An elderly couple was lucky to be alive Tuesday after firefighters rushed into their burning Brooklyn apartment and made a daring rescue.
Yuri Krinitsyn, 62, was unconscious while his 72-year-old wife, Zhanna, lay moaning and barely alert as flames spread around them in their Brighton Beach apartment Monday night.
Firefighters arrived at 10:46p.m., breaking down the door and pulling the couple out of harm's way.
"They did an amazing job," said neighbor Mira Alshvang. "Thank God it was not in the middle of the night."
The couple was in the Staten Island University Hospital burn unit in critical but stable condition.
Fire officials believe the source of the blaze was a cigarette.
Firefighters from Ladder 169 had the fire under control just after 11 p.m.
"To tell you the truth, we did a hell of a job," said Capt. Bill Gallagher, 50. "Sometimes the bear eats you or you eat the bear.
"This one actually worked out really well," he added.
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/06/24/2009-06-24_bklyn_couple_plucked_from_fire_by_fdny.html#ixzz0JLzJOEWL&D
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Fire Truck Flips En Route To Burning Bed
Fire Truck Flips En Route To Burning Bed
Posted June 23, 2009 EST
Georgia - Two Thomas County firefighters had to be cut from a tanker that overturned en route to a structure fire early Saturday afternoon. The driver of the 1982 International tanker, full-time firefighter Terrence Blake, 26, Thomasville, is recuperating at home from bruising suffered in the wreck about 1:25 p.m. at Ga. 188 and Patten-Coolidge Road. Blake was treated at the Archbold Memorial Hospital emergency room and dismissed.
The passenger, Terrence Redoing, 33, Thomasville, a volunteer firefighter, also was treated and dismissed.
The tanker was traveling east on 188 toward Pavo, when it made a right turn onto Patten-Coolidge and flipped.
"That was when the truck actually rolled over on its side," said Chris Jones, Thomas County Fire Department chief.
Emergency medical technicians and fellow firefighters provided extrication to remove the firefighters, who work at the Coolidge fire station.
"They ended up having to take the extrication tools and cutting the top off the truck," Jones explained.
The cab and tanker were destroyed. Damage to loose tools in the vehicle is estimated at $26,000.
The vehicle and equipment were insured. Coverage has a $10,000 deductible, according to Twink Monahan, county clerk.
The tanker was en route to a structure fire on Doc Sherrod Road when it overturned.
Other Coolidge firefighters responded to the blaze at a doublewide mobile home and found a one-room fire that was contained to a mattress in a bedroom. Jones said the cause of the fire is not known.
Blake was wearing a seat belt. Redding was not.
The chief said Redding will receive a verbal warning. "After six months, that will disappear," Jones added.
Sgt. Tracy Tabb, at Thomasville Post 12 Georgia State Patrol, said no one was cited in the wreck.
"Wearing a seat belt is not required in emergency vehicles," Tabb said.
Posted June 23, 2009 EST
Georgia - Two Thomas County firefighters had to be cut from a tanker that overturned en route to a structure fire early Saturday afternoon. The driver of the 1982 International tanker, full-time firefighter Terrence Blake, 26, Thomasville, is recuperating at home from bruising suffered in the wreck about 1:25 p.m. at Ga. 188 and Patten-Coolidge Road. Blake was treated at the Archbold Memorial Hospital emergency room and dismissed.
The passenger, Terrence Redoing, 33, Thomasville, a volunteer firefighter, also was treated and dismissed.
The tanker was traveling east on 188 toward Pavo, when it made a right turn onto Patten-Coolidge and flipped.
"That was when the truck actually rolled over on its side," said Chris Jones, Thomas County Fire Department chief.
Emergency medical technicians and fellow firefighters provided extrication to remove the firefighters, who work at the Coolidge fire station.
"They ended up having to take the extrication tools and cutting the top off the truck," Jones explained.
The cab and tanker were destroyed. Damage to loose tools in the vehicle is estimated at $26,000.
The vehicle and equipment were insured. Coverage has a $10,000 deductible, according to Twink Monahan, county clerk.
The tanker was en route to a structure fire on Doc Sherrod Road when it overturned.
Other Coolidge firefighters responded to the blaze at a doublewide mobile home and found a one-room fire that was contained to a mattress in a bedroom. Jones said the cause of the fire is not known.
Blake was wearing a seat belt. Redding was not.
The chief said Redding will receive a verbal warning. "After six months, that will disappear," Jones added.
Sgt. Tracy Tabb, at Thomasville Post 12 Georgia State Patrol, said no one was cited in the wreck.
"Wearing a seat belt is not required in emergency vehicles," Tabb said.
Firefighters continue to battle large Alta. fires
EDMONTON - Firefighters have yet to get a handle on several large wildfires burning out of control in Alberta, fire officials said Saturday.
As of 10 a.m., six wildfires in the Alberta regions of Fort McMurray, Slave Lake and Whitecourt had not yet been contained. Hot, dry weather sparked the wildfires last weekend, causing partial highway closures and fire bans in a dozen provincial parks in Alberta.
At one point there were 170 new fires in the province. However, on Saturday fire officials said that number was down to 52 blazes. There are 760 firefighters battling the blazes.
Firefighters hope that a forecast of cooler temperatures and a higher chance of showers Saturday and into Sunday will help them get the upper hand on the largest fire which is burning south of Fort McMurray, Alta., about 450 kilometres north of Edmonton.
As of Saturday morning, the Fort McMurray blaze was estimated to be 11,451 hectares.
``What we're looking for is higher relative humidity, which will help fight the fires,'' said Geoffrey Driscoll, a wildfire information officer with Sustainable Resource Development. More humidity in the air limits the extreme behaviour of fires, he said.
A crew of 25 firefighters arrived Thursday from the Yukon after a request the province made earlier in the week for outside help. Crews from the Northwest Territories, Ontario, New Brunswick and Mexico are also lending a hand.
Since last weekend, over 110,000 lightning strikes have been recorded in Alberta by the Provincial Forest Fire Centre. Those lighting strikes have contributed to the start of over 220 wildfires in Alberta's forests in the last seven days.
With a file from the Edmonton Journal
As of 10 a.m., six wildfires in the Alberta regions of Fort McMurray, Slave Lake and Whitecourt had not yet been contained. Hot, dry weather sparked the wildfires last weekend, causing partial highway closures and fire bans in a dozen provincial parks in Alberta.
At one point there were 170 new fires in the province. However, on Saturday fire officials said that number was down to 52 blazes. There are 760 firefighters battling the blazes.
