Quick Takes
Another in Allentown: Our friends at Newsworking.org have been so busy with fires in Allentown and elsewhere around Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley in December we have been unable to keep up. This is a house fire from Sunday.
More about the death of Steven Koeser: We have a lot more details from Calumet County, Wisconsin about the life of the St. Anna Fire Department firefighter and how an exploding dumpster killed him Tuesday evening. New pictures of the apparatus damaged in the explosion have been added. Click here for our coverage.
Aptly names store burns in Indiana: Video from Pyromaniac Fireworks burning in Ft. Wayne. Check it out.
Dealing with a dozen fires in 75 minutes: A closer look at how top fire officials and other city bosses dealt with the arson spree in Northampton, Massachusetts. Read the story. In case you missed it Sunday, click here for the fireground audio and the scramble to cover so many fires.
Mayor going in a “different direction” in Buffalo as fire commissioner gets the boot: On the same day his police commissioner, whose job may also be on the chopping block, collapsed and is hospitalized, Mayor Byron Brown got rid of his fire commissioner. The mayor wouldn’t say why Mike Lombardo is no longer on his team. It is known Lombardo has clashed with administration officials over doing more with less and has been under fire for overtime spending. Lombardo, who was a department captain when he took the job, goes back in the field as a battalion chief. Click here for details.
Reason much clearer for dismissal of chief in Eunice, New Mexico: Some thought Ron Grogan should have been gone last summer when he lost his paramedic credentials over an incident with a woman in the back of an ambulance. But it took his arrest (along with some of his firefighters) on charges of stealing a radar detector from a car involved in a collision to seal his fate. Read the story.
And another job opening: $27,000 used on fire prevention giveaways did in Chief Robert Rylie of the Occurn VFD in Norwich, Connecticut. Apparently there were other priorities that the money had been budgeted for. Read and watch the story.
IAFF local president gets to keep his job: A recall petition against the president of IAFF Local 112 in Los Angeles has been invalidated. Pat McOsker has been battling city budget cutbacks, but for now, will not have to deal with the fight on the inside. Read the article from the Los Angeles Times.
Don’t consolidate, don’t play: A situation that may be more complicated than our simple headline about the situation in Stowe, Pennsylvania where the lone holdout in a three way fire company consolidation is told to stay home when the alarm sounds in the township. Read the details.
Geezer has some useful stuff and some weird stuff: And why should the last day of the year (and the oughts) be any different? Click and scroll down looking through the offerings of Firegeezer Bill Schumm. My favorites are the new personal rescue tool and the senior citizens battling it out.
