1st LODD for 2008; Fire truck driver charged with DUI; Lt. Keepers mourned; Icy road video; FDNY veteran saved by rope system; 7-alarms in Boston
(Updated at 5:07 PM)
LODD in NC
36-year-old Paul Lewis Ellington apparently is the first LODD for 2008. At 7:30 AM, witnesses told police the volunteer firefighter with Oregon Hill VFD in Rockingham County lost control of his POV while responding to a report of a trailer fire.
Firefighter arrested on drug charges after driving fire truck to scene
Firehouse.com found this story from the ThePittsburghChannel.com:
A West Wilmerding volunteer firefighter who drove a fire truck to an early morning blaze on Sunday was arrested on charges of drug possession and driving under the influence.
According to the North Versailles police chief, Shawn Dixon, 27, was arrested at the scene of the fire on Della Drive in North Versailles after officers said they smelled alcohol on his breath and he failed a field sobriety test.
According to police, cocaine was also found on Dixon.
Firefighter remembered on both sides of the Potomac
Lt. Alex Keepers, a career firefighter in Loudoun County, VA and a long-time volunteer in Frederick, MD is being mourned. He was killed on icy roads while driving to his New Years Eve shift in Virginia. We have set up a separate page for coverage, including pictures, press releases and a variety of links. There is also donation information from IAFF Local 3756. Click here.
Video of other MD drivers sliding
This was shot near Routes 29 and 40 in Howard County. Fire and EMS crews handling one wreck are threatened by more.
Rope saves firefighter in Brooklyn
The New York Daily News (picture above by ludici) reports a 24-year veteran firefighter escaped the 4th floor of this burning home thanks to his personal rope issued after the tragic fire of almost three years ago. Below is the Daily News article, but for a lot more details on the Petzl Escape System check out Firefighter Spot:
A firefighter trapped on the fourth floor of an engulfed row home in Brooklyn was able to save himself Monday with his personal rope, authorities said.
It was the first instance of a firefighter using the device to escape a building since the ropes were issued by the FDNY after a 40-foot plunge killed two of New York’s Bravest and injured four others in January 2005, FDNY brass said.
“It’s a great success story. The guy was able to go home,” Battalion Chief Steve Raynis said of the 50-year-old firefighter, Ray Pollard.
“Without the equipment, within seconds he would have been killed up there.”
Pollard entered the fourth floor of an unoccupied Willoughby Ave. home about 5 a.m.
He was searching for victims when a collapse left him trapped in a bedroom, according to Raynis.
The 24-year FDNY veteran managed to hook the high-tech device to a windowsill.
After attaching the rope, he lowered himself far enough for his fellow firefighters to grab him, Raynis said.
Pollard was treated for a burned left hand and was later released from New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell.
Three other firefighters suffered minor injuries in the three-alarm blaze in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Fire marshals deemed the fire suspicious.
7-alarms in Boston close out the old year
BostonHerald.com photo by Stuart Cahill
FireGeezer is on top of the New Year’s Eve 7-alarm fire in South Boston at a 140-year-old building that is now condominiums and had been the Hotel Eaton. At least one man is dead.
Arkansas Sheriff says fire chief murdered by jealous husband
Chief Charles Boone of the Marianna/Lee County VFD was shot and killed Sunday morning. The sheriff says the shooting occurred when 47-year-old Harry Amos found his estranged wife in bed with the 43-year-old Boone. Read the story.
NJ women
One Ocean County, NJ department claims to have more female firefighters than any other in the county. Read the story.
NJ house fire
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta2hSPxh0Mg&rel=1]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne3BtZ167R8&rel=1]
Two videos from a house fire on Sunday in Wallington.
The Vito Maggiolo of the West Coast?
Craig Rose apparently knows his way to San Jose and beyond. He is a high school teacher and a volunteer photographer for local fire departments (Vito’s real job is on a news assignment desk, which, when you account for the attention span of your average reporter and photographer, is more like running a pre-school class). Read the story of Craig Rose.
