NY crane collapse; FF kills wife & FF; 5 mayday calls at DC fire; Mayor rejects latest OCVFC plan; Update on FF who fell off rig
(Updated Saturday at 5:05 PM)
Video of the day: An arsonist caught on tape and the sprinkler system saves the day. This was at 3:00 Friday morning in Lawrence, MA. Surveillance cameras capture a man firebombing a nightclub using three 5-gallon water cooler bottles of gasoline with wicks. The sprinkler system was installed during renovations following a fire at another club at the same address. Read more on Boston.com.
Deadly Manhattan crane collapse
NOTE: Both Firefighter Spot and FireGeezer have additional coverage including raw video.
A Reuters photo from the New York Times of a crane collapse around 2:00 Saturday afternoon at 51st Street and 2nd Avenue. FDNY has at least a 4th alarm response to the incident. Besides the dead, trapped, injured and missing, there is a power outage over a large area. Here’s what they are reporting at 7:30 PM:
A large crane at a construction site on Manhattan’s East Side collapsed Saturday afternoon, killing at least four people and injuring more than 10, officials at the scene said.
“This construction accident is one of the worst the city has had,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said in a news conference this afternoon. “Our hearts go out to all the victims and their families.”
The big, white tower crane, which looked to be about 20 stories tall, appeared to have toppled across a street and crashed into other nearby buildings. Mr. Bloomberg said the falling pieces of the crane demolished one building and damaged three others.
The accident happened at 303 East 51st Street, near Second Avenue about 2:20 p.m., the authorities said.
“The main place of carnage was either at the construction site — among probably all construction workers, and I’m still trying to verify that — and then in the small building where the top piece of the crane came crashing down and just basically flattened the four-story town house right down to a mass of rubble,” Mr. Bloomberg said.
The mayor also said that the crane had been inspected and that the appropriate permits had been in place.
Aides to the Manhattan borough president, Scott Stringer, said they had been told by the Office of Emergency Management that the building that was destroyed was at 305 East 50th Street.
Mayor Bloomberg said that the firefighters and police officers on the scene were continuing to look for survivors in the rubble and that dogs and listening devices would be brought in.
He also said another crane was standing by to remove the broken crane but that first efforts would be made to stabilize the site.
Police say FF killed FF over wife. Wife also slain.
One volunteer firefighter killed his wife and another volunteer firefighter with her as they left a restaurant in Monroeville, PA. Click here to read the details.
5 mayday calls during DC multi-alarm fire. Raw video and fireground audio.
The top image of defensive operations is from Tom Yeatman’s raw video. The bottom image, from DC Fire & EMS photographer Vito Maggiolo, is earlier in the fire as Tower 3’s crew helps Lt. Dave McLean of Rescue Squad 2 to safety. One of a number of DC firefighters who had to make a quick exit from the Mt. Pleasant apartment building and found other means of egress blocked by fire.
Interview with Chief Dennis Rubin about mayday calls
Watch Part 2 of Vito Maggiolo’s raw video
Watch Part 1 of Tom Yeatman’s raw video showing exterior operations
Watch Part 2 of Tom Yeatman’s video
Watch Part 3 of Tom Yeatman’s video (church fire)
Watch raw video from reporter Armando Trull
(Note: Above we have added some more links to video, pictures and audio from the Mt. Pleasant fires. We have also now have the entire video from both Vito Maggiolo and Tom Yeatman. Below is an account of the challenges that faced firefighters and command officers.)
Assistant Chief Lawrence Schultz said for a n
umber of minutes early Thursday morning he was as scared as he has been in many, many years. Over a very short period of time firefighters operating inside the 4-story apartment building at 3145 Mt. Pleasant Street, NW called in five maydays as conditions rapidly worsened.
According to Chief Schultz and DC Fire & EMS Chief Dennis Rubin, the calls for firefighters in distress came as crews made sure the last occupants were out of the building and defensive operations were about to begin. In the end, Chief Rubin and Chief Schultz believe only two of the mayday calls were actually for firefighters who needed assistance. The rest of the calls were for crew members who had become separated from their company but turned out to be safe outside the building or a second call on the same incident.
Chief Rubin tells STATter 911 that the first firefighters were confronted with fire in the basement, second and third floors in quadrant B of the large, U-shaped apartment building. As engine companies attempted to keep the fire in check, truck and rescue squad crews helped those who needed assistance getting out of the building.
