A construction worker is recovering at home after being buried in a trench Wednesday.
He was laying sewer pipe when the trench collapsed, burying him about eight feet, according to the Indianapolis Fire Department.
Firefighters quickly started digging, while others commandeered materials from the construction site and established rudimentary shoring for the trench, officials said in a statement on the IFD Facebook page.
After five minutes, crews were able to create a hole large enough for fresh air to enter the space where they believed man was located. Within 20 minutes, they had the man’s head completely uncovered.
“The aggressive actions of the 4 members from IFD EG43 and LD43, clearly gave this victim the best chance at survival and prevented critical injury,” fire officials said.
He advised he was OK, but the dirt was heavy and he couldn’t feel his legs. Firefighters said he remained calm throughout the rescue operation.
Removal of the dirt in its muddy, compact and heavy state proved the biggest hurdle along with the continued need to build out and adjust shoring efforts as dirt was removed from the trench.
The additional manpower from the Hancock County Technical Rescue Team, the use of shovels, hand tools, an air knife and the Greenfield Vac Truck, were vital to the successful completion of this mission.
IFD Collapse Rescue Team crews rotated in and out of the trench in 20-30 minute increments and were assisted in the rotation by the Hancock County team.
The worker assisted rescuers with removing dirt from around his body, both by hand and with a shovel. After three hours and 23 minutes, he was freed.
Mountain Green Fire District Fire Chief Brian Brendel still can’t get over the call his department got this past weekend for a plane crash.
It was in a very rural inaccessible area that crews often have difficulty finding downed planes.
“Many a plane crashed up there in 20 or 30 years. No one’s ever walked out,” Brendel told KSL reporters.
That’s until now.
Surviving the crash alone was miraculous. But that was just the beginning.
“He then walked about 5 or 6 miles, as far as we can tell to get to cellphone coverage so that he could call his son, and then his son called 911,” Brendel explained.
The small one-seater plane crashed in a mountainous area about eight miles from Morgan County Airport.
“The fact that he was uninjured because that canopy was so exposed is amazing,” Brendel told reporters.
The crash happened around 2 p.m., with the call coming in for a plane down around 4 p.m., meaning the pilot hiked for around two hours before he could get to help.
A snowy day turned into a day of fun for kids at a Minnesota hospice home, thanks to a couple of firefighters.
Brooklyn Center firefighters showed up to Crescent Cove with a box of sleds.
“When we saw Brandon [Gautsch] and Royce [Wetterhahn] walk up with a box of sleds we’re going – what do they have up their sleeve today?” Cresent Cove Founder Katie Lindenfelser told WCCO.
The sleds were donated by the local Walmart within an hour of getting the call from firefighters.
They were a big hit with the kids including Milo who has various medical conditions and shortened life expectancy.
“It’s significant to see Milo smile because his brother just died a couple months ago here at Crescent Cove,” Lindenfelser told the reporter.
Milo giggled as the firefighters pulled him around the halls, while Lauren was bundled up for her ride in the snow.
“How often have any of our children in Crescent Cove been able to be in a sled? They don’t get to do those everyday things,” said Lindenfelser.
The sleds aren’t just for fun either. Firefighters explain they will come in handy if there’s an emergency, and an ambulance responds.
Until then, the little patients will just enjoy the rides.
Fort Worth firefighters and local police are on the scene of a home that exploded Thursday morning in the 5600 block of Watters Place, in Westworth Village.
MedStar reported one patient with critical injuries. A CareFlite helicopter arrived to transport the burn victim to Parkland Hospital in Dallas.
The call came in to the fire department shortly after 7:30 a.m. Photos from the scene show no fire, but nothing is left of the home except debris.
Westworth Village is a small Tarrant County city on the west side of Fort Worth.
Residents in the area said on social media that they felt the explosion shake their homes.
The cause of the explosion that destroyed the home is under investigation.
