A drunk off-duty city firefighter lived up to his name when he allegedly relieved himself inside a Manhattan sukkah — a hut erected for the Jewish holiday Sukkot.
Firefighter Marty P. Party kicked in a sukkah at E. 92nd St. and Second Ave. on Oct. 8, cops said. Then, they added, he urinated inside the temporary structure.
Party, 37, was arrested Friday and is suspended from his Manhattan firehouse for a month, an FDNY spokesman said. Police released his photo on Nov. 8.
Sukkot began on Oct. 9 this year, a day after Party allegedly hosed down the sukkah, the hut that Jewish people use to eat and sometimes sleep during Sukkot.The hut commemorates the time Israelites spent in the wilderness after being freed from slavery.
The NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force investigated the incident but determined Party had been drinking and was not motivated by bias.
The heroic actions of several people helped save the life of a motorist on Christmas Eve after a car was impaled by a guardrail.
Sandy Creek Joint Fire District Chief Aaron Stoller lauded the passersby for their willingness to stop and help, News5 reported.
After the wreck in Minerva, the guardrail pinned the driver but the passenger was able to climb out.
“We don’t always have people to stop by and provide assistance. In this case, these people probably did help reduce the patient’s injuries that he sustained and made for a quicker recovery. In small town America where we live down here, that’s still prevalent for people to stop and assist,” Stoller told reporters.
A Pennsylvania firefighter who suffered sudden cardiac arrest at a house fire Christmas Eve is recovering.
Emlenton Firefighter Tim Kriebel was assisting at the house fire in Ashland Township when he collapsed, according to Explore Clarion.
He was immediately attended by firefighters and an EMS crew that was at the scene. He was transferred to Clarion Hospital by Clarion Hospital EMS. Then, he was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit at Butler Memorial Hospital.
Kriebel has served as a firefighter at Emlenton Fire Department for nine years. In 2022, he was the department’s top responder with over 270 responses, according to Chief Trevor Hile.
A Dorchester woman accused of arson says “the devil” made her light the “haunted” house on fire Tuesday, which then led to Boston firefighters rescuing several residents from the heavy blaze.
Nikia Rivera, 45, has been charged with arson of a dwelling following the two-alarm fire at 74 Mora St., in Dorchester, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.
“I’m sorry, I had to do it,” Rivera told a witness to the fire, who relayed the conversation to Boston police officers.
Rivera then left the scene on foot.
Officers later caught up with Rivera, and she told them, “I had to do it. That house is haunted. I lit the house on fire.”
She further told booking officers, “The devil made me do it. There are ghosts in my house.”
The three-story wood frame had fire on all of the floors. Several residents were rescued by Boston firefighters.
“It’s fortunate that this woman’s actions did not result in any residents or responders being seriously injured or killed,” Suffolk DA Kevin Hayden said. “Her statements are obviously disturbing and an immediate evaluation is the proper next step.”
A judge in Dorchester court ordered that Rivera undergo an evaluation at Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital, a state Department of Mental Health facility. Rivera will return to court on Jan. 13.
Also developing in fire related news, officials on Tuesday said a Malden blaze that injured two firefighters was caused by improper use of an extension cord.
Nine people were displaced in the Monday night fire on John Street taht reached 3-alarms.
“We’re extremely relieved that the two injured firefighters are recovering and that none of the residents were hurt or worse,” said Malden Fire Chief William Sullivan.
“This fire started with an indoor extension cord that was run through a window along the outside of the home, where it ignited the building’s exterior,” he added. “If you must use an extension cord outside, be sure it’s rated for outdoor use and keep it away from water, snow, and ice.”
North of Boston, state officials said a fire in Haverhill that destroyed a home on the Merrimack River was caused by improper disposal of smoking materials.
That two-alarm fire on Coffin Avenue was was sparked after an ashtray was emptied into household trash in a screened-in hot tub room on the ground floor of the home. Combustible materials ignited, and the fire spread. The home is a total loss, but no injuries were reported.
“This is a pattern firefighters see too often in Haverhill and all across Massachusetts,” said Haverhill Fire Chief Robert O’Brien. “Cigarettes and other smoking materials can smolder undetected in an ashtray and ignite other materials when thrown in the trash, out a window, or off a porch. If you smoke or have guests who do, be sure to put it out, all the way, every time.”
The investigation of a house fire in Cumberland County that claimed six people remains under investigation.
