Quick Takes: Monday November 29, 2010.
Newark, New Jersey house fire: Another one from allhandsgoingtowork. This is from November 17 at 414 South 18th Street. Part 2 is here.
CBS Sunday Morning looks at volunteer firefighters: Peter Greenberg, a volunteer firefighter from Long Island, gave the CBS Sunday Morning audience a look at the nation’s volunteer firefighters. In our role with the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation we hooked producer Kay Lim up with Kelly Walesh and Lexus Koeser at the 2010 Memorial Weekend in October. They are the survivors of Firefighter Steven ‘Peanut’ Koeser of Wisconsin and were featured in the CBS story. If you haven’t seen it yet, click here.
Anne Arundel County, Maryland loses lieutenant in off-duty Thanksgiving Day crash: The Anne Arundel County Fire Department is in mourning following the death of Lt. Elizabeth Nahory. Lt. Nahory died on Thursday in a car crash near her home in Dublin Township, Pennsylvania. Read more here. IAFF Local 1563 has the funeral arrangements posted.
Arson at mosque attended by Oregon bomb plot suspect: A small fire was set at the Salman Alfarisi Islamic Center in Corvallis, Oregon. It is the same mosque once attended by 19-year-old Mohamed Osman Mohamud, accused in the plot to bomb the Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland. Read more.
Maryland firefighters rescue dog and owner: Thanksgiving night found firefighters from both Montgomery County & Prince George’s County rescuing a Belgian Shepherd and its owner from the bottom of a ravine. Here’s the video & the story.
Dave enters the carnival with his social media policy & so much more (or less): This is my first entry into the First Due Blog Carnival. I figure it will be my last because they will likely ban me for life. They wanted suggestions for a fire department social media policy. I turned this one over to my animated staff. There is actually a serious policy in there somewhere. You just have to wade through the usual conflict that comes with a STATter911.com animation. On top of that there is a response from Roanoke and some investigations into STATter911.com. These have uncovered some dark secrets of my empire, including a recent visit to a Roanoke area hospital (HIPAA rules preclude me from providing more information) and some very interesting pictures from my past. Click here for a complete waste of your time.
What a picture, plus radio traffic: In case you missed it last week, we added radio traffic to the picture of the Detroit fire engine that was squashed went it went under an over pass that was a little too low. Here it is.
Firefighter says he sees dead Marine brother on his turnout coat: There is a most unusual story from Weymouth, Massachusetts. Firefighter Jason Farrar says after hanging up his dirty gear after a fire a week ago an image appeared on the back of his coat. Some may see smudges of dirt, but Farrar, his family and fellow firefighters see the image of Farrar’s brother Andrew, a Marine sergeant killed in Iraq five-years-ago. Check out the story.
No ambulance service, no firefighters: Firegeezer has a profile of Gregg Township, Indiana where they once had an ambulance service and 59 on-call firefighters. (Firegeezer also pays tribute to actor Leslie Nielsen who died at the age of 84.)
Thanksgiving video round-up: Here are some of the structure fire videos we have posted since the start of the holiday weekend- Raw video from five-alarm Elizabeth, NJ fire with mayday; Pre-arrival video at Cleveland, TN house fire; Surrey, BC two-alarm apartment fire.
And the most unusual video from the last few days: Check out the rolling and burning van from Los Angeles as it goes from one service station to another.
Faulty chimney blamed for Hollywood Madam’s Thanksgiving Day fire: Heidi Fleiss escaped her Pahrump, Nevada home on Thursday and was seen walking around with a bird on her shoulder. Click here for the raw video and here for the local TV report.
Change of plan on stubborn debris pile fire: In Concord, North Carolina firefighters are no longer going to just let a debris pile that caught fire last week burn itself out. That could take a month. Click here to read and watch the updated plan.
Looking back to a Thanksgiving Day fire 64-years-ago: An interesting tribute to a retired Newark, New Jersey fire captain who died last month at age 96. Click here for the story of Frank Conville and his heroics at a fire on November 26, 1946.
Cry Baby Bridge fire is the work of a firefighter: Probably the main reason I am running this story is just to be able to write the name “Cry Baby Bridge”. Investigators in Oklahoma say a fire in the fall of 2008 near that bridge is the work of a former McAlester area firefighter. Click here if you want to know more about the arrest and here if you want to know more about the many Cry Baby Bridges around the U.S.
Two-alarm house fire in South Bend, Indiana: A fire that was reported about 5:30 Sunday morning in the 700 block of South Bend Avenue. No injuries reported. Click here for more on the fire.
