<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?><rss version="2.0">
<!--<rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:cf="http://www.microsoft.com/schemas/rss/core/2005" xmlns:fnc="http://www.foxnews.com/xmlfeed/fncModule#" xmlns:feedburner="http://rssnamespace.org/feedburner/ext/1.0">-->
<channel>
<copyright>Copyright Firecompanies.com</copyright>
<pubDate>Thu, 17 May 2012 04:16:21 EDT</pubDate>
<lastBuildDate>Thu, 17 May 2012 04:16:21 EDT</lastBuildDate>
<docs>http://www.emergencyvehicleresponse.com</docs>
<description><![CDATA[Get Live News Of Firefighters From http://www.emergencyvehicleresponse.com]]></description>
<link>http://www.emergencyvehicleresponse.com</link>
<title>Live News Of  From Emergency Vehicle Response</title>
<image>
<title>Emergency Vehicle Response News</title>
<url>http://www.myfirecompanies.com/images/logo.jpg</url>
<link>http://www.emergencyvehicleresponse.com</link>
<description><![CDATA[Get Live News Of Firefighters From http://www.emergencyvehicleresponse.com]]></description>
</image>
<managingEditor>techsupport@firecompanies.com (support)</managingEditor>
<webMaster>techsupport@firecompanies.com (support)</webMaster>
<generator>techsupport@firecompanies.com (support)</generator>
<language>en</language>
<category>technology</category>

  
  <item>
 	<title>PALM BEACH CO. FL TOWER LADDER CLOSE CALL</title>
  	<category>News</category>
 <link>http://www.emergencyvehicleresponse.com/news/fullstory/newsid/162940</link>
 <description>
  
 <![CDATA[A 70-foot Sutphen Elevated Platform suddenly retracted approximately  5-10-feet while operating in a Platform Operations class on Tuesday.   Frayed steel cables were seen hanging from under the boom, and a pulley was thrown from its housing.At the time of the incident, the aerial was operating at approximately  65-70-degrees and was extended about 60-feet above the ground.   The 3  firefighters in the Platform were not injured and all were wearing helmets and were secured by ladder belts.  A student on the ground was struck by flying debris, but was not injured.  The 3 firefighters in the disabled Platform were removed by another Platform apparatus participating in the class.The cause of the malfunction is being investigated....]]>
 
  </description>
 <guid>http://www.emergencyvehicleresponse.com/news/fullstory/newsid/162940</guid>
    <pubDate>Wed, 16 May 2012 10:05:37 -0400</pubDate>
  
  </item>
  
  
  <item>
 	<title>FIRE APPARATUS CRASH IN NY</title>
  	<category>News</category>
 <link>http://www.emergencyvehicleresponse.com/news/fullstory/newsid/162889</link>
 <description>
  
 <![CDATA[A Buffalo fire truck responding to a fire collided with a civilian vehicle and overturned on South Elmwood Avenue at Chippewa Street this morning. The driver of the fire truck was taken to a local hospital, but authorities said they believe he was taken there as a precaution after he was extricated by Rescue 1. That fire lieutenant was treated and released. The accident occurred at about 9 a.m., as two fire trucks drove down South Elmwood toward a fire at 4 Cathedral Park, at Main Street. Both vehicles approached the Chippewa intersection, but only the first one cleared the intersection. "The other tried to go around a car making a left turn onto Chippewa, but the fire truck and car collided in the intersection," Buffalo police spokesman Michael J. DeGeorge said. That second fire truck, an "air truck" that supplies firefighters with their air tanks, overturned, struck another vehicle and landed on its side against a building on the west side of South Elmwood, just south of Chippewa. The air truck suffered extensive damage, but authorities said the building that was struck sustained only very minor damage.The Accident Investigation Unit responded to determine whether any charges could be filed. There have been no charges lodged, DeGeorge said shortly before noon.Fire officials said that the blaze at 4 Cathedral Park broke out in the vestibule of that building, leaving an estimated $10,000 damage. The cause remains under investigation....]]>
 
