Quick Takes

Watertown, NY rescue caught on video: Someone was rolling video as firefighters pulled a 36-year-old man out a burning second floor apartment on Sterling Street on Sunday. At last word the man is in critical condition. Click here for more pictures and details.    

Lots of thanks: Whether you tuned in to see part or all of the Memorial Weekend events in Emmitsburg or are one of the more than 60 websites and blogs that made up the FireHero Network, I am very grateful. The official thanks will come from the leadership of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. This is my personal thanks to our readers who always step up in a big way. Your help allowed the network to have more than three times the number of sites than last year. The Foundation widget, which will continue year-round to honor a fallen firefighter each day, has close to 150 sites using it (that we know about). Again, thank you for helping honor the firefighters we’ve lost.    

Please indulge me with a couple of other acknowledgements. The TV station that employed me for almost 25-years again stepped up in a big way by joining Motorola, Inc. as the primary distributors of the two telecasts. Both WUSA-TV and Motorola have been involved in all four years that we’ve been live on the Internet. Thank you to president and general manager Allan Horlick and my former colleagues for their help.   

And some very special thanks to web producer Emily Cyr who is always instrumental in making the streaming happen and to director Scott Rubens who found an innovative way to keep the network from falling apart Saturday evening. Just before airtime a key component in the satellite uplink failed in Emmitsburg. While we were dead on the satellite end until Sunday morning, Scott, on his own, used the Motorola generated web signal and pushed it out in the very same video player most websites in our network were using. A brilliant move that saved the day.   

Early video of rocking garage fire: Smoke could be seen for miles around this Minneapolis fire. Check it out. 

Connie Xinos isn’t going to like this – Firefighter union activity saves the day: As we have learned over the last week or so the Oak Brook, Illinois citizen is not a big fan of unions. Particularly firefighter labor organizations (check out his video rant here). But in San Jose, California, during some union sanctioned campaigning on Sunday about initiatives on the ballot in the general election, two off-duty firefighters discovered how hot issues are. Specifically, they found themselves first due at an an apartment fire. Here’s the story.    

Union cold over hot and cold responses:  FDNY is trying out keeping the lights and sirens off on some responses to reduce vehicle collisions. The union thinks the plan is flawed and another ploy to close companies. Read the details.

A closer look at the controversy over private firefighters: Editorial cartoons, letters to the editor and questions about ethics help fuel the controversy in Colorado over the use of private fire protection for some homeowners who were impacted by the recent Colorado wildfires. Click here for the story.   

Weekend fire in Pennsylvania destroys five homes: Firegeezer has the story and pictures from Shenandoah, PA.    

 Firefighter is voice of calm in tense situation: When a bolt broke on a Ferris wheel in Racine Wisconsin, jolting riders, Captain Nick Comande took command. He kept the passengers calm even though he had some serious doubts about how long the ride would hold up in high winds. Comande was a very early arrival to this emergency scene because he was on the ride with his nine-year-old daughter. Read more.