Liberty Street that day? The official report is a litany of gross errors and misjudgments:
- Firefighters were committed to extremely exposed and dangerous positions in an abandoned building under active demolition.
- It took over 80 minutes to obtain a reliable water supply.
- Desperate calls for help went unheard and unanswered.
- Fire crews split up losing accountability and control.
It was by any measure an operational nightmare and it appears that those most responsible–senior fire commanders and FDNY department leaders– all but escaped accountability. That accountability is now being borne by those indicted who had nothing to do with the actual actions that killed Beddia and Graffagnino. Should they be found guilty it will be false and empty justice mostly because those who allowed the event to unfold as it did are watching from safely outside the courtroom. Perhaps as importantly, it may allow firefighters to escape the very painful lessons of that day as real responsibility is lost in a fantasy of justice.
The US Army learned a bitter lesson with the death of Pat Tillman: if you are really serious about preventing the tragedy of friendly fire incidents, attempting to gloss them over or cover them up is folly. The only thing worse than a glossing over is pinning the real blame on others to avoid the painful realization that firefighters are chiefly responsible for the Deutsche Bank deaths.
At the end of the Tillman affair, after the cover-ups and lies, US Army Secretary Pete Geren had this to say:
"Give them the truth as we know it, as fast as we can."
Wise words to live by and Joseph Graffagnino and Robert Beddia deserve no less.
………. Eric Lamar
sources:
U. S. Army (mil.com)
NYFD
Wiki
New York Times
A 36,000 SQ. FT. BUILDING HOUSING the Nebraska Engineering Co., a business that makes machine parts, was destroyed Wednesday after an oil separator started burning sending what one worker called "a lake of fire" through the building in Omaha, Nebraska.
Omaha World-Herald
The initial alarm was dispatched shortly before 11 am and a 2nd was struck shortly after the units arrived on the scene. Within a half-hour there were four alarms dispatched as the fire intensified.
This early video report from the fire spokesman gives a good report on the first-alarm units' actions and the primary search of the building:
At one point, the fire extended to a set of outdoor tanks containing oils and chemicals. A total of 70 firefighters worked the job for four hours before it was brought under control.
World-Herald
There were 55 to 60 employees in the building when the fire started and all escaped safely. Three of the employees were taken to the hospital suffering from smoke inhalation and one of them had his hair singed. All three were treated and released.
Channel 3 News summarized the incident in this video report:
AN ORANGE COUNTY, FLORIDA, FIRE LIEUTENANT was demoted to Firefighter this past Friday and the driver of his fire engine who had 22 years on the job was fired. The incident that triggered the personnel actions took place on May 1 when the engine was responding to an auto fire with people reported trapped in the vehicle. While en route, they came up behind a car in the left lane that refused to pull over, so the engine driver, David Jordan passed on the right and then swung back into the left lane in an obvious maneuver to run the car off the road. His move ran the engine up over the curb and then back down into the roadway, narrowly avoiding an accident or possible rollover.
All the while Lt. Thomas Veal was making repeated obscene gestures to the car's driver and failing to tell the driver to lay off the reckless driving. The two men forgot that they were on camera while they were being recorded by a videocam that is aimed both ahead of the engine's path and into the crew cab.
This video report from WOFL-TV Ch. 35 includes the video evidence and an explanation of what transpired:
The dash cameras were installed in all Orange County firetrucks a few years ago to help the department avoid frivolous lawsuits. When their contractor in California was reviewing the recent tapes, this incident was noticed and the fire department was notified.
The video also shows ex-Lt. Veal not wearing his seat belt. This was the second time that he has been caught with that infraction.
Orange County Fire Chief Carl Plaugher released this information yesterday (Wednesday) and the two firefighters have until Monday to appeal the decision if they choose.
Thursday Morning – Hot Out West and Back East, Too.
When it comes to fire news, far and away the biggest story this week is that unbelieveably huge wildfire in northern Arizona. I don't get too involved in reporting the wildfires because other sites that specialize in that coverage are operated by wildfire veterans and they can devote their time solely on that action. When you have a fire that keeps growing over a period of days and can take 2 or 3 weeks to put out, then you have a whole different challenge to report on them.
The two websites that I check out regularly are both run by retired wildland fire officers who not only know the business, but also do an excellent job of presenting the information on their blogs. One of them is what I believe is the first fire-related blog to have gone online back in 2004, Captain Mike Morales' Firefighter Blog. http://firefighterblog.com/ The other that should be on your Bookmark list, too, is Bill Gabbert's Wildfire Todayhttp://wildfiretoday.com/ Both blogs are written by experts who tell what is really going on in the firelines along with generous use of satellite images and overlays that educate you on the progress of the fire.