White Settlement Police Chief Chris Cook wrote on Twitter that authorities were evacuating people in the immediate area “out of an abundance of caution.” White Settlement police were assisting Westworth Village police and Fort Worth firefighters at the scene. The power was off in the area, and authorities were telling residents they could go to the police station.
Clay, N.Y. — Some of the 38 homes at the site of Micron Technology’s future $100 billion semiconductor factory in Clay may end up being burned to the ground.
The Clay Fire Department has asked for permission to burn some of the homes on Burnet Road as a training exercise for its 35 volunteer firefighters. Onondaga County officials, who are making plans to demolish the homes to clear the land for Micron, say they are open to letting firefighters burn some of them.
Clay Fire Chief Michael Redhead said seven other volunteer fire departments, mostly in Syracuse’s northern suburbs, have also expressed an interest in conducting “controlled burns” and other training exercises in some of the homes.
The Clay Fire Department built a training tower 20 years behind its Station 1 on Route 31. It sets hay and wooden pallets on fire in a room in the tower so firefighters can practice extinguishing the flames.
However, Redhead said burning a house provides much more realistic training because it allows firefighters to see how smoke and flames spread through a real home and gives them a chance to not only practice putting a fire out, but also conducting search and rescue operations in a structure they are not familiar with.
“We can watch the smoke travel through different rooms and kind of, you know, just watch the fire grow and let them see the way fire travels,” he said. “It’s educational. We’re not looking to get up there and burn houses to cause a lot of chaos.”
Even after a home is burned, it is useful for training purposes because new fire investigators learning how to determine the cause and origin of fires can go through them and employ what they have learned in a classroom, he said.
“I’d like each fire department to have their own house to be able to do what they wish to do with it,” said Redhead.
The opportunity to burn a real home does not come along very often, he said. The last time the Clay department got the chance to burn a home was about 12 years ago, he said.
“It could be another 20 years or we might never get another opportunity like this,” he said.
The Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency has purchased most of the homes on Burnet Road to expand its White Pine Commerce Park. Micron, the world’s fourth largest maker of semiconductors and only U.S.-based maker of memory chips, announced Oct. 4 it plans to build a $100 billion chip fabrication plant at White Pine. The facility would be the largest semiconductor factory in the U.S.
Micron says the plant will create 9,000 high-paying Micron jobs over 20 years and more than 40,000 other jobs at suppliers that will want to locate close to the facility.
Pat Hogan, the development agency’s chairman, said he supports the fire departments’ request.
“There’s no more valuable experience than doing something like that in a real house,” he said. “It’s a good use of the properties.”
Robert Petrovich, the county’s economic development director and the development agency’s executive director, said he has asked the agency’s lawyers to draw up the necessary agreements to allow the fire departments to burn some of the homes slated for demolition. He said he would like to see each interested department get a house to burn.
“We’re absolutely going to do that to the extent that we can,” he said.
He said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has also requested permission to use the homes for training purposes. The county Sheriff’s Office SWAT team has already used some of the homes for training, he said. Law enforcement agencies often use vacant structures to practice forced entries and searching for suspects.
The county development agency recently engaged the Ramboll engineering firm to prepare bid packages for the demolition of homes on the road. Before they can be demolished or burned, they must be inspected and any asbestos removed, Petrovich said.
The agency has not set a deadline for demolishing the homes. Micron has said it wishes to begin site work in 2023, with construction of its semiconductor plant starting in 2024.
Nov. 30—A transformer fire that spread to a nearby building, damaging three businesses on Center Street Wednesday morning.
Lewiston No. 1 fire officials say they were alerted to the fire at 746 Center St. at 6:08 a.m. The Lewiston No. 1 fire chief arrived shortly thereafter finding an evolved commercial structure with flames coming from the front of the building housing the three businesses at 744-748 Center St.
Mutual Aid brought in firefighters from Upper Mountain, Niagara Active, Youngstown, Niagara Air Base and Sanborn fire companies along with placing Ransomville and Lewiston #2 Fire Companies on standby.
Crews from Lewiston #1 were able to make entry into the multiple businesses and the second-floor apartment. Crews were later pulled out due to the unstable structure.
