Quick Takes: December 19, 2011.
My favorite story of late, but it comes with a price: By now I am sure most of you have seen this story from West Valley City, Utah of Officer Kevin Peck holding the hand of a women whose legs were crushed and trapped under a bus. If you haven't, I urge you to watch the video above. The compassion shown by Officer Peck has touched many, including me. But I am going to ruin it for you a bit by asking some questions that so many people asked a year ago on this blog. Aren't you concerned about the privacy of this woman? Shouldn't we be protecting this victim and not showing her at what may be the worst moment of her life? How can we be celebrating this when we are showing someone suffering? Isn't the person who photographed this a ghoul? Isn't Dave a ghoul for posting it? These very questions all came up a year ago on STATter911.com by our readers when we posted a video of a Connecticut State trooper blasting a freelance news videographer for shooting a car fire where a woman died. Many of you were quite critical of the videographer and me. I have a theory about the difference between the bus video with the officer and the burning car video with the trooper. I back up my thoughts with a half dozen other quite recent, somewhat graphic videos that we have posted. Click here, read it and let me know if you think I am wrong.
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Early video & audio from major fire in Vincennes, Indiana: We have some early video and still pictures from a large fire that took out multiple buildings in Vincennes late Saturday night. Click here.
Overshadowed by Vincennes, you should really look at this: The web stats show much more interest in the Vincennes fire than one I posted a few hours early of the offensive mode operations at a rip-roaring apartment fire in Alameda County, California. Make sure you check it out.
See the USA: See the USA in a Chevrolet … fire engine. FireTruckBlog.com's Antique of the Week is a 1952 Chevy fire truck. Click here.
Three pairs of detached homes burning: By coincidence we posted three fires right after each other showing fires in single family homes that spread to neighboring dwellings. They were in Seattle, Milwaukee and Buffalo.
And Jimmy Justice for all: Most of those who wrote in seem quite supportive of the hydrant vigilante in New York known as Jimmy Justice. Click here to revisit a former STATter911.com regular who gets on cops and other government workers about their parking.
No lemonade here: Firegeezer Bill Schumm looks at an ambulance bought in Grand Island, Nebraska that just can't stay on the street.
Racing Facebook during LODDs and injuries, Part 2: THE Fire Critic has a look at an important topic we have talked about previously, the Internet and social media's impact on making death and injury notifications. Here's Rhett's view in his column titled Social media discipline during firefighter injury or LODD. And here is our previous column on the topic titled, Social media & the line of duty death: Racing Facebook and not always winning.
Court says no to residency requirement: Check out Curt Varone's FireTruckBlog.com with the story from New Jersey's North Hudson Fire & Rescue where black firefighters have the US 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals agreeing that a residency requirement is discriminatory. But losing it could impact another minority group. Click here for Curt's analysis of this complicated issue.
Plaque honoring fallen firefighter stolen: In Lee's Summit, Missouri firefighters want to know who took the plaque honoring Firefighter Bryan Pottberg from a memorial park. Here's the story.
Goose Creek, SC house fire: The picture at right is from a house fire Saturday at 108 Goose Creek Drive taken by our friend Steve Skipton. Here's Steve's description – "Around 5:10 PM, Goose Creek City firefighters found fire showing from a house on Goose Creek Drive , Firefighters from City of Goose Creek Sta 1 and 2 GCCFD Medic 9 and firefighters from Goose Creek Rural and Naval Weapons Station Fire Dept, no injuries reported."
Arrest for riding over hose: From Bridgeport, Connecticut the story of what happened to a man who drove his vehicle over a hose line two times. Click here.
Quite a pile up: Take a look at pictures from Larry Shapiro at ChicagoAreaFire.com of the tangled vehicles in a crash in Glenview, Illinois.
An important correction from STATter911.com – I was wrong: All this time I thought I had been bringing you the story of the world's smallest firefighter, or would be firefighter, in our continuing series of stories from Roanoke, Virginia. It turns out that was not the case and there is a quite remarkable story in the news today that proves me wrong. The story is about Vinnie Brasco of the Carbon Fire Department in Hempfield Township, Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Take a moment to read it.
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House fire in Bozeman, Montana: This is a fire on Wednesday in the Four Corners area in the Elk Grove Subdivision. Read details here.
