Category: In The News

March 15, 2023 Los Angeles County firefighters used a helicopter to rescue three of the people from the San Gabriel River in Azusa. Eight dogs were also rescued.

By: Nathan Solis Source: Los Angeles Times Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

LOS ANGELES — Eight people and eight dogs were rescued from the San Gabriel River in Azusa after they were swept away by fast-moving waters Monday evening, according to authorities.

Firefighters received reports that a ninth person was also in the river, but it’s unclear if that information was accurate, Los Angeles County Fire Department spokesperson Ruben Muñoz said.

A 911 call that reported people in the river came in shortly after 6 p.m. and firefighters responded to the area of North Todd and West Sierra Madre avenues in Azusa, authorities said.

Initially, officials said there were seven people in the water but updated the number to eight. Five people were assisted out of the river and three were hoisted by helicopter, Muñoz said.

None of the people required hospitalization, but the conditions of the animals were unclear. Fire officials did not explain how the victims ended up in or near the water. During previous storms, emergency crews rescued people living in homeless encampments along the riverbed from fast-moving floodwaters.

Fire officials did not know the status of the people who were rescued Monday.

Officials continued to search the river and flood channels until 10 p.m. for the possible ninth person in the water, according to the Fire Department.

The reporting party who told emergency officials about the possible ninth person left the scene and did not provide additional information, Muñoz said.

“We continued to patrol the area around the flood channels for any signs of bodies and did not locate anyone,” Muñoz said. “They did their due diligence to search for that person.”

March 14, 2023 Colorado Springs Firefighter Wesley Cosgrove was driving a brush truck when it ran over and killed a woman.

Source Firehouse.com News

Colorado Springs officials have agreed to pay the legal fees of a firefighter being sued for wrongful death.

Firefighter Wesley Cosgrove was driving a brush truck in a park last October when it ran over and killed Margaret Miller, 76, according to KRDO. 

In January, Miller’s daughter filed a wrongful death suit against Cosgrove, the City of Colorado Springs, the Colorado Springs Fire Department and El Paso County Emergency Services.

Cosgrove pleaded guilty to careless driving, a class 2 traffic offense on Feb. 6. In exchange, prosecutors dropped the second offense, careless driving resulting in death. 

He was sentenced to pay a fine that was less than $300 and perform 100 hours of community service.

Cosgrove, who reportedly drove the brush truck through a park as his commander ordered, ran over what he believed was a pile of debris. Later, after a civilian pointed to the rubble, he pulled back a blanket and saw the victim.

He and the crew with him were sent home after the incident. 

March 14, 2023 The building in which Buffalo FF Jason Arno perished will now be demolished.

By Mark Sommer Source The Buffalo News, N.Y. (TNS) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Mar. 13—The on-site investigation into the cause of the fatal four-alarm fire on March 1 that claimed the life of Buffalo firefighter Jason Arno is over, with the results being forwarded to the Erie County District Attorney’s Office for further review.

“I can confirm that the evidence will be turned over to our office for further review to determine if there was any criminal conduct related to the fire,” said Kait Munroe, a DA spokeswoman.

For nearly two weeks, the Buffalo Fire Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives combed through 745 Main St., the former home of D.C. Theatriks, seeking clues to the fire’s origin. Damage was estimated at $2.6 million.

With the investigation over, the city’s Department of Permit and Inspection Services has ordered an emergency demolition, including removal of foundations and debris, to begin as early as Tuesday and take at least two weeks. Backfill and grading work will follow.

“I want to thank all of the fire investigators, led by Buffalo Fire and the ATF, for their thorough and careful work over the last two weeks, which will hopefully provide a measure of closure to the community,” Mayor Byron Brown said in a statement.

Main Street, between Tupper and Goodell streets, is expected to be closed to traffic for about a week. Washington Street between Tupper and Goodell will remain closed until further notice.

March 14, 2023 Wilmington Chief Andy Mason said the man was buried to the top of his chest.

Source Firehouse.com News

Rescue personnel from Wilmington rescued a man from a grain bin Monday.

The victim, 76, was pinned by corn and grain in a bin on a farm in Sabina, according to WLWT.

Wilmington Chief Andy Mason said the man was stuck and buried to the top of his chest.

Crews poked holes in the bin to release some of the grain. They also prevented him from getting buried any further.