Lt. David McLean of Rescue Squad 2 and another firefighter from his company removed some of the last civilians trapped in the building. Responding to information relayed from a 911 caller, the pair helped people to safety from two apartments in quadrant D on the fourth floor by using an interior stairwell. Chief Rubin said both firefighters returned to the fourth floor to finish checking separate apartments. Within minutes fire on the top floor cut Lt. McLean off from the stairwell. The lieutenant called a mayday.
Chief Schultz said there were some very tense moments as they conversed by radio with Lt. McLean guiding him to windows on side A. Tower 3 was in position and quickly moved the bucket to one of the windows as the lieutenant appeared. Chief Rubin remarked on how well Lt. McLean kept his cool and followed instructions to reach a position of safety. Lt. McLean was sent to an area hospital for shortness of breath and concerns about his CO level.
Chief Schultz said they were still listening to tapes to sort through the rest of the mayday calls. According to Schultz, it appears another group of firefighters took refuge in a stairwell to get away from the rapidly advancing fire.
On the video from DC Fire & EMS photographer Vito Maggiolo you can see and hear the efforts to communicate with the trapped firefighters and get ladders to crews on the upper floors of the four-story building.
Chief Rubin said the focus on getting the residents and firefighters to safety allowed the fire to grow and spread toward an apartment building on side B. Crews also had to evacuate that building and get hose lines on each floor and roof of the exposure. At the same time burning embers ignited the roof of the Meridian Hill Baptist Church across a fifteen foot alley on side C.
Mutual aid from Montgomery, Prince George’s Counties and Northern Virginia was sent to the fireground and to cover city fire stations.
Five-alarms were needed for the apartment building fire. A second-alarm was used on the church fire, with a third-alarm in staging.
Photographer Maggiolo recalls a winter fire in the 1970s at the very same building where this fire began, 3145 Mt. Pleasant Street. That fire burned the roof off of the apartment building.
More images from Vito Maggiolo. The rescue of a civilian at top and ladder operations to assist trapped firefighters on the bottom.
Was Baltimore City FF wearing seat belt?
That’s the question WBAL radio reporter Scott Wykoff is asking following the serious injury to Firefighter Bryan Isaacs as Engine 6 responded to a fire last week. Isaacs fell out of the engine and is currently in rehabilitation due to his head injury. According to IAFF Local 734’s website he is still having difficulty with speech and hearing.
Wykoff talks to a number of people about the seat belt issue, including Dr. Burton Clark. Click here to read the story and hear the interviews.
Guilty pleas in FDNY firehouse fire
From the AP:
Two former firefighters pleaded guilty Thursday to lesser charges in a blaze they set at a firehouse as a prank last year.
Michael Izzo, 30, pleaded guilty to felony reckless endangerment for a promised sentence of one to three years in prison. He faced up to 15 years if he had been convicted of the initial arson charge after trial.
Richard Capece, 31, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor reckless endangerment in exchange for a sentence of five months in jail and 100 hours of community service. He, too, faced 15 years if he had been convicted of arson.
Izzo and Capece were accused of using a flammable liquid to set a door on fire at the Engine 34 firehouse on Oct. 27, 2007. Another firefighter saw smoke enter the firehouse and alerted on-duty firefighters, who put out the blaze. No one was hurt.
Capece’s lawyer, Arthur Aidala, said his client was “devastated” because he has been fired from the Fire Department of New York.
“He had found his calling as a firefighter,” the lawyer said.
Izzo’s lawyer, Steve Gordon, had argued that the sentences should be similar on the ground that the defendants had equally redeeming qualities. He said both had given several years of service to the city and were remorseful.
Gordon said Izzo would never have wanted to see anyone there injured and had resigned.
Both defendants had been assigned to Engine 35-Ladder 21 in midtown Manhattan.
Everyone is a fire chief — another town balks at replacing an old fire truck
This time it is in Hill, New Hampshire. Some think the 30-year-old one they have now is just fine and certainly spending almost $300 thousand for a new 10-wheeler seems excessive. Read the Concord Monitor’s coverage of turning down the bond to finance it:
Hill won’t have another big truck. The 10-wheel fire truck that the selectmen recommended, which would have cost $286,000, was rejected.
“This truck is humongous,” said John W. Lynch, who was elected as a selectman this week. “It’s not going to be able to get into most houses.
“We need a six-wheeler that is not going to be able to carry as much water, but it will get there.”
The fire chief, Matthew Desrochers, said that the department’s 1977 truck is falling apart.
“It’s underpowered,” he said. “Its top speed up Murray Hill is about 5 miles per hour.”
The last time the town financed a fire truck was in 1975, according to Hill Fire Lt. Bill Macahado Jr.
Desrochers said that a large new truck would serve the town for the next 30 years. Now, he said, the town usually runs out of water in 12 or 13 minutes – before mutual aid from Franklin or Bristol can arrive.
