Quick Takes: August 13, 2012.
Three-alarms in Arlington, Texas: Thanks to DFW Police Scanner for alerting us to their video of an apartment fire on West Park Rowe Drive early Saturday morning. Here’s Part 2.
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Amanda the canine hero is great, but what about Beth the human hero?: Are our priorities on straight when the world celebrates a dog who saves her puppies from a fire but fails to make as big of a deal about a grandmother/firefighter who perished doing the same thing? Let me know what you think.
Career staff yanked at Prince George’s County, MD fire station: Conflicts and investigations are being cited as the reason PGFD Chief Marc Bashoor decided to pull all four career firefighters from the Riverdale firehouse. We have the statements from both sides and they don’t seem to agree on two significant points. Here’s the story.
Social media for fire chiefs: STATter911 Communications is teaming up with Chief Bill Boyd and Gerald Baron to bring you a series of videos on social media and emergency management. Click here for a preview.
Helmet-cam shows rescue of woman and interior fire attack: In St. Charles, Missouri watch as the engine crew finds the victim and then helps put out the fire.
One word has FDNY trying to navigate narrower streets: Glenn Usdin’s FireTruckBlog.com looks at how a change in one word in some city rulemaking has made streets a little too narrow in the Bronx.
Firefighter falls through floor & look whose handling the hoses: The power company and the cops pitch in at an Iowa house fire where a firefighter fell into the burning basement. Here’s the video.
Steal a brother’s car will you?: In Portland, Oregon firefighters chase and catch a man who stole a car parked at Station 11.
Detroit fire video: A vacant storefront and an occupied home burn.
Prostitution ring details in Baltimore: New information on charges that a Baltimore City firefighter was a pimp.
Stuck airhorn, thunderstorm & house fire: A video from Hillsborough County, Florida that has the KICs stirred up.
Olympic size fire: It wasn’t part of the closing ceremonies (though there was worry the smoke would interfere) but one of the largest fires in London in recent years hit as the Summer Olympics wrapped up. Bill Schumm has the story at Firegeezer.
“Seven Two”, the latest from Barry Roberts Greer: We have pointed you in the past to the writings of Barry Greer at PipeNozzle.com and we are doing so again with “Seven Two”, his latest, described as a firefighter’s story. It also comes with the warning, “Seven Two is classified by amazon.com as a book with adult content due to bad language, sex, violence, and mention of Graham Spanier. However, no firefighters were harmed during the writing of this book”. Click here for the download.
Curt Varone see’s Cathy’s Law in NJ as a fire service failure: Interesting post at FireLawBlog.com about New Jersey joining Connecticut in banning fire, EMS and police from taking and sharing scene photos that depict a patient. Curt explains the law and why he believes fire service leaders could have prevented this.
Fallout from Seminole, FL Flag story: We thought we had heard the last of the flag flap in the City of Seminole (click here if you aren’t familiar with the story), but it’s making news again. Three veteran district chiefs were reprimanded for allowing flags to fly on fire apparatus that failed to meet the established policy. Here’s the latest.
Steamin’ in Raleigh: Mike Legeros at Legeros Fire Blog takes us back more than 100 years with Saturday’s steamer demonstration at the South Atlantic Fire Rescue Expo.
Also in Raleigh, will the real Willie Wines Jr. please stand up?: Even though he’s my friend, I must point out that with the help of an impostor, Willie apparently pulled a fast one on the folks at the Brotherhood Bash in Raleigh. Someone pretending to be Willie showed up and had his picture taken with a bunch of people and the photos were posted on IronFiremen.com. The first clue that it wasn’t Willie should have been that he was alone. Just like Walter Winchell & Jerry Mahoney, Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy, Wayland Flowers & Madame and Otto & George, Willie never, ever leaves home without the little dummy that sits on his lap. You can take that to the bank. The people in Raleigh should have immediately called the cops. The second clue is this story from Oklahoma that did involve law enforcement. Check it out and tell me how Willie could be in two places at once.
Bribing people to read your blog: Speaking of Jerry Mahoney and company, THE Fire Critic says he’s celebrating 5,000 Facebook fans (why do all the fans have the last name Fleitz?) with 16 days of freebies for his reader(s). It looks like he has some good stuff to giveaway. I am guessing Willie must have gotten it for him. It couldn’t hurt to check it out and come away with something nice.
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This one is a bit different: A rail fan found a smoking gondola car on a Canadian National train he was taking video of in Elmhurst, Illinois on Friday. He called 911 and caught up with the train, the fire and firefighters in Villa Park.
