Fox News
Abandoned buildings have been a problem in the U.S. for decades, and that problem is starting to become evident again. Blighted buildings can also be deathtraps for firefighters, as first responders are forced to put their lives on the line when fires break out on these properties.
“It’s an issue, it’s been an issue. We can’t just roll up on a building and say, ‘There’s nobody in there, we’re not going in.’ We’re here to protect life and property, and that’s what we do,” said St. Louis Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson. More
While we’re on the subject, here’s a nice short on Gary, IN, an entire city that’s been all but abandoned. Watch
Let them burn…..
Chris Brown
MARCH 27, 2022 AT 8:16 PM
‘Let them burn…..’
…well, besides the fact that would be a betrayal of your duty and your oath, its not a great idea legally because you don’t know who or what is in there or how far it will burn, cf. The Great Chicago Fire, or why it was set.
Because someone DID set it.
Abandoned buildings typically have their utilities shut off, so they don’t have a lot of impetus to burn unless someone burns them.
So someone at least WAS in there.
Homeless?
Arsonist?
Muderer?
Murderee?
You don’t know!
…also, it DOES belong to SOMEONE.
Putting out fires is your JOB.
Deciding which fires are WORTHY of being put out ISN’T.
^^^^Ouch!^^^^
Spooky.
At the time I hated it, but in retrospect, I guess I lucked out only fighting fires outside.
The owner of the dilapidated, vacant building could sell (or give) the building to the city for a nominal price and the fire department could set it on fire for training purposes over and over. Win/win.
1harpazo
MARCH 27, 2022 AT 11:13 PM
“The owner of the dilapidated, vacant building could sell (or give) the building to the city for a nominal price and the fire department could set it on fire for training purposes over and over. Win/win.”
…we used to do that.
2 problems;
1) firefighters SUCK at starting fires. Of course this was due to trying to do this in a controlled fashion to burn a room at a time and use inferior fuels on purpose, but it was a LONG time to stand around in turnouts smoking cigarettes between sets in the hot sun, and
2) Environmental Nazis teamed up with OSHA Nazis to make it impossible to continue doing it.
Also, the neighbors complained about the smoke and noise.
..other than that, good idea, I enjoyed it hugely.
Burr, East St. Louis has slums!?!?!
MARCH 27, 2022 AT 10:11 PM
“Spooky.
At the time I hated it, but in retrospect, I guess I lucked out only fighting fires outside.”
…interior operations are OK, but you haven’t lived until you walk across a steeply pitched roof to the spot where the asphalt shingles bubble, then cut a hole in the roof there without tying off on anything, THEN standing over the hole you just made with the heat and smoke blowing past you with a long ass metal ceiling pole and poking THROUGH the hole until the ceiling falls DOWN and the flmaes shoot UP.
…yeah, THAT’S the stuff.
Roof operations are where the fun is. Let someone ELSE crawl around on their hands and knees feeling under things and bumping into them with their heads and occasionally falling through a smouldering crater into a flaming basement, on top of the house is where the FUN is!
Try hoeing an entire mountainside only to have the wind shift in your direction with 30 mph gusts and sugar pine trees exploding.
Invigorating.
However….one thing no one emphasizes. When you put out a forest fire at night…..it gets dark. Contemplate that. Middle of nowhere…you just stomp out the last lil’ blaze and suddenly it’s pitch black. No hose line to follow back. Open mine shafts all around you…
Yes. It was as funny then as it is now.
Burr, burning down the house
MARCH 28, 2022 AT 1:28 AM
“Try hoeing an entire mountainside only to have the wind shift in your direction with 30 mph gusts and sugar pine trees exploding.”
…no, didn’t like THAT kind of exterior firefighting. Ash got up my nose and that crap takes WAY too long and covers WAY too much terrain in turnouts in the summer wearing a frigging Indian tank on your back.
AND THEN AFTER ALL THAT SWEATY WALKING THEY EXPECTED ME TO PUMP THE FOOL THING!
FWIW, I got an Indian and a hoe when I moved to my new house only to find out the burn pit was too far away for the garden hose.
But no Sir, I did not like it. You can hoe your mountain if you like. We don’t have too many mountains in Ohio so I never had the pleasure, and never will…
…it wouldn’t have killed them to give you guys a Maglite or a Streamlight box, tho…
Keep your “I have no idea what’s in this structure, gosh I hope nothing explodes” heroism. The best damn compliment of my life that I will take to the grave was from a Cal forestry fire fighter. He was totin’ a chainsaw down the trail when he saw me peeing on a burning stump.
