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Friday, June 07, 2002
Copper Fire [Source: Freq Of Nature]  UPDATE Photos from the Copper Incident have been added to the On Scene Photo Library. Tuesday, June 04, 2002
Traffic Collision on 118 fwy and Corbin [Source: Freq Of Nature] UPDATE Photos of a traffic collision on the 118 freeway at Corbin. 
NY firefighters to get new radios [Source: CNN] NEW YORK (AP) -- The New York fire department is rolling out a revamped radio system to better handle emergencies such as the World Trade Center attack, which left many rescuers struggling to communicate. "The communication was horrible and there's no disputing that," said Tom Manley, health and safety officer for the firefighters' union. "You didn't get the necessary transmissions being heard. Some people heard, some people didn't." City officials have attributed part of the problem to the destruction of equipment called repeaters, which boost radio signals. The repeaters were mounted high in the trade center and in commanders' cars to amplify and retransmit signals. They were destroyed when the hijacked planes struck the buildings and debris crushed the vehicles below. Firefighter unions said that long-standing radio problems in high-rise buildings also played a role. Both say the new, $14 million system appears better suited to situations that could have hundreds of personnel from different agencies performing complex operations at great personal risk. The handheld Motorola radios being tested for a late-summer debut operate at higher frequencies better able to penetrate concrete and steel than the radios in use September 11, company and fire officials say. They are expected to be augmented by new repeaters in 60 high-rise buildings, and radio antennas in subway tunnels, where firefighters also have long had communication problems. Unlike the models they replace, the new radios are compatible with police, Office of Emergency Management and other city systems. At ground zero on September 11, one emergency official who did not have a fire department radio could not broadcast an alert that the north tower was in danger of collapsing. Instead, he had to send a subordinate racing across the trade center plaza to hand-deliver the message to a fire chief inside. "Nine-eleven, of course, highlights some of the communication difficulties that we had," fire department spokesman Frank Gribbon said. "We sort of knew all of this prior to 9/11, but after that event you see how critically important it is." The new radios can be programmed to operate on dozens of radio channels, preventing the fire department's usual single fire-scene channel from being congested during a large-scale incident such as the trade center attack. The radios also allow firefighters in distress to alert others by hitting an emergency button instead of transmitting "Mayday" orally. Monday, June 03, 2002
Wolf Fire [Source: Ventura County Star] By Charles Levin, Photo by Jason Redmond  More than 900 firefighters worked through the night battling a fire north of Ojai that had consumed 2,500 acres of tinder-dry brush as of late Sunday, destroyed three abandoned buildings and threatened others. Light-but-steady winds carried the fire east near Felt Ranch along Highway 33 between Pine Mountain and Chorro Grande Canyon. Highway 33 remained closed Sunday between the Rose and Lockwood valleys and will probably remain so today. Dubbed the Wolf Fire for the popular Wolf Grill Restaurant near where it started, the blaze 10 miles north of Ojai was only 5 percent contained by Sunday night, said Capt. Steve Kleist, a Santa Barbara County Fire Department member and spokesman for the interagency team battling the blaze. Firefighters expected it would take days to put the fire out. "We have every degree of expectation it will move beyond there," Kleist said of Chorro Grande Canyon, where much of Sunday's fight was centered. "We don't have the resources to stop this fire." Firefighters' main goal, Kleist said, was to prevent the blaze from entering either the Matilija Wilderness to the south or the Sespe Wilderness to the east. He characterized the fire's growth potential as "extreme." The fire Sunday destroyed three abandoned buildings along Highway 33 that were once used as horseback camping stations. Firefighters, however, successfully prevented it from consuming a small mobile home off Highway 33 just east of Felt Ranch, Kleist said. There was no threat yet to homes in Ojai or Santa Paula, he said. Several campgrounds were evacuated, and no injuries were reported. The blaze started about 3 p.m. Saturday. The cause was still under investigation, Kleist said. Officials on Sunday retracted their original statement that a burning car started the fire, because "we absolutely can't confirm ? the cause if it is a bit dubious at this point," he said. A variety of conditions conspired to thwart firefighters. Temperatures hovered in the 80s Sunday in an area that saw little rain this past winter. And steep, rocky terrain prevented firefighters from corralling the blaze in their usual box-like formation, Kleist said. Airborne embers crossed Highway 33 around 11 a.m. Sunday, further complicating matters. "The control problems are tremendous for this kind of fire," Kleist said, adding that weather forecasters predict temperatures may soar over 100 by Tuesday. As of Sunday night, 914 firefighters were battling the blaze. These included personnel from the U.S Forest Service, California Department of Forestry, Ventura County Fire Department and nearly a dozen other city and county agencies. The crews set up camp at Soule Park in Ojai, working 12-hour shifts and sleeping in tents in between. Officials said the firefighting has cost $325,000 so far. It's the biggest brushfire of the year so far for Ventura County, where a dry winter led authorities to declare the opening of fire season on April 15, a month earlier than normal. It's also in the same general area as the largest brushfire in Ventura County history, the Matilija Fire of 1932. That blaze burned 219,000 acres in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, scorching most of the Los Padres National Forest from Montecito to Sespe Creek. Damage was estimated at $50 million. Also on Sunday, a brushfire broke out west of Tierra Rejada Road and south of the Arroyo Simi in Moorpark and burned within 25 yards of hillside homes. Ten engine companies, a helicopter and about 50 firefighters responded to the fast-moving fire, which started about 5 p.m. and burned 5 acres before being fully contained by about 8 p.m., fire officials said. The fire burned trees and chaparral but was stopped from reaching the homes, thanks partly to a buffer created by homeowner weed abatement, officials said. "Weed abatement saved the day again," said Fire Capt. Scott Hall, standing in Patrick Leyden's back yard off Manorview Court. Neil McAuliffe, who lives on nearby Kingsview Court, said homeowners were lucky there was not much wind Sunday. "We watched it travel up the hills and couldn't believe it," he said. Firefighters discovered a homeless encampment near the fire site, but the cause remained unknown Sunday, Battalion Chief Norm Plott said. No injuries were reported. Update The fire burning north of Ojai consumed more than 1,600 acres overnight, bringing the total burned acreage to more than 4,100, fire officials said this morning. More than 950 firefighters have managed to contain 10 percent of what's been dubbed the Wolf Fire, but fire officials can give no estimate for the blaze's full containment. Highway 33 between Rose and Lockwood valleys and Pine Mountain and Rose Valley camping areas remained closed today and will likely stay closed for the foreseeable future. The cause of the fire, which began about 3 p.m. Saturday, remains under investigation. 2001 © The E.W. Scripps Co. |