Now true more then ever, did you get the change you wanted, if not then it’s now time for a real change, if nothing else vote for something but not for what we have had for the last three years. Seems no one listens to history? What worked before may work again. If it isn’t broke don’t fix it!
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Dog stays with fisherman who broke through
February 7, 2012 - 8:41am
Prudent anglers heed a sheriff's warning posted at the north access of Lake Washington in Le Sueur County in south-central Minnesota and walk to their fishing spot Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012 in Manketo, Minn. In the background, other fisherman prepare to move their permanent shelter from the lake. Unseasonably mild weather has created unsafe ice conditions on many Minnesota lakes this winter.
WHEATON, Minn. (AP) — A fishing outing turned deadly for a western Minnesota man.
The body of 50-year-old Charles Krauth was recovered from Mud Lake, just west of Wheaton in Traverse County. Sheriff's deputies found the man's dog and four-wheeler near the spot where he broke through the ice Sunday. Family members became concerned when he failed to return from ice fishing.
Authorities tell KSTP-TV (http://bit.ly/yP1vy1) the ice was only about one inch thick.
Information from: KSTP-TV,http://www.kstp.com - From The Brainerd Dispatch
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
About Time–This has been a known hazard for some time while
MODERN DAY BUILDING CONSTRUCTION CATCHES THE EYES OF NEWS INVESTIGATORS
Fire departments are worried as rescues become more dangerous in newer homes. Experts estimate the time it takes to save a house built after the mid-1990s is shorter than in older homes due to the materials used to build modern homes.Last summer, Todd Miller was fighting a fire inside a Blaine house. While crawling on his hands and knees inside the main floor, the unthinkable happened."I opened up the hose nozzle to put the fire out and all of a sudden I could feel the floor start to give way," Miller recalled.In an instant, the floor disintegrated and he was falling through flames as he tumbled into the basement. Against all odds, he managed to find his way through the thick smoke to a door where his colleagues came to the rescue."That light-weight construction, you just never know what it's going to do," said Miller.That house, like thousands of others built over the past 15 years, was constructed using engineered materials. They are light weight, super strong and a big cost savings -- but it seems no one anticipated how dramatically they would change the dynamics of house fires.Firefighters agree that escape or rescue is now a much trickier proposition in newer homes, and the likelihood of massive damage to property is far greater.Communities like Blaine, which have lots of newer homes, have seen the downside of lightweight construction.According to Fire Inspector Jeremiah Anderson, with from the Spring Lake Park, Blaine and Mounds View Fire Department, floors and roofs can collapse rather quickly with the newer building materials.Roofs are built of truss systems with gusset plates holding everything together, but the plates don't penetrate the wood deeply, making them more apt to pop off when they get hot. Also, floor joists are made up of compressed wood, which is much thinner than standard 2x10's. FOX 9 Fire Test. How concerned should you be if your home is made of these new materials? To find out, the FOX 9 Investigators set up a test burn with the help of the St. Paul Fire Department.The experiment involved two different floor assemblies. One used 2x10s and plywood materials that were commonly used in homes built before the 1990's. The other is made up of engineered I-joists capped with chip board, the lightweight construction materials. View Images of the FOX 9 Fire Materials Test The FOX 9 team and St. Paul firefighters stacked concrete blocks about 6 feet high to support the four corners of the floor assembly. Then, a couch was placed underneath to mimic a miniaturized, unfinished basement to serve as fuel for the fire. A mannequin and two hundred pounds of sand were also placed on top of the floor to simulate the weight of a person.In the first test, which intended to see how the modern "lightweight" construction materials held up in a fire, it only took about a minute before the flames from the couch reached the support beams of the floor. After another 45 seconds, the floor was burning as if it had been doused in gasoline. The flames chewed through the beams in about 2 minutes, and then one of the beams broke apart.After about four minutes, the floor could no longer support the weight of the test dummy. It fell through the floor so quickly even St. Paul Fire Chief Tim Butler was surprised."This was like burning a piece of gasoline," he said. "Almost every home built in the last ten or fifteen years is constructed just like this."The second test burn also used a similar couch as fuel, but the floor in the second experiment was made of solid wood 2.10s, not engineered I-joists. These were common construction materials in houses built before the mid 90s -- and there's a huge difference between the two tests.In the second controlled burn, it took about 9 minutes until our dummy on top of the floor fell through -- more than doubling the time the lightweight materials could withstand. What Can You Do?So what should you do if your house is built with lightweight materials and not legacy lumber?Fire Chief Nyle Zickmund retrofitted his house in Blaine with sprinklers. A few years ago, his fireplace overheated and ignited some materials inside a wall. The fire then spread to the engineered truss system that supports the floor. However, thanks to the sprinklers, the damage to the chief's home wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been."With this system, we could have a sprinkler-controlled fire here and I'd still be in the house tonight," said Zickmund. The cost of installing a sprinkler system in new home construction can average about $1 to $1.50 per square foot, but the estimates rise to between $3 and $3.50 for existing homes. Fire officials say there is a misconception about sprinklers all going off at once in a home and flooding the entire house, but that is not true. Sprinkler systems are designed to activate by individual sprinkler heads, meaning only those near the heat source would activate, specifically dousing the area of the fire.Homeowners with unfinished basements can also put sheetrock on the exposed floor joists in order to reducing the time flames could get into those areas in the event of a fire. Smoke Detectors Perhaps now more than ever, it's important to make sure your home has working smoke detectors. As the FOX 9 Investigator's experiment so graphically demonstrates, houses made of light weight construction materials can burn much faster than those built of legacy lumber, and a smoke alarm gives you a much better chance to get out quickly. Read the whole story at Firefighter Close Calls and at My Fox Twin Cities
Rare rescue–Good use of technical Rescue & Mutual aid though M.A.B.A.S.
