For the second day in a row, a Chicago firefighter has died in the line of duty.
On Wednesday morning, Lt. Jan (Jon) Tchoryk was climbing the stairs in the high-rise when he collapsed on the 11th floor.
His crew immediately initiated CPR, Fire Commissioner Annette Nance Holt said at a press conference at the hospital where he was rushed after the incident.
With elevators out of service, firefighters had to drag hoses 27 floors. There were no sprinklers on that floor, according to a fire department spokesman.
Tchoryk, who had been with the department since 1997, was an active outdoorsman, an avid motorcyclist and a Navy veteran. His son is a Chicago police officer.
“I can’t tell you how this impacts us, losing two members in two days. As I said yesterday, this job is dangerous and you never know if you’re coming home despite the best training and equipment that we can provide. Please keep his family in your prayers as well as the entire Chicago Fire Department,” the commissioner said.
April 5, 2023 It took more than two hours for Shenandoah firefighters to get the fire under control.
By Frank Andruscavage Source Republican & Herald, Pottsville, Pa. (TNS) Distributed byTribune Content Agency, LLC.
Apr. 4—SHENANDOAH — Investigators are trying to determine what caused the fire that destroyed the Dollar General store Monday at the Gold Star Plaza, resulting in more than $1 million in damage, borough Fire Chief Richard Examitas said.
On Tuesday morning, Examitas was working with state police fire marshals troopers Joseph Hall and John Szczyglak to determine how the fire started.
Hall said the cause has yet to be pinpointed, but the investigation is concentrated on the rear interior of the building.
He said two workers and about four customers were inside at the time of the blaze. All escaped unharmed, the trooper said.
Heather Sborz, district manager with Dollar General, met with Examitas, Hall and Szczyglak outside the charred building Tuesday morning.
Sborz said that, per company policy, she was unable to discuss the fire.
A call to the Dollar General Media Hotline referred inquiries to an email address. A request for comment was not returned Tuesday.
Firefighters were called to the store along Route 924 at 4:03 p.m. for a report of cardboard burning to the rear of the store and were met with heavy smoke.
It took firefighters from Shenandoah and surrounding communities more than two hours to bring the blaze under control, Examitas said.
He said that when crews arrived and determined the extent of fire and smoke, a second alarm was immediately called for additional manpower and apparatus.
Also, a second and then third alarm were called for tanker trucks to shuttle water to the scene.
Two fire hydrants, one in front of the store and the other near the Advance Auto Parts at the opposite end of the parking lot, were unable to provide the amount of water needed to battle the intense fire.
Portable dams were set up on the parking lot near the Wine & Spirits store at the plaza. Tankers shuttled water from two filling sites, one along Route 924 at the entrance to the plaza, the other on Herald Road in Shenandoah.
Examitas is asking anyone who may have been inside the store at the time of the fire to contact Hall at the Frackville station by calling 570-874-5300.
During a heated borough meeting Tuesday night, citizens and members of Columbia Hose, Hook and Ladder Company said they were blindsided by the move.
Residents found out in a letter they were losing their fire department.
The area is left with two career firefighters and one engine, who can respond to non-fire calls. Pittsburgh crews will respond at no cost, CBS News reported.
“I’m struggling to understand how the town is more safe and less expensive to operate without the excellent services of the volunteers?” one resident told the council.
After many angry citizens asked the council to reverse the decision, one man suggested a class action suit be filed to “get you all out of office.”
“To make that type of decision and not get the public input, I seriously question your ability to govern and protect the citizens of this borough,” one resident said.
Councilperson Sabreena Miller, who voted against the decertification, blasted the board for how everything was handled.
“The residents have every right to have some type of public engagement,” Miller said. “You pulled a stunt because this is something you had in the works for quite some time. You could have handled this in a better way.”
The council said studies showed the company was short-staffed to provide the service.
Former Bellevue Fire Chief Glenn Prichard told the council: “This was dirty. As a Bellevue resident, I don’t approve of how this went down. My biggest concern is the danger you are leaving people in.”
Apr. 4—UPPER DARBY — Two twin 5-year-old children were killed in a predawn house fire Tuesday in the 300 block of Margate Road.
Crews were dispatched shortly after 4 a.m. when multiple 911 calls came in from neighbors for a building fire with entrapment. Crews were told en route that children were trapped inside a room on the second floor.
Upper Darby Fire Chief Derrick Sawyer said the two-alarm fire was first called in at 4:03 a.m.
No cause had been determined by early afternoon, but he said the fire appeared to have started on the first floor and the victims were trapped in a middle second-story bedroom of the row home as the fire burned extremely hot and fast up the stairs.