This fire in Arizona that you've heard about in news clips is an under-reported monster that has consumed more than 500 sq. mi. and is completely out of control with not nearly the firefighting resources needed to begin an effective containment. The decisions made by the U. S. Forest Service and the Dept. of Agriculture in the past year with regards to slashing resources such as manpower, aerial tanker availability and heavy equipment (bulldozers) are culminating in this fiasco that is threatening entire towns with extinction and today may burn through vital electric transmission lines that will leave large areas of Arizona and New Mexico without power.
I urge you to click on the two links I just provided you and get caught up on the wildfire happenings.
Speaking of foolish "cost-saving" measures, FireNews.net is reporting that the North Carolina Forest Service has only one helicopter pilot on the payroll this year. Earlier they saved money by laying off four pilots and then three more quit and went elsewhere leaving the last one to turn out the lights. Currently they have a brush fire in the eastern part of the state that has been burning for a month and still no vital air drops.
We had better get our vital equipment checks taken care of now. I am going to get more vital coffee started. See you back in the day room.
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NHL Stanley Cup Finals – Game 4
Boston Bruins – 4, Vancouver Canucks – 0
Series tied at 2 games each.
Next game Friday night. NBC, CBC.
Boston finished digging themselves out of the hole they were in after losing the first two games by winning the last two on their home ice. Trying to prove that Monday's blowout wasn't a fluke, the Bruins continued to outplay the Canucks and scored in every period to win again, this time by a shutout. After the third goal, the Canuck's goaltender was pulled and their backup finished the game.
Like the previous game, the teams' dislike for each other seeped out with a penalty-filled third period culminating with the hilarious sight of Boston's goaltender getting in a fight with a Canucks skater right in the crease. You can read the boxscore and game summary HERE. There will be a lot of water-cooler chatter this morning as speculations are tossed around on which Vancouver goalie will start game 5.
IN SPOTSYLVANIA COUNTY, VIRGINIA, ONE OF THE three volunteer fire departments has had three members arrested in the past ten months for committing felonies involving females in the fire station. The county's paid chief and administration have some control over the stations and all the paid firefighters, but none over the volunteer members.
Monday the County Administrator gave the county Deputy Chief the authority to investigate the entire department and take measures to clean up the problem. He is a former law enforcement investigator, so he knows how to do it.
The Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star has the background and the details of this latest action HERE.
IN STEDMAN, NORTH CAROLINA, DETECTIVES with the Cumberland County sheriff's office witnessed two men, one a volunteer firefighter, set fire to a construction site porta-potty late Tuesday night. With that arrest they closed the cases of 17 other porta-potty fires in the same area. One of them was close enough to a church to melt the vinyl siding on a wall, so they tacked on a burning of a church charge also. Things are looking bleak for the two pranksters and you can read the full story posted by WRAL-TV on their website HERE.
SOUTH PORTLAND, MAINE, HAS A MAJOR oil terminal for ocean-going tankers along with seven terminal operators. As a result, the South Portland Fire Department is the best-equipped and trained firefighters for tank fires. Once in a while they will get a special request for mutual aid assistance at an oil fire, but Monday night's call came from a department 110 miles away. A new record for So. Portland and you can read about in the Portland Press HeraldHERE.
WICHITA, KANSAS, FIREFIGHTERS ARE understandably angry. With the city slashing its expenditures to balance the budget, they have denied a 1% pay raise to the firefighters. BUT… the Local has found out that several fire administration officials have received wage increases over the past year that have raised their salaries by 38% and more.
KAKE-TV ran this video report on the lop-sided payroll dispute:
Eric Carpenter, reporting for the Orange County Register, reports on next week's closing of Engine 8 at the Riverdale fire station in east Anaheim, California.
Anaheim Fire Chief Randy Bruegman said removing the engine from service will save the city $1.9 million over the next year.
The move also helps avoid any layoffs; the four firefighters assigned to that engine will be put on rotation to avoid overtime costs throughout the department,
Bruegman said. It's the second Anaheim fire truck to be taken out of service in recent years: The department placed an engine stationed near downtown on reserve indefinitely in April 2009.
The Riverdale station houses Paramedic Engine 8, Truck 8, Battalion 1 and HazMat 8.
Their "first-in" covers a mixed area of industrial and hillside residential. Station 8 responds to both the 91 and 55 freeways, and has the potential of river rescues with the Santa Ana riverbed just behind the station.
According to the news article, Station 8 handles about 1,500 calls per year.
Truck 8 will morph into Quint 8.
Update (June 12) Truck 8 (tiller) is swapped with the reserve quint.
HazMat 8 will move to Station 6.
Quint 8 will probably be paramedic first responder capable.
To be attributed to a London Ambulance Service spokesperson:
"We are currently still using our manual system for managing 999 calls; this involves recording calls on paper and passing information to ambulance crews over the radio.
"We switched to this system earlier today (8 June) after we experienced technical issues with a new 999 computer system that we introduced last night.
"We have now decided that we will revert back to using our original computer system while the issues with the new system are being resolved; we will do this in the early hours of tomorrow morning.
