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Guess Who Dropped In?

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THE EMERGENCY ROOM STAFF AT SOUTHWEST Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky, got quite a jolt Tuesday night when a man came crashing through the drop-ceiling.

WDRB-TV

The story began a little earlier when Nicholas Fultz, 27, was brought into the ER by a woman friend who drove him in her car.  Fultz had burns over his arms and face, and when he was asked how it happened, he said they were alcohol burns.

Not buying that story, the police were called in to investigate and when they questioned the young woman who brought him there, she let the truth slip out.  WDRB-TV continues the story:

 She said Fultz was a known meth dealer. She also admitted that she picked Fultz up in her vehicle and — while he was inside — he pulled a bottle out of a paper bag and the bottle exploded, causing the burns.When officers searched the vehicle, they found numerous ingredients of a meth lab, including drain cleaner, pseudoephedrine pills, ammonium nitrate and lists of clients to whom Fultz allegedly sold meth.  They allegedly found a “one-pot” meth lab in the car.

While all this was going on, Fultz decided that he had better skedaddle, so he climbed up into the dropped ceiling where he thought he could just crawl his way out of the hospital.  Unfortunately for Fultz, during his first 27 years he never learned about the flimsiness of ceiling tiles and he barely made it six feet before he made the crash landing.

WDRB-TV Ch. 41 Louisville filed this video report:

 

Fultz was charged with manufacturing meth, trafficking in controlled substances, criminal mischief, resisting arrest and giving an officer a false name or address.

The money quote from the police spokesman:  “This is very complex chemistry done by people who are not chemists.”

Darwin is waiting for him in the parking lot.

Posted by on December 17, 2010 • Filed under: current events, EMS Topics, Videos • Tagged: , , , ,

UPDATE2: What is more important? Drug lab in a dorm room or a non-working fire alarm in a nine-story freshman residence hall? Harbin Hall at Georgetown University gets 15 minutes of infamy this morning, fire alarm works four hours later. Fire evacuation alarm delayed in April 2010 fire.

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Harbin Hall

Before 6 am this morning, Georgetown University Department of Public Safety (DPS) officers were investigating a report of a “weird odor” on the top floor of Harbin Hall when they discovered a small drug lab in one of the dorm rooms.

Upon finding chemicals, a heating element and ventilation equipment, DPS assumes that there is a meth lab in Room 926.

DPS initiates evacuation of the 592 resident, nine-story freshman dorm.

The local evacuation fire alarm does not work.

Built in 1965 and renovated in 2000, FossilMedic speculates that the the Harbin Hall freshman dorm has no fire sprinklers and an overworked local evacuation fire alarm system.

Ninth floor Harbin Hall - lab found in Room 926

Vox Populi, the staff blog of the Georgetown Voice, a weekly newsmagazine at Georgetown University, has been providing updates HERE.  Of course, follow them on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/GtownVoice

UPDATE Fire alarm DID work four hours later:

All Harbin residents were evacuated at about 6 a.m. this morning. Patrick Killilee, executive director of Student Housing, emailed Harbin residents at 9:19 to let them know they were allowed back into the building, only to send another message at 9:32 a.m. announcing the area was restricted to students and would be evacuated. Molly Mitchell (COL ’14), a freshman living on Harbin 5, said a fire alarm sounded at around 10:45 a.m. this morning, prompting another evacuation. The area between Harbin and Village C West remains restricted students.

from theHoya.com (HERE)

UPDATE 2: EARLIER DELAY OF FIRE ALARM ACTIVATION – 8TH FLOOR STOVE FIRE

From April 21, 2010 theHoya.com, Eamon O’Connor: “Stove Fire in Harbin; Students Evacuated”

According to eighth-floor residents, when a student initially tried pulling the fire alarm on the eighth floor, the alarm did not react. A resident then pulled the fire alarm on the sixth floor, which reacted with a slight delay, according to Larkin.

Frank said all normal alarm procedure was in effect. “All fire protection systems, including the fire alarm, functioned as they should. DPS was notified of an active alarm by the fire alarm system due to a smoke detector at the eighth floor lounge of Harbin Hall,” she said. DPS and Facilities staff each responded to the incident immediately, in line with fire emergency standards.

The alarm systems, which comprise devices like sprinklers and smoke detectors, are regularly inspected and tested by an external specialty company hired by the university, according to Frank. “There were no deficiencies in Harbin at the time of inspection or tonight,” she said.