Firefighters hope that a forecast of cooler temperatures and a higher chance of showers Saturday and into Sunday will help them get the upper hand on the largest fire which is burning south of Fort McMurray, Alta., about 450 kilometres north of Edmonton.
As of Saturday morning, the Fort McMurray blaze was estimated to be 11,451 hectares.
``What we're looking for is higher relative humidity, which will help fight the fires,'' said Geoffrey Driscoll, a wildfire information officer with Sustainable Resource Development. More humidity in the air limits the extreme behaviour of fires, he said.
A crew of 25 firefighters arrived Thursday from the Yukon after a request the province made earlier in the week for outside help. Crews from the Northwest Territories, Ontario, New Brunswick and Mexico are also lending a hand.
Since last weekend, over 110,000 lightning strikes have been recorded in Alberta by the Provincial Forest Fire Centre. Those lighting strikes have contributed to the start of over 220 wildfires in Alberta's forests in the last seven days.
With a file from the Edmonton Journal
Seven dead in D.C. Metro rail crash
Seven dead in D.C. Metro rail crash
Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press
District of Columbia fire and emergency workers at the site of a rush-hour collision between two Metro transit trains in northeast Washington, D.C. on Monday.
A commuter train rear-ends another, ripping open cars in the system's worst accident in 33 years.
From Times Wire Services
6:26 AM PDT, June 23, 2009
Washington -- The subway train that plowed into another, causing a crash that killed seven and injured scores of others in the nation's capital, was part of an aging fleet that federal officials had sought to phase out due to safety concerns, an investigator said today.
But the Metrorail transit system "was not able to do what we asked them to do," and the old trains kept running despite the 2006 warnings, said Debbie Hersman of the National Transportation Safety Board.
Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press
District of Columbia fire and emergency workers at the site of a rush-hour collision between two Metro transit trains in northeast Washington, D.C. on Monday.
A commuter train rear-ends another, ripping open cars in the system's worst accident in 33 years.
From Times Wire Services
6:26 AM PDT, June 23, 2009
Washington -- The subway train that plowed into another, causing a crash that killed seven and injured scores of others in the nation's capital, was part of an aging fleet that federal officials had sought to phase out due to safety concerns, an investigator said today.
But the Metrorail transit system "was not able to do what we asked them to do," and the old trains kept running despite the 2006 warnings, said Debbie Hersman of the National Transportation Safety Board.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Fire invades foreclosed homes
FLINT, Mich. – Like the house across the street gone missing and the one at the corner stripped of its front door, the weathered brown bungalow at 1430 Jane Ave. bided its time, edging nearer to a meeting with a wrecking crew.
But in a city with more than 1,000 abandoned homes slated for demolition, it would have to wait its turn. Until, at 8:15 a.m. Oct. 8, the little house jumped the line.
When firefighters arrived seven minutes later, the front of 1430 Jane was already swollen with flames — the latest in a long, sad string of fires destroying scores of homes this half-empty city no longer has any use for.
Except this one was different.
Like the others, the owner had thrown in the towel. It was in tax foreclosure and ready to be forgotten.
But it wasn't empty.
"Gordy!" neighbors yelled in to the flames. "Get out of there if you're in there!"
Flint's abandoned homes usually announce themselves by the boards covering their windows, walls ripped open and scavenged for pipes and aluminum siding. But at 1430, a pair of chairs hung from the porch. Blinds flapped from bedroom windows.
And as firefighters battled in, a terrible paradox was revealed. In a city and a nation awash in empty structures, one man's abandoned home can be another's man refuge — and sometimes his final resting place.
___
If a fire destroys a home that doesn't really belong to anyone and is worth next to nothing, does it matter?
The nation's housing and mortgage crisis is proving there are no simple answers to that question, just unexpected consequences and difficult choices.
Human activity — whether it's cooking or smoking in bed — sets off most house fires. That explains why the vast majority happen in homes that are occupied. But foreclosures, on top of depopulation in struggling Rust Belt cities, have left millions of homes vacant.
Fire has begun creeping into the void.
Fires in vacant homes rose 11 percent to 21,000 in 2006 — the latest year for which figures are available — while all home fires rose just 4 percent, the National Fire Protection Association reported in April. More than four of every 10 vacant building fires were intentionally set, the group reported.
Some of that is arson for financial reasons. But in neighborhoods of sagging homes worth little, fires are often set by vandals, the homeless or people seeking revenge.
The threat grows as empty homes multiply, said John Hall, the NFPA's division director for fire analysis and research. Vacant homes nationwide topped 19 million earlier this year, up from 15.7 million in 2005, according to the Census Bureau.
"The best way to prevent vacant building fires is to prevent vacant buildings," the NFPA concluded.
That is easier said then done.
Fire complicates the calculus for officials in cities trying to stabilize neighborhoods pocked with abandoned homes.
Firefighters, pledged to a gung-ho culture that demands attacking fires head-on, increasingly confront dangerous blazes where the property is not worth saving and often the only lives endangered are their own.
Abandoned homes offer shelter to drug users and gangs, which can make them magnets for fire.
And then there are people like Gordon Yoesting, looking for a place to sleep.
___
By the time Yoesting and 1430 Jane found each other, the neighborhood where both were raised was crumbling.
Even in its heyday, Flint's East Side was far from fancy. It was a working man's neighborhood of small lots and modest woodframes, built fast after World War I. You moved to the East Side because it was within walking distance of the massive Buick plant. You stayed because it was home, a close-knit haven of families.
"Everybody had kids on this street. It seemed like they lived here forever," Dan Kildee says, driving slowly down Jane.
Kildee, who grew up to become the Genesee County treasurer, points to yards he used to play in and struggles to recall families now gone. He stops his car in front of a little yellow house — right next door to the charred carcass of 1430 — where his dad was raised, and muses about long-ago walks to his grandmother's and countless Sunday dinners.
Then he looks at what's left of the neighborhood — blocks lined with bruised homes and broken windows. Two streets over, someone has nailed a plywood sign to a tree: "No Prostitution Zone." On three blocks of Jane, the city is targeting 14 homes for demolition, four of which have already been scarred by fires.
"My dad, he can't come down this street anymore. ... It's too hard to see," Kildee says. "Because his whole life was here."
What was once Buick City is largely a cement prairie now, and General Motors, which once employed more than 80,000 in the city of its founding, has cut its Flint work force to about 6,000. Flint's population, which peaked at 197,000, dwindled to 115,000 in 2007, and falling.
To stabilize the city, Kildee started the Genesee County Land Bank, which has taken title to 9,000 properties since 2002, tearing down 1,000 and selling or rehabbing others. The foreclosure crisis has made the job even tougher, leaving the Land Bank with at least 1,000 more abandoned homes to demolish.
