Rekindle, Audio, Video and More
WE HAVE MORE TO REPORT on yesterday's vacant warehouse fire that the Chicago FD called their "largest fire in several years." See yesterday's Firegeezer report HERE. The spectacular sub-freezing incident has generated nationwide interest not only for its size, but for the fascinating views of a large fire building shrouded in ice.
Many of the units are still on the scene and earlier this morning there was a large rekindle in the center of the building. WMAQ-TV tells us:
The fire that lit up Chicago skies Tuesday night and consumed a third of the city's fire department rekindled Thursday morning.
Sky 5 images of the abandoned warehouse at 37th Street and Ashland Avenue in Bridgeport showed flames again shooting through the roof and smoke pouring south as fire equipment gathered at the building. The flames began again just before 6 a.m.
Chicago Fire officials called it a "significant rekindle" that they were expecting with crews already on the scene. Because the fire rekindled at the center of the building, firefighters are defensively battling the blaze at the perimeter. A rarely used "deluge unit" was brought in to help douse the fire.
WMAQ-TV filed this raw video taken this morning:
View more videos at: http://nbcchicago.com.
ChicagoAreaFire / Redick
As you have come to expect, the best photographs of the incident are those found at the ChicagoAreaFire website. Master photogs. Steve Reddick, Tim Olk, Josh Boyajian, Jeff Rudolph, and Larry Shapiro have posted a great collection of pics that you will want to view.
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Click on the six parts posted so far HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE (all audio), HERE, and HERE. Later this evening check back to their WEBSITE HERE for any additions that will be posted during the day. Just in: Larry Shapiro's 149-image gallery HERE.
Chicago's Radioman, Dave Weaver has posted the complete radio traffic from the CFD. Follow these links for some dispatch report:
5-11 Order http://www.justin.tv/radioman911/b/359905432
Fireground Radio http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pi5Bdd5sE_w
Photos/Video http://www.facebook.com/Radioman911
Real Time Recording
Part 1 http://www.justin.tv/radioman911/b/359874615
Part 2 http://www.justin.tv/radioman911/b/359872478
Part 3 http://www.justin.tv/radioman911/b/359871889
Part 4 http://www.justin.tv/radioman911/b/359870848
Part 5 http://www.justin.tv/radioman911/b/359870273
Part 6 http://www.justin.tv/radioman911/b/359869430
Part 7 http://www.justin.tv/radioman911/b/359868058
Part 8 http://www.justin.tv/radioman911/b/359867255
Tower 5's Basket Frozen In Place
Part 9 http://www.justin.tv/radioman911/b/359865499
5-11 + 2 Specials Struck Out By Orders of 2-1-4
Part 10 http://www.justin.tv/radioman911/b/359864414
Dave the Radioman also takes some darn good video:
Larry Shapiro posted a video also:
Thanks to Mark D. for assistance.
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LAFD Woes Continue
1 commentIt's All Starting to Come Out Now
THE VIGOROUS CAMPAIGN FOR MAYOR of Los Angeles (California) is exposing more failures of the City Council and the Mayor. Among the agencies which are coming up short is the Fire Department. That fine agency has been undermined by the current mayor who has slashed the FD budget by 16% in recent years, instituted rotating station brown-outs, and eliminated units from one-fourth of the city's 106 fire stations. All this time the mayor and Fire Chief Brian Cummings have been saying that the department is doing okay despite the large cuts.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, left, and Fire Chief Brian Cummings
discuss response times and deployment at a March 13 news conference.
(Barbara Davidson, Los Angeles Times / March 13, 2012)
But one of their "proofs" of success, the average response times were found to be based on jiggered numbers and are really noticably slower than they had admitted to. (See the Firegeezer article from March 11, LAFD Admits Inflating Response Times Favorably HERE.) As more people from the political opposition and reporters from the local press start looking behind the facade, even more deception is being exposed. Yesterday (Saturday) a columnist for the Los Angeles Times unloaded on the mayor and fire chief for the deterioration of the FD since they have taken control. Some quotes from Stephen Lopez's detailed commentary indicate that all might not be well in the city:
Apparently the shell game has extended into the maintenance division. A combination of harder usage on the trucks coupled with a 30% reduction in the number of mechanics has left the fleet shaky and unreliable as more reserve apparatus are being used while normal repairs are backlogged as much as a month. Now the reserve fleet is failing from the excess work.
Read Steve Lopez's entire commentary HERE.
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The LA Times has followed up with a separate article about the falling-apart of the emergency dispatch center. They tell about a day recently where a woman had her hand mangled in a piece of machinery and had to wait 45 minutes before any help arrived because the dispatch system had just failed:
Firegeezer comments: I find it amazing that nobody in that huge dispatch center had the presence of mind to call the nearest station by land line and get a unit started right away. Don't you have to take a test or something in order to work there?
Read the detailed article on problems at the 9-1-1 center HERE.
Firegeezer adds further: Having observed the LA Times' past behavior which includes dubious reporting by partial disclosure of facts and events, I recommend that we pause and give the FD time to get back to work on Monday and see if they address these charges.
Hat tip to: Mike T.
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