“Our priority remains to answer all incoming 999 calls, giving priority to those patients with the most serious illnesses and injuries.
“We would ask people to use their ambulance service wisely at this time and consider where else they may be able to get medical help if it is not an emergency, for example NHS Direct, walk-in centres or minor injuries units.”
- Ends -
A similar problem occured in 1992.
From this University College London online course by Ian Sommerville:
The London Ambulance Service introduced a new computer-aided despatch system in 1992 which was intended to automate the system that despatched ambulances in response to calls from the public and the emergency services.
This new system was extremely inefficient and ambulance response times increased markedly.
Shortly after its introduction, it failed completely and LAS reverted to the previous manual system.
The systems failure was not just due to technical issues but to a failure to consider human and organisational factors in the design of the system.
How quickly can a salacious but "newsworthy" image spread?
Sirius/XM testosterone radio duo Opie and Anthony have provided a case study in digital distribution.
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Breitbart shows photo allegedly of naked Weiner
By Daniel Strauss – 06/08/11 02:35 PM ET
Conservative firebrand Andrew Breitbart revealed on Wednesday a photo that he says Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) took of his own genitals.
Breitbart showed the photo to the hosts of the Sirius XM radio show "Opie and Anthony" during a visit to the studio. The hosts took their own pictures of the photos and leaked them online through Twitter.
Breitbart had previously said that he had explicit photos taken by Weiner but would not show them.
Within three hours the tweeted image made it to all of the mainstream media sites. Often posted within the digital version of "above the fold" positioning.
Breitbart left the SiriusXM studios in New York and caught a flight.
Breitbart's response was posted hours later, long after the item showed up in the Guardian Manchester in the United Kingdom.
UPDATE: OPIE HUGHES EXPLAINS WHAT HAPPENED
UPDATE 2: BREITBART SHARES HIS PHOTO WITH OPIE & ANTHONY
IT IS NOT PORN IF IT IS NEWSWORTHY
While The Hill did not post the image, many websites used a simple bar to obscure the photo. You could click to remove the bar to see the goods, did not even have to tell them your age.
EMERGENCY SERVICE IMPLICATIONS
Fires, crashes and disasters seem to generate almost the same level of interest as naked private parts.
A dramatic picture or video of a newsworthy event may cross the globe before the incident commander declares the event under control.
A single compelling image lacks the story, background or context.
We emotionally respond to what we see and create a story based on our background and bias … and then blog, discuss, rant, and pontificate based on OUR point of view.
Sometimes the backstory is more compelling:
It appears that there was NO call for mutual aid when Raymond Zack killed himself in San Francisco Bay.
Water rescue resources were available, but never requested by Alameda public safety.
Sometimes the issue is more complicated than a sound bite.
Dave Statter provides a summary:
Now comes news from Northampton, Massachusetts that in some ways tops the Alameda story in that this is a case where union officials have posted a big kick me sign on the backs of its members.
IAFF Local 108 has filed a grievance after Northampton Chief Brian Duggan ordered an engine company to stay in service and help salvage some belongings from the snow damaged home of an elderly man.
Additional information provides a different picture:
The house has been unoccupied for years.
The owner of the house does not live in Northampton.
Family members are part of the public safety community
captfiremedic at IACOJ.com provides this description of the neighborhood:
Laurel Park is a small private area off North King Street, with privately maintained roads and what are essentially large cabins used as weekend homes.
Most, at least back in my time, were old, uninsulated structures dating back to the 30's.
The two leading satellite radio networks, XM and Sirius, are still attempting to seal a merger deal under heavy scrutiny from antitrust forces.
That job just became a little harder with a new shock jock scandal in the making that could make the Imus story look like a small blip.
XM satellite radio hosts Opie and Anthony recently broadcast a skit segment in which a homeless man visits the show and talks about forced sex with the Secretary of State Condi Rice—with the encouragement of the show hosts.
Opie and Anthony were suspended for a month. All of their past shows were immediately removed from Audible.com.
They vanished from the XM website. Personal discussion forum and social media accounts closed. Digitally scrubbed from the internet.
Hugh Panaro, CEO of XM, demanded that they be fired. They almost were.
Raleigh Fire Department Museum Grand Opening, June 14
The Raleigh Fire Department Historical Society is proud to announce the opening of the Raleigh Fire Department Museum. Located in a classroom trailer at the Keeter Training Center, the museum is a collection of artifacts and images representing over 150 years of firefighting in the Capitol City.
Items on display range from the 1870 alarm bell originally housed in Metropolitan Hall, to a collection of vintage nozzles and hose appliances, to a photo history of Raleigh's fire and rescue apparatus.
The grand opening of the museum is on Tuesday, June 14, at 10:00 a.m. Active and retired personnel are invited, along with the general public. The Keeter Training Center is located at 105 Keeter Center Drive. Following the Grand Opening, the museum will be open on the 2nd Saturday of each month from 10 am to 2 pm.
