WHEN KARL LAMBERT, 46, OF MELBOURNE, FLORIDA, wrecked his car last Friday on I-95 in St. Lucie County, he was so badly mangled and entrapped that one of his legs had to be severed below the knee to get him freed.

St. Lucie County Fire District photo

Once the St. Lucie County Fire District Co. 10 members got him extricated, he was flown to St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach.  But his leg never showed up with him, in case there was a chance to reattach it.

Instead, according to a Florida Highway Patrol investigator, Firefighter Cindy Economu wrapped the leg in a towel at took it back to the station with her.  Then she called a family member to come pick it up and take it home to put in her freezer, which was allegedly done.

It is further alleged that Economu was planning on using the leg for training practices for her cadaver dogs that she works.

The leg has since been transferred to the hospital and Economu remains on duty while the investigation is completed.  But her promotional opportunities have been dimmed markedly.

WPBF-TV has the latest REPORT along with a video.

IN ROMANIA IT HAS BECOME A FUN SPORT FOR CHILDREN to use their cell phones to place false emergency calls.  Dialing the national emergency number, 112, and then hanging up or giving false information has become such a growing problem that 33 million of the nation’s 36 million 112 calls are false.

So the Romanians are taking a tip from Netherlands where they have been using a successful foil for several years now by sending “short message bombs” to the phone that was being used for the hoax call.  A short message bomb is a message burst that calls the number of the cell phone and causes it to ring until answered, then it disconnects.

The Romanian government authorized the SMS bombs to be used starting with 50 calls a day to the user.  If they fail to learn from this and continue the practice of calling false alarms, the SMS bomb rate increases to 500 per day, effectively rendering the cell phone useless.

Die Presse has the STORY.

THE TECHNICAL RESCUE TEAMS FROM THE Phoenix, Glendale and Peoria, Arizona, fire departments were all en route to a regional training session Tuesday morning when a construction worked took a 2-story tumble in downtown Phoenix.

The incident took place at a high-rise office building under construction in the heart of the city.  A steel worker on the 15th floor slipped on a piece of paneling, fell about 20 feet and injured a leg.

The Peoria FD squad was first on the scene and their captain got to run the rescue operation, a rare occurrence for the suburban department.  The steel worker was conscious and alert throughout the operation that involved an aerial descent.

KTVK Ch. 3 documented the rescue and ran this video report:

A DRIVER OF DUBIOUS CHARACTER FLIPPED HIS CAR several times following an accident this morning and ended up trapped inside the vehicle in St. Petersburg, Florida.

The man was traveling at a high rate of speed around 6:30 am when he collided with another car, sending his own into a rollover that ended up against a building.  The St. Petersburg FD were able to lift the car high enough to free the victim and as soon as he got out he started to run away.

SPFD poto

However, his injuries from the crash reacted to the sudden energy burst and he collapsed.  He was taken to the hospital along with the two people that were in the other car.  They all had non-life-threatening injuries.

Tampa Bay Online has the early REPORT.

A WINNIPEG, MANITOBA, FIRE ENGINE COLLIDED with a pickup truck Sunday morning while responding to a house fire.

Winnipeg Free Press

A spokesman for the Winnipeg Firefighters Local said that he was told that the pickup truck was traveling at a high rate of speed and went through a stop sign. 

The collision destroyed the pickup truck and the driver was ejected from the vehicle.  He is in stable condition at the hospital.  A woman passenger was critically injured and needed CPR on the scene by a parmedic ambulance.  She is listed in critical condition.  One firefighter had minor injuries that required treatment.

The Winnipeg Sun has the full STORY.

…………………………………Winnipeg Sun

ALL SEARCH AND VICTIM RETRIEVAL AT THE METROLINK train crash in California has been completed.  Late Saturday night the fire department announced that there were no more victims remaining in the mangled train cars.

Los Angeles Times

Of the 135 injured, 81 were hospitalized in critical condition.  24 people perished in the crash and one more has died in the hospital bringing the current toll to 25.

The collision occurred on a horseshoe-shaped section of track in Chatsworth at the west end of the San Fernando Valley, near a 500-foot-long tunnel underneath Stoney Point Park. There is a siding at one end of the tunnel where one train can wait for another to pass.  The Metrolink train had been signalled to pull into the siding and wait for the freight train to pass going the other direction.

Metrolink officials believe that the engineer failed to acknowledge the signal and continued on the single-lane track.  Each train was traveling at approx. 40 mph resulting in an 80 mph impact that drove the passenger locomotive back inside the first rail car where all the carnage occurred. 