The victims include Trent McCoy, Karen McCoy, their son, Chris and his wife Melissa as well as their children, Bella and Ebony, according to Family members identified them as a family of six people, including two children, WBIR reported.
Kara Swallows said she received a phone call from deputies about the fire on the day after Christmas. “It’s just very traumatizing to the whole family.”
The house was fully involved in fire when the first crews from Cumberland County Fire Department approached the area.
No foul play is suspected, and authorities believe it was an accidental. However, it is still under investigation.
Grandview firefighters are at their breaking point. And, the situation has reached a new level of worry.
That’s how IAF Local 42 President Daniel Heizman described the situation to reporters at Fox4.
“They are down about a third of their work force, which not only puts our members’ lives at risk when they’re responding to emergencies, but most importantly it puts the citizens of Grandview at risk,” he explained.
“They’re at their breaking point where they’re losing so many people that they’re having trouble staffing the proper amount of apparatus and ambulances that are needed,” Heizman said.
Sometimes, there aren’t enough people to respond to certain emergencies.
“They’re hemorrhaging so many employees that they’re not going to be able to fully staff these firetrucks and ambulances pretty soon.”
Mayor Leonard Jones said in a statement: “IAFF Local 42 and the City of Grandview currently have a contract in place running through the end of September 2023. The city’s attorneys and city representatives are meeting with union representatives this week to discuss the best steps for moving forward. Grandview Fire Department is staffed and capable of addressing emergencies.”
A massive fire at a warehouse in Mountain Creek prompted the response of dozens of firefighters Tuesday morning, according to Dallas Fire Rescue.
Firefighters were called about 5:30 a.m. to the 9300 block of West Jefferson Boulevard, near the Grand Prairie city limits. They found a blaze in the “center of a large abandoned warehouse,” fire-rescue spokesman Jason Evans said. Firefighters immediately formed defensive positions due to the size of the fire.
Pictures shared with The Dallas Morning News show flames and a large column of smoke billowing into the pre-dawn sky. Evans described the warehouse as an old aviation manufacturing plant undergoing demolition.
About 70 firefighters were responding to the fire, Evans said about 7 a.m. The fire caused a portion of the warehouse’s roof to collapse. No injuries were immediately reported.
Firefighters were called Monday afternoon to the scene of an extra-alarm fire which destroyed New Life Church in west suburban Maywood, officials said.
Firefighters arrived about 3:15 p.m. to the 1600 block of South 15th Avenue, and entered the building in an effort to extinguish a fire discovered in the rear of the structure. But conditions worsened, forcing firefighters to exit the building and go into defensive mode, said Maywood Fire Chief Craig Bronaugh.
The structure was a complete loss.
The building housed New Life in Christ Bible Church at 1642 S. 15th Ave.
Dec. 27—A father and son in a kayak were among those who helped rescue a 71-year-old Frederick pilot from a creek in Anne Arundel County on Monday morning after the small plane he was flying crashed shortly after takeoff.
The pair jumped into action when they saw the plane veer into Beards Creek, a short distance from Lee Airport in Edgewater, said Lt. Jenny Macalliar, a spokeswoman for the Anne Arundel County Fire Department.
Steve Couchman, the pilot, was taken by ambulance to Anne Arundel Medical Center with injuries not considered life-threatening, Macalliar said.
He was the only person in the plane he was flying, a single-engine Piper Cherokee, according to a news release on Monday from the Maryland State Police Annapolis barrack.
Maryland State Police from the Annapolis and Glen Burnie barracks were dispatched to Beards Creek shortly before 10:30 a.m. to respond to reports of a plane crash, according to the news release.
Preliminary reports indicate that moments after Couchman took off from Lee Airport, the engine of his plane began sputtering, according to the news release. Soon after, witnesses told state police, the plane crashed into Beards Creek.
Couchman climbed out of the plane and stood on the wing while it sank, according to the news release. The father and son who responded to the crash paddled to the pilot and had him grab onto their kayak to stay afloat, Macalliar said.
They weren’t able to pull Couchman onto their kayak, she said.
Moments later, two officers from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Police arrived at the creek. One officer navigated to Couchman on his patrol boat and pulled him aboard, DNR spokeswoman Lauren Moses wrote in an email.
The officer then took Couchman to the Annapolis Landing Marina, where he boarded an ambulance and was sent to the medical center.