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Pennsylvania Pump Primers
Antique Fire Apparatus Show & Muster
July 9 – Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
10 am to 4 pm at River Park. Mass pumping demo. at 11 am
36th Annual Antique Fire Apparatus Show & Muster featuring over 100 antique fire trucks pumping from the Susquehanna River and at static display. A few hand drawn fire apparatus will be on display also. All apparatus must be 25 years or older to participate. Fireman games include Barrell Spin, Barrell Bust and Bucket Brigade, participants / teams need not have apparatus present to participate. 30-40 Firematic Flea Market vendors present.
WPI Firefighters' Fund 7th Annual Stop-Drop-n-Roll Chili Cook-Off
When? Saturday, October 15th, 2011 10 am – 5 pm
Where? Parking lot of Bass Pro Shop in Grapevine, TX
An October Texas tradition, the annual Stop-Drop-n-Roll Chili Cook-Off brings in thousands of rabid chili enthusiasts nationwide. Admission is free, and all-day chili sample cups are $5 a pop. Every dollar contributed or donated goes directly to the WPIFF: no expenses, no red tape, and no neglected firefighters.
$20 to register your chili team, prizes awarded to winners, vendor booths, kids activities, live music, raffle, and much more!
Do you have a fire-related event, muster, antique show, flea market, etc., coming up? Send us the info. to: geezerguys (at) yahoo (dot) com. Be sure to include website links, graphics and phone contact, and we'll post it in our Upcoming Events listings. (Special thanks to Collectors Weekly for assistance http://www.collectorsweekly.com/ )
Purposely Overbilled the Federal Agencies for 4 Years
THE CITY OF DALLAS, TEXAS, AGREED TUESDAY to pay nearly $2.5 million to settle a whistle-blower lawsuit that charged them with inflating ambulance bills for four years from 2006 to 2010. The city was accused of "upcharging" ambulance bills by reclassifying BLS calls as Advanced Life Support calls in order to inflate the reimbursements paid to them.
AP
A press release from the U. S. Attorney's Office reads in part:
The City of Dallas has agreed to pay the U.S. and Texas $2.47 million and enter into certain compliance obligations to resolve allegations that it violated the civil False Claims Act and Texas Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act, announced U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas. The U.S. and Texas contend Dallas caused "upcoded" claims to be submitted to Medicare and Medicaid for city-dispatched 911 ambulance transports between 2006 and 2010. Dallas fully cooperated with the investigation, and by settling did not admit any wrong-doing or liability.
Ambulance services generally are coded either as basic life support level or advanced life support (ALS). ALS transports are reimbursed at a higher rate by both Medicare and Medicaid. The U.S. and Texas contend Dallas directed its billing contractor to code every 911-dispatched transport at the ALS level, which indicates an ALS service was furnished and/or the patient's condition necessitated an ALS intervention. The U.S. and Texas believe Dallas caused to be submitted for payment claims falsely representing to Medicare and Medicaid that such ALS services were appropriate and furnished by Dallas personnel when in fact no ALS-service was rendered and/or the patient did not require an ALS transport.
The U.S. and Texas initiated the investigation in response to an August 2009 whistleblower suit brought by Douglas Moore, a former employee of Dallas' auditing department. Under the False Claims Act and Texas Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act, private individuals may bring actions alleging fraud on behalf of the U.S. and Texas and collect a share of any proceeds recovered by the suit. Mr. Moore can receive up to 30% of the recovery under the settlement.
The original 40-page complaint (.pdf) can be read HERE.
Several hundred people were evacuated from Building OC-10, said Chandler Fire Battalion Chief Scott Wall.
One employee suffered second- or third-degree burns and was transported to Maricopa Medical Center, Wall said. The worker was "severely injured" but the burns are not life-threatening, Wall said.
Two were taken to Chandler Regional Medical Center and one to Mercy Gilbert Medical Center, he said. Three others were treated and released on site.
More than 70 firefighters from several departments including three haz-mat squads responded to the fire that was out on arrival. The solvent recovery section stores four different types of chemicals in 55-gal. drums. The accident took place in an area designed to handle the products and able to resist the type of event that occurred.
"We're starting up a new technology and as we do that we have a number of chemistries that we use, and this particular chemistry, we were collecting waste and starting up the abatement system which will basically burn the outgassing of this chemical before it goes through our exhaust system," Intel Vice President John Pemberton told reporters. The accident did not affect the two assembly buildings where the chip production takes place.
The site is being investigated today to determine if the accident was caused by human error or from a mechanical malfunction.
KSAZ-TV Ch. 10 has some raw aerial footage of the accident site:
Intel's Chandler facility is the chip-maker's second-largest plant and employs 9,700 people. The Chandler Fire Department inspects the complex twice a year.