Emergency radio traffic showed police raced to the scene and began evacuating houses on both sides of the fire building, requesting one stretcher during those operations. A connected house appeared to have also suffered some fire damage.
Firefighters arriving on scene confirmed heavy fire and smoke from the first floor from a middle-of-the-row two-story home. A second alarm was soon struck. The bulk of the flames were declared “knocked down” within 10 minutes, according to radio traffic.
Police found the mother, who had jumped out of a window to escape the flames, and she told them there were two children still inside, according to radio traffic.
Sawyer said the mother was undergoing surgery at Lankenau Hospital on Tuesday afternoon and fire investigators had not yet been able to interview her, but it was his understanding that she was in the same room with the children and had urged them to jump out of the window as well.
Two firefighters were taken to Crozer-Chester Medical Center with second-degree burns they received while trying to rescue the children.
The fire was declared under control at 4:27 a.m. Streets in the vicinity were blocked off during the firefighting and remain blocked off the rest of the morning.
Upper Darby police officers were on scene Tuesday morning, but Sawyer said there was nothing suspicious about the fire at this point.
Police Superintendent Timothy Bernhardt said the same and that officers always respond to fatal fires and assist the fire department.
Sawyer said there were several important takeaways from this tragedy, first and foremost to have working smoke detectors in the home and an escape plan.
He also urged residents to close their bedroom doors at night when going to sleep, which he said can buy a few crucial minutes in an emergency situation to safely exit the home.
“I believe that if they did close the door to the bedroom, these two children may still be alive,” he said.
Residents’ accounts
Some neighbors on the block said they were awakened by the fire and saw first responders in action. All were holding the mother in their thoughts.
“This morning we woke up to the sound of the firetruck and it is sad to see this,” said Abdelmaeidd Mohammed, who lives directly across the street from the home. “We saw two (firefighters) try to do something. They are very brave. I saw two of them jump inside the house, trying to do something.”
Mohammed said his own 8-year-old daughter played with the victims and was over there as recently as Saturday. He said she was still sleeping Tuesday morning and he did not know how to tell her about the tragedy.
“I’m so sorry for her loss,” said Ullah Lasima, who owns several properties on the block and came out to check on her tenants. “She lost two babies. … I’m praying for her, I’m praying for everyone, because it’s Ramadan. Every day we pray for peace to make sure she’s OK.”
Winifred Goodlin, another neighbor from across the street, said she was awakened by her sister about 4 a.m. and came outside.
“Then both of us rushed out and there was a huge fire across the street from us,” she said. “I didn’t see they were getting out, but I heard she jumped through the window and there were two kids (killed) and since then we’ve been sitting outside.”
Goodlin said she did not know the family, but she had seen them outside before.
“I don’t want to think about it, because it hurts,” she said. “It hurts a whole lot.”
“It’s just horrible,” said Carmilla Feris, who recently moved away but had returned to check on her old neighbors. “It just makes me sad. I don’t know what happened or how it occurred, but for a mother to lose her children — I have children and grandchildren, so I know you can’t get over that. This is something she’s not going to be able to get over.”
Her daughter, Candis, praised the firefighters who attempted to save the children.
“(It’s) a tragedy, a loss that no one will be able to come back from,” said Candis Ferris. “It’s sad when anybody loses a life, but specifically more a child because they’re innocent kids. … I just feel so sorry for the mom. I can’t imagine the pain that she’s going through.”
“I woke up to the terrible news of this deadly fire in Upper Darby,” said state Rep. Gina Curry, D-164 of Upper Darby, in a new release. “My heart aches for the family that lost two children as a result of this tragedy. I am praying for the mother who is suffering from her physical and emotional injuries. I also extend my thanks to the firefighters who responded to the blaze and pray for a quick recovery of the two firefighters who were injured.”
Two adults died and a girl was injured when the hot-air balloon they were riding in over a pre-Aztec archaeological site burst into flames.
The balloon was aloft above Teotihuacan, about 30 miles northeast of Mexico City, when flames started pouring from the base, according to video posted on social media.
The man and woman, a married couple, either fell or leaped from the burning balloon. The girl broke her arm and suffered burns, authorities said Saturday.
Authorities did not know whether a pilot was aboard at the time. The two who died were a husband and wife, ages 50 and 38, respectively, authorities said.
The San Juan Teotihuacán mayor’s office identified the pair as José Nolasco and Viridiana Becerril and the girl as Regina.
“The Cuajimalpa Mayor’s Office extends its condolences to family, friends and acquaintances of José Nolasco and Viridiana Becerril who died this morning due to the collapse of a hot air balloon in Teotihuacán,” local officials said in a statement. “Our solidarity and prayers for Regina, wishing her a speedy recovery.”
