Quick takes
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Child stuck in playground equipment: DC Fire & EMS Department spokesman Alan Etter shot this video during the noon hour on Tuesday at the Riverside Baptist Church at 6th & I Streets, SW. The church also has a daycare center. The five-year-old boy’s leg was caught between slats on a piece of playground equipment. According to Etter, “Firefighters were able to insert a Hurst tool under the equipment where the boy’s leg was stuck and pry the slats apart, freeing his leg.” The boy had only minor injuries.
Setting a fire on live TV does not bode well for your future as a firefighter: Andrew Ablog is finding that out the hard way. Caught up in the Super Bowl celebration in Pittsburgh, a college student was seen dousing a couch with lighter fluid and igniting it. On Monday, after someone identified Ablog as the fire starter, the 22-year-old senior turned himself in. His chief back home in Beaver County is expecting the volunteer firefighter to do the right thing. Read and watch the story.
Also at an institution of higher learning, giving it that old college try was just a barrel of laughs: I love practical jokes as much as the next person, but how does anyone see this as funny. Two college students and a former student were arrested for faking a dorm fire and tying doors shut so people couldn’t get out. Click here to read and watch the story from Connecticut.
You should have seen this yesterday morning: Even though I was told about the fire on Monday by Digital Correspondent Greg Guise, I forgot to mention the Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department’s rescue of an elderly woman from inside a burning Reston townhouse. So I am doing it now. Click here to read and watch some of Greg’s video and his interview with Battalion Chief Chuck Ryan. (What’s wrong with the idiot that runs this blog that he can run fires from Peoria but can’t keep track of what is going on in his home county?)
Four rescued from Michigan fire: A busy morning in East Grand Rapids. Two people were on the roof and two more inside a burning home. Click here for the coverage.
“We haven’t seen numbers like this ever before”: Chicago Fire Fighters Union Local 2 President Tom Ryan on seven suicides among firefighters in the last 18-months. Ryan went on to say, “It’s a subject that is bewildering, baffling and something we really just are seeking answers for right now.” Last night WBBM-TV took look at the problem. Read the story. Watch the story.
Bower confirmed in Montgomery County, MD: Across the Potomac from my Fairfax County, Montgomery County’s Richard Bower was unanimously confirmed by the County Council on Tuesday. He’s a 32-year vet of MCFRS.
Help needed in Manassas, VA: City of Manassas Fire & Rescue Department Chief Mike Wood is letting us and fire departments in the region know about an extremely unfortunate situation involving one of his firefighters. Firefighter Zygimantas Zalys, known as “Z”, is suffering from advanced pancreatic and liver cancer. He is only 32-years-old and has a 13-month-old son. Anyone wishing to make a donation to help Firefighter Zalys and his family can send it to IAFF Local 4466, Attn: “Z” Fund, P.O. Box 505, Manassas, Virginia, 20108. Click here to read Chief Wood’s entire letter.
Protest over FDNY cuts and possible future cuts: The commissioner and the union president are going at it over staffing. Nicholas Scoppetta says cutting 60 engines from 5 to 4 firefighters is the way to keep 12 more fire companies off the chopping block. Steve Cassidy believes other cuts can be made. Lots of coverage here.
FF returns to work two years after training mishap that almost killed him: In Hamilton, Ohio, John Hansbauer is back to work. Hansbauer isn’t riding fire trucks, but he is working as a fire inspector. A little more than two-years-ago FF Hansbauer and FF Chris Gabbard almost drowned during a training exercise at a dam on the Great Miami River. Click here to read and watch the story, along with links to earlier coverage and the report issued about the incident.
House fire in Stafford County, Virginia: Pictures and video from a house fire in the Hartwood area on Tuesday.
How the airlines handle luggage can really suck: Firegeezer is running a story from my old friend Ed Laskos a TV reporter in Los Angeles. It involves a 747 and a baggage tram that got too close at LAX. Click here.