But in a neighborhood left reeling, the old block of Jane Avenue hangs on. There are four or five empty or abandoned homes. Others, though, are carefully tended, lawns mowed and siding painted. The 1400 block is battered, but not yet beaten.
Maybe that's why Gordon Yoesting found it to his liking.
Yoesting, too, was born to the neighborhood and raised the son of an autoworker. He returned at 46, a survivor.
He could barely see and walked with a shuffle, at least partly the toll of a long-ago beating in western Michigan by men who subsequently ran him over with a pickup truck. That was more than 20 years ago, and he'd never been the same since.
Still, Yoesting — Gordy to all who knew him — got by. He roamed the East Side, often shirtless and wearing shorts even in Michigan's chill, suspenders strapped across a tattooed back. He mowed lawns for cash, mopped up at The Hideaway and Art's Pub & Grub and cashed his disability checks. Most of what he didn't spend on rent or child support went for beer or vodka, consumed by the gallon.
Yoesting was widely liked, a neighborhood fixture. If you needed furniture or boxes moved, he was the first to volunteer. When neighbor Dakory Cooper's daughter had her bike stolen and Gordy heard about it, he made her a new one out of scavenged parts. He liked nothing better than trading stories and drink.
Yoesting bounced around the East Side — mostly renting cheap apartments, but staying in at least one abandoned house. Then, last March or April, he set his sights on 1430. Cooper had bought the house as a rental property. But upkeep and taxes were dragging him under. By the middle of 2007, he'd given up. The house fell into legal limbo as it moved through tax foreclosure. But when Yoesting asked after it, Cooper handed him a set of keys.
The house didn't have water or electricity until Yoesting and a roommate jerry-rigged both. And the place was a horrendous mess, left behind by the last renters. But Yoesting and the little bungalow with the diamond-shaped window over the front porch looked after each other.
By summer, Gordy told his brother, friends and neighbors, he was fixing to buy the place.
___
When two of Flint's abandoned houses caught fire in early 2007, it got Andy Graves thinking.
A firefighter was injured in the first. Soon after the second burned, the city tore down what was left. Nobody was in either. Were these places worth the risks firefighters were taking?
Graves, a primary captain for the Flint Fire Department, started tracking fires in vacant buildings and the scope of the problem became clear. Blazes in vacant structures accounted for 40 percent of all Flint's fires and more than 60 percent of firefighter injuries.
Since then, vacant buildings fires have jumped nearly a third. In the 18 months ending in February, Flint saw 406 vacant building fires.
In a three-block stretch of East Alma Avenue, seven houses are slated for demolition — and five of them have burned. A vacant and vandalized apartment building on Second Street has been hit by 10 fires in two years.
"We were putting out fires and they would come by the next week and simply condemn the buildings to be demolished," Graves said. "That's when we said we can no longer continue to do this."
Flint is hardly alone. But figuring out how to confront such fires is an uneasy challenge. In Detroit, it took a tragedy to prompt a reexamination.
Last Nov. 15, crews battled a blaze in an abandoned house on the city's East Side. Investigators later concluded it had been intentionally set.
Engines beat back the blaze before firefighters charged in. Walter Harris was the second man up the stairs.
They appeared to have the fire under control, with men chasing hotspots in the attic. The only warning was a creak. Then the roof crashed in. Harris, 37, was killed.
Up to then, "there really hadn't been a lot of thinking about this and we approached every fire the exact same way whether it was abandoned, whether it was vacant or whether it was occupied," said Lt. Robert Shinske, who chairs the safety committee for the Detroit firefighters union local.
But "when Walter Harris died everybody was like, wait a minute, what the hell is going on here?" Shinske said.
Harris' death has pushed Detroit toward adopting changes much like those other cities have already embraced. The new approach urges firefighters to assess fires before rushing in. If the building cannot be saved and they are certain nobody is inside, they should fight the fire from the exterior to limit their own risk. In Flint, such a change has cut the number of firefighter injuries in abandoned building blazes by a quarter, and reduced injury time by more than a third.
Ceding ground to fires, though, does not sit easy with firefighters. In San Antonio, the fire chief and the firefighters union battled this spring over a new policy. Firefighters have argued that it's their job to go head to head with flames, and that the only way to be certain if a place is occupied is to go in.
In the overwhelming majority of abandoned home fires, while its often evident someone has been inside, they're gone by the time firefighters arrive.
Nationwide, fires in vacant buildings killed an average of 50 civilians yearly between 2003 and 2006, according to the NFPA. In Flint, where crews have battled nearly 1,000 abandoned building fires since 2004, just five people have been trapped inside. Two were rescued, one jumped from a window, and two died.
But as the economy leaves more people homeless, they're increasingly taking shelter in homes left untended by owners and lenders, said Eduardo M. Penalver, a Cornell University law professor who studies the causes and possible remedies of squatting.
"Squatting is dangerous for the squatters," he said. "The illegality of it sort of causes people to cut corners. So a lot of fires are caused by people making fires to heat or cook, or setting up some sort of jerry-rigged mechanism for stealing electricity."
The dangers, though, are often relegated to places we'd just as soon bypass.
Like the forgotten house on Cross Street, not far from downtown Dallas, where Earnest Sirls, 46, bedded down for the night in March after missing the curfew at the Salvation Army shelter. Hours later, firefighters doused flames consuming a house they believed to be empty. It wasn't until five days later that Sirls' sister and nephew found his body in the wreckage.
Or the boarded up house in Indianapolis where Sarah Campbell, 24, and Leroy McQueen, 52 — who'd met in the city's homeless missions — were trying to stay warm on Feb. 28. They were killed in a fire investigators blamed on a heater.
All three were just looking for a night's shelter.
But on Jane Avenue, Gordy Yoesting was convinced he'd found a home.
___
Yoesting spent hours hauling garbage out of 1430. He hung a Miller Lite poster in the kitchen and set photos of his sons, both grown, alongside the television. A roommate provided a recliner and an armchair.
"It looked like an honest man's home," says Elmer Crawley, his half brother.
Yoesting insisted it would stay that way.
"I'm buying me a house, Mom. You can come live with me," Carol Lechnyr says he told her.
The plan, as Yoesting told it, was to buy 1430 from the Land Bank.
Land Bank officials say they sometimes sell to tenants who can show they'll bring a deteriorating house up to the building code. Most often, though, in neighborhoods where houses are worth just a few thousand dollars, the agency keeps the house and eventually tears it down.
