AS THE WILDFIRE IN THE BIG SUR OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA rages all around, one group of devout landowners has declined to evacuate the area.

The priests and students of the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center are hunkering in for the firefight at their retreat.  Last week 75 visitors and students were evacuated leaving a basic fire crew and cooks.  Located 14 miles from the nearest paved road, the Buddhist community is getting ready to stave off the encroaching flames.

Two Buddhists work to prepare the Tassajara
monastery to withstand the wildfire threat.
(Los Angeles Times / Durell photo)

Equipped with a 50,000 gallon pool, two pumps and hose lines, the remaining monks and priests are shedding their robes and donning running gear.  They have also jury-rigged a system of plastic water piping and lawn sprinklers across the roofs of their log-and-stone buildings.  All their day is spent clearing fire breaks around the camp.

They’re not alone, however.  Cal Forestry has encamped a 30-man inmate fire crew there so that they can be fed at the monks’ mess hall.  This is not the first time the MFD (Monk Fire Dept.) has gone through this drill.  In 1977 and 1999 the monks and forestry crews held off the flames of wildfires that moved through the 160 acre complex that is the oldest Buddhist monastery in the Western Hemisphere.

They won’t be martyrs, however.  If the fire is too large or intense, they will move out along with the fire crew.

The Los Angeles Times has a good background story HERE.

KCBA Ch. 35 has a good video report on the monks’ preparations:

THURSDAY AFTERNOON WE LINKED TO A NEWSPAPER story in the Seneca (South Carolina) Daily Journal HERE that quoted their local Fire Chief Shane Phillips as saying that the smoke from an outside fire was non-toxic.

Chief Phillips has sent us an email concerning that story and telling about the newspaper’s quote.  We are happy to publish his comment:

Firegeezer -

I wanted to let you all know for the record that I never stated that the smoke from the our woods fire this week was non-toxic. I about fell out when I saw this in the paper myself, because I never even spoke to or released a statement to the media at all that day. I contacted the Daily Journal, Editor Brett McLaughlin and he apologized for the mis-print and made a correction in the paper and on line. Please refer to the following article for any further:

http://www.upstatetoday.com/news/2008/jun/27/correction-seneca-fire-chief-shane-phillips-was-mi/

This was a comment added by the news editor and not even by the reporter who’s [sic] name is listed as the aurthor of this particular article.

I just did not want you guys to think that I was not aware that smoke was toxic. This is something that has begun to destroy my credibility and I am pursuing my further options at this time.

Respectfully -

Chief Shane Phillips

City of Seneca Fire Department
321 W. South 4th Street
Seneca, South Carolina 29678

The link posted in his letter takes you to the newspaper’s correction that was published this morning.

Seneca Fire Dept. WEBSITE.

FOLLOWING DAVE STATTER’S CHANNEL 9 REPORTING on vinyl siding and lightweight construction, the officials at the industry group Vinyl Siding Institute have sent him a written response to the points that have been raised.

They are understandably trying to distance themselves from the fire hazard controversy by saying that it’s what’s behind the siding that counts.

Read the full written statement from the VSI at Dave’s blog STATter911 HERE.

THE ONTARIO PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT announced that beginning in April, 2010, all newly-built apartment and condo buildings higher than 3 stories will have to be sprinklered.

API Group photo

This will bring the provincial building code closer to the levels found in the rest of Canada.  “The experience of other jurisdictions across North America is clear: Residential sprinklers reduce injuries, deaths and property loss due to fire,” says Pat Burke, Fire Marshal of Ontario.

Richard Boyes, president of the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs, said that “Ultimately, we would like to see sprinklers being made mandatory in all new residential units including single-family dwellings, townhouses and low-rise buildings.”

Boyes said Vancouver and Scottsdale, Ariz., both require sprinklers in all residential buildings and there hasn’t been a single fire fatality in either municipality since they mandated them 18 and 22 years ago respectively.

CTV has the STORY.

THE WENHAM MUSEUM IN WENHAM, MASSACHUSETTS is running a special exhibition through the summer.  Rescue Me:  Firefighting in America explores great fires in America’s past and the evolution of firefighting equipment from buckets and horses to hydrants and fire engines.

The exhibit opened on June 6 and will run through September 21.  Visitors will get to view many old artifacts such as speaking trumpets, a wooden fire rattle, antique extinguishers and an 1840’s hand-tub pumping engine.

