HARDLY A DAY GOES BY without learning about still another desperate scheme to fund the emergency services in UK.  For some reason the fire and ambulance departments are constantly unable to meet budget, but the citizens are already taxed to the max.  So this leads to various, nefarious plans to raise monies in other ways.

Today’s proposal comes from Wales where the South Wales Fire Authority wants to sell off all the land around one of their fire stations.  The Whitchurch station serves an area of 65,700 population along with three major hospitals, a university and some industrial areas.  But since they feel that all you really need is the station and not all that valuable land that it sits on, the fire officials want to sell it.

Whitchurch Fire Station

The citizens are alarmed, of course.  They believe that this is the precursor to closing the station altogether.

Read about this new citizen-government conflict in the South Wales Echo HERE.
South Wales Fire and Rescue Service WEBSITE.

A MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KENTUCKY FIRE STATION suffered a major fire at 6 am this morning.  Shortly after returning to quarters after a working house fire during the night, the duty crew noticed some smoke in the ceiling area and discovered a fire going in the attic area of the building.

They managed to get all the equipment out of the firehouse and called for assistance.  There was sufficient damage in the roof area that they expect to have to rebuild the structure.

Lexington Channel 18 has the STORY and VIDEO.

THE LOTHIAN AND BORDERS FIRE BRIGADE in Scotland was supposed to make a decision on implementing what they call a Service Improvement Plan last Friday.

But the “Service Improvement” included shutting down two fire stations, curtailing night and weekend coverage at a third station, and eliminating 20 firefighter positions.

The “improvement” was put on hold for two weeks in order to consider a counter-proposal by the West Lothians town Council whose leader said:  “It makes no sense to me to cut the fire service here when this is an area with a growing population and a growing business community.”

The Scotsman reports the STORY.
Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue WEBSITE.

A CONSTRUCTION CREW WORKING ON THE foundations for a new firehouse accidentally started a brush fire Wednesday.  The new station is outside Salt Lake City, Utah and the workers were grinding rebar for the concrete foundation.  Sparks from the grinder flew over into some scrub area and quickly started a 29-acre brush fire that required 50 firefighters and two aircraft to control it.

Read the full story HERE.

THE 2003 SAN SIMEON EARTHQUAKE in California severely damaged the 70-yr.-old Morro Bay FD station.  Since that time they’ve been operating out of tents set up across the street while planning and fund-raising for a replacement station.

Yesterday, after having several rescue drills involving firefighters from all around the county, they held a controlled burn and destroyed the building to make way for the new one which will be built on the site.

SanLuisObispo.com has the STORY.
Morro Bay FD WEBSITE.

FIRECHIEF.COM IS REPORTING THAT the Los Angeles Fire Department will hold the grand opening of its new Fire Station 81 Saturday. Station 81, a regional fire and paramedic station and training center is built on a site that once housed the General Motors Assembly Plant.

The facility features a 15,000-square foot fire and paramedic station, an 8,000-square foot apparatus storage building, a 2,500-square foot multi-purpose room and a 25,000-square-foot training complex The training complex including a six-story drill tower, classrooms, offices, men’s and women’s shower and locker rooms, dormitory, kitchen facility and auditorium.

The full story HERE.

TWO WEEKS AFTER A DESTRUCTIVE BRUSH FIRE on the Stanford University campus, the Palo Alto City Council wants to reconsider its decision to underfund the seasonal fire station in the foothill area.

Back on June 13 they voted to open the station only on “high risk” days instead of the full 120-day fire season.  (reported on Firegeezer HERE and HERE.)

Tonight they will take up a motion to return to full funding for the entire season.
The Palo Alto Daily News has the STORY.

LAST WEEK THE PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA City Council voted to scale back the staffing of seasonal fire station 8 to save money. (Reported HERE in Firegeezer on June 13.)  But apparently, the issue is still hot in town.

In the past, the woodlands station has been operated during the summer fire-season by utilizing regular firefighters willing to work the extra hours for overtime pay.  This year the Council decided to open the station only on high-risk days…. about 10 to 30 days….. instead of the full 120-day season.

This decision is being opposed by everybody in town and is complicated by the fact that the firefighters union contract calls for the FF’s agreement.  And they don’t have it.

Sounds like fun?  Read the whole story HERE.

THE PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA CITY COUNCIL voted Monday to close Fire Station 8 in order to avoid raising the annual budget.  The station was built in the Foothills area after a devastating fire destroyed many homes in 1985.  This year’s woodland fire load is three times the normal because of the drought combined with the City’s recent prohibition of controlled burns to reduce fuel.

The Palo Alto Daily News reports here.

ROWAN COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA - The Liberty Volunteer Fire Dept. firehouse burned down this morning following an interior “explosion.”  Two firefighters were temporarily trapped in the rubble, but were successfully rescued by responding FF’s.  So far, no report as to whether the apparatus was lost also.

Early report from the Charlotte Observer here.

Charlotte channel 14 photo

A SEMI-TRACTOR TRAILER TRUCK went out of control in Jefferson County, Colorado this morning.  He plowed through an electric pole and crashed into an old, unused firehouse.  The downed electric lines sparked a fire and the driver perished in the burned cab.

IBS photo

Investigators are saying that the same trucker was stopped earlier in the morning for driving carelessly.

Full story here.  Denver channel 4 has 10 mins. of raw video here.