Quick Takes: December 2, 2010
Four-alarms in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania: This is from Sunday night at on East Pine Street. Click here for still pictures.
Bait and switch by the news media: If you are like me it will drive you up a wall if newspapers, websites or TV news operations use a fire truck from one jurisdiction to illustrate a story in another jurisdiction. Well, the new site, FireTruckBlog.comby Chief Glenn Usdin, is calling out one newspaper for crossing the continent to screw up its story on a Maryland budget issue. Check it out here.
You may have noticed the link that went up recently on the bar above for FireTruckBlog.com and a feed of the blog’s content in the right hand column. We are working with Glenn to help make sure you know about this great source for fire apparatus news. You’ll want to check it out.
For those of you who don’t know Glenn, he has been in the fire apparatus business since 1974 and curently is President of Command Fire Apparatus, a Lancaster, Pennsylvania, based company providing used fire and rescue vehicles to fire departments across the United States, Canada and for export. Glenn is also a veteran firefighter and officer in New York and Pennsylvania. I think you will find FireTruckBlog.com a good complement to what we do here.
Michigan fire spreads thoughout large one-story complex: Firegeezer is all over the fire yesterday afternoon in Southfield, Michigan. When you see it you can’t help wonder how a daytime fire was that advanced with a four-minute response time from the fire department. Click here to watch the video.
“The time for trickery and lies are over. We’re playing with people’s lives”: Those are the words of IAFF Local 428 Union President Eric Jenkins. They are directed at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Mayor Linda Thompson. The union had its press conference yesterday firing back at the mayor’s plan to change schedules and drop people to save $1.6 millions dollars in OT money. Here’s more.
Making the case against massive layoffs in Cincinnati: Cincinnati.com’s Jane Prendergast has the details as more than 200 firefighters packed the City Council chambers last night trying to prevent the layoff of 144 firefighters. Here’s the story.
Union points out what it believes is a cancer cluster at a Pittsburgh firehouse: Nine cancer deaths of firefighters over 13-years at a South Side firehouse has firefighters sounding the alarm. Read the story.
Questions asked after it takes 10-minutes for fire engine to travel a half-mile: It appears Virginia’s Vinton Fire Department had to wait for a crew before responding to a house fire Monday night. The 10-minute response time made it the second engine to arrive at the fire and has reporters asking questions. Here are the answers from The Roanoke Times.
Cops to run day-time fire calls: A shortage of volunteers in Alma, Michigan has the town recruiting police officers to handle fire calls. First they have to be trained. We assume it is something a bit more than “fire safety training” mentioned in this article.