Salem News photo

On June 28 there will be a special 1-day exhibit when several antique fire engines will be on display by their owners.

Wenham is northeast of Boston and not far from Salem.  If you’ll be touring the Boston area this summer, pencil Wenham in for one of your stops.

View the Wenham Museum’s website HERE for more information and directions.

THERE IS A NEW WARNING OUT ABOUT a dangerous and potentially explosive hazard associtated with portable propane cylinders.  Please read carefully the following information from the National Propane Gas Association (NPGA):

Propane cylinders commonly used on gas barbecue grills are being used by persons in the manufacture of methamphetamines. These individuals are using the cylinders for the transport and storage of stolen anhydrous ammonia, a key element in the making of the drug. 

Cylinders used for this purpose have been found in many states, including Mississippi, at cylinder exchange and refilling locations as well as in hotel rooms and mobile laboratories.

A blue-green stain on any brass portion of a service valve is evidence that it may have been in contact with anhydrous ammonia, which is a corrosive. The ammonia will deteriorate the brass valves and fittings located inside the cylinders, turning them into a potentially explosive hazard. (Note: Sherwood valves contain a green coated valve stem. Additionally, a green thread sealing compound is used on some valves. These valves should not be confused with those that have been exposed to anhydrous ammonia.)

 The pungent odor of ammonia on or near a cylinder is also an indication. If you suspect that a propane cylinder contains or has contained anhydrous ammonia, exercise extreme caution and restrict access to the area.  

Anhydrous ammonia can be extremely dangerous to human health. It can also be dangerous to move a cylinder suspected of having contained anhydrous ammonia, due to the unknown integrity of the cylinder’s service valve. 

If you determine that it must be moved, keep in mind that hazards due to valve expulsion can be reduced by pointing the end of the container in which the valve is placed away from yourself and others and towards the most safe direction.

 Firegeezer adds:  More and more people are using exchange stations instead of refilling their own cylinders now.  So these suspect valves can eventually work their way throughout the community.  Hopefully, the propane firms that refill the cylinders are training their employees to check for and recognize the indications of failure.  But you know how that goes.  Watch out for yourself whenever you are on an incident involving one of these portable cylinders.

If any of our readers come across one of these, please get a picture of it and send it to us with a narrative of the event.

Nashville TV station WSMV ran this excellent report a few weeks ago:

NPGA WEBSITE  page for Safety and Training Programs.

THE TOWNSFOLK OF ROWLEY, MASSACHUSETTS HAVE been grumbling lately about the overly-frequent sounding of the town’s fire horn.

The horn is mounted in the Town Hall cupola and is used by the mostly-volunteer fire department members as a means to alert them for a fire call.  And as is common in most places, it is blown at noon for a daily test.  But several people have been questioning the necessity for the use of it with today’s modern methods of alerting and dispatching emergency volunteers.

Rowley Town Hall

Apparently the growing number of calls has reached a point where the horn is blasting frequently at all hours of the day and night and is becoming more of a nusiance than a necessity.  The FD uses a telephone paging system as the primary device to alert the members about emergencies.

The town’s Fire Chief James Broderick has responded by agreeing that there could be some reduction in the number of times it is sounded, but he insists that it is currently necessary to continue its use.

“We are required to have a secondary means of dispatching the alarm if the primary means becomes disabled,” he wrote to the board of selectmen. If the paging system is down, “the dispatch center would need to have the ability to sound the alarm.”

The chief did agree that there are ways to reduce the frequency of the horn blasts.  Currently it is sounded for every type of call-out including public service calls.  He recommends following the policy of neighboring communties and using it only for structure fires, automatic fire alarms, by direction of a chief officer of the Fire Department, and for mutual aid requests.  That could reduce the usage by as much as 50%.

The Selectmen agree with him.  “We definitely want to keep the fire horn blowing,” wrote selectmen Chairman Dave Petersen. “Homeland Security mandates we have some sort of alternate system.”

The Newburyport Daily News has the STORY.
Rowley Fire Dept. WEBSITE.

AFTER 20 YEARS ON THE JOB, A JAPANESE FIREFIGHTER was fired yesterday because he neglected one important duty.   The Sapo News Service tells us:

A Japanese firefighter who has driven trucks and ambulances hundreds of times over 20 years was sacked after it emerged he never had a driver’s licence, an official said Tuesday.