On Monday the news spread that a man named Wally Boag had died on Friday at age 90. As soon as I saw the name, it registered immediately even though I hadn't thought of or heard about Mr. Boag in, what, thirty years perhaps? Maybe it was when he retired in 1982 that I last saw his name in print. But by then he was already a living legend in the history of stage entertainment. Wally Boag, you see, played the role of Pecos Bill in the Disneyland attraction Golden Horseshoe Revue, a theater in the Frontierland section of the park.
Performing four and sometimes five times a day for 27 years, he logged in more than 40,000 performances, a record that may never be matched. A vaudeville hoofer and singer who later landed some supporting roles in motion pictures, he auditioned for the part of Pecos Bill in the stage revue that was planned for the amusement park scheduled to open soon in 1955 and won what he thought was going to be a 2-week gig. Teamed up with leading lady Betty Taylor who played Slew Foot Sue in the act, the show became an instant hit and a major career change occurred to both of them as they rode the show into the history books.
Walt Disney publicity photo
During my 5-year hiatus in California long ago, I visited Disneyland at least 5 times and always caught the show because it was so entertaining and downright funny. When Walt Disney later began promoting the acts from his theme park on his tv show, the name Wally Boag became widely known around the country. After Wally retired in 1982, Betty Taylor continued in the show for five more years wracking up a total of 45,000 performances as the hostess of the Old West saloon. The Golden Horseshoe Revue is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running stage production in show business history.
If you never got the chance to catch their act, you have it now, condensed down to 8 minutes:
Wally Boag passed away Friday, age 90, at his home in Santa Monica, California, ravaged by Alzheimer's disease. Betty Taylor? She died the next day, Saturday, at age 91 in her home in Washington State. I think the show is still running…only in a different location now.
We had better get our own show started now and get this equipment checked out. I'll get the coffee started. See you back in the day room.
A MASSIVE FIRE IN A VACANT MILL BUILDING is burning at this hour (Tuesday night) in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.
WPRI-TV
The fire was discovered Tuesday evening and had large parts of the huge structure involved before the FD could get set up for operations. It is visible 15 miles away in Providence.
The 4-story industrial building was most recently the home of Tech Industries, but has been vacant since 2009. Currently it has been undergoing some rebuilding to accommodate a wood pellet manufacturing plant. It is located at 85 Fairmount St. and many nearby homes have been evacuated as a precaution.
At the time of this posting the fire department has been on the scene for just over two hours and it is still burning out of control. Occasionally a roof section or a portion of a wall will collapse and it appears that the entire structure will be destroyed.
Satellite view of the property
No further information is available yet while the fire is still in progress.
None of the tv stations have begun processing video footage yet, but during the night the best stations to check for late video and information are:
WPRI-TV Ch. 12 HERE.
WLNE-TV Ch. 6 HERE.
WJAR-TV Ch. 10 has posted this viewer-submitted video taken earlier:
Hat tip: Rob Ladd
Update, 10:45 pm Eastern:
Helicopter footage is showing large collapsed areas of upper floors and walls. CLICK HERE for live streaming video (sporadic…comes and goes depending on the helicopter and refueling, ect.)
Update, 6:30 am Wednesday:
The Associated Press has filed this dramatic raw video of the fire:
The 112-yr.-old building was originally the home of Alice Mills Rubber Manufacturing Co., one of the largest rubber goods factories in the world in the early 20th century and most famously known as the home of Keds sneakers. The building has been literally destroyed by the fire.
Fire Chief Gary Lataille said 10 to 15 fire departments from Rhode Island and Massachusetts offered assistance. The strategy, he said, was to keep the fire from spreading and let the mill burn to the ground. Lataille reported one firefighter taken to a hospital.
"This is a very historic building and represents a great loss to Woonsocket," Mayor Leo T. Fontaine said. He said the building, on 7 acres at 85 Fairmount St., had recently been acquired by the American Wood Pellet Co.
Pellet company president Steven Triedman said he had been at a party and was surprised to see more than a dozen messages on his cell phone. He said the building was insured.
Update, 5 pm:
The fire was largely burned out by daybreak. Some units remained during the day to work the hot spots and the fire investigators won't be able to get inside until Thursday at the earliest. However, the Associated Press reported that, "state Fire Marshal Jack Chartier said he believes residual heat from a blow torch left behind by a construction worker sparked the blaze. That conclusion came from interviews with workers who had been renovating the mill during the day Tuesday and fire fighters. The building did not have a permit for blow torch work, which would have required a fire watch, Chartier said."
WCVB-TV Ch. 5 Boston filed this raw video taken today from their helicopter showing the skeleton of the mill:
The AP continued:
Alice Mill was built in 1889 by Woonsocket Rubber Company, in its day the leading importer of raw rubber into the U.S., according to histories about Woonsocket. At the height of its operation, the factory was the largest rubber goods factory in the world, employing 2,000 people.