The balloon caught fire over San Juan Teotihuacán in the State of Mexico, which borders Mexico City. Teotihuacan was a pre-Hispanic holy city that flourished between the first and seventh centuries A.D. It was abandoned after being razed by fire, according to UNESCO.
The site is renowned for its Temple of Quetzalcoatl, Pyramid of the Sun and Pyramid of the Moon, laid out in alignment with astronomical phenomena, according to UNESCO, which named it a World Heritage site in 1987.
In its heyday it was inhabited by 100,000 people and covered an area of 8 square miles. Hot air balloons are a popular vantage point from which to view the famed buildings.
Authorities are investigating the cause of the accident.
Officials said one ambulance was traveling behind another, and both ambulances hit the same moose.
Two ambulances hit the same moose Friday in Hancock County. Fortunately, officials said, nobody was injured.
It happened shortly before 8:45 p.m. on Airline Road in Aurora, according to a release from the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office.
Thomas Gutow, 52, was driving a 2014 GMC ambulance owned by Northern Light Health when a moose entered the roadway, officials said. Gutow was unable to avoid the moose and hit the animal with the vehicle.
Another ambulance, a 2021 Ford owned by Northeast Mobile Health Services, was following behind Gutow and also struck the moose. That ambulance was driven by Cameron Doyle, 26, of Owls Head, the release stated.
Neither one of the drivers was injured, and both ambulances were able to be driven from the scene. The GMC sustained non-reportable damage on the passenger side, and the Ford sustained reportable front-end damage, according to officials.
Apr. 4—Coos Bay Fire, Brookings Fire & Rescue, and Gold Beach Rural Fire Protection District are inline to receive a new type 3 or type 6 engine, or a water tender to boost firefighting capacity.
The Oregon State Fire Marshal announced awards for its $25 million Engine Program. Across Oregon, 76 local fire service agencies have been selected to receive the new equipment.
Local fire agencies are eligible to apply. A selection committee comprised of members from the Oregon Fire Chiefs Association, Oregon Volunteer Firefighters Association, and Oregon State Fire Fighters Council reviewed applications.
Applicants were selected based on four principles:
* Assuring statewide distribution and allocation based on local initial attack, regional mutual aid, and conflagration needs.
* Necessary infrastructure to maintain and protect the apparatus long term.
* Recent apparatus awards from the legislature and other legislative funding sources such as wildland-urban interface and omnibus legislation.
* The capacity to staff newly awarded apparatus.
“This investment in the Oregon fire service is critical as the state modernizes equipment and increases firefighting capacity to respond to incidents in our communities,” Oregon State Fire Marshal Mariana Ruiz-Temple said. “Over the last three decades, more communities have been impacted by wildfire. This investment is a major step forward in achieving our mission to protect people, property, and the environment from fire and hazardous materials.”
The OSFM relies on the Oregon Fire Mutual Aid System (OFMAS) when responding to wildfires or other disasters that could impact communities, according to a release. More than 300 local fire service agencies make up the system across Oregon. These firefighters and equipment are mobilized under the Emergency Conflagration Act, pre-positioning, or immediate response assignments. OFMAS is used when a fire or disaster exceeds the local fire service agency’s capacity.
The OSFM Engine Program is a part of the agency’s Response Ready Oregon initiative, launched in 2021. The initiative is part of a multi-pronged approach to prepare, prevent, and respond to wildfires. The goal of Response Ready Oregon is to attack fires while they are small and keep them away from communities.
Award recipients will enter into a contract with the OSFM to support OFMAS mobilizations, boosting local, regional, and state response. This investment into the Oregon fire service will bring more resources, and the right resources, to a stretched system, the release states.
In January 2023, contracts were awarded to Rosenbauer to build the water tenders and type 3 engines. Skeeter was awarded the contract to build the type 6 engines. The OSFM anticipates deliveries to begin in 2023 through the first two quarters of 2024.
The OSFM Engine Program funding was made possible through Senate Bill 762, Oregon’s wildfire omnibus bill passed in 2021.
A list of recipients can be found here:OSFM Engine Program.
April 4, 2023 Firefighters kept the station open Tuesday because that’s what Jermaine Pelt, 49, would have wanted.
By Laura Rodríguez Presa, Sam Charles, Deanese Williams-Harris Source Chicago Tribune (TNS) Distributed byTribune Content Agency, LLC.
A 49-year-old Chicago firefighter died and two others were injured in a pre-dawn extra-alarm blaze where a mayday alert was called at a house in the West Pullman neighborhood, fire officials said.
Chicago Fire Department spokesperson Larry Langford said firefighter Jermaine Pelt died of his injuries Tuesday morning.