But Land Bank staff don't recall Yoesting ever coming in or making an offer for 1430 Jane, said Doug Weiland, the executive director.
Yoesting was still in the house in mid-September when a Consumers Energy inspector, acting on a tip, shut off the pirated electricity. The Land Bank sent out an eviction notice, Weiland said. In the first few days of October an inspector came by 1430 Jane. Yoesting promised he'd be out by the following Monday or Tuesday.
On Tuesday night, Oct. 7, Yoesting lit candles to make the most of his remaining eyesight. He'd been drinking, and as the hour passed midnight, he tinkered with his lawnmower in the living room.
The next morning, Ron Morgan was pouring coffee when neighbor Dallas Freeman began beating on his door. Smoke! At Gordy's place!
The men jumped the steps of 1430, then stepped back to kick the door in.
That's when the place blew.
The cause of the fire is still undetermined, but police suspect the candles and the gas Yoesting kept inside for his mower. Thin rumors circulate that maybe someone had it in for Yoesting. So far, though, neither intent nor proof has turned up, said Sgt. James Hamilton, the arson investigator.
"That's what frustrating about this job. At the end of the day, you have to walk away and say some of them you just don't know," he said.
Meanwhile, what's left of 1430 — necklaced in yellow police tape — awaits demolition.
If only taking it down assured an end to Jane Avenue's troubles, Kildee says.
"One of those houses is going to burn. One or two or three," he says. "The question for us is will I be able to tear them down before they do?"
But in a city with more than 1,000 abandoned homes slated for demolition, it would have to wait its turn. Until, at 8:15 a.m. Oct. 8, the little house jumped the line.
When firefighters arrived seven minutes later, the front of 1430 Jane was already swollen with flames — the latest in a long, sad string of fires destroying scores of homes this half-empty city no longer has any use for.
Except this one was different.
Like the others, the owner had thrown in the towel. It was in tax foreclosure and ready to be forgotten.
But it wasn't empty.
"Gordy!" neighbors yelled in to the flames. "Get out of there if you're in there!"
Flint's abandoned homes usually announce themselves by the boards covering their windows, walls ripped open and scavenged for pipes and aluminum siding. But at 1430, a pair of chairs hung from the porch. Blinds flapped from bedroom windows.
And as firefighters battled in, a terrible paradox was revealed. In a city and a nation awash in empty structures, one man's abandoned home can be another's man refuge — and sometimes his final resting place.
___
If a fire destroys a home that doesn't really belong to anyone and is worth next to nothing, does it matter?
The nation's housing and mortgage crisis is proving there are no simple answers to that question, just unexpected consequences and difficult choices.
Human activity — whether it's cooking or smoking in bed — sets off most house fires. That explains why the vast majority happen in homes that are occupied. But foreclosures, on top of depopulation in struggling Rust Belt cities, have left millions of homes vacant.
Fire has begun creeping into the void.
Fires in vacant homes rose 11 percent to 21,000 in 2006 — the latest year for which figures are available — while all home fires rose just 4 percent, the National Fire Protection Association reported in April. More than four of every 10 vacant building fires were intentionally set, the group reported.
Some of that is arson for financial reasons. But in neighborhoods of sagging homes worth little, fires are often set by vandals, the homeless or people seeking revenge.
The threat grows as empty homes multiply, said John Hall, the NFPA's division director for fire analysis and research. Vacant homes nationwide topped 19 million earlier this year, up from 15.7 million in 2005, according to the Census Bureau.
"The best way to prevent vacant building fires is to prevent vacant buildings," the NFPA concluded.
That is easier said then done.
Fire complicates the calculus for officials in cities trying to stabilize neighborhoods pocked with abandoned homes.
Firefighters, pledged to a gung-ho culture that demands attacking fires head-on, increasingly confront dangerous blazes where the property is not worth saving and often the only lives endangered are their own.
Abandoned homes offer shelter to drug users and gangs, which can make them magnets for fire.
And then there are people like Gordon Yoesting, looking for a place to sleep.
___
By the time Yoesting and 1430 Jane found each other, the neighborhood where both were raised was crumbling.
Even in its heyday, Flint's East Side was far from fancy. It was a working man's neighborhood of small lots and modest woodframes, built fast after World War I. You moved to the East Side because it was within walking distance of the massive Buick plant. You stayed because it was home, a close-knit haven of families.
"Everybody had kids on this street. It seemed like they lived here forever," Dan Kildee says, driving slowly down Jane.
Kildee, who grew up to become the Genesee County treasurer, points to yards he used to play in and struggles to recall families now gone. He stops his car in front of a little yellow house — right next door to the charred carcass of 1430 — where his dad was raised, and muses about long-ago walks to his grandmother's and countless Sunday dinners.
Then he looks at what's left of the neighborhood — blocks lined with bruised homes and broken windows. Two streets over, someone has nailed a plywood sign to a tree: "No Prostitution Zone." On three blocks of Jane, the city is targeting 14 homes for demolition, four of which have already been scarred by fires.
"My dad, he can't come down this street anymore. ... It's too hard to see," Kildee says. "Because his whole life was here."
What was once Buick City is largely a cement prairie now, and General Motors, which once employed more than 80,000 in the city of its founding, has cut its Flint work force to about 6,000. Flint's population, which peaked at 197,000, dwindled to 115,000 in 2007, and falling.
To stabilize the city, Kildee started the Genesee County Land Bank, which has taken title to 9,000 properties since 2002, tearing down 1,000 and selling or rehabbing others. The foreclosure crisis has made the job even tougher, leaving the Land Bank with at least 1,000 more abandoned homes to demolish.
But in a neighborhood left reeling, the old block of Jane Avenue hangs on. There are four or five empty or abandoned homes. Others, though, are carefully tended, lawns mowed and siding painted. The 1400 block is battered, but not yet beaten.
Maybe that's why Gordon Yoesting found it to his liking.
Yoesting, too, was born to the neighborhood and raised the son of an autoworker. He returned at 46, a survivor.
He could barely see and walked with a shuffle, at least partly the toll of a long-ago beating in western Michigan by men who subsequently ran him over with a pickup truck. That was more than 20 years ago, and he'd never been the same since.
Still, Yoesting — Gordy to all who knew him — got by. He roamed the East Side, often shirtless and wearing shorts even in Michigan's chill, suspenders strapped across a tattooed back. He mowed lawns for cash, mopped up at The Hideaway and Art's Pub & Grub and cashed his disability checks. Most of what he didn't spend on rent or child support went for beer or vodka, consumed by the gallon.