Later, the mill, which was named for the mother of Woonsocket Rubber Company's owner, would manufacture the popular U.S. Keds sneakers. Alice Mill was shuttered in 1932, but reopened in 1941 to manufacture barrage balloons, rubber assault vehicles and other rubber products needed during World War II.
THE NORTH EAST AMBULANCE SERVICE in the UK has admitted that their units have been involved in 1,097 vehicle accidents in just the last three years. This propensity to pile up has run their insurance premiums up to £950,000 per year ($1,520,000).
Their 107-ambulance fleet is averaging a wreck a day, yet the NEAS communications officer Joanne Charles tells the Middlesbrough Gazette: "As an emergency service attending life or death situations our frontline staff are trained to drive vehicles safely when a rapid response is required."
The Gazette had to file Freedom-of-Information requests to wring the public documents out of them and they wrote about them in THIS ARTICLE. Firegeezer wants to know how many people the NEAS has to add to the payroll just to keep up the paperwork and follow-ups for their accident activities. I'm guessing at least three.
THE EAST BRIDGEWATER, MASSACHUSETTS, FIRE CHIEF only wanted to get his 5-yr.-old chief's buggy replaced. Savvy to the ways of the town's process, he got all the approvals and clearances, had the paperwork in order, and got verbal approval from the Selectmen. But when Town Meeting came up, the sight of all those voters in the chamber sent the Board of Selectmen all gaga and they felt the need to exhibit "prudence"and "responsibility" by grilling the chief over this outlandish expenditure.
Slipping into the local yokel caricature, they peppered him with questions and observations such as, “My main concern with this vehicle is it’s not to be driven by firefighters; it’s to be driven by the fire chief.” (Sigh…) He got his car, and the Brockton Enterprise was there to get the STORY.
NORTH CAROLINA IS THE HEART of stock car racing, so it's now surprise that race car haulers are easy to come by. The Apex FD found one to be ideal for the regional USAR team's use.
photo by Mike Legeros
Mike Legeros has the picture story with some early info. in his Raleigh/Wake Firefighting Blog HERE.
The widescreen nüvi 1350LMT adds free Lifetime Maps and Traffic to the nüvi 1350. In addition, this thin GPS announces streets by name, guides you to the proper lane for navigation, offers pedestrian navigation options and calculates a more fuel-efficient route with ecoRoute.
CLICK HERE to read more plus technical details and to Order one.
Father's day coming up in two weeks.
THE CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND OF A SPORT that is ideally adaptable to any firehouse was played on Friday when the British Shin Kicking Championship Contest was held in Chipping Camden, Gloucestershire.
The unusual toe-to-toe combat dates back to the 16th century, but the rules have been slightly modernized. You must grasp your opponent by the shoulders and all kicks must be below the knee. In a sop to the wussiness of modern man, you are now permitted to stuff straw (nothing else) down your pants legs, and steel-toed shoes were outlawed in the last century. The game is explained and demonstrated in this video:
The elimination tournament was wrapped up just before sunset when the Championship was contested between the two finalists and documented in this video action report:
Ben Corfield, 32, is this year's Champ. The runner limper-up was a youngster and future shin-kicking star, Mr. Hunt. Congratulations, Ben !!
What is a progressive department? A prominent fire personnel management book says a progressive department recognizes that its makeup should reflect that of its community, ethnically speaking. To borrow from an oldish movie: You keep using that word; I do not think it means what you think it means.
In political terms, in the broader world of talking heads and cable news, "progressive" means a few things. It can be an epithet or a term of approbation but I think mostly it's just a flexible label useful for anything you love or hate at one particular moment in time. You can spit it out sneeringly or you can bestow it as high praise. But in the fire service I've always understood progressive to mean something else entirely. The old heads I was around as a young fireman prided themselves on being progressive and I can proudly say that my own department is fairly progressive.
What characterizes a progressive fire department? To my mind a progressive fire department adopts evidence-based evaluation when considering standard tactics. By that I mean that they look at the UL research series, the USFA and NIOSH studies, the blogs and trade rags, and, most of all, their own honest bare-faced experience when they write SOP's and think about how they're going to fight fire, mitigate hazmat, rescue people, and perform other operations. For them, incident management should be based on best practices from the industry as a whole and should never be set in stone as if handed down on the mount from on high. New tools (physical and conceptual alike) are honestly evaluated and old ones that have outlived their primary usefulness discarded or relegated to the backbench. They aren't afraid to try new things and honestly look at what they do and how they do it with clear eyes and always bearing in mind the admonition: egos eat brains.
Let's please not let this valuable ideal slip away through definitional morphing. It is too important to the fire service as a definite concept to be allowed to slip away into some mushy-headed buzzword.
AN EARLY-MORNING HOUSE FIRE in Wichita, Kansas, today (Tuesday) has left two men dead and three survivors who escaped safely when the fire started.