Ladder trucks from Upper Mountain Fire, Niagara Active Hose and Sanborn Fire Company were deployed in the front and rear of the structure and directed large water streams onto the fire. Ground crews worked using hand-lines and master streams to stop the fire from spreading further.
Crews worked throughout the morning to extinguish the blaze.
Niagara County Origin and Cause Team and Town of Lewiston Fire Investigators are investigating the incident further.
EMS was staffed by Lewiston Fire Company No. 1 Advanced Life Support Ambulances, providing rehab operations for the nearly 50 Firefighters. No injuries occurred on scene.
Additional aid on scene was provided by the Lewiston Police Department for traffic control as a portion of Center Street was closed.
Tim Horton’s Lewiston (located next-door) donated hot coffee, donuts and breakfast sandwiches to the firefighters during the long operation, Lewiston No. 1 officials noted.
The graduates will be taught to recognize symptoms of behavioral health issues and how to counsel someone in crisis
By Leila Merrill FireRescue1
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama will be the first state to include peer support counseling training as part of its fire recruit school curriculum, the International Association of Fire Fighters and the Professional Fire Fighters of Alabama announced this month.
The program is funded by the Alabama Department of Mental Health and supported by the PFFA and the Alabama Fire College.
“Adding behavioral health and peer support counseling training into the recruit curriculum is groundbreaking work,” IAFF General President Edward Kelly said in a news release. “Firefighters in Alabama will be trained to not only recognize the signs and symptoms that someone needs behavioral health assistance but they will also be equipped to counsel someone who is in crisis. Congratulations to the PFFA, its members, the Alabama Department of Mental Health, and the Alabama Fire College for making this possible.”
“We are pleased that the Department of Mental Health and the fire college are working with us to meet this critical need,” said PFFA President Dave Harer. “With more trained peer support counselors, the Alabama First Responder Peer Support Program will be better able to provide behavioral health assistance, including help with substance abuse, critical intervention, and referrals.”
To learn more about the Alabama First Responder Peer Support Program, click here.
The state is no longer accept new applications and plans to increase funding by $76.6 million while implementing a tiered system
By SUSAN HAIGH and DAVID A. LIEB Associated Press
HARTFORD, Conn. — A Connecticut program that offered “hero pay” to essential workers at the peak of the coronavirus pandemic got so many applicants that state lawmakers had to go back into session Monday to provide extra funding and put new limits on who could get the biggest bonuses.
The Connecticut General Assembly voted to revamp the distribution formula for the Premium Pay Program for private sector workers.
Clarissa Johnson, of Hartford, Conn., marches with long-term care members of the New England Health Care Employees Union during a rally to demand new laws to protect long-term caregivers and consumers, on July 23, 2020, in Hartford. A Connecticut program that offered “hero pay” to essential workers at the peak of the coronavirus pandemic got so many applicants that state lawmakers had to go back into session Monday to provide more funding. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)
Initially, the state had expected to award about $30 million in bonuses to people who had to go to work, in person, in jobs in health care, food distribution, public safety and other essential services.
But after getting 155,730 applications from eligible people, lawmakers realized they would have to either put more money in or slash benefits.
“This is the first time we’ve ever done a program like this in the history of Connecticut, to my knowledge. And guessing what that’s going to be is hard to do,” said Democratic state Rep. Sean Scanlon. “Once we became clear that we did have more oversubscription to the program than there was, we figured out a solution to it.”
Numerous states provided bonuses to certain workers during the coronavirus pandemic, often by tapping into federal relief funds.
Half the states have collectively budgeted about $2.7 billion for extra pay to the public or private-sector workers by using federal American Rescue Plan funds, according to an Associated Press analysis of the most recent data released by the U.S. Treasury Department. Connecticut’s program does not rely on the federal funds.