The man’s family was in on his secret and would drive him each day to and from the fire station, from where he would get behind the wheel of fire engines and ambulances.

But the firefighter in Takaoka, a city 300 kilometres northwest of Tokyo, was caught last week after he hesitated to show his licence during a routine inspection, fire department spokesperson Shigeru Sawasaki said.

“An inspector thought he was looking awkward and yanked the driver’s licence from his hand and discovered it was his father’s,” Sawasaki said.

The firefighter, who is in his 40s, was employed for some 20 years. During the five years to this March, for which records were available, he drove ambulances 309 times and fire trucks 97 times, city officials said.

The city cut the salaries of the fire department chief, his deputy and other senior officials by one-10th for one month as punishment.

The local government only began monthly licence inspections in November.

“We regret that we have operated on the presumption that firefighters have drivers’ licenses,” Sawasaki said.

Last year Firegeezer alerted our readers to the magnificent Hero To Hero program originated and run by Liz Jackson of Tacoma, Washington. Her project involves collecting tens of thousands of T-shirts from fire, ems and police departments throughout the United States and Canada. These are then sent to deployed military troops in the Middle East with attempts to match up T-shirts with troops from the same locales. From heroes to heroes.

All the shirts are signed with good wishes and the signatures of the groups that are donating them and they are a tremendously big hit with the troops. You can read more about her project at the Hero To Hero website HERE.

This year Liz was restricted from her annual tour across the continent visiting 55 cities in 55 days because of an unfortunate medical problem. But she was able to get out to a few of them and this year’s last stop was at the Pentagon on Memorial Day. Since she couldn’t travel to the D. C. area departments, they all sent representatives - and over 400 T-shirts - to the Pentagon parking lot to put on a lovely greeting and presentation for Liz and her husband.

Joel Kobersteen addresses the participants
and presents the shirts to the Hero-To-Hero campaign.

Joel Kobersteen of IAFF Local 2068, Fairfax County, Va., organized and coordinated the event. It was such a success that Liz “appointed” Joel to be the East Coast organizer of next year’s tour. Liz keeps a blog journal of all her visits over the past few years and you can read her entry for this stop HERE. Click on it and you’ll see the photo gallery of nearly 200 pictures taken at the Pentagon that day, too.

Liz Jackson addresses the gathering

Firegeezer has Joel’s assurance that he’ll be passing on next year’s plans in plenty of time to help get our many readers involved with it. We’re looking forward to helping out.

The fire and police agencies that participated in the Memorial Day event were:
* Fairfax County (VA) Fire & Rescue Department and Local 2068
* City of Fairfax (VA) Fire Department and Local 2702
* Stafford County (VA) Fire & Rescue Department and Local 4012
* Arlington County (VA) Fire Department and Local 2800
* Charlottesville (VA) Fire Department and Local 2363
* Harrisonburg (VA) Fire Department and Local 3254
* Loudoun County (VA) Fire and Rescue Department and Local 3756
* Washington, D.C. Fire & EMS Department and Local 36
* Prince Georges County (MD) Fire Department and Local 1619
* Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority Fire Department and
Local 3217
* National Capital Area Federal Fire Fighters Local F121
* Fairfax County (VA) Police Department and IUPA Local 5000
* Pentagon Police Department

TV Channel 5 interviews Liz for the evening news

THE SMALL CITY OF ELSA IN THE Southeast tip of Texas is in turmoil this weekend after the city administrator fired the Fire Chief and re-hired his predecessor.

Former chief Rudy Martinez says that he was fired unfairly Friday after being accused of financial wrong-doing.  The administrator says that Martinez took out a loan in the city’s name for a new fire truck without permission.

Martinez is now displaying the purchase order for the truck that was issued by the city and signed by the previous administrator.  The current administrator says that he’s never seen the document, but claims the firing followed an audit of the fire department.  However, he is unable to produce this audit for examination by the press or citizens.

Compounding the questionable firing, the city administrator then appointed the city’s former fire chief, Gregorio Ramirez to fill the post.  The last time he was chief eight years ago, Ramirez was indicted for taking fire department money and using it for personal reasons.  The charges were later dropped, but the court of public opinion has kept the case alive.

KRGV-TV in Weslaco has the story and video about the firing HERE,
and the report on the re-hiring HERE.