KWCH-TV image
A neighbor who was nearby at the time told reporters that he heard a large "hissing" sound just prior to an explosion that resulted in the entire house breaking out in fire. When the first FD units arrived the house was fully involved and beyond saving.
KSNW-TV Ch. 3 has this video report filed from the scene:
There were five people living in the home and when four of them made it outside and realized one man was still in the house, another man went back in to try and save/help the missing man. The firefighters were able to rescue one of the two, but he died while on the way to the hospital. The other victim was found in the debris after the fire was out.
All five residents were family members and one of the fatalities was a grandfather.
KWCH-TV has the story and additional video HERE.
The Wichita Eagle has MORE.
FOR THE PAST 17 MONTHS THE San Diego Fire and Rescue Department has been burdened by a policy of rolling brownouts that closed eight fire stations every day on a rotating basis. But last night – Monday – the City Council voted to do some budget shifting and generate some revenues to restore the eight stations effective with the new fiscal year that begins on July 1.
The San Diego Union-Tribune tell us this morning:
The council voted 7-1 to drum up an additional $9 million that they’ll use to prevent any cuts to parks and libraries and end the city’s 17-month-old brownout policy, which calls for the idling of up to eight fire engines daily to save money on overtime. The money was made available by tapping reserve funds, slashing the travel and training budget and funding a new fire alert system over two years instead of one to free up cash, among other moves.
Councilwoman Marti Emerald made it a priority to restore the fire engines and finally won approval to shift $2.8 million to do just that after several failed attempts. "We simply cannot afford to balance San Diego’s budget on the back of public safety," she said. "I promised to restore those engines. With support from my council colleagues I can say ‘Promise made, promise kept.’"
The city’s budget has been squeezed over the past decade after previous city leaders chose to grant enhanced retirement benefits for workers while also underfunding the pension system. Those moves, coupled with a subsequent recession have led to a $2.1 billion pension deficit that requires increasing annual payments that eat up a greater portion of the city’s budget each year.
Among other things, the new budget calls for the implementation of false fire alarm fees, the sale of $2.5 million in real estate, the elimination of cell phones for nonemergency personnel and borrowing $100 million to pay for deferred maintenance, such as street repairs. It also includes the axing of 117 positions — some vacant, some not including 20 empty slots for sworn police officers.
Brownouts have been blamed for at least one death, a toddler who choked to death waiting for a paramedic fire engine to arrive from a distant location while a station a block away was closed.
The council also canceled plans to cut back on operating hours of the branch libraries and reversed their earlier plans to eliminate the water polo programs at the city pools. The entire report on the City Council's actions Monday night are in the Union-TribuneHERE.
KGTV Ch. 10 reviewed the action in this video report:
The lone opposing vote came from Councilman Carl DeMaio, who said the budget does nothing to fix the city's structural deficit. DeMaio said he never wanted to cut public safety services, but expressed disdain that funding is still going to the police and fire departments to pay for overtime hours.
"We are throwing money at the problem," he said.
San Diego Fire-Rescue Department Chief Javier Mainer estimated the city was spending $15 to 16 million annually for overtime. Mainer argued that though there are alternatives to overtime, having current employees fill in when needed is the best option because they are the most current in training and maintain top physical condition.
One of the mayor's proposed expenditures was to fix the Fire Department's communication system for sending out emergency calls to fire stations. The system broke earlier this year, and they have been using a backup since. But Mainer said the department's first priority is restoring engines affected by brownouts.
Firegeezer wonders out loud: Could this be the first reaction due to the "Alameda Effect"?
It looks like Alameda's black eye isn't going away anytime soon. I'm referring to that disgusting incident last week where a gaggle of police officers and firefighters stood on the beach and watched a man drown 50 yards off shore. (Review the story posted on Firegeezer HERE.) We know part of the problem was the incompetent city council scrapping the FD's only boat two years ago and de-funding all training for water rescue skills. But what we didn't know until yesterday was that the police officer who was in charge of the scene never asked for any mutual aid assistance.
This news was covered nicely in Firefighter Nation yesterday (HERE) where it was pointed out that in the immediate area around Alameda the following resources are available (from the article):
The Alameda County Fire Department keeps two rescue boats outfitted with state-of-the-art navigation, communication and rescue equipment in San Leandro on a trailer ready to be deployed when needed, along with specially trained personnel. Another two smaller inflatable rescue boats can be dispatched. Traditionally, a water rescue response in the Bay includes two engines, two rescue boats and a battalion chief at minimum.
The Alameda County Sheriff has a marine unit, a search and rescue squad, a dive team, and some Jet ski's that could have been made available.
The Oakland Fire Department has about a dozen vessels of varying sizes kept in or near the estuary that would have been equipped to respond to the emergency.
Berkeley, Oakland and San Mateo have dedicated water rescue teams.
Richmond and Redwood City fire departments train each of their firefighters for water rescue.
