9-11-2007; ANFO Explosion Leaves Medics & Others Dead in Mexico; Also, Pipeline Blasts in Mexico; Report: Chief Cussed; Waiting For PEPCO
9-11-2007
In the video above, some of the initial radio transmissions from FDNY, moments after the attack on the World Trade Center. Please check in with our friends at WithTheCommand.com, FireGeezer.com; SConFire.com; Firefighter Hourly and other firefighter web sites for tributes and coverage.
Rhett Fleitz at VAFireNews.com points us to a wonderful account of the efforts by firefighters at the Pentagon from the site Arlington Fire Journal.
If you would like to review the extensive 9-11 report commissioned by Arlington County click here.
We also have links to view a documentary on the 12 FDNY firefighters who survived the collapse of the North Tower.
D.C. Fire and EMS is commemorating 9-11 with an event this afternoon in the Family Theatre at the Kennedy Center.
Also, this press release from the Alexandria, VA Fire Department is typical of the type of tributes being held today by firefighters around the world:
To commemorate the sacrifice of those whose lives were lost as a result of terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, including New York City firefighters, paramedics, and police officers, all members of the Alexandria Fire Department have been authorized to wear shirts, ball caps, and other clothing items from the New York City Fire Department, the Pentagon, or other 9-11 commemorative articles today as we join the Nation in remembering.
The department will also remember the tragedies of that day with moments of silence preceded by a radio announcement marking significant events on September 11, 2001.
ANFO explosion in Mexico. 4 medics among the dead.
The video above shows what is left after the explosion involving a tractor-trailer carrying what is reported to be 25 metric tons of ANFO. ANFO is a mixture of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil that is used widely in the mining industry. For comparison, the video below shoes an ANFO explosion with just 500 pounds.
An excerpt from a Reuters article:
The tractor-trailer had collided with a pickup and burst into flames. Firemen at the scene were trying to put out the blaze when they ran out of water. Moments later there was a huge explosion that almost obliterated the rig.
I have found no articles that talks about the fate of the firefighters. But the New York Times confirms 4 medics were killed. Their vehicle is among those destroyed. Here is a portion of The New York Times article:
At least 37 people were killed and scores injured late Sunday night when a truck carrying explosives blew up after crashing into a pickup truck and catching fire, state and federal authorities said.
The victims included three local reporters, four paramedics, three police officers and more than a score of residents of the nearby village of Celamania. All were looking at the burning wreckage of the two vehicles when an enormous explosion ripped them apart and left a crater 15 feet deep and 60 feet across, officials said.
“The tractor-trailer turned over and started to burn,” Jesús Torres Charles, the Coahuila State attorney general, explained in a radio interview. “When rescuers arrived, along with a local police unit and three local reporters, the explosion occurred.”
Fausto Destenave Kuri, the state secretary of public security, said in a separate radio interview that the truck had been carrying more than 50,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate, an explosive used in the mining industry. The driver was trucking the explosive from the town of Cuatro Ciénegas toward the border to deliver it to a company identified as Takata, the federal police said.
Other explosions in Mexico.
There were also 6 natural gas pipeline explosions in Mexico on Monday. See the video above. These are being called politically motivated sabotage.
Blasts from the present.
The photo above is from an explosion in Easton, Massachusetts. Besides the Mexican explosions, FireGeezer says a lot of things have been blowing up. He has more pictures and details from Massachusetts and incidents in British Columbia and Tennessee.
#$%!@#, or something like that.
From Franklin, Ohio a report found there was pushing and cussing on the fireground, and that’s just from the chief:
The city fire chief yelled profanity-laced commands to his crew and shoved a pair of firefighters for not hustling faster to battle a blaze on Aug. 29, witnesses told an investigator.
This is how it looked on Allentown Road for more than an hour Sunday evening, as firefighters from PGFD Station 32 waited for a PEPCO crew. Click the picture to see the story.
