A North Myrtle Beach firefighter was terminated after he was charged with offenses involving a minor.
Kevin Polich was charged with criminal solicitation of a minor and sexual exploitation of a minor, WMBF reported.
The alleged offenses occurred in another area of the state. He was booked into the Greenville County Detention Center.
The City of North Myrtle Beach confirmed to area media that Polich was a firefighter but was terminated.
“We were shocked to learn about these allegations, and the city will fully cooperate with law enforcement and any other investigating agencies as needed. Crimes against minors in any form are reprehensible, and have devastating effects on children, families, and communities.” Donald Graham, the city’s spokesperson, wrote in the statement.
The battery compartment of a Tesla Model S vehicle “spontaneously caught fire” on eastbound Highway 50 in Rancho Cordova around 4 p.m. Saturday, slowing traffic near Sunrise Boulevard, according to the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District.
Crews used 6,000 gallons of water to extinguish the fire as two fire engines, a water tender and a ladder truck arrived to find the Tesla engulfed in flames, according to Metro Fire officials. Crews used jacks to gain access beneath the vehicle to extinguish and cool the battery cells.
“The vehicle battery compartment spontaneously caught fire while it was traveling freeway speeds on EB Hwy 50,” the fire department said in a tweet. “The fire was extinguished with approx 6,000 gallons of water, as the battery cells continued to combust. Thankfully no injuries were reported.”
The California Highway Patrol was forced to close two lanes.
At 4:19 p.m., the CHP incident log revealed the difficulty of trying to put out the battery fire.
“Fire is not going out/going to try to flood (vehicle),” CHP reported.
It’s not the first time Metro Fire crews worked hard to put out a Tesla battery fire. In June 2022, a white Tesla burst into flames and kept reigniting at a California wrecking yard. The car had been involved in a crash three weeks prior and had “major damage,” fire officials said. It was sitting at the wrecking yard to be dismantled.
Jan. 28, 2023 Phoenix Fire Chief Kevin Betton said crews encountered heavy fire.
By Alexandra Kukulka Source The Daily Southtown, Tinley Park, Ill. (TNS) Distributed byTribune Content Agency, LLC.
Jan. 27—A fire at a Phoenix home left a family of five displaced Friday morning after a space heater in a back bedroom caught fire, according to the family.
Tanisha Curtis, who lives in the home, said the heater inside the home wasn’t working. She said the landlord sent crews out twice since November to fix the heater, but after a day or two it wouldn’t work again.
Curtis said her son was using a space heater in the back bedroom to keep warm, and it must have been close to the mattress or a piece of clothing because that’s where the fire appears to have started.
“We were just trying to heat the house,” Curtis said.
Gilford Banks, the landlord, declined to comment Friday.
Phoenix Fire Department crews responded at about 6 a.m. to the fire in the 15200 block of Vincennes Road, said fire Chief Kevin Betton. Crews reported heavy smoke and flames from the back porch of the single-family home, he said.
No one was seriously hurt, Betton said, but two people were taken to UChicago Ingalls Memorial for treatment of minor burns.
Betton said Friday the cause of the fire was under investigation.
A basketball hoop and trash cans were tipped over on the property as fire crews and the arson team walked in and out of the house about 8:45 a.m. Friday. A bicycle on the porch was bent and porch railings were missing as the fire destroyed the majority of the rear of the home.
Curtis said she heard screams at about 5:45 a.m. as her fiance woke her and her three children. Curtis said she quickly grabbed her dog and ran out of the house.
Her 14-year-old son and her fiance were taken to the hospital with minor burns, she said.
Sitting in her Chevrolet Impala, Curtis said she didn’t know what to do because she ran out of the house without identification.
Curtis, a nursing student at ATS Institute of Technology, said she considered going to class but realized she couldn’t because all her course work and nursing supplies were inside the house.
“I don’t have anything,” she said.
Her family planned to stay with family or friends Friday night, she said.
“We’re trying to figure it out now,” Curtis said. “It’s a terrible experience that I never imagined going through.”
Marisol Espades, who lives across the street, said she woke up at 6:30 a.m. to her dog barking outside. When she looked out the window, the street was filled with fire crews.
Espades said the blaze looked terrifying.
“The entire street was filled and the entire house looked inflamed,” Espades said.
Espades said she knew the family who lived in the home and said they are very calm and quiet neighbors.
“I got really scared and worried for the kids,” Espades said.