“Has something burned down we couldn’t put out?” asked a resident, Randy White. “Has something lost value?”
“We ran out of water in April,” Desrochers said. “More water would have saved value to that house. We had to pull out, and they lost their house.”
“I w
ouldn’t want all my life savings going down the tubes because we ran out of water,” resident Dave Maloof said.
Voters asked about used trucks as well as smaller trucks. The chief said that if the new truck was bought, other equipment would have to be parked outside the garage.
Voters rejected the bond, which would have cost about $15,000 for each of 15 years, by a margin of 17 votes. Sixty-five people supported the bond, while 57 did not; 82 were needed for a two-thirds majority.
OWL’s St. Baldrick’s event
Tony Carroll sent this bit of info about an event Friday night:
For the third year in a row, the Occoquan-Woodbridge-Lorton Volunteer Fire Department will be holding a charity event to help St. BALDRICK’s. St. Baldrick’s is a non-profit fundraising charity organization which raises money to help researchers find a cure for childhood cancer. Last year, 18,000 shavees raised $12,934,504. This year, St. Baldrick’s volunteers are working to raise $17 million shaving 25,000 heads. There were 50 heads shaved at Fire Station 2, last year. 2007’s OWL event raised over $10000. That’s right 10G’s. This year, we hope to raise even more. OWL’s event is held in conjunction with their 6:01 quarterly Happy Hour. It will be held at Botts Fire Hall (Station 2’s meeting room) on Friday, March 14th, beginning at 6:01 pm. The shaving will begin after 7 and last until around 11. This year’s event will feature a live band, Type A. If you were there for last year’s you will remember our solo performer, Todd Hewitt. Well, this year he is bringing the whole band. There will also be a silent auction with lots of items up for grabs. OF course no OWL event would be complete without frosty beverages and good food. We will have that also. So, even if you do not want to get your head shaved, come on out for a good time. Hope to see you there!!!
Ocean City mayor rejects offer by OCVFC to restrict career side to EMS
From delmarvanow.com’s Laura D’Alessandro the response to the story below it:
In a statement issued Thursday, Mayor Rick Meehan rejected Ocean City Volunteer Fire Chief Chris Larmore’s counterproposal to give all firefighting responsibility to volunteer firefighters.
“I do not see the advantage, or rationale, to requiring the 43 trained members of the town’s firefighters/paramedic division to step down as respondents or as active firefighters in Ocean City,” Meehan said in the statement.
Larmore’s counterproposal, delivered to Meehan on Wednesday, was in response to a letter Meehan issued Larmore on Feb. 20 requesting he step down as volunteer fire chief to serve as interim chief for the town to streamline operations.
At a previous council work session, Larmore and OCVFC President Jay Jester had requested the division of power be changed to a one-chief system rather than continue with the current two-chief system.
“The broad base plan is to split the two divisions,” Jester said. “That is the plan in a sense of the nuts and bolts. The rest will be presented to the mayor and council on Monday, but a lot of the details would need to be worked out in the future.”
Jester said the OCVFC arrived at the idea of separating firefighting responsibilities after going through Meehan’s letter.
“When the mayor’s proposal to have Chris step down was first brought up at the council meeting, there was a 4-to-3 vote, so just on the surface of City Hall there was already a little bit if skepticism,” he said. “The career firefighters had said they did not want to work for a volunteer chief, so there was more skepticism right there. And then the volunteers looked at it and they were skeptical as well.”
Jester said the members then knew it was necessary to take another route.
“This eliminates the paid firefighters from having to respond, and it doesn’t affect Chris or Chris’s job,” he said. “If we are given a budget and a blessing it will entail hiring part-time firefighters to work under the direction of the fire chief.”
But Meehan sees this as unnecessary hardship and thinks back-and-forth proposals are not the way to go.
“Continuing to formulate proposals, with ultimatums, without the input from the Ocean City elected officials is the wrong way to go,” Meehan said in his statement.
He hopes the town and the OCVFC can come to an agreement through a strategic planning meeting.
“The first time the OCVFC appeared before the mayor and City Council in February, it was proposed and voted on by the City Council to hold a strategic planning meeting with the OCVFC to discuss ideas and plans to address fire service in Ocean City,” he said. “I again urge both parties to move forward with this meeting.”
Jester and members of the council still expect to go through the plan in detail on Monday during the council meeting.