Some states have targeted the extra pay to workers most likely to come into close contact with people, such as public health and safety employees and teachers. Others have distributed money more widely. The “essential employee premium pay program” in Massachusetts provided $500 to any individual earning between about $13,000 and $39,000 annually or earning up to nearly $80,000 for a household of four.
Under the revamped Connecticut plan, which cleared both chambers of the General Assembly on Monday evening, funding will be boosted by $76.6 million and a new tiered system will be imposed for the program, which has stopped accepting new applications.
Only eligible full-time workers earning $50,000 or less per year — 66,289 people — would receive the full bonus of $1,000. Other applicants would receive reduced sums. The original program had offered full bonuses to workers earning as much as $150,000. Someone earning $150,000 will now receive $100.
Meanwhile, the benefit for eligible part-time workers would drop from $500 to $200.
Connecticut’s program covers a fairly wide range of workers who were among the first eligible to receive COVID-19 vaccinations. Those include healthcare workers, police, firefighters, prison guards, grocery clerks, teachers, bus drivers and employees in various manufacturing fields.
There’s been debate among state and city officials across the country about who should receive pandemic bonuses, especially after the U.S. government allowed so-called hero pay for frontline workers as a possible use of federal pandemic relief funds.
“If you wanted to benefit the heroes, you needed to define better what a hero is,” said Rep. Vincent Candelora, the Republican leader of the Connecticut House of Representatives, who criticized Connecticut’s plan for being underfunded and making “no sense” as to who receives the money.
Like Connecticut, some other states’ bonus programs also far exceeded original estimates.
In Minnesota, checks of $487.45 were cut for qualified frontline workers this fall after the state approved more than 1 million applications. State officials had originally estimated the final pool of qualified workers would be around 667,000, with payments of about $750 apiece, but applications exceeded expectations.
Missouri had originally budgeted $24 million to give bonuses to state employees working in institutions such as prisons, mental health facilities and veterans nursing homes. The program, which expired in 2021, ended up costing nearly $100 million.
Vermont twice increased funding for its hazard pay program, which originally included healthcare employees who worked during the early days of the pandemic and later was expanded to include retail and grocery workers, childcare providers, janitors, trash collectors and others.
If Connecticut’s revamped bonus program for private sector essential workers clears the General Assembly, as expected, the issue of pandemic pay is not over. Gov. Ned Lamont has yet to reach an agreement with union leaders on how to distribute a second pot of money for state workers. An arbitrator is scheduled to meet with both sides Dec. 16.
San Jose firefighters contained a two-alarm blaze that destroyed the1868 home that was eligible for listing in the California Register of Historical Resources.
San Jose firefighters contained a two-alarm blaze that destroyed a vacant historic Victorian home.
According to NBC Bay Area, firefighters responded at about 9:15 p.m. to reports of a fire that had engulfed the two-story house in the 1100 block of Ranchero Way in West San Jose.
The home, built in 1868, was eligible for San Jose city landmark designation and for listing in the California Register of Historical Resources.
Documents indicate the house was “associated with the early agricultural development of Santa Clara Valley from the Early American Period through World War II.”
Nov. 30—A fire Wednesday morning damaged several businesses on the 700 block of Center Street in Lewiston.
No injuries were reported, fire officials from Lewiston Fire Co. No. 1 said in a news release.
The blaze at 746 Center was reported at 6:08 a.m. Firefighters from five additional fire companies responded to the scene.
At least four businesses sustained heavy damage from the blaze, including Sue’s Frame of Mind, Soully Created International Clothing Boutique, the Vintage Barber and Vincenzo’s Pizza. The building also included a second-story apartment.
Smoke still billowed from the burning structure as of 8:40 a.m.
During firefighting operations, crews were pulled out “due to the unstable structure,” Lewiston No. 1 said.
Center Street was closed to vehicular traffic between Seventh and Eighth streets.
The Lewiston Opera Hall next door was not affected by the fire.
The cause of the blaze remained under investigation.
Wednesday’s fire was the second significant blaze on Center Street in recent years. A May 2020 fire damaged Brickyard Brewing Company and Brickyard Pub.