He was taken to Miami Valley Hospital to get checked out but is expected to be OK, the chief said.

March 14, 2023 Newton fire and rescue personnel rescued two seriously injured residents.

Source Firehouse.com News

The cause of a deadly explosion last week in Cache County is continuing.

Fire and rescue personnel from Newton Fire Department found Caryn and Joshua Mullin seriously injured, according to KSL.

“While it wasn’t a raging inferno or a large fire immediately after, it continued to grow and got bigger immediately following this explosion,” Lt.   Mikelshan Bartschi told reporters.

Joshua, who was blown from the house, suffered multiple burns on his arms, chest and face. 

Caryn was rescued from debris and suffered with multiple fractures and burns to her body. 

John Mullin’s body was recovered from the rubble.

“The men and women who put their lives on the line to save Caryn demonstrated heroic behaviors, as expected in Cache County,” Bartschi said.

“Our sincerest condolences to the family of the victims involved in this incident,” Bartschi said.

Firefighters from nine neighboring departments assisted with the incident. 

The Mullins family are professional dog breeders. 

Crews found 16 dogs in the home after the explosion, five of which were taken to the New Vision Intake and Animal Shelter for treatment. Three were in critical condition, and two were in good condition.

Family members are taking care of the 30 others that were in a different structure.

March 14, 2023 The ambulance crews at Mt. Juliet Fire Department went on duty for the first time at 7:30 a.m. Monday.

By Abbey Nutter Source The Lebanon Democrat, Tenn. (TNS) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Mar. 11—The Mt. Juliet Fire Department will be adding medical emergency response to its list of services on Monday.

“It’s been on the horizon for several years,” Mt. Juliet Fire Department interim chief Joseph Edwards said. ” The Mt. Juliet City Commission had gotten to a point where they knew the city was growing at a really fast rate, and they needed to do something to add to services and supplement some things the county was providing to give an extra layer of protection for citizens and for visitors.”

The Mt. Juliet Fire Department has already hired an additional 33 employees for the new service. The department currently has three ambulances ready to roll out Monday morning, and three more are on order.

“Most of our responders are already medically trained,” Edwards said. “They have medical licenses, such as paramedics and AEMTs (advanced emergency medical technicians), as well as EMTs. It really doesn’t change anything for us other than adding another vehicle to our fleet.”

The new ambulances will operate out of the three primary fire stations in Mt. Juliet. On Monday morning, the transition will begin with Wilson County Emergency Management Agency (WEMA) and Mt. Juliet Fire Department officials coordinating to ensure that there are no breaks in coverage.

“The current method is that we go to all of those (medical) calls, and then, the county sends a transport vehicle to pick them up,” Edwards said. “The only difference now is not only will our trucks go to that call, but it will be a city-owned ambulance versus a county-owned ambulance as the primary vehicle. The county will still back the city up and vice versa.”

Emergency medical response in Mt. Juliet will be a partnership between WEMA and the Mt. Juliet Fire Department.

“It’s both leaderships out of both organizations working together to form what’s needed,” Edwards said. “All we care about is taking care of the people.”

A lot of the coordination after the service is in place will come through dispatch services.

“If a call comes in, we work very tightly with our dispatch to be in coordination with everything we do,” Edwards said. “Their administration and our administration are in constant communication to work through logistical issues. There’s minimal changes that need to be worked out logistically. Most of those are with dispatch, and those are being worked out now.”

Edwards stressed that this will be a partnership between the Mt. Juliet Fire Department and WEMA, and that there will be no competition between agencies.

“It’s a partnership between the county and the city,” Edwards said. “We still have to support one another, because at the end of the day, it takes every one of us to do this job. We have 170,000 people in this county, and more than 40,000 are in Mt. Juliet. It’s something that we absolutely have to coordinate together, because our small department is not designed to take care of that many people at one time. We have to have good partnerships, and we do.”

The goal of adding the service is additional coverage for the city and protection for citizens.

“Any time you add another level of service, I always think it’s for the better,” Edwards said. “Emergency services are strapped all the time for responses. It’s not uncommon for us to have more than one call at one time. I think this adds another level of protection for the citizens and for the community.”

March 14, 2023 Lancaster firefighters battled the blaze for several hours.

By Olivia M. Miller Source LNP, Lancaster, Pa. (TNS) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Mar. 14—Crews responded Monday evening to a fire involving several row homes on North Plum Street in Lancaster city.