  </description>
 <guid>http://www.emergencyvehicleresponse.com/news/fullstory/newsid/162889</guid>
    <pubDate>Tue, 15 May 2012 16:05:59 -0400</pubDate>
  
  </item>
  
  
  <item>
 	<title>FD &amp; TRUCK MFG GUILTY IN LODD's</title>
  	<category>News</category>
 <link>http://www.emergencyvehicleresponse.com/news/fullstory/newsid/162890</link>
 <description>
  
 <![CDATA[According to local media, jurors in Longview (Texas) found the maker of a
 ladder truck from which two firefighters fatally fell â and the Kilgore
 Fire Department â equally at fault for the 2009 training exercise 
deaths.Wrapping up an eight-day wrongful death suit, the panel 
reviewed the case brought by the family of Kilgore firefighter Kyle 
Perkins four hours Monday before awarding more than $800,000 in damages.The
 finding that Perkinsâ department was half to blame for the fatal 
accident, which also took the life of fireman Cory Galloway, means all 
but $192,500 awarded as punitive damages will be cut in half.And 
that $192,000 in punitive damages might not stand as 124th District 
Judge Alfonso Charles told the jury the question leading to that verdict
 must have a unanimous answer. The eight-woman, four-man jury voted 10-2
 that fire truck maker E-One was grossly negligent.E-One attorney Randy Aiken said it was unlikely the company would appeal the verdict.âWe
 wish they didnât find liability (on E-Oneâs part),â Aiken said. âBut 
this keeps the damages way down, so weâre satisfied with that.âDuring
 the trial, which began May 3, jurors heard from both E-One employees 
and fire department staff that safety harnesses had not been worn or 
encouraged by company representatives in either sales or post-sale 
demonstrations.Jurors also heard competing opinions on whether the 
latches on the aerial platform doors used on the 2000 model ladder truck
 were sufficient. Galloway and Perkins burst forward through those 
inward-only doors and fell eight stories during the January 2009 
training exercise.Neither man was wearing a safety harness/ladder belt.During
 closing statements Monday morning, defense attorney Keith Slade 
recalled for jurors the 2008 delivery invoice indicating the department 
was aware safety belts had not come with the ladder truck but were 
needed.âBefore the truck was even delivered, the city of Kilgore 
Fire Department was aware and cognizant they were going to have to get 
safety belts and put them in this truck,â Slade said, later adding: âYou
 donât go to the worst-possible, highest risk scenario knowing you donât
 have safety belts.âSlade also noted that, when the four men went up
 in the platform, the overriding, base controls on the truck chassis 
were at the hands of a 6-month firefighter under supervision.âIf you
 hit the kill switch in the base control the power is lost on the 
platform,â he said. âIf someone is doing their job, if someone is being 
instructed to do their job â whenever the platform sits on the 
(buildingâs) wall, and you hear the scraping and the boom, you know 
somethingâs not right. You hit the switch, you take power from it.âPerkins'
 attorney Jack Walker reminded jurors of a string of E-One employees who
 admitted breaking company policy by not using safety harnesses or 
telling potential customers to use them.âWhy are the E-One personnel allowed to disregard their own policy, disregard their own instructions?â Walker asked.He also said the doors, which were redesigned to be stronger in 2006, remain a menace throughout the country.âThe
 city of Kilgore drew the black bean in this instance,â Walker said. âIf
 the doors stay closed, (Perkins) lives. They had one job to do, and 
they failed miserably. But, what we know will not do it is 8 inches of 
aluminum and a slap-latch. And thatâs all they gave these firefighters. 
... We know thereâs 30 more of them out there. You have the opportunity 
to protect the fire industry. (E-One) has a responsibility to those 
firefighters, and they completely blew it." This information provided 
from the News Journal....]]>
 