Yoesting was widely liked, a neighborhood fixture. If you needed furniture or boxes moved, he was the first to volunteer. When neighbor Dakory Cooper's daughter had her bike stolen and Gordy heard about it, he made her a new one out of scavenged parts. He liked nothing better than trading stories and drink.
Yoesting bounced around the East Side — mostly renting cheap apartments, but staying in at least one abandoned house. Then, last March or April, he set his sights on 1430. Cooper had bought the house as a rental property. But upkeep and taxes were dragging him under. By the middle of 2007, he'd given up. The house fell into legal limbo as it moved through tax foreclosure. But when Yoesting asked after it, Cooper handed him a set of keys.
The house didn't have water or electricity until Yoesting and a roommate jerry-rigged both. And the place was a horrendous mess, left behind by the last renters. But Yoesting and the little bungalow with the diamond-shaped window over the front porch looked after each other.
By summer, Gordy told his brother, friends and neighbors, he was fixing to buy the place.
___
When two of Flint's abandoned houses caught fire in early 2007, it got Andy Graves thinking.
A firefighter was injured in the first. Soon after the second burned, the city tore down what was left. Nobody was in either. Were these places worth the risks firefighters were taking?
Graves, a primary captain for the Flint Fire Department, started tracking fires in vacant buildings and the scope of the problem became clear. Blazes in vacant structures accounted for 40 percent of all Flint's fires and more than 60 percent of firefighter injuries.
Since then, vacant buildings fires have jumped nearly a third. In the 18 months ending in February, Flint saw 406 vacant building fires.
In a three-block stretch of East Alma Avenue, seven houses are slated for demolition — and five of them have burned. A vacant and vandalized apartment building on Second Street has been hit by 10 fires in two years.
"We were putting out fires and they would come by the next week and simply condemn the buildings to be demolished," Graves said. "That's when we said we can no longer continue to do this."
Flint is hardly alone. But figuring out how to confront such fires is an uneasy challenge. In Detroit, it took a tragedy to prompt a reexamination.
Last Nov. 15, crews battled a blaze in an abandoned house on the city's East Side. Investigators later concluded it had been intentionally set.
Engines beat back the blaze before firefighters charged in. Walter Harris was the second man up the stairs.
They appeared to have the fire under control, with men chasing hotspots in the attic. The only warning was a creak. Then the roof crashed in. Harris, 37, was killed.
Up to then, "there really hadn't been a lot of thinking about this and we approached every fire the exact same way whether it was abandoned, whether it was vacant or whether it was occupied," said Lt. Robert Shinske, who chairs the safety committee for the Detroit firefighters union local.
But "when Walter Harris died everybody was like, wait a minute, what the hell is going on here?" Shinske said.
Harris' death has pushed Detroit toward adopting changes much like those other cities have already embraced. The new approach urges firefighters to assess fires before rushing in. If the building cannot be saved and they are certain nobody is inside, they should fight the fire from the exterior to limit their own risk. In Flint, such a change has cut the number of firefighter injuries in abandoned building blazes by a quarter, and reduced injury time by more than a third.
Ceding ground to fires, though, does not sit easy with firefighters. In San Antonio, the fire chief and the firefighters union battled this spring over a new policy. Firefighters have argued that it's their job to go head to head with flames, and that the only way to be certain if a place is occupied is to go in.
In the overwhelming majority of abandoned home fires, while its often evident someone has been inside, they're gone by the time firefighters arrive.
Nationwide, fires in vacant buildings killed an average of 50 civilians yearly between 2003 and 2006, according to the NFPA. In Flint, where crews have battled nearly 1,000 abandoned building fires since 2004, just five people have been trapped inside. Two were rescued, one jumped from a window, and two died.
But as the economy leaves more people homeless, they're increasingly taking shelter in homes left untended by owners and lenders, said Eduardo M. Penalver, a Cornell University law professor who studies the causes and possible remedies of squatting.
"Squatting is dangerous for the squatters," he said. "The illegality of it sort of causes people to cut corners. So a lot of fires are caused by people making fires to heat or cook, or setting up some sort of jerry-rigged mechanism for stealing electricity."
The dangers, though, are often relegated to places we'd just as soon bypass.
Like the forgotten house on Cross Street, not far from downtown Dallas, where Earnest Sirls, 46, bedded down for the night in March after missing the curfew at the Salvation Army shelter. Hours later, firefighters doused flames consuming a house they believed to be empty. It wasn't until five days later that Sirls' sister and nephew found his body in the wreckage.
Or the boarded up house in Indianapolis where Sarah Campbell, 24, and Leroy McQueen, 52 — who'd met in the city's homeless missions — were trying to stay warm on Feb. 28. They were killed in a fire investigators blamed on a heater.
All three were just looking for a night's shelter.
But on Jane Avenue, Gordy Yoesting was convinced he'd found a home.
___
Yoesting spent hours hauling garbage out of 1430. He hung a Miller Lite poster in the kitchen and set photos of his sons, both grown, alongside the television. A roommate provided a recliner and an armchair.
"It looked like an honest man's home," says Elmer Crawley, his half brother.
Yoesting insisted it would stay that way.
"I'm buying me a house, Mom. You can come live with me," Carol Lechnyr says he told her.
The plan, as Yoesting told it, was to buy 1430 from the Land Bank.
Land Bank officials say they sometimes sell to tenants who can show they'll bring a deteriorating house up to the building code. Most often, though, in neighborhoods where houses are worth just a few thousand dollars, the agency keeps the house and eventually tears it down.
But Land Bank staff don't recall Yoesting ever coming in or making an offer for 1430 Jane, said Doug Weiland, the executive director.
Yoesting was still in the house in mid-September when a Consumers Energy inspector, acting on a tip, shut off the pirated electricity. The Land Bank sent out an eviction notice, Weiland said. In the first few days of October an inspector came by 1430 Jane. Yoesting promised he'd be out by the following Monday or Tuesday.
On Tuesday night, Oct. 7, Yoesting lit candles to make the most of his remaining eyesight. He'd been drinking, and as the hour passed midnight, he tinkered with his lawnmower in the living room.
The next morning, Ron Morgan was pouring coffee when neighbor Dallas Freeman began beating on his door. Smoke! At Gordy's place!
The men jumped the steps of 1430, then stepped back to kick the door in.
That's when the place blew.
The cause of the fire is still undetermined, but police suspect the candles and the gas Yoesting kept inside for his mower. Thin rumors circulate that maybe someone had it in for Yoesting. So far, though, neither intent nor proof has turned up, said Sgt. James Hamilton, the arson investigator.