Shortly before 11 a.m., two people with the American Red Cross came to the home to help the family. They spent about an hour, talking inside a vehicle, and at one point one of the workers gave the family a few bags of supplies.
Mara Thompson, a spokeswoman with the American Red Cross, said the family reached out for assistance, which means the workers discussed shelter, food and financial resources they would need.
“What they need immediately, we help with those next steps,” Thompson said.
Richmond-Carolina Firefighter Robert “Bob” Thomas Gardner Jr.
View Image Gallery
The Richmond-Carolina Fire District has lost a longtime volunteer.
Firefighter Robert “Bob” Thomas Gardner Jr., 55, was at the fire station putting apparatus and equipment back in service, following a residential structure fire call on Jan. 25. Sometime in the middle of the night, he suffered an apparent heart attack. according to the U.S. Fire Administration.
Gardner, a 15-year volunteer, was a past deputy chief.
Jan. 27, 2023 Vincent Dransfield has been with the Little Falls Volunteer Fire Department for 84 years.
Source firehouse.com News
A 108-year-old man from New Jersey is the oldest firefighter at a local volunteer fire department.
Dransfield is also the oldest firefighter at the Little Falls Volunteer Fire Department. Not as active as he once was, he’s still on the roster at Singac Engine Company No. 3.
“I said, ‘When I grow up, I’m going to become a fireman,’ so I became a fireman,” he said.
His contributions and pictures from the last 84 years with the department are plastered on the firehouse walls. He’s proud of showing his accomplishments to his great-grandchildren.
“That’s the helmet that I used to wear when I was fire chief,” he said as he pointed to the original helmet.
His great-grandchildren are just as proud to call him a great-grandfather.
“It’s a lot of fun,” his great-grandson Matthew Lista said. “Every single time he tells jokes, he tells stories. Just like stuff that you wouldn’t think he would remember, he’s remembering back to when he was 30 and stuff like that. It’s crazy to think he could remember all these stories and they’re awesome.”
Dransfield is also independent. He lives own his own, does his own grocery shopping and doesn’t take daily medications — only over-the-counter medication when he has some knee pain.
“He has his daily routine,” his granddaughter Erica Lista said. “He gets up with the train. He goes to the QuickChek in Little Falls and gets his coffee and paper.”
One person was arrested Thursday at the scene of a massive fire at a two-story apartment building in Westlake, police said.
Officers arrived at the building in the 2800 block of 7th Street about 3 p.m. in response to a report of a disturbance, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
As police were talking with the person who reported the incident, they were told that someone inside was lighting things on fire.
The suspect eventually left the building and was arrested, but police did not say what offenses the person was suspected of committing.
The Los Angeles Fire Department said a 45-year-old man in police custody had been taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The blaze, which spread through the second floor and attic, was mostly extinguished within 53 minutes by more than 100 firefighters, Fire Department officials said.
Video footage from KTLA-TV Channel 5 showed firefighters on the roof of the apartment building as flames roared around them.
Fire crews remained on the scene working to extinguish the last small pockets still burning.
Maintenance workers and officers joined forces to rescue residents.
Jan. 27—Jordan Blake and David Qualls were hard at work Wednesday morning, fixing a garbage disposal in apartment 102 at Timber Knoll Apartments in Moline, when they heard a loud ringing.
The Rent QC workers had no way of knowing when they walked out of the first-floor apartment how important their next steps would be.
Fire was ripping through the two-story, 16-unit apartment building. Fifteen of the units were rented to tenants and the ringing Blake and Qualls heard was smoke detectors, signaling them to rapidly spreading flames. The fire was primarily on the second floor when they walked into a first-floor hallway.
While the Moline Police Department praised the efforts of those who helped rescue Timber Knoll residents, Qualls and Blake shunned the spotlight.
Qualls declined to comment, and Blake was unavailable for comment Thursday. But the owner of Rent QC, J.C. Millman, offered their account.
It was around 10:15 a.m., he said, when a call came into the Rent QC offices about a water leak in the building.
” Dave (Qualls) and J.J. (Blake) were already in the building, but we sent another maintenance worker over,” Millman said. “Here’s what I know from what everyone told me:
” Dave (Qualls) and J.J. (Blake) walked out into the hallway and there was smoke coming down from the second floor. They tried to go up the stairs, but they were fully engulfed in flames.”
Qualls and Blake started down the first-floor hallway, knocking on doors to alert tenants. At some point, the smoke became so thick they had to crawl on their bellies.