Emergency crews responded to the 500 block of North Plum Street around 5:45 p.m. for the report of a residential fire. The block is closest to the Lancaster Science Factory and Cork Factory Hotel. A dispatcher with Lancaster County-Wide Communications said the building was reportedly vacant.

All seven houses appeared to have been involved. As of 7 p.m., there were more than 20 emergency crews dispatched to the fire, according to Lancaster County-Wide Communications. Dispatch marked the fire as under control as of 8:33 p.m.

A dispatcher with Lancaster County-Wide Communications said the fire left four adults and two children displaced.

Fire officials at the scene declined to comment, saying city officials would likely hold a news conference sometime Tuesday. It is not immediately clear which house the fire started in and what caused it.

The fire is in the same block where 17 residents were displaced from 7 row homes in September 2019 after inspectors condemned the aging buildings. Engineers discovered subsoil problems which caused foundations of the set of row homes, extending from 523 to 535 N. Plum St., to shift, LNP previously reported.

In 2020, city officials were no closer to lifting the condemnation orders on the homes.

Luz Martinez, 65, lives nearby and said she hasn’t seen anything suspicious near the homes recently. She remembered police chasing kids out of the home about two years ago and putting fences up to keep people out. She said police came back for reports of kids in the area about a year ago, but the only recent activity she saw was a developer doing inspections.

Martinez also said her power went out around 6:30 p.m. and power appears to be out at other homes in the vicinity. PPL’s outage map indicates 2,798 customers are without power at the scene of the fire and the surrounding area due to a tripped breaker or blown fuse. It is not immediately clear if the outages were a result of the fire.

As of Tuesday morning, power was restored to all customers in the area.

March 13, 2023 Rochester and suburban firefighters battled the six-alarm fire that collapsed most of a warehouse for eight hours.

Source Firehouse.com News

One firefighter was injured as a flames engulfed a warehouse filled with pallets on Rochester’s west side this afternoon.

Crews arrived to find pallets on fire outside the 52,000-square-foot building at 301 Otis Street around 5:30 p.m. and the fire quickly extended to the structure.

“It’s a large warehouse and we’ve got heavy fire,” spokesman Capt. David Abdoch said in a live stream from the scene. “All the firefighters are working their hardest right now to extinguish it. We’re trying to do it safely.”

The second and third alarms were struck minutes apart, with the fourth and fifth alarms called as crews set up all the city’s aerial ladders and water supplies were needed to protect nearby homes from the intense flames. 

Abdoch said they were using multiple master streams with the ladder pipes.

Firefighters and police went door-to-door to ensure occupants of the threatened homes were able to escape, WHEC.com reported.

Three walls and the roof collapsed, according to WROC. 

Abdoch told the Democrat and Chronicle that the fire was brought under control after eight hours. Demolition equipment was utilized to remove any lingering threats from the damaged structure.

A sixth alarm was called for relief, bringing several suburban fire companies to the scene, fire officials said. 

The firefighter suffered non-life threatening injuries, according to the television station.

#roc https://t.co/ibWpH0uDeO

— MonroeCountyFireWire (@mcfw) March 13, 2023

#roc https://t.co/h7htf4c385

— MonroeCountyFireWire (@mcfw) March 13, 2023

March 13, 2023 The Los Angeles firefighter was knocked to the ground after the four-inch line was run over.

By Don Sweeney Source The Charlotte Observer (TNS) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

A driver ran over a fire hose at a Los Angeles blaze, knocking down and injuring a firefighter, California officials reported.

Firefighters were called to a fire outside Synthetic Grass Depot in Tarzana at 4:49 a.m. Monday, March 13, the Los Angeles Fire Department said in an alert.

While they fought the blaze, a civilian vehicle ran over a 4-inch hose in the street, knocking down a firefighter, the alert said. The firefighter suffered minor injuries.

“Due to the location of the nearest fire hydrant to an incident, it is sometimes necessary (we avoid it whenever possible) to cross streets with the large diameter supply line,” firefighters wrote.

The alert warned drivers never to cross a fire hose, saying “the potential for life-altering injuries is very real.”

Firefighters were expected to remain at the scene through the morning to finish mopping up the blaze, the alert said.

Tarzana is a neighborhood about 40 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.