"That's what frustrating about this job. At the end of the day, you have to walk away and say some of them you just don't know," he said.
Meanwhile, what's left of 1430 — necklaced in yellow police tape — awaits demolition.
If only taking it down assured an end to Jane Avenue's troubles, Kildee says.
"One of those houses is going to burn. One or two or three," he says. "The question for us is will I be able to tear them down before they do?"
Friday, June 19, 2009
Naked patrons flee from swingers club fire
MONTREAL, June 19 (UPI) -- The cause of a Montreal fire at a swingers' club that had patrons fleeing nearly naked early Friday was under investigation, firefighters said.
Fire alarms began sounding around 6:30 a.m. at the Auberge 1082 club with three employees and seven customers inside, fire spokesman Gilles Ducharme told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
Six people suffered smoke inhalation and required ladder rescue, the report said.
A resident of a nearby apartment building who asked not to be identified told the CBC it was "a sight to behold" as near-naked people descended the ladders.
The club operates a sauna in the basement and rooms on the second floor, while the ground floor is an extermination business, the report said.
Ducharme said a final determination of the cause hadn't been ascertained, although early indications pointed to the electrical system of the sauna, the CBC said.
Fire alarms began sounding around 6:30 a.m. at the Auberge 1082 club with three employees and seven customers inside, fire spokesman Gilles Ducharme told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
Six people suffered smoke inhalation and required ladder rescue, the report said.
A resident of a nearby apartment building who asked not to be identified told the CBC it was "a sight to behold" as near-naked people descended the ladders.
The club operates a sauna in the basement and rooms on the second floor, while the ground floor is an extermination business, the report said.
Ducharme said a final determination of the cause hadn't been ascertained, although early indications pointed to the electrical system of the sauna, the CBC said.
Police officer injured. Pursuit follows.
Two people have been charged in connection with a Thursday incident that included a chase and ramming a Calgary police cruiser.
At about 10 p.m., officers were called to the South Trail Shopping Centre on 130 Avenue about two people who had allegedly committed a theft from a nearby big-box retailer.
Store employees pointed out a vehicle where the two suspects were sitting. The vehicle was later determined to be stolen.
Officers parked their cruiser — which had its emergency lights activated — behind the vehicle in order to stop the driver from fleeing. As one of the officers got out of the cruiser to challenge the occupants of the vehicle, the driver put the car into reverse and rammed the cruiser, pushing it aside.
The driver then jumped a grass median and sped off westbound on 130 Avenue, narrowly missing a pedestrian waiting at a bus stop. The driver continued to flee from police and left the city limits towards Langdon.
With Alberta Sheriffs, Strathmore RCMP and an air unit giving chase, the driver eventually pulled over and both occupants were arrested.
A 39-year-old Calgary man is charged with dangerous operation of a vehicle, hit and run, failing to stop for police and destroying or damaging property.
A 21-year-old man from Calgary is charged with destroying or damaging property.
An officer suffered back and neck injuries as a result of the cruiser being rammed.
At about 10 p.m., officers were called to the South Trail Shopping Centre on 130 Avenue about two people who had allegedly committed a theft from a nearby big-box retailer.
Store employees pointed out a vehicle where the two suspects were sitting. The vehicle was later determined to be stolen.
Officers parked their cruiser — which had its emergency lights activated — behind the vehicle in order to stop the driver from fleeing. As one of the officers got out of the cruiser to challenge the occupants of the vehicle, the driver put the car into reverse and rammed the cruiser, pushing it aside.
The driver then jumped a grass median and sped off westbound on 130 Avenue, narrowly missing a pedestrian waiting at a bus stop. The driver continued to flee from police and left the city limits towards Langdon.
With Alberta Sheriffs, Strathmore RCMP and an air unit giving chase, the driver eventually pulled over and both occupants were arrested.
A 39-year-old Calgary man is charged with dangerous operation of a vehicle, hit and run, failing to stop for police and destroying or damaging property.
A 21-year-old man from Calgary is charged with destroying or damaging property.
An officer suffered back and neck injuries as a result of the cruiser being rammed.
Teen electrocuted as storm downs power line
Mich. teen electrocuted as storm downs power line
1 hour ago
OAKFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A teenage boy has died after running into a downed power line while going to help neighbors as a storm swept western Michigan.
Police say Christopher O'Neill was electrocuted about 11 p.m. Thursday.
Family members heard a "pop" and saw a flash when the power line fell and believed their neighbors' home might have caught fire.
Christopher, who was about 16, rushed to alert the neighbors, a family that included several young children. With electricity out in the area, he couldn't see clearly and ran into the waist-high line.
In the same county, Kent, a lightning strike set fire to a home, and heavy rain in the region flooded some roads. Consumers Energy Co. reports some 36,500 customers were without power statewide.
1 hour ago
OAKFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A teenage boy has died after running into a downed power line while going to help neighbors as a storm swept western Michigan.
Police say Christopher O'Neill was electrocuted about 11 p.m. Thursday.
Family members heard a "pop" and saw a flash when the power line fell and believed their neighbors' home might have caught fire.
Christopher, who was about 16, rushed to alert the neighbors, a family that included several young children. With electricity out in the area, he couldn't see clearly and ran into the waist-high line.
In the same county, Kent, a lightning strike set fire to a home, and heavy rain in the region flooded some roads. Consumers Energy Co. reports some 36,500 customers were without power statewide.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Plane lands safely after pilot dies
(CNN) -- Continental Flight 61, whose pilot died midflight Thursday while flying from Brussels, Belgium, to Newark, New Jersey, has landed safely, the Federal Aviation Administration and Continental Airlines said.
The Boeing 777 landed at Newark International Airport at 11:49 a.m. ET Thursday, Continental Airlines said.
The Boeing 777 landed at Newark International Airport at 11:49 a.m. ET Thursday, Continental Airlines said.
Click to view previous image
1 of 2
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The Boeing 777 landed at Newark International Airport at 11:49 a.m. ET Thursday, the airline said, after the 61-year-old Newark-based pilot died "apparently of natural causes."
No further details were given.
Asked whether the plane's 247 passengers had been told of the situation, a Continental spokesman said only that the plane had arrived safely.
Passengers told CNN they were not told of the situation, only that an announcement for a doctor was made during the flight.
The airline said the crew on the flight included a relief pilot who took the place of the deceased man.
The pilot had 21 years of service with Continental, the airline said.
The Boeing 777 landed at Newark International Airport at 11:49 a.m. ET Thursday, Continental Airlines said.
The Boeing 777 landed at Newark International Airport at 11:49 a.m. ET Thursday, Continental Airlines said.