“NOW THAT’S A REAL FIRE FIGHTER”is what he said. And yes, I put that sumbitch out.
Plus, forest fires smell waaaaaaay better. Didn’t you ever worry about crazy toxic carcinogens in the air? All I had to worry about was the afore mentioned time it took longer than expected and I got stuck in the dark. Can’t stress that enough. It gets dark at night.
So embarrassing.
Also…the Sierras are whatever the opposite of flat Ohio is. I’ve seen those old timey hand pumps. Always wanted one….
However, the idea of running down 50 degree slopes to the creek and then trudging back up with 30 to fiddy pounds on my back stretches credulity.
Hoe’s. Nigga’. I mean real hoes. Sometimes a shovel. Picks are useless. It goes hoe, shovel, chainsaw, convict labor and then air drops in order of magnitude.
Burr, only you can prevent forest fires
MARCH 28, 2022 AT 1:50 AM
…I engaged in a “surround and drown” of that nature once.
We were called out to what was then a construction area for a giant K-Mart (boy howdy, what an expensive mistake THAT was, they play paintball in there now) and there was a smell and a very light column of smoke, so we got in the pickup while they were filling Indians at the pumper to see what was up, went over the sides and started walking behind the treeline as the pickup went back for the tanks.
Stumbled mostly by smell onto a tiny flare up centered on a cigarette butt. No tanks but there WAS a Mountain Dew filled hose nozzle close to, uh, hand, so I deployed the deck gun and declared fire out shortly thereafter.
I have no idea what the lieutenant wrote in the OFIRs form under “Method Of Extinguishment”.
I only hope he didn’t make little of it…
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahaha!!!!!
That’s the other thing about the Sierras. When you really, really need some water, it’s usually only a few hundred feet from you. Straight down.
Still…..I bet I could use my ninja like hoe skills to battle a structure fire…
Burr, seed two Bigfeets oncet
MARCH 28, 2022 AT 2:07 AM
“That’s the other thing about the Sierras. When you really, really need some water, it’s usually only a few hundred feet from you. Straight down.”
…biggest mountains I’ve ever been in is the Smokies. Not a fan of even walking the trails with a cooler there, (although I did enjoy makimg growly noises to scare the people on the paved trail on the other side of some tall weeds once), so I can’t even imagine climbing up the sides of REAL mountains like that, I don’t even like flying OVER them.
“Still…..I bet I could use my ninja like hoe skills to battle a structure fire…”
…there are always spot fires around a good structure fire that would be useful for, but the detail for YOU would have been the time Little Brother found out Big Brother had a stash of porn ( in magazine form, no electronic nasty then) piled up to the bottom of his matress, so he snuck in there when BB wasn’t home and parents were watching the telly, and didn’t want to make a light, so he concealed himself under a blanket with a choice picturebook, lit a match under it to see with, and I and my merry band were hastily summoned shortly thereafter.
Where does the hoe come in?
…well, we put a good stop on it, kept it to a room and contents burn, but SOP in such cases is to remove smoldering fire loads from the burn room ASAP and complete extinguishment outside. Nothing smolders like dense piles of slick magazines and water doesn’t penetrate them well, so out came the literal hoes that were used to spread the heavily retouched and somewhat singed images of posing ho’s all over the front yard for efficient and thorough dampening until the parents had a conniption about their boy’s shame being as spread out for everyone to view as the naked ladies’ legs in the magazines were, so we had to hastily hlock sightlines for the curious onlookers and finish out wetting of the pasteboard in relative privacy.
So in a situation like that, you could hoe now and enjoy a nice picturebook later. The ones on the bottom weren’t damaged at all.
It’s kids like that that grow up to start forest fires.
See? That’s another thing. There’s no secret shame exposed in a forest fire….except for the guy who had a pot farm that gave us seriously murderous looks as we busted through his encampment.
Other than that….and the Bigfoots…and the ridiculous slopes…. it’s as simple and pure as fire containment gets. Except for the convict labor part. I don’t know how it is in Ohio but I was surprised at how often prison 4×4 big ass truck vans with barred windows showed up.
Like….all the time. Hard to believe Cali is so broke when they cut corners like that.
Literally four months ago I got a 400 dollah check from Cali for the forestry work I did….20 years ago. No idea why I’m gettin’ paid now.
Make demtard politicians fight the fires in their shithole cities!!!