  </description>
 <guid>http://www.emergencyvehicleresponse.com/news/fullstory/newsid/162890</guid>
    <pubDate>Tue, 15 May 2012 16:05:33 -0400</pubDate>
  
  </item>
  
  
  <item>
 	<title>HISTORICAL LODD: 3 FFs DIE IN COLLISION WITH TRAIN - MAY 15, 1937</title>
  	<category>News</category>
 <link>http://www.emergencyvehicleresponse.com/news/fullstory/newsid/162826</link>
 <description>
  
 <![CDATA[A windswept, driving rain fell in the early morning hours of a May 15, 1937, as four city firefighters riding on a fire truck returned to headquarters.They had just finished battling a three-alarm blaze on Downs Street that had lit the sky around Midtown.Three of those firefighters â Ferrill Finkle, Preston DeWitt, and Peter Carey â wound up losing their lives, deaths that would rock the departmentâs sensibilities.The three did not die fighting a fire, but were victims of a crash now remembered 75 years later.Current Deputy Fire Chief Wayne Platte said the department will issue a remembrance message over radios on Tuesday at noon, the usual time a daily tone test is done and on the date the firefighters were killed.âIt is dangerous to go to calls, with lights and sirens, and this happened on the way back to the station,â Platte said.A historical account drawn  up by fire department historian Bernie Matthews and newspaper clippings he has put together include details of the tragic accident.It was just after 2 a.m. on May 15, 1937, when the firefighters â all members of Engine Co. 1 â headed back from the Downs Street fire to headquarters.They were riding in a fire engine, uncovered, and approached grade-level railroad tracks that crossed Broadway where a railroad overpass now crosses above the street.âComing down Broadway in a driving rainstorm with their helmets on backwards to keep water from their faces, Fireman Finkle did not see or hear the approaching train or down gates,â Matthewsâ account says.There were lanterns on the gate, but they were obscured because of the weather.âThe apparatus crashed through the gate, striking the baggage car of the northbound passenger train,â Matthews said.A fourth firefighter, J. Richard Smith, was injured but survived, while the three others died.Finkle and Smith were dragged up the tracks for 125 feet. Parts of the fire engine were found scattered along the tracks for 200 feet.âThe left headlight remained lit after the accident,â Matthews said.All four firefighters were rushed to hospitals, but Carey and DeWitt died that day.Finkle was rushed to the hospital by taxi.âAlthough he showed initial signs of improvement, he succumbed to corrective surgeries of his injuries that September,â according to Matthewsâ account.An inquest into the accident was done by the Ulster County Coronerâs Office. It found that âthe death of Firemen Carey and DeWitt were not due to the culpable or criminal negligence, as the driver of the fire truck, Fireman Finkle, was proceeding through a heavy rain without the protection of a windshield on the apparatus,â according to Matthewsâ account.Fifteen years after the accident, the Broadway underpass was completed, replacing the grade crossing where the fatal crash took place....]]>
 
  </description>
 <guid>http://www.emergencyvehicleresponse.com/news/fullstory/newsid/162826</guid>
    <pubDate>Tue, 15 May 2012 06:05:28 -0400</pubDate>
  
  </item>
  
  
  <item>
 	<title>OH RESPONDING APPARATUS CRASH</title>
  	<category>News</category>
 <link>http://www.emergencyvehicleresponse.com/news/fullstory/newsid/162758</link>
 <description>
  
 <![CDATA[A fire truck collides with a car on the way to an accident in Mt. Airy.The crash forced officials to shutdown Colerain Avenue near Tranquility Lane , just after 5 p.m. Sunday.Area roads from Raeburn to West Fork Avenue were also temporary closed for more than 30 minutes.Police say the fire truck was responding to a near-by Metro bus accident, when the crash happened.Information on injuries have not been released.STORY
 FROM: 
http://www.local12.com/news/local/story/Fire-Truck-Wrecks-on-the-Way-to-Mt-Airy-Crash/u-qR5NyVS0i3-m1VI-Tlwg.cspx?rss...]]>
 