Click to view previous image
1 of 2
Click to view next image
The Boeing 777 landed at Newark International Airport at 11:49 a.m. ET Thursday, the airline said, after the 61-year-old Newark-based pilot died "apparently of natural causes."
No further details were given.
Asked whether the plane's 247 passengers had been told of the situation, a Continental spokesman said only that the plane had arrived safely.
Passengers told CNN they were not told of the situation, only that an announcement for a doctor was made during the flight.
The airline said the crew on the flight included a relief pilot who took the place of the deceased man.
The pilot had 21 years of service with Continental, the airline said.
Angry Mayor letter -
While not related directly to emergency services, I got a kick out of this.
It reads like a 3 AM flame email response...
Way to go Mayor!
Mayor George Lattery
Submitted
There have been several concerns voiced by citizens lately. Below I will address them one at a time.
The first one is the new Town Office. The Kinsmen Club stated in the paper on May 20 that Council and I were having the office built in Kinsmen Park. While this had been only discussed, we also talked about renovating and adding to the existing office or any other available land. These were all options. However, it was never stated where we would build or even if we were building. Also, I am not aware of building a garage to store the antique fire truck. Could someone tell me when the Agricultural Society is moving to their new location, because no one has told us?
We are working to improve the quality of life in Strathmore. We have a regional waterline coming from Calgary which was started in 2008 and should be completed in 2009. We also have a 10-year approval for our effluent water line to the Bow River, and we are currently rebuilding our existing Wastewater Treatment Plant. Both of these issues have been in the Strathmore Standard on several occasions.
The Aquatic Centre has now been approved to complete the next phases. The plans and money are in place and work will begin soon.
There is a Gay Rodeo coming to Strathmore. This function is being put on by a private company. The Town in no way, shape or form had anything to do with this. Please direct your concerns to the proper parties.
Saturday evening two weeks ago, I put a total water ban on. This was due to the fact that our storage levels were at an extremely low level. My priorities were to be able to service the hospital, the emergency fire service and to have water so that people could still shower and flush their toilets. I received a letter stating that the water tastes like dirt. This is exactly what I was trying to prevent. I did what was necessary. It has been said that I think I am a water expert. I’m not, however, I also received letters stating roads, driveways and sidewalks were being watered and at some locations water was running down the gutters.
Another, statement: “Why can’t I drink fresh flowing water from my tap?” Well, I always have and always will! Another note, I have been told and asked why these issues haven’t been dealt with before now, such as in the late ‘90s and early 2000s. I don’t have answers for that. The reason being is I didn’t live here. I moved here in December, 2004 and was elected in October, 2007. I will only answer for what has been done since then.
These are just a few issues of concern that I’ll address at this time, however I have been told in several letters to remember it’s the people who are paying my wages. I know this, so on October 18, 2010 its election time again and you will be able to elect the person to whom you want to pay wages. If anyone would like to talk to me please call 403-934-3133 at the Town Office. I look forward to working for you and will always listen to your concerns
It reads like a 3 AM flame email response...
Way to go Mayor!
Mayor George Lattery
Submitted
There have been several concerns voiced by citizens lately. Below I will address them one at a time.
The first one is the new Town Office. The Kinsmen Club stated in the paper on May 20 that Council and I were having the office built in Kinsmen Park. While this had been only discussed, we also talked about renovating and adding to the existing office or any other available land. These were all options. However, it was never stated where we would build or even if we were building. Also, I am not aware of building a garage to store the antique fire truck. Could someone tell me when the Agricultural Society is moving to their new location, because no one has told us?
We are working to improve the quality of life in Strathmore. We have a regional waterline coming from Calgary which was started in 2008 and should be completed in 2009. We also have a 10-year approval for our effluent water line to the Bow River, and we are currently rebuilding our existing Wastewater Treatment Plant. Both of these issues have been in the Strathmore Standard on several occasions.
The Aquatic Centre has now been approved to complete the next phases. The plans and money are in place and work will begin soon.
There is a Gay Rodeo coming to Strathmore. This function is being put on by a private company. The Town in no way, shape or form had anything to do with this. Please direct your concerns to the proper parties.
Saturday evening two weeks ago, I put a total water ban on. This was due to the fact that our storage levels were at an extremely low level. My priorities were to be able to service the hospital, the emergency fire service and to have water so that people could still shower and flush their toilets. I received a letter stating that the water tastes like dirt. This is exactly what I was trying to prevent. I did what was necessary. It has been said that I think I am a water expert. I’m not, however, I also received letters stating roads, driveways and sidewalks were being watered and at some locations water was running down the gutters.
Another, statement: “Why can’t I drink fresh flowing water from my tap?” Well, I always have and always will! Another note, I have been told and asked why these issues haven’t been dealt with before now, such as in the late ‘90s and early 2000s. I don’t have answers for that. The reason being is I didn’t live here. I moved here in December, 2004 and was elected in October, 2007. I will only answer for what has been done since then.
These are just a few issues of concern that I’ll address at this time, however I have been told in several letters to remember it’s the people who are paying my wages. I know this, so on October 18, 2010 its election time again and you will be able to elect the person to whom you want to pay wages. If anyone would like to talk to me please call 403-934-3133 at the Town Office. I look forward to working for you and will always listen to your concerns
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Drug dealers die in Cocaine fire
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — Dominican authorities say two suspected drug dealers have died of smoke inhalation after trying to burn cocaine before police could find it.
The spokesman of the National Drug Control agency says that Mauricio Encarnacion Castillo and Ramon Antonio del Rosario set the evidence on fire after exchanging gunfire with police conducting a raid.
Roberto Lebron said Wednesday that the house then caught fire and the men died of smoke inhalation.
He says police detained two other people during Tuesday's raid in San Pedro de Macoris.
The spokesman of the National Drug Control agency says that Mauricio Encarnacion Castillo and Ramon Antonio del Rosario set the evidence on fire after exchanging gunfire with police conducting a raid.
Roberto Lebron said Wednesday that the house then caught fire and the men died of smoke inhalation.
He says police detained two other people during Tuesday's raid in San Pedro de Macoris.
Missing Pilot found.
A missing pilot who took off from City Centre Airport and never returned has been found dead.
The pilot, and lone occupant of the single-propeller Beechcraft Bonanza plane, was found inside the wreckage about 4:30 p.m. yesterday.
"The pilot was found without vital signs," said Lieut. Annie Morin, spokesman for 8 Wing Trenton.
LOCATED IN CASTOR
The plane was found in Castor, about 243 southeast of Edmonton, by a search and rescue crew.