The locomotive engineer was one of the fatalities.  The conductor was injured and is currently being interviewed by police investigators.  The three crewmen on the Union Pacific freight train all had injuries but survived.

KCAL Ch. 9 has the latest REPORT.
Los Angeles Times PHOTO GALLERY.

New York Times

The Los Angeles Times has a good story and interview with the first-in fire captain where he tells what he found and his initial size-up along with his reports to dispatch.  An excerpt from the article:

 The captain was on his radio as they approached.  “We are on scene,” Barrios barked into his radio. “We have a train collision.”
  
The scene started to come into relief. Send five ambulances, he said at first. He got closer and saw the flames. Send 30 firetrucks, he added. Then he was there. The Metrolink engine seemed to be missing. In the head-on crash, a Union Pacific engine had shoved it violently inside the first passenger car, which was lying grotesquely on its side. Two dozen passengers had emerged from the wreckage; some, dazed, were walking in circles against a curtain of black smoke.

Barrios made his last request: Send every heavy search-and-rescue unit in the city.

Be sure and read the full story HERE.

THE DEATH TOLL FROM THE METROLINK TRAIN CRASH now stands at 24 with 135 injured, 81 of them in critical condition.

The mortality count will certainly be higher because fire and rescue crews have reported that they can see several more bodies yet to be recovered from the lead car that took the brunt of the crash.

Ventura County Star

Deputy Fire Chief Mario Rueda said the chance that anyone was still alive in the wreckage was “very remote.”  The last survivor was pulled out Friday evening, said fire Capt. Armando Hogan.

The Associated Press reports:

The impact rammed the Metrolink engine backward into a passenger car, which rested on its side with the engine still inside it early Saturday, and accordioned the freight train cars. Two other Metrolink cars remained upright. Crews had to put out a fire under part of the train.

Bulldozers were used to raise the commuter train’s engine and timbers were slid beneath it as firefighters worked to free a body pinned under the engine.

AP photo

Fire Capt. Steve Ruda said the goal was to eliminate every piece of metal and gradually work into the passenger spaces of the double-decker rail car.

“There’s human beings in there and it’s going to be painstaking to get them out,” Ruda said. “They’ll have to surgically remove them.”

His firefighters had never seen such carnage, he said.

“It’s the worst feeling in the world because you know what you’re going to find,” said fire Capt. Alex Arriola, who had crawled into the bottom of the smashed passenger car. “You have to put aside the fact that it’s someone’s husband, daughter or friend.”

The three crewmen on the freight train were all injured, but not seriously.  The conductor on the passenger train was also injured, but the engineer was killed.

*  *  *  *  *

METROLINK HAS ANNOUNCED THAT THEIR ENGINEER WAS AT FAULT and caused the crash by continuing through a signal that he should have stopped at.

Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell said, “We do not believe Union Pacific is at any way at fault.” 

Tyrrell said she wasn’t sure if the engineer was supposed to stop the train or pull onto a siding in the area, but she confirmed that a Signal 2 was disregarded. The engineer is supposed to get verbal and visual signals at least 2/3 mile out. It takes 1/3 mile to stop the train.

The Ventura County Star has a good photo slide show HERE.

Ventura County Star

Now that all the hot-air balloons have been tethered, the railroads are making work for fire and rescue departments.

 THE CASUALTY COUNT AT THE LOS ANGELES COMMUTER TRAIN collision is now up to 17 dead and 135 injured, more than 80 critically.  The toll is expected to continue rising as extrication efforts continue this morning.

Police and firefighters stand with heads bowed as the
body of a Los Angeles Police officer who was killed
in the crash is carried from the wreckage.  (AP)

Metrolink has been able to acquire a passenger count and they are saying there were 220 passengers and 2 crew members on board.  Union Pacific says that they had four crew members on their train. 

It is believed that the Union Pacific freight train and the Metrolink passenger train collided head-on.  The speed limit on that stretch of trackage is 40 mph, so it is possible that there was an impact of up to 80 mph.  The worst part of the situation is in the first passenger car where the Metrolink locomotive was shoved back into the loaded car.  As one fire official stated, “We have victims on top of victims.”

The Associated Press has released this raw video showing some of the early rescue efforts:

Medic helicopters have been making continuous evacuations, flying the most critically injured to hospitals throughout the Los Angeles region.  As part of the disaster response plan, surgeons have been placed on-scene in the triage area.

While Firegeezer sleeps, the newshound Dave Statter (STATter911) works the mean streets through the night and he has compiled a good collection of links, photos, videos and interviews covering the first eight hours of the operation.  Make sure to check them out HERE.