  </description>
 <guid>http://www.emergencyvehicleresponse.com/news/fullstory/newsid/162758</guid>
    <pubDate>Mon, 14 May 2012 08:05:50 -0400</pubDate>
  
  </item>
  
  
  <item>
 	<title>EVR Conducts Engine Training for Edwards Air Force Base</title>
  	<category>News</category>
 <link>http://www.emergencyvehicleresponse.com/news/fullstory/newsid/162759</link>
 <description>
  
 <![CDATA[EVR recently completed two days of training with the Edwards AFB Fire Department on their P-24 Pierce pumpers.  The training consisted of both classroom and hands on training to work with their 2009 Pierce 4x4 1250 gpm pumpers. EVR was able to test and validate intake relief valve pressures, flow meter readings and emergency pump procedures. Approximately 38 personnel attended the sessions and were able to operate the fire pump under different conditions including a version of tandem pumping and manifold operations.  EVR experienced great cooperation and enthusiasm from the members in the class and once again appreciated the sunny California weather for the class....]]>
 
  </description>
 <guid>http://www.emergencyvehicleresponse.com/news/fullstory/newsid/162759</guid>
    <pubDate>Mon, 14 May 2012 08:05:38 -0400</pubDate>
  
  </item>
  
  
  <item>
 	<title>TANKER ROLLOVER IN SC</title>
  	<category>News</category>
 <link>http://www.emergencyvehicleresponse.com/news/fullstory/newsid/162709</link>
 <description>
  
 <![CDATA[Traffic on Highway 501 southbound is slowly moving again after a 
wreck involving a Fair Bluff water tanker shut it down, according to 
Horry County Public Information Officer Lisa Bourcier.Two 18 
wheeler tow-trucks are working to remove a tanker that overturned on 
Highway 501 southbound between Gardner Lacy and West Perry Road Saturday
 afternoon.The wreck shut down traffic southbound for about half 
an hour. Northbound traffic is also moving slowly as crews clear the 
scene.The tanker was called in for mutual aid to work a fire that broke out Saturday afternoon.Horry County Police, Horry County Fire Rescue, Conway Fire and SC Highway Patrol were called to the scene.Bourcier says two people inside the truck were taken to Grand Strand Regional Medical Center.STORY&nbsp;FROM: http://www.carolinalive.com/news/story.aspx?list=~\home\lists\search&amp;amp;id=753096#.T6_LBlKn...]]>
 
  </description>
 <guid>http://www.emergencyvehicleresponse.com/news/fullstory/newsid/162709</guid>
    <pubDate>Sun, 13 May 2012 11:05:30 -0400</pubDate>
  
  </item>
  
  
  <item>
 	<title>TEXAS DOUBLE LODD TRIAL CONTINUES: </title>
  	<category>News</category>
 <link>http://www.emergencyvehicleresponse.com/news/fullstory/newsid/162643</link>
 <description>
  
 <![CDATA[Ladder Belts, SOP's and The Death of Two
Firefighters

Any LESSONS LEARNED here for all of us? Apparatus
Manufacturers? Apparatus Dealers?