It left the City Centre Airport Monday around noon for a quick flight.
By 6 p.m., when the pilot had not returned at his scheduled time, the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre at CFB Trenton launched a search.
A Hercules aircraft from Winnipeg joined the effort and combed the Drumheller area, the plane's last known position, overnight.
Crew members aboard the Hercules spotted the wreckage outside Drumheller.
CIVIL AIR SEARCH
The Civil Air Search and Rescue Association of Alberta also joined the hunt.
"They're civilians and they do search and rescue as well," Morin said.
"At this point, they have three aircraft searching."
No ground search was launched as the aircraft flew overhead.
"It starts with the air and after that, if the Hercules found anything, we have search and rescue technicians who jump out of the aircraft and access the site," Morin said.
ALYSSA.NOEL@SUNMEDIA.CA
-- With files from Michelle Thompson
The pilot, and lone occupant of the single-propeller Beechcraft Bonanza plane, was found inside the wreckage about 4:30 p.m. yesterday.
"The pilot was found without vital signs," said Lieut. Annie Morin, spokesman for 8 Wing Trenton.
LOCATED IN CASTOR
The plane was found in Castor, about 243 southeast of Edmonton, by a search and rescue crew.
It left the City Centre Airport Monday around noon for a quick flight.
By 6 p.m., when the pilot had not returned at his scheduled time, the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre at CFB Trenton launched a search.
A Hercules aircraft from Winnipeg joined the effort and combed the Drumheller area, the plane's last known position, overnight.
Crew members aboard the Hercules spotted the wreckage outside Drumheller.
CIVIL AIR SEARCH
The Civil Air Search and Rescue Association of Alberta also joined the hunt.
"They're civilians and they do search and rescue as well," Morin said.
"At this point, they have three aircraft searching."
No ground search was launched as the aircraft flew overhead.
"It starts with the air and after that, if the Hercules found anything, we have search and rescue technicians who jump out of the aircraft and access the site," Morin said.
ALYSSA.NOEL@SUNMEDIA.CA
-- With files from Michelle Thompson
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
search for missing pilot continues
Rescue crews continue to search for a missing pilot who took off from Edmonton City Centre Airport Monday and didn't return.
When the single propeller Beechcraft Bonanza plane, carrying only the pilot, didn't return to the airport at its scheduled time, the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre at CFB Trenton launched a search.
A Hercules aircraft from Winnipeg scoured the area near Drumheller, the aircraft's last known position, overnight but turned up nothing.
The search is continuing today with another Hercules replacing the one that searched overnight. The Civil Search and Rescue Association of Alberta has also joined the search, said Lt. Annie Morin, spokesman for Eight Wing Trenton.
"They're civilians and they do search and rescue as well," she said. "At this point they have three aircrafts searching."
When the single propeller Beechcraft Bonanza plane, carrying only the pilot, didn't return to the airport at its scheduled time, the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre at CFB Trenton launched a search.
A Hercules aircraft from Winnipeg scoured the area near Drumheller, the aircraft's last known position, overnight but turned up nothing.
The search is continuing today with another Hercules replacing the one that searched overnight. The Civil Search and Rescue Association of Alberta has also joined the search, said Lt. Annie Morin, spokesman for Eight Wing Trenton.
"They're civilians and they do search and rescue as well," she said. "At this point they have three aircrafts searching."
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Beef jerky plant explodes!
INCIDENT REPORT
A ConAgra plant near Raleigh, N.C., that makes and packages Slim Jim beef jerky was rocked by a huge explosion on Tuesday, killing three employees and sending dozens of workers and three firefighters to hospital with severe burns or "exposure to toxic fumes."
ConAgra spokespeople have been quick to offer funding for workers affected by the plant collapse, but not quite quick enough to explain why the heck they need 34,000 gallons of ammonia to make a spicy meat stick in the first place.
(Your Consumerist sausage experts can tell you that ammonia is used to refrigerate the meat before it's Jimmified.)
The factory, by the way, was located on Jones Sausage Road.
"Recovery over, investigation begins" [WRAL]
A ConAgra plant near Raleigh, N.C., that makes and packages Slim Jim beef jerky was rocked by a huge explosion on Tuesday, killing three employees and sending dozens of workers and three firefighters to hospital with severe burns or "exposure to toxic fumes."
ConAgra spokespeople have been quick to offer funding for workers affected by the plant collapse, but not quite quick enough to explain why the heck they need 34,000 gallons of ammonia to make a spicy meat stick in the first place.
(Your Consumerist sausage experts can tell you that ammonia is used to refrigerate the meat before it's Jimmified.)
The factory, by the way, was located on Jones Sausage Road.
"Recovery over, investigation begins" [WRAL]
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Fire destroys topless coffee shop in Maine
Get all of the details at INCIDENT REPORT
By Michele Richinick, Globe Correspondent
An early morning fire destroyed a topless coffee shop in Maine that created a controversy when it opened in February.
Flames engulfed the Grandview Topless Coffee Shop on Route 3 in Vassalboro at 1 a.m., Fire Chief Eric Rowe said. With the help of nine other fire departments, crews extinguished the three-alarm blaze after battling it for about five hours.
"There is nothing left of the main part of the building where the coffee shop was," Rowe said. "It just went right through the whole main part of it.”
The fire started in a rear building connected to the shop. Rowe said he was unsure what was in the building at the time of the fire.
Fire investigators are trying to determine what caused the fire. No injuries were reported.
The Globe interviewed proprietor Donald Crabtree for a story published in January and he said he was opening the topless coffee because he saw a niche in the sinking economy of the rural community just north of Augusta. Many townspeople, however, worried that the shop would attract similar adult businesses and undesirable visitors.
Original story
By Michele Richinick, Globe Correspondent
An early morning fire destroyed a topless coffee shop in Maine that created a controversy when it opened in February.
Flames engulfed the Grandview Topless Coffee Shop on Route 3 in Vassalboro at 1 a.m., Fire Chief Eric Rowe said. With the help of nine other fire departments, crews extinguished the three-alarm blaze after battling it for about five hours.
"There is nothing left of the main part of the building where the coffee shop was," Rowe said. "It just went right through the whole main part of it.”
The fire started in a rear building connected to the shop. Rowe said he was unsure what was in the building at the time of the fire.
Fire investigators are trying to determine what caused the fire. No injuries were reported.
The Globe interviewed proprietor Donald Crabtree for a story published in January and he said he was opening the topless coffee because he saw a niche in the sinking economy of the rural community just north of Augusta. Many townspeople, however, worried that the shop would attract similar adult businesses and undesirable visitors.
Original story
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