The kayakers weren’t injured during the rescue operation, according to the state police news release.
Maryland State Police are heading the investigation.
Officers from the Anne Arundel County Police Department also assisted in the rescue, said Lt. AJ Gardiner, a spokesman for the police department.
This isn’t the first time a plane has crashed after taking off from Lee Airport, Gardiner said.
He’s been with the department for 28 years, and estimates that he has responded to seven or eight crashes from the airport.
Gardiner recalled another crash in Beards Creek that was fatal.
A man died in 1998, according to The Baltimore Sun, when his experimental two-seater plane plummeted into the waterway while attempting to land at Lee.
Law enforcement’s well-documented failure to confront the shooter who terrorized young students and teachers in Robb Elementary in Uvalde for 77 minutes wasn’t the only snafu that day.
Emergency medical care was delayed due to a number of issues including the lack of unified command and roads clogged by police cruisers among others, according to a joint investigation by ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and The Washington Post.
“The disjointed medical response frustrated medics while delaying efforts to get ambulances, air transport and other emergency services to victims. Medical helicopters with critical supplies of blood tried to land at the school, but an unidentified fire department official told them to wait at an airport three miles away, according to the ProPublica.
“We as a nation are not ready,” said Dr. Babak Sarani, the director of critical care at George Washington University Hospital. “The air assets and the ground assets do not talk to each other very well. The fire, the police do not talk to each other very well.”
Experts said that the Uvalde shooting response appeared to lack both an overall incident commander and someone clearly in charge of coordinating the emergency medical response.
Although helicopters were available, none were used to carry victims directly from the school. At least four patients who survived were flown by helicopter to a more fully equipped trauma center in San Antonio after first being driven by ambulance to a nearby hospital or airport.
Multiple cameras worn by officers and one on the dashboard of a police car showed just two ambulances positioned outside the school when the shooter was killed. That was not nearly enough for the 10 or more gunshot victims then still alive, though additional ambulances began arriving 10 minutes later, the newly released documents show.
Uvalde EMS radio traffic (12:58 p.m.) “10-4 we are [inaudible] at Grove Street and Grove Street is blocked off by law enforcement.”
One minute later, six students, including one who was seriously wounded, were taken to a hospital in a school bus with no trained medics on board, according to the Texas EMS records.
The bus driver handed the officers, at their request, a first aid kit that contained band aids. Frantic parents were trying to get onto the bus to see if their children were there.
Locked police cars parked throughout the area forced medics to frantically try various routes to the school, crisscrossing through residents’ yards. Thirty-three minutes after police killed the gunman, an ambulance struggled to access the school via South Grove Street, documents show.
In public statements made since May, law enforcement officials have defended their officers’ actions as reasonable under difficult circumstances. Federal, state and local agencies that responded to the shooting have not directly addressed the medical response, nor did they answer detailed questions from the news organizations that worked jointly on this investigation.
Jacklyn “Jackie” Cazares, 9, likely survived for more than an hour after being shot and was promptly placed in an ambulance after medics finally gained access to her classroom. She died on the way to the hospital, the reporters learned.
“We as a nation are not ready,” said Dr. Babak Sarani, the director of critical care at George Washington University Hospital. “The air assets and the ground assets do not talk to each other very well. The fire, the police do not talk to each other very well.”
Experts said that the Uvalde shooting response appeared to lack both an overall incident commander and someone clearly in charge of coordinating the emergency medical response.
The rural community’s emergency medical services are contracted out to private companies. On that day in May, Stephen Stephens, the director of Uvalde EMS, was in charge of organizing helicopters and ambulances responding to Robb Elementary, he later told investigators.
“My job was to manage assets,” he said, noting that Juan Martinez, his deputy, instructed medics arriving at the scene.
After police breached the classrooms where the shooter had been holed up, Stephens said he handed command over to the fire chief of neighboring Medina County. The Medina fire chief declined to comment to the news organizations.
It’s unclear what information Stephens had about how many victims first responders should expect to find. Multiple medics expressed confusion over who was in charge of the medical response and where to go, according to the report.
“There was no EMS command and control,” said Julio Perez, a medic for AirLIFE, who told investigators he was pleading to help. “Nobody could tell me anything.”
His account was backed up by Lewis, the manager for the air transport service, who said several of her medics were upset. “They feel like the resources weren’t used as they should have been.”
