Charleston A/Chief at Expo; Detroit Finger Pointing; Bronx Fire Trucks & Money Gone; Turn Your Radio On for D.C. Plans; Moon Man; Kentland Question

Hunter Benke, 11-year-old son of fallen Charleston Fire Captain Mike Benke, with Assistant Chief Larry Garvin at Firehouse Expo in Baltimore.

Firehouse Expo.

I spent two interesting and exhausting days in Baltimore. A big thanks to Chris Hebert and the firehouse.com crew for their hospitality. I posted a few pictures and a few thoughts here. I also had a chance to chat with City of Charleston Fire Department Assistant Chief Larry Garvin and some of his firefighters about the news coverage of the Sofa Super Store fire. You can read that here.

At first I thought, who am I to analyze Detroit’s latest EMS incident? But after reading up on its history, I would say the Detroit stories look awfully similar to ones I have reported on over the last 25 years in D.C. As city officials draw the Ford Motor Company into the issue, I have some questions that reporters should be asking.

Franconia VFD in Fairfax County, Virginia made one of many large donations to the Aviation VFD in the Bronx after 9-11. Now where is old Engine 405? Where is some of the other donated equipment? And where did hundreds of thousands of dollars go? The New York Daily News is trying to find out.

Charleston paper looks at thermal imaging cameras.

Chief Garvin and the others were particularly critical of news reports and websites that look at the details of the Charleston tragedy before a thorough investigation has been completed. The Post & Courier certainly fits that description. Its latest installment is here.

Reassessing once more: More like Harden and Weaver than Don and Mike.

The radio duo of Goldfeder and Rubin discuss in detail the future of D.C. Fire & EMS. They commit some news here that I hope to do more on later.

When the moon hits the sky like a big pizza pie, that’s a lawsuit.

It is clear that one firefighter isn’t camera shy outside a Mahwah, New Jersey firehouse. The naked truth about a battle over a house siren.

Kentland updates.

At Firehouse Expo, an interesting question came up about the fight Lt. Nick Martin was in during a Landover Hills fire in February, 2006. If Martin had not been caught on tape doing what he did, would he have been terminated by Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Chief Lawrence Sedgwick?

A lot of people I talked to suspect the answer would be no. They claim other similar fights have been handled with lesser punishments handed out. I, of course, do not know the answer to that question. I do know, as we reported on Friday, that Nick Martin has once again been shown the door by Sedgwick.

Also, Kentland continues its nationwide search for ambulance crews and Prince George’s County is no longer making public proclamations about timelines. And if you don’t mind the strong language, thewatchdesk.com has a very lively discussion over whether Kentland is selling out with its EMS plan.

On the south side of Chicago, the city’s number 2 cop to the rescue.

A flood in Europe and the fire chief to the rescue. Or at least that’s what he said.

The kind of house warming party you don’t want. In New Zealand, a volunteer firefighter whose home was damaged by fire, is giving the public a chance to learn from his mistake. A very interesting concept.