Kilgore Firefighters guiding the hands-on drills for their
new ladder/platform truck in 2009 knew the operations manual told them to wear
safety belts that could have saved two from a fatal fall, according to
department testimony Monday in a suit against the truckâs maker and retailer. Those
safety belts, which harness a firefighter to the ladder platform, or bucket,
had not been delivered with the 95-foot truck made by E-One. Meanwhile, safety
belts sat idle in a ladder truck no longer in service, one officer testified.
The suit, against E-One and retailer Hall-Mark Fire Apparatus-Texas,
brought by the family of fallen Kilgore Fire Department Firefighter Kyle
Perkins, who with fellow Fireman Cory Galloway, died in the Jan. 25, 2009,
training exercise.
âI started slowly rotating over to the building,â 26-year Kilgore Fire
Department Instructor James Sanders described guiding the 18-square-foot
platform above the rooftop lip of 8-story Stark Hall dormitory at Kilgore
College.
Two four-FF crews had completed their training mission to achieve the roof of
the cityâs tallest building. Leading the third group, Sanders was steering the
platform, called a bucket, carrying Perkins, Galloway and Robert King.
He guided it to within 18-24 inches of the overhanging roof parapet, and he
needed it to be nearer.
âIt dropped rather suddenly,â he recalled. âThatâs when it made contact
with the wall.â
Sanders testified to telling the men to stay calm and keep their weight
steady.
âI looked over the front to see if I could see any obstruction,â he
said, describing the light touch, called feathering, he used on the hydraulic
controls.
Sanders later testified he had operated hydraulics all his life, from
his fatherâs farm to construction work to a stint on a county roads crew.
He said he âfeatheredâ the boom function, which bends like an elbow
from the truck below.
âAnd nothing happened, it just sat there,â Sanders said. âI feathered
again, and shortly thereafter I was in the process of looking over (the front)
again when it broke loose. All of a sudden, we were going backward.â
The violent rocking that ensued pushed Galloway and Perkins outward
through corner doors designed to open inward only.
âMyself and Robert managed to stay in the bucket. ... It seemed like an
eternity. I couldnât tell you how many forward and backward jerks it made. ...
At some point, (King) was very close to the door, and I reached over and
grabbed him back. Pretty much, in that time, we were in survival mode.â
On Thursday, Doug Fleming, instructor for ladder truck maker E-One,
also testified to neither using nor asking potential customers to use safety
belts.
Sanders and Capt. Kyle Huckabee both testified Monday they had never gone
up in a platform ladder, in early sessions with the new one in 2008-09 or
during sales demonstrations.
Neither the fire chief nor the mayor had worn a safety belt during a platform
sales demonstration in 1988, Sanders said.
However, he also testified he included safety belts in the Standard Operating
Procedures manual he wrote for a non-platform ladder truck purchased in 1989.
Huckabee testified the Standard Operating Procedures, or SOP, manual was being
written for the new ladder/platform truck when the tragedy occurred.
Like Sanders, he said he knew of the safety belt instruction in the truckâs
operating manual. He said he did not know whether or not anyone had sought,
before the fatal drill, to retrieve safety belts from a ladder-only truck that
was out of service.
He also testified Kilgore city policy forbade putting equipment in service
before an SOP is written, despite the new truck being used in a fire at Cancun
Daveâs restaurant weeks before the fatal training exercise.
âAt least, in that context,â defense attorney Keith Slade told Huckabee,
âthe city of Kilgore failed to have an SOP in place before the equipment was
placed in service. True enough?
âTrue enough,â Huckabee agreed.

MORE HERE: http://tinyurl.com/cqko947
...]]>
 
  </description>
 <guid>http://www.emergencyvehicleresponse.com/news/fullstory/newsid/162643</guid>
    <pubDate>Fri, 11 May 2012 09:05:03 -0400</pubDate>
  
  </item>
  
  
  <item>
 	<title>CIVILIAN &amp; CHILD INJURED IN INDY RESPONDING CRASH</title>
  	<category>News</category>
 <link>http://www.emergencyvehicleresponse.com/news/fullstory/newsid/162566</link>
 <description>
  
 <![CDATA[A woman and her 3-year-old daughter suffered minor injuries today when their Chevrolet Impala collided with an Indianapolis Fire Department ladder truck on an emergency run, the fire department said in a news release.Tracy Carter, 26, complained of hip pain and her daughter, who was in a car seat, had a cut on her lip following the crash shortly before 2 p.m. at 30th Street and Central Avenue, firefighters said. They were taken to Methodist Hospital to be medically checked, the release said.Firefighters told Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers that they cleared the intersection before proceeding through, but did not see the approaching car. The car struck the side of the fire truck at a back wheel, causing minor damage.Carter told police she had the green light and did not see the truck. The truck was westbound on 30th and the car southbound on Central, the release said.The firefighter driving the truck was given a portable Breathalyzer test, on-scene, by police officers and it registered 0.0, the release said. The firefighter was taken to Methodist for a blood draw and drug and alcohol screening. None of the four firefighters on the truck was injured.STORY FROM: http://www.indystar.com/comments/article/20120509/NEWS02/205090364/Woman-child-slightly-hurt-collision-fire-truck...]]>
 