OCVFC offers to go solo on fire side
The latest development in the battle down the ocean has Ocean City VFC Chief Chris Larmore suggesting the career force stick solely to EMS. Click here to read delmarvanow.com’s story. Below is the story filed last night by WBOC-TV (see story above for mayor’s response):
Ocean City Volunteer Fire Chief Chris Larmore responded to the town council’s offer for him to take over all fire services with a major request that would eliminate the paid fire-fighting department from the career services.
On Feb. 19 the council voted 4 – 3 to formally offer Larmore the position on the condition that he step down as chief of the volunteer chief. In a press statement released on Wednesday, Larmore offered an alternative to the town’s fire services as a provision to accept the council’s request.
The release said, “Under the plan, the OCVFC would assume all responsibility for firefighting in the city, while the paid EMS division would provide emergency medical services. As always, the fire company would remain answerable to the town government on budgetary matters, and would add sufficient staffing to maintain round-the-clock firefighting coverage for the city.”
Larmore said the department has tried to collaborate with the paid division, but failed.
“The volunteers and myself have done everything humanly possible to work with the union and the volunteers. At this point we feel it would be in everyone’s best interest to let the respective parties focus what they are each the best at,” Larmore said.
Under the proposal, Larmore would be in charge of all fire calls for the town. The volunteers would be the primary providers for the calls, with some paid members.
Right now the members of the paid division are cross-trained to handle medical calls as well. Larmore said under his watch, the people who fight fires will only deal with fires.
“This actually saves tax dollars because fire fighter paramedics have a salary that is much higher than employers who are strictly fire fighter EMTs. Therefore we would be saving money,” Larmore explained.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Ocean City EMS director Joe Theobald said he had not seen a copy of the proposal. He said the council should tread carefully through the information before making any commitments.
“Whatever the recommendation is from the fire company will certai
nly have to be studied and analyzed to see how that would impact service within the community. Right now the Fire and EMS division provides both rolls whether it be fire or medical related. Until we have time to sit and look and that and be able to tell the community there won’t be a decrease in service, it’s hard to tell,” Theobald said.
The mayor and town council will have a final vote on whether to accept or decline the proposal from the OCVFD.
3-alarm school fire
Image above from KTLA-TV. Click here to see video.
A pre-dawn fire guts a school under renovation in Anaheim, CA on Wednesday. Click here to see the video from KCBS-TV. KNBC-TV’s story.
WV captain more than doubles his salary with OT
In Huntington, WV, Captain Bret Masters’ made $97,000 last year and that is fast becoming a big issue. Masters is the city’s highest paid employee. The mayor is upset that $52,000 of the pay was in overtime. The captain apparently worked an average of 105 hours-per-week. Here are excerpts from herald-dispatch.com:
Mayor David Felinton and Fire Chief Greg Fuller said Masters’ case exposes the need to limit how many overtime hours per week firefighters should be working.
The case also raises the question of how Huntington can afford to pay a firefighter almost $100,000 when city officials have struggled to find money to pave streets and hire more police officers.
“This is a policy that absolutely needs to be adjusted, particularly from a safety standpoint and from a perception standpoint,” Mayor David Felinton said. “Some may look at it as a guy who never turned down an opportunity to work when his department needed him.
“But I know the overwhelming perception is that people are scratching their heads wondering how a firefighter made $100,000 when it’s well known that the city is not exactly rolling in money here.”
Pizza, politics, firefighters and a song add up to a mess in Ohio
Not sure I fully understand this one, but a firefighter who is also the union president in Union Township, Ohio lost his job Tuesday because he wrote a rap song that mocked his boss and the cops. There is more. Better let WLWT.com explain it:
Township trustees voted to dismiss firefighter Jamie Osborne, who also serves as union president, after Fire Chief Stan Deimling said he disobeyed an order and distributed political materials with pizza deliveries to township fire departments.
“It’s the politics of Clermont County, and the people that were making the decision on me tonight all donated money to Matt Beemer’s campaign and we campaigned against Beemer, so to us its 100 percent politics,” Osborne said.
Firefighters were forbidden in September from using department vehicles to pick up food or run other errands, and they said the policy was implemented after they endorsed trustee candidate Cliff Johnson, who ran against the incumbent Beamer.
Johnson lost his election bid and Beamer was re-elected.
Deimling said Osborne withheld information about a union meeting he attended, which required 24 hours paid time off, and posted a rap song on the union Web site.
Osborne said the song, which profanely encouraged sex acts upon police officers, was intended as a joke but directed at authorities whom he said threatened his job.
Those threats were made during the investigation into who paid for campaign materials sent out with deliveries from Gramma’s Pizza, Osborne said.
Trustees said Osborne’s dismissal had nothing to do with his political views, but the former firefighter said he intended to appeal their decision.