” J.J. (Blake) had to leave the building first because the smoke was too much. Dave (Qualls) stayed and made sure he knocked on all the doors. Then he got out.”
Once Qualls and Blake were out of the building, Millman said, they turned their attention to the tenants on the second floor.
” Dave (Qualls) told J.J. (Blake) to get the ladder from his truck,” Millman said. “That’s when the guys from Asplundh Tree Service showed up. They were helping Dave and J.J. get people off the second-floor balconies.”
Millman described how a man and woman reached the balcony with an infant.
“The lady was holding her baby and she dropped the baby down to J.J.,” Millman said. “Then they got the lady and the man down.”
Moline Police cruisers quickly arrived and parked beneath another balcony.
“They had people jumping down from the balcony to the top of the police cruisers,” Millman said. “It was a real team effort all around.”
He said, “A lot of heroic people” responded to the fire.
“What our employees did, and the crew from Asplundh, was just amazing,” he said. “And the police, first responders and firefighters were amazing too. We just can’t thank everyone enough.”
Rent QC is working to find alternate housing for the tenants displaced by the fire, Millman said.
Police said the fire was arson and arrested Frederick Jermaine McKenzie, 36, of Moline. He was being held Thursday in the Scott County Jail on an interstate warrant and $100,000 cash-only bond. He waived extradition to Rock Island, where he faces charges of arson and aggravated arson.
He is a former resident of Timber Knoll, police said. Court records show he was evicted from an apartment there in December.
Jan. 27, 2023 The City of Norman Emergency Communications and Operations Center will provide the necessary resources to safely and effectively respond to emergency operations to critical incidents.
Firefighters, police officers and emergency services personnel joined members of the community Thursday to commemorate the groundbreaking ceremony for the new City of Norman Emergency Communications and Operations Center (ECOC).
Jan. 20—Firefighters, police officers and emergency services personnel joined members of the community Thursday to commemorate the groundbreaking ceremony for the new City of Norman Emergency Communications and Operations Center (ECOC).
The purpose of the new facility will be to provide the unification of necessary resources to safely and effectively respond to emergency operations to critical incidents, officials said.
Currently, the dispatch office is located in the basement of the Norman Police Department.
Linda Price, who represents the Public Safety Sales Tax Oversight committee, expressed her gratitude for those who have made the project possible, and said that for the safety of the community, it was important to move the dispatch team to an adequate space.
“For those of you that don’t know, they’ve been in a little tiny space in the basement of the police department all of these years, no windows, no access to anything,” Price said.
You have to climb a bunch of stairs to get out. They really support everyone in this community. When you are scared or need help, you talk to them. They are on the front line.”
Fire Chief Travis King said it is important to build the dispatch team a new home for safety reasons, particularly during storm season.
“For the first time, we are going to be working in a ‘hardened’ facility,” he said. Countless times through the years … we’ve been in standby watching the storms come in and sometimes tornadoes come right at us, and a decision has to be made. Are we going to jump in a firetruck? Or are we going to ride this out?
King said the computers and infrastructure that operate the city’s tornado sirens are currently not housed in a ‘hardened’ facility, which means that should the current building get struck by natural disaster, the city’s safety could be compromised.
Housed in the new 20,000 square-foot facility will be a 911 center, emergency operations center, incident command resources, space for a future traffic management center, and associated technology and support systems.
City Council member Stephen Holman, who represents Ward 7, said voters first approved the ECOC project as a part of the April 2014 Public Safety Sales Tax election.
Construction, however was delayed because the project required further resources. In 2020, a second vote failed, so in 2021, the City Council allocated money received from the American Rescue Plan Act.
“ARPA money became available that could be used for this type of purpose, and the council decided to allocate a large sum of that for this project because it is such an important piece of our emergency response apparatus,” Holman said.
“For me, getting our dispatchers out of the basement of the police department may be the number one thing that I am excited about having this project done.”
He also said that building the ECOC is important to sustain the longevity of dispatch in Norman.
“It is hard to recruit people for a job like that. I hope this will help us to attract people for that job and retain the good people that we already have,” he said.
The facility at 2801 E. Robinson St. will be constructed at a cost of approximately $13.5 million and is expected to open in the summer of 2024.
Architects Design Group of Winter Park, Florida, served as the primary architecture and engineering firm; Boynton Williams & Associates of Norman is the local architecture firm; ADG|Blatt Architects of Oklahoma City is the program management team; and Crossland Construction is the construction manager.