In a statement released by the Alameda PD they stated that they contacted not only those agencies, but a few more besides and requested help, but none was provided. I guess they didn't think anybody would challenge their statement (because they are the PO-LICE? … ed.), but reporters checked around and it turns out that none of them were ever asked for assistance. A few of the other dispatch centers were contacted, but no requests for mutual aid were ever made.
Read the entire article HERE, and then see if you agree with me that "somebody got a whole lot of 'splainin' to do!"
And I don't need to 'splain to you that we gotta get this equipment checked out now. Somebody might call us for assistance, and I'll have the coffee ready. See you back in the day room.
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NHL Stanley Cup Finals
Boston Bruins – 8, Vancouver Canucks – 1
Vancouver leads best-of-seven series 2 games to 1.
The big Boston Bruin woke up last night and by the time the game was over, the Canucks were in shambles. After a scoreless first period, the Bruins came out in the 2nd with a fierce determination to get things going their way. After scoring first just a few seconds into the period, they continued by scoring a goal – included a short-handed score – every five minutes until they built up a 4-0 lead.
The third period turned the game into a battleground for territorial supremacy as the stickwork started picking up and downright brutishness set the tone. By the end of the period Boston had scored four more times including their 2nd shorty of the game and a 3-goal outburst in a span of 1:50 at the end of the game. Even their goaltender delivered a solid body check to flatten an attacker in the crease. The referees handed out nine misconduct penalties in that period alone. The men in stripes earned their pay and did a terrific job of keeping control of the game as Vancouve came unraveled. The game boxscore stats are HERE if you want more detail.
Game Four in Boston Wednesday Night. Versus Network in U. S., CBC in Canada.
to read more plus technical details and to Order one. 
Friendly Fire: Tillman, Beddia, and Graffagnino
1 commentThe Tree of Guilt
Many are familiar with the basic details of the death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman in the mountains of Afghanistan on April 22, 2004. It was attended by a series of unseemly cover-ups before the US military was finally forced to admit that Tillman, for all of his apparent bravery, died at the hands of his fellow soldiers in a confused and running fire fight.
Tillman comes to mind this week because the trial phase is ending in the case of three contractors charged with manslaughter in the deaths of FDNY firefighters Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino who died while fighting a fire at the former Deutsche Bank Building located at 130 Liberty Street on August 18, 2007. The original 41-story building was damaged during the 9/11 attacks. At the time of the fire it was being de-constructed and was down to 26 stories.
The Gothamist
Those contractors, Jeffrey Melofchik, Mitchel Alvo and Salvatore DePaola, are to Beddia and Graffagnino, what the Afghan soldiers were to Pat Tillman. They were players in a life and death drama but singling them out as the proximate cause of the fireground fatalities is effectively the same as asserting that the Afghanis fired the weapons that killed Tillman. Saying it does not make it so. Like the enemy troops who set the stage for Tillman’s company to mistake him for the enemy with deadly consequences, these contractors are simply the lowest hanging fruit on the tree of guilt. Where professional firefighters are concerned, they are nothing more than convenient scapegoats that nobody should feel good about.
Cover-ups can take many forms from the destroy the evidence and lying type in the Tillman affair to the more subtle sort characterized by internal reports that receive little real scrutiny or the attachment of primary blame to persons with tangential responsibility. The latter is surely the case with the Deutsche Bank fire.
FDNY, with all of its blemishes and imperfections is the nation's most experienced fire department. The level of activity and the size of the enterprise have resulted in a firefighting force that is characterized by great professionalism and superb capabilities. Ironically, it's no stretch to consider them the "rangers" of the American fire service. But rangers, as the Tillman case proves, can also make terrible mistakes.
What happened on Liberty Street that day? The official report is a litany of gross errors and misjudgments:
It was by any measure an operational nightmare and it appears that those most responsible–senior fire commanders and FDNY department leaders– all but escaped accountability. That accountability is now being borne by those indicted who had nothing to do with the actual actions that killed Beddia and Graffagnino. Should they be found guilty it will be false and empty justice mostly because those who allowed the event to unfold as it did are watching from safely outside the courtroom. Perhaps as importantly, it may allow firefighters to escape the very painful lessons of that day as real responsibility is lost in a fantasy of justice.
The US Army learned a bitter lesson with the death of Pat Tillman: if you are really serious about preventing the tragedy of friendly fire incidents, attempting to gloss them over or cover them up is folly. The only thing worse than a glossing over is pinning the real blame on others to avoid the painful realization that firefighters are chiefly responsible for the Deutsche Bank deaths.
At the end of the Tillman affair, after the cover-ups and lies, US Army Secretary Pete Geren had this to say:
"Give them the truth as we know it, as fast as we can."
Wise words to live by and Joseph Graffagnino and Robert Beddia deserve no less.
………. Eric Lamar
sources:
U. S. Army (mil.com)
NYFD
Wiki
New York Times
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