*  *  *  *  *

LESS THAN AN HOUR AFTER THE HORRIFIC WRECK in Chatsworth, another Metrolink train smashed into a car that was trying to beat it across the crossing.

Just after 5 pm a Metrolink commuter train was traveling through Corona when a car drove around the crossing gates instead of waiting for the train to pass.  The locomotive smashed into the car, shoving it 600 feet along the track until they came to a stop. 

The collision killed the woman in her 40’s who was driving the car and was the sole passenger.  One train passenger required treatment for an anxiety attack, but otherwise there were no injuries on the Metrolink train.

*  *  *  *  *

THE EUROTUNNEL “CHUNNEL” THAT CARRIES TRAIN TRAFFICE between France and England under the English Channel has reopened the unaffected tube for limited traffic.  Around 9 pm Friday night they successfully ran two test trains through the tunnel, one passenger and one freight, and then announced that they will resume some service.

The will be giving priority to the Eurostar passenger trains and the truck-haulers such as the one that had Thursday’s fire.  The shuttle trains that carry private passenger cars will not be running for a while yet.  The passenger service will be limited to 12 trains a day instead of the usual 24.

BBC News has published this graphic that shows the configuration of the tunnels and the safety measures that are part of them including the emergency service tunnel that is between the rail tunnels:

CNN has a recent news report that has some good views taken inside the emergency traffic tunnel:

A LOS ANGELES METROLINK COMMUTER TRAIN collided with a Union Pacific freight train around 4:30 pm, Pacific time, Friday afternoon.

ABC News

The passenger train was traveling from Los Angeles to Ventura County when the accident occurred in Chatsworth, in the San Fernando Valley.  Metrolink authorities said that the train typically carries about 350 passengers.

CBS

Several of the cars were ripped open and scores of people had tumbled out of them.  One of the cars was against the UP locomotive and both of them were on fire.

Very early reports from police confirmed at least six dead and 23 injured, but those counts are very likely to rise.  The LA County FD has set up three triage areas and untold numbers of victims have been carried to them. 

KCAL

The Northridge Hospital has been put on disaster alert and is expecting large numbers of patients.  A large helicopter known as a “flying hospital” was also dispatched to the scene.

KCAL

There is no indication yet as to what caused the collision.

KTTV has an early REPORT.

THE SEARCH OF THE COLLAPSED MIXED-USE BUILDING resumes today at 8 am.  The two people who were missing yesterday have both been recovered.  One man was found trapped but relatively unhurt just before 6 pm Wednesday evening.

The second worker who was the man that had been listed as “unaccounted for” was found dead in the rubble shortly after.  He has been identified as Scott Giordano of Disputanta, Virginia.

More wood chips and glue.
(Richmond Times-Dispatch photo)

It was planned to continue the search through the night for any unknown victims, but it had to be suspended because of a rainfall.  Search teams were concerned about water ponding on the fallen building and putting more weight on a completely unstable structure.  It was determined to wait until this morning to resume the search, although there are not any known to be missing.

WTVR Ch. 6 has six videos taken throughout the operation HERE.

The 2-story structure was nearly completed when a large cracking sound alerted the dozens of workers inside to get out.  Within moments the second story  of the 60-ft.-wide building pancaked onto the ground floor level.  It is not known why the building failed.  See the earlier reports and videos on Firegeezer HERE and HERE.

The Associated Press has this video report:

DESPITE CONTINUING REPORTS THAT AS MANY as 12 workmen are unaccounted for, Chesterfield County Fire & Rescue believe that there are probably just one or two people trapped in the collapse.  (See earlier Firegeezer report HERE.)

The 2-story building was nearly completed when the roof and 2nd floor suddenly pancaked onto the ground floor just before 1 pm this afternoon.  The building was designed to have commercial occupancies on the ground level and apartments on the upper floor.

WWBT

People working in the building are saying that the only warning they had was a loud creaking sound as the beams started failing.  Most of them bailed out before the collapse.

Chesterfield F & R is being assisted by tactical rescue teams from City of Richmond and Henrico and Hanover Counties.

WWBT Ch. 12 has this raw video taken from their helicopter:

 Click HERE to see earlier video from Ch. 6 including an interview with an eyewitness.

A COMMERCIAL MIXED-USE BUILDING UNDER CONSTRUCTION in Chesterfield County, Virginia, collapsed just before 1:00 pm today trapping several workers.

WWBT Ch. 12 image

At first it was feared that as many as 12 workmen were buried, but most of them got out.  Latest report has one still trapped and another unaccounted for.

Tactical rescue teams from Chesterfield and Henrico Counties are on the scene.

Check back for updates as infomation comes in.

WTVR Ch. 6 has an early video report: