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Fire Safety: Kiss, The Station Redux
No Seconds to Spare Station Fire at 40 seconds Sunday was a day of disaster in the Brazilian city of Santa Maria as a raging fire at a popular club called Kiss killed over 230 patrons. The fire was...
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Remembering: Free At Last? January 31, 1865
The 13th Amendment Passes Congress 148 Years Ago Today Lincoln(Gardner) The current box office success Lincoln explores how the 16th President navigated the US Congress and his own Cabinet towards an...
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Firefighter Safety: The Columbia Disaster
Tolerating and Ignoring Risk 107Lifts Off Ten years ago today, the Columbia space shuttle, operating as STS-107, disintegrated over Texas killing all aboard. Columbia had completed a 16-day mission...
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London Fire Brigade: Boris Knows Best
Mayor Overrules Brigade Leaders Boris at the Wheel? London’s Mayor Boris Johnson is pressing ahead with cuts to the London Fire Brigade (LFB) which would result in a decrease of 520 firefighters. A...
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FF Politics: Governor Andrew “Hitler” Cuomo
Political Correctness Strikes Albany Gov. Cuomo My gun frenzied friends no doubt know that New York recently passed a measure designed to inhibit the use of fire arms to commit crimes. Its...
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FF Pensions: Over the Cliff in Illinois
The Big Squeeze Gov. Quinn The current unfunded pension liability of five of Illinois’s state run pension systems is $96 billion. The amount is so large that Standard and Poor, the credit rating...
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Words: Your Horse is Gay
Warning: May Offend Gays, Police Officers, Horses or Those Who Love or Hate Them Possibly Gay Horse Brit Sam Brown, a student at Oxford, was arrested a few years ago during a night out, when he ask a...
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Of Villainy and Religion
To Apologize for Kindness Christ Falling on the Way to CalvaryRaphael You may recall that after the Newtown massacre where 20 children and six adults were murdered, an inter-faith memorial service...
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Irony: Alive and Well at the Holocaust Museum
The Rules Will Be Followed United States HolocaustMemorial Museum I have been working these past few years as a Washington, DC, city guide. It’s a bit like working for the fire department. Every day...
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Who We Are: Pickles, NO Dark Chocolate and that 3/5 Thing
Pass the Midgets Pickles, Small A mother from the “midget” state, literally, has taken taken great offense at the calling of pickles “midgets”. Rhode Island’s Chelley Martinka has a no doubt lovely...
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Responder Safety: When Attention is “Tunnelled”
American Airlines 2253 Does what we expect to happen influence our awareness? Why is constant monitoring essential? AA 757-200 Over-run(AP) Snowy Day 2253 was a Chicago to Jackson Hole, Wyoming (JAC),...
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Fire Politics: Hagel’s Squeaker
You Can Call Me Mr. (Barely) Secretary. Chuck Hagel24th Defense Secretary In the last 35 years all but one nominee for Defense Secretary has been easily confirmed. The exception, John Tower, US...
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Joan, the Holocaust and Hot Heidi
Can Tragedy Be Funny For a Reason? Joan Rivers Joan Rivers, the nearly octogenarian, outrageous comedian, recently observed regarding Heidi Klum that, “The last time a German looked this hot was when...
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March 4, 1908: Catastrophe in Collinwood
Are Our Children Safer? Lake View SchoolCollinwood, Ohio One hundred and five years ago this morning, disaster struck Lake View School in Collinwood, Ohio. Fritz Hirter, school custodian, had arrived...
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Let’s Live…FOREVER!
“Harrowing” and “Horrifying” The Associated Press reported yesterday that an 87-year-old Bakersfield, CA, woman collapsed at the dining hall of her assisted living facility and that staff refused to...
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License to Die
“License and Registration, Please” First, thanks to everyone who read (and commented) yesterday about the “no-CPR” incident. This update from the press: ”Lorraine Bayless had chosen to live in a...
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Red Cross Get’s a Make-Over
Martha at the Helm As some folks know, I am a DC city guide. The 2013 guiding season is underway despite the see-saw weather. The newest memorial, honoring Martin Luther King, Jr, is proving to be...
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Words: “She Read Me The Riot Act”
Origins of an “Ass-Chewing” Nothing makes the sting go away quicker than sharing it with others. The term often employed, as short hand for the experience is “being read the riot act.” It roles off...
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EMS Delivery and Leadership: Officer Down!
On Waiting The DC press was all over a recent incident where a Metropolitan police motor officer was struck and injured by an auto while stopped in far southeast DC, close to the border with Prince...
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History and Race: March 18, 1942
The War Relocation Act Seventy-one years ago today Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed an executive order requiring 120,000 mostly Japanese-Americans to report for forced relocation. In the wake of the...
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