Category: In The News

Chief Niles Ford led the Baltimore Fire Department for eight years before resigning as the report on the Jan. 24 row house fire where three firefighters died was released.

Source Firehouse.com News

Baltimore City Fire Chief Niles Ford has resigned following the release of an investigative report into the line of duty deaths of three firefighters in January.

Ford’s resignation is effective immediately, Mayor Brandon Scott told WJZ. 

He led the department for eight years.

Lt. Paul Butrim, Firefighter/Paramedic Kelsey Sadler, and Firefighter/Paramedic Kenneth Lacayo were killed in the Jan. 14 row house fire. 

Scott said in a statement: “The report outlines the events that occurred on January 24, 2022, along with findings and recommendations that will be implemented to ensure that a tragedy like this will never happen again, My administration will immediately establish an accountability program to ensure that these recommendations are properly implemented and that we have a department that is not only committed to protecting and saving the lives of our residents, but is equally committed to carrying out this work in a manner that also safeguards the lives of those men and women who selflessly serve others on a daily basis.” 

The donation was made in coordination with the International Fire Training Force, a Chicago nonprofit effort to aid overseas fire departments

By Mike Nolan The Daily Southtown Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

TINLEY PARK, Ill. — Hazel Crest has donated an ambulance to a city in Ecuador with the help of a Chicago-based organization that has arranged for similar donations of firefighting equipment and training of firefighters overseas.

The 2009 ambulance came equipped with several self-contained breathing packs for firefighters as well as a stretcher, according to Hazel Crest fire Chief Tyrone Jarrett.

Lt. Col. Juan Carlos Ullauri Alvarez, fire chief for Naranjito, accepted the ambulance donation, which should arrive in Ecuador in a few weeks, according to Chicago Fire Department Lt. Patrick McDermott, chief executive of the International Fire Training Force.

“This is going to decrease their response times,” McDermott said. “It will help in saving lives and property.”

The International Fire Training Force has worked for some two decades to secure donations of equipment, including a dozen ambulances, to countries including Argentina, Ecuador, Ghana, Jamaica, Mexico, Peru and Urkaine. 

“I wouldn’t say it’s a missionary cause, but it’s a purpose,” McDermott said.

McDermott said his organization was working with another city in Ecuador on a donation when Alvarez learned about it and contacted him.

“It’s not wealthy and they need training and they need equipment,” McDermott said of Naranjito.

Jarrett said McDermott’s organization is internationally renowned for work it has done to train firefighters in other countries.

The donation was approved by village officials, including Mayor Vernard Alsberry.

“McDermott has provided training to fire departments in South America in the past, and has built strong relationships in the region as a result,” Jarrett said. “While engaging these countries, he has recognized the need for emergency response equipment.”

McDermott said arranging a donation of surplus fire equipment can take as long as a year, but the Hazel Crest donation took about eight months.

He said his organization works with freight companies to send equipment overseas, and he expected Alvarez’s city to receive the Hazel Crest ambulance in a little more than a month. The Hazel Crest ambulance is the first donation arranged through the organization by a south suburban fire department, McDermott said.

McDermott said there were discussions about donating the Hazel Crest ambulance to fire agencies in Jamaica or Ukraine, but the nonprofit’s board found Naranjito “fitting for this donation.”

International Fire Training Force was founded as a nonprofit in December 2003 and that year the Chicago Fire Department donated used firefighter self-contained breathing gear to Jamaica, according to the organization.

McDermott said he learned that firefighters in his native Jamaica were poorly trained and equipped, resulting in what he said was an unconscionable number of lives being lost on a daily basis.

Along with training firefighters in Jamaica, Fire Training Force has worked in Barbados, Ecuador and Mexico.

McDermott was awarded the Carter Harrison Award by the Chicago Fire Department, its highest honor, for rescuing three children, ages 2 to 5, from a burning building in Chicago in January 2000.

He was off duty at the time and on his way to a funeral home following the death of his grandmother, according to a Chicago Tribune report at the time.

McDermott saw smoke pouring from an apartment building and climbed six flights of stairs, knocking out windows to vent smoke to the outside and forcing open an apartment door when he heard “faint cries” of children inside, according to the Tribune story.

McDermott, stationed at O’Hare International Airport, said he plans to retire from the Fire Department in August after 30 years. He said Chicago is the only department he has worked for.

Retirement will allow him to devote more of his time to Fire Training Force, he said.

The Burlington Fire Department believes a pile of red-hot laundry left on a bed overnight ignited and caused $30,000 in damages.

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

After a North Carolina fire department was called to a house fire on Nov. 29, officials said they had never seen anything like it.

“It was a new one to us,” the Burlington Fire Department told WGHP.

Homeowner Anthony Mebane said he was stunned to learn what caused the fire, too, he told WFMY.

“Nothing ever happened to me in that capacity, you know. … Initially when I first heard about it, I didn’t believe it,” Mebane told WFMY.

The source of the fire? A pile of laundry ignited while sitting on Mebane’s bed, according to the Burlington Fire Department.

Officials got the call of a fire at a Burlington home around 12:20 a.m. on Nov. 29, according to a news release from the fire department. When firefighters arrived, Mebane was at work.

Firefighters found a fire that ignited in a bedroom and extinguished it in about 15 minutes, according to the release.

Mebane had dried his laundry in the dryer, but the fire didn’t start until the clothes were already removed, according to the release. The pile of clothes became so hot in the dryer that when they were placed on the bed, the clothes “smoldered subsequently catching other clothing articles and furniture on fire,” according to the release.

The fire caused about $30,000 in damages, according to the fire department.

There was a synthetic material jacket in the laundry that overheated so much it ignited on the bed in the middle of the night, WFMY reported.

While the source was unusual, the U.S. Fire Administration offers tips for general laundry safety to avoid fire:

• Don’t use a clothes dryer without a lint filter or with a lint filter that is loose, damaged or clogged.
• Don’t overload the dryer.
• Don’t use a wire screen or cloth to cover the wall damper. They can collect lint and clog the dryer vent.
• Don’t dry anything containing foam, rubber or plastic. An example of an item not to place in a dryer is a bathroom rug with a rubber backing.
• Don’t dry any item for which manufacturers’ instructions state “dry away from heat.”
• Don’t dry glass fiber materials (unless manufacturers’ instructions allow).
• Don’t dry items that have come into contact with anything flammable like alcohol, cooking oils or gasoline. Dry them outdoors or in a well-ventilated room, away from heat.
• Don’t leave a clothes dryer running if you leave home or when you go to bed.

Burlington is about 60 miles northwest of Raleigh.