Although none of the emergency sprinklers in the building went off as a result of the incident, Frank said the sprinklers were not triggered because the fire had been contained to the oven and maintenance workers put out the fire before it could set off the sprinklers.

entire article HERE

Was the inability for a student to activate the eighth floor evacuation alarm in April an operator error?

Mike “FossilMedic” Ward

Posted by on October 23, 2010 • Filed under: Fire Prevention & Education, HazMat, News, Twitter • Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Haz-Mat? Who Needs One of Those?

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JENNINGS COUNTY, INDIANA,  FIRST-REPSONDERS have a unique method to attack problems involving hazardous compressed gasses.  The North Vernon Plain Dealer-Sun reports that the sheriff’s department along with the North Vernon-Center Township Fire Department shut down busy U. S. 50 for more than an hour while they mitigated a leaking gas cylinder problem.

It began last Friday, April 23, when somebody discovered a leaking 20-lb cylinder along the road that was painted all black.  Believing that it was a clandestine container of anhydrous ammonia that is used by illicit meth labs, the deputies and firefighters began what is for them a routine procedure.  The Plain Dealer-Sun continues:

After evacuating residents from a house on the corner of the road and highway and stopping both eastbound and westbound traffic several hundred feet away, police and firefighters carefully moved the tank a few feet across the highway to vent it.

As Tyler sprayed a heavy stream of water onto the tank, Talkington fired into the tank with an AR-15 police rifle. He made two shots into the tank near the top, then after a couple of minutes, fired twice more into the bottom.

ammonia a plaindealersun

Plain Dealer-Sun photo

“We find tanks all the time that we vent,” Talkington said. “A couple of times a week is not unusual at all for us. Normally, we do that out in the woods and not alongside a highway. In this case, we had no choice.”

The complete article on this bizarre methodology can be read HERE.

Firegeezer comments:
This whole story has so many things that are so wrong, you will have to take the time to read the entire article.  In it you will find several more stunners like this:  The spray of water helped dillute [sic.] the gas and kept it from forming a dangerous cloud as it escaped from the tank…

And this:  The pressurized ammonia, which turns into a toxic gas when released into the air….

I really wish that the deputies and the firefighters would receive the basic haz-mat for 1st-responders class.  Also having somebody versed in basic chemistry (including molecular weights) may prevent the upcoming disaster.  This story – and the photo –  makes me shudder.

Hat tip:  Jason V.

Posted by on April 30, 2010 • Filed under: Haz-mat, HazMat, safety, Special Operations • Tagged: , , ,

Napper Nabbed While Cooking at the Pumps

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A MURFREESBORO, TENNESSEE, CONVENIENCE STORE CLERK called the local police Friday morning to report a car that had been parked at a gas pump for over an hour.  When the PD arrived, they found a man passed out in the front seat and an active meth lab in the back seat, cooking up a batch just inches away from the Shell station’s self-serve gas pump.

The pumps were immediately shut down by the emergency shut-off and the Murfreesboro FD was dispatched to the haz-mat call.  The Haz-Mat squad identified the chemical substances found in the back seat as ammonium nitrate, fluid from a Coleman gas stove, and lithium.  “Fluids in the bottles were in the process of chemical reaction and were actively cooking,” said a police spokesman.

murfree a post

Murfreesboro Post

The miscreant, Nathan Beasley, 31, who had apparently passed out from the fumes in his car, was taken into custody and hospitalized for observation.  Charges are pending against him after he is released.

The Murfreesboro Post has the STORY.
Murfreesboro Fire Department WEBSITE.

Posted by on January 3, 2010 • Filed under: HazMat • Tagged: , , , ,

FF Busted With Rolling Meth Lab

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A JACKSON, TENNESSEE, FIREFIGHTER WAS ARRESTED Thursday night when police officers stopped his car for a traffic violation and noticed a strong chemical odor coming from the inside.  The Jeep Cherokee was being driven by the owner, Corey Clifft, 31, a firefighter with the Jackson Fire Department.

clifft aOfficers say that Clifft admitted that the smell was coming from a portable meth lab in the back of the vehicle.  The after getting Clifft’s permission to search the SUV, police found an electric pill grinder with pseudoephedrine residue inside, lithium batteries, fertilizer pellets, Coleman camp fuel, lye, plastic tubing, plastic bottles and unknown liquids inside the Cherokee.

Clifft, along with his passenger, a 32-yr.-old man, were both arrested and charged with manufacturing methamphetamine, possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute and felony possession of drug paraphernalia.

He has been placed on administrative leave without pay by the FD where he has been a firefighter for 5 years.

WNWS News has the full STORY.

Posted by on November 21, 2009 • Filed under: crime, News • Tagged: , , ,