Shortly after 3:30 a.m., firefighters were called to a frame house located at 12015 S. Wallace St. where a heavy fire was on the second floor and in the attic. Officials said the fire spread to homes north and south of the building.
A 311 alarm was called and a mayday alert after 4 a.m., and three firefighters were injured, one critically. They were all taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, but one died of his injuries. The other two fighters’ conditions were stabilized, officials said.
All firefighters were accounted for and the mayday was called off. Two adults and two children were displaced.
Langford said Pelt went down on a hose line.
Jermaine Pelt was born and raised in the West Pullman neighborhood, the same area where he devoted his adult life to save and help others as a firefighter, said his father, John Pelt.
On Tuesday morning, the grieving father said he found comfort by surrounding himself with other firemen that worked with his son at the Firehouse Engine 115 and 75, the area where Pelt served most of his 18 years in the Chicago Fire Department and the one where he took his last call.
Though the family is broken by the tragedy, they are finding strength in their faith, he said.
“When God calls, we’ve got to answer,” he said in front of the Firehouse at 1024 W. 119th St.
Last November he had walked his only daughter down the aisle, and just last month Pelt celebrated 49 years of age.
The youngest of his four sons, Pelt was smart, ambitious and “the kindest person I’ve ever met,” said his father.
Growing up, Pelt spent his summers working for his father, a retired Chicago Transit Authority motorman. Pelt then became a locomotive engineer before making a decision to join the Chicago Fire Department instead of the Chicago Police Department.
“It was the lesser of the evils,” his father said.
But he was more than just a firefighter, said captain Rory Ohse, who worked alongside Pelt.
“He had a devotion to this job and this neighborhood,” he said. Pelt lived, worked and worshiped in West Pullman. He was also a registered nurse, a paramedic and had recently become an instructor at the fire academy. Pelt graduated from Corliss High School and attended Olive-Harvey College.
After the news of his death, they decided to keep the firehouse open despite their grief because that is what Pelt would have done, Ohse said.
“I want to continue doing what we do because that takes the pain away a little bit,” Ohse said.
On his last Sunday at the firehouse, Pelt cooked for his firehouse family: BBQ chicken, fried and jerk chicken with cornbread.
“He was a hell of a cook,” said Lieutenant David Bernicky with a smile. Though he only worked with Pelt for a few years, he had known him for more than 15 years.
“I’m leaving with a lot of love,” said Pelt’s father as he turned to the firemen that surrounded him, arms on his shoulder, the same ones that last saw his son.
Anthony Moore, who bought the property at 12017 S. Wallace in 2021, said he was in the process of fixing the building up so he could rent it out.
Moore said he got several phone calls early Tuesday from a neighbor across the street, telling him that his building caught fire after the blaze spread from the property to the north. Moore said he’s still unclear on the cause, and he’s waiting for an update from the CFD.
“I couldn’t see what was going on because everything was going up in flames when I got there,” Moore said Tuesday afternoon. “It’s a nightmare. I’ve been working to finally get it [the property] together and just keep on moving, you know, get some tenants in there and keep going.”
Though both the fire department and Moore said the fire started at 12015 S. Wallace, the owner of that property, Terry Blevens, believes the blaze originated at 12017 S. Wallace.
“They probably got the address wrong,” Blevens said, referring to the fire department’s initial description of what happened. “If it started in my building, how [did the other] building burn up but mine didn’t?”
County property records show that Blevens acquired the property in 2021. The property had come under repeated scrutiny from city inspectors over various housing code and municipal violations in the years prior.
Pelt, a member of Engine 75, joined the department in 2005, Langford said.
Fire Commissioner Annette Nance-Holt spoke at a news conference in front of the Oak Lawn hospital Tuesday.
Clearly rattled by Pelt’s death, Nance-Holt said Pelt recently celebrated his 49th birthday in March.
“Jermaine has been in the Roseland community, serving it his whole career, since 2005,” Nance-Holt said.
She added Pelt had two children, one grown and a 6-year-old.
“He just walked his daughter down the aisle for a wedding,” she said. The daughter was on her honeymoon.
Langford said that state and federal officials were investigating to determine the cause of the blaze.
Chicago Firefighter Jermaine Pelt, 49, was killed in a house fire early Tuesday.
He collapsed as he and others were ordered out of the house. A lieutenant grabbed him and removed him, WGN reported, adding that crews immediately attempted life-saving measures.
Fellow firefighters and Chicago Police escorted Pelt’s body to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.
He is survived by his wife, a six-year-old and a daughter he recently walked down the aisle.
She was notified of his death while on her honeymoon.
Two other firefighters injured are expected to recover.