Firefighters send pipe and tubing up to help clear sand from around a worker at DuKane Precast in Naperville after he fell into the half full hopper on Monday morning. | Brian Powers~Sun-Times Media
A supervisor for a Naperville concrete company remained hospitalized late Monday night with what were described as non-life-threatening injuries, after being partially buried that morning in a sand silo. The supervisor, William Ortiz, 37, was listed in good condition at Edward Hospital in Naperville on Tuesday morning, spokesman Keith Hartenberger said.
Crews from 22 public safety agencies joined members of the Naperville Fire Department in the rescue operation at Dukane Precast, 1805 High Grove Lane, in the Burlington Northern Industrial Park on the city’s far west side. Rescuers were called about 11:23 a.m. Monday to the company’s headquarters. Dukane Precast manufactures prefabricated cement slabs for buildings under construction.
Fire Capt. Dave Ferreri said firefighters found Ortiz buried up to his waist in “a hopper full of sand.” “We don’t know how he got in there,” Ferreri said, adding it was his understanding workers were never supposed to be inside any of the hoppers.
Ortiz was extricated from the sand sometime between 3 and 3:15 p.m., “after about a four-hour rescue,” Ferreri said.
Fire Bureau Chief Kevin Lyne said in a news release that members of Naperville’s Technical Rescue Team climbed up the catwalk and found Ortiz buried to his waist in the sand mixture and worked to keep him from sinking deeper.
The rescue operation involved getting Ortiz into a harness and then using vacuum-type machinery from Naperville’s Public Utilities Department to remove some of the sand surrounding him, so that he could be freed without further injury. At least two truckloads of sand were taken out of the bin during that effort.
“The Fire Department is slowly, slowly taking the sand out of the silo,” Christman said Monday at the scene. The supervisor “is conscious, he is OK.”
Among the departments that sent units to the site were Addison, Aurora, Bloomingdale, Bolingbrook, Carol Stream, Downers Grove, Elburn, Geneva, Lisle-Woodridge, North Aurora, Oak Brook, Plainfield, St. Charles, Sugar Grove, West Chicago, Wheaton and York Center. Also on the scene were Naperville Police Department squad cars and the city’s bus-sized Emergency Management Agency Mobile Command Unit. Most of the vehicles were still on the campus more than two hours after the fire department issued the general alarm.
A police official who declined to be identified said the reason for the size of the response was not immediately known. One emergency responder was seen carrying a heart defibrillator into the building, but it was not known whether the device was used.
Wonder if they likely used a The Rescue Vac – Along with the utilities vacuum - truck Rescue Vac is an integrated rapid debris removal system that utilizes a two-phase procedure to perform the fastest collapse, entrapment, and engulfment ...
Found news of interest on the Net
Man charged with drunken driving in fire truck crash
Chicago Tribune
None of the victims -- including three children and four Chicago firefighters -- suffered life-threatening injuries when the truck, responding to a fire call, collided with a mid-size sedan at Halsted and 128th streets, police said.
See all stories on this topic »
Police, firefighters hailed for rescues in North Side fire
Chicago Tribune
Police officers and firefighters rescued several people, including a critically injured 3-year-old girl and a man using a wheelchair, from a North Side apartment building Friday, officials said. Four adults, including a police officer, ...
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Retiring firefighter surprised by woman he delivered 28 years ago
9NEWS.com
GREELEY - After being a firefighter since 1979, Don Forster has a lot to reflect upon. As a Lieutenant, he has tragedies and triumphs. "I know two instances where I personally, you know, pulled someone from a burning building," Forster said.
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Obama plan would hire vets as cops, firefighters
Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Friday announced measures to hire Iraq and Afghanistan veterans to restore national parks and work as police and firefighters in a bid to cut veterans' above-average unemployment rate.
See all stories on this topic »
Fire guts landmark church in central Illinois
Rockford Register Star
By Anonymous AP Athens Fire Department spokesman Bob Dowell says firefighters battled the blaze for more than eight hours before they left the scene early Saturday. Dowell says the former Athens Christian Church was destroyed.
See all stories on this topic »
Monday, February 6, 2012
Upgrade of Radio system in the Lakes Area on it’s way
Fire departments receive grant approval for new ... - Brainerd Dispatch
by Jennifer Stockinger
Fire departments in the Brainerd lakes area are getting closer to having the new 800-megahertz radio system in place that will allow them to serve and protect citizens in an even more efficient fashion.The new radio system uses digital technology ... The fire departments included in the grant are Brainerd, Crosby, Crosslake, Cuyuna, Deerwood, Emily, Fifty Lakes, Garrison, Ideal, Ironton, Mission, Nisswa and Pequot Lakes. Stunek said Brainerd would have had to pay ...
Sunday, February 5, 2012
LODD Reports
Flint, David M.
Edinboro, Pennsylvania
02/02/2012
Initial Summary:
While returning to the fire department, Fire Chief Flint passed away from injuries he suffered in a motor vehicle crash when another vehicle coming from the opposite direction crossed over the center line. Assistant Fire Chief Sharon Petri, a passenger who was riding with Flint at the time of the accident, was injured and remains hospitalized. Investigation into the incident continues by local and state authorities. Incident Location: 6-N East of Fry Road (USNG: 17T NG 6944 3688)
Haase, Sr., Doug
St. Charles, Missouri
02/01/2012
Initial Summary:
Firefighter/Engineer/Paramedic Doug Haase, Sr., passed away while on duty from a cause still to be reported. Incident Location: 1550 S Main ST, St. Charles, MO (Station 2, USNG: 15S YC 1834 9442)
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