  </description>
 <guid>http://www.emergencyvehicleresponse.com/news/fullstory/newsid/162566</guid>
    <pubDate>Wed, 09 May 2012 20:05:41 -0400</pubDate>
  
  </item>
  
  
  <item>
 	<title>UPDATE: 3 CIVILIANS KILLED IN APPARATUS CRASH - CASH SETTLEMENT</title>
  	<category>News</category>
 <link>http://www.emergencyvehicleresponse.com/news/fullstory/newsid/162526</link>
 <description>
  
 <![CDATA[Baltimore's spending board approved Wednesday three settlements totaling  $340,000 in claims made against the city, including a civil suit stemming from a  2007 accident in which a fire truck collided with a car, leaving three people  dead.The five member Board of Estimates, which includes Mayor Stephanie  Rawlings-Blake, City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young and City  Comptroller Joan Pratt, voted unanimously to approve the three  settlements.Relatives of victims in the 2007 crash â a husband, wife and  a friend â will split $40,000. Their attorney said that is the cap set for motor  tort claims involving police and firefighters responding to  emergencies.The board also approved two other claims filed again the  city involving traffic accidents with city vehicles. The civil liability caps on  those cases are $300,000 each because they did not involve emergency  vehicles.City Solicitor George A. Nilson said his office has agreed to  pay Paris Butler $200,000. He said Butler was standing at a bus stop when she  was hit by a car driven by a city health department worker who had either passed  out or fallen asleep behind the wheel.Nilson said Butler suffered  extensive injuries and incurred "very significant medical expenses." He said the  city settled with Butler before she filed a lawsuit. The date and location of  the accident were not immediately available.In the other case, Nilson  said he agreed to pay $100,000 to Timothy O. Morgan, who sued the city last  year. The solicitor said that case also involved a traffic accident but he had  no further details.Morgan's attorney, Timothy A. Dachille, declined to  comment.The accident involving the fire truck occurred early on a Sunday  in December at Park Heights Avenue and Clarks Lane. It was deemed the worst  accident involving Baltimore firefighters and civilians in 50  years.Killed in the crash were Iryna Petrov, 49, her husband, Mikhail  Petrov, 35, and their friend, Igor Saub, 24.No criminal charges were  filed, and police at the time said the driver of Truck 27 was responding to a  report of smoke in a hallway of an apartment building, which turned out to be  from a burning pot of food. Truck 27 was the third of four emergency vehicles  responding to the call and heading north on Park Heights Avenue.The fire  truck, with its lights and siren on, sped through the intersection at 47 mph.  The Nissan Murano that the truck struck was traveling at 23 mph, according to  police at the time. Emergency vehicles are required to stop at all red lights  and stop signs, even when responding to emergencies, to ensure that  intersections are clear of traffic.City and state laws set high immunity  for police and firefighters responding to emergency calls, and Maryland does not  recognize gross negligence in such cases, said the attorney representing the  estate of those killed."It's a tragedy," the lawyer, Alex Poberesky,  said of the accident. He said family members have received additional money from  their insurance company, but he would not disclose the amount.STORY FROM: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/breaking/bs-md-ci-suits-settled-20120509,0,1221093.story...]]>
 
  </description>
 <guid>http://www.emergencyvehicleresponse.com/news/fullstory/newsid/162526</guid>
    <pubDate>Wed, 09 May 2012 17:05:46 -0400</pubDate>
  
  </item>
  
 </channel>
 </rss>

