Fireman`s Picnic 2011

One last late entry, our annual Fireman`s Picnic, held last weekend at the Sunny Jim Bottomly Park…I made it up there Saturday evening and snapped a few photos of the rides and tents and sunset….

Cotton Candy Sunset Approaches

..it started out as a cotton candy sunset, this one taken just up the street by the ballfield…then I walked back down to the field below the carnival grounds and shot my truck parked on the side street….

Cotton Candy Sunset Approaches 2

..the first photo with a graduated filter and the second without one…then walked over and shot the sunset with the firetrucks in the photo….

Fire Trucks Friday Night Sunset

 

Carnival At Sunset Friday 2

and…

Friday Night Sunset

..and then the tents and fish stand in the background…

Midway Friday Sunset

and some of the rides too…

Rides by Fisher Ave at Sunset

Car Fire Sunday May 22nd…

I know, I know…I seem to be going backwards here instead of forward…what happens when one gets behind…we had a car fire Sunday afternoon and my back was still hurting so Missy and I went direct and took photos…got there right after our Assistant Chief Chris Garner arrived….

Engine Cooking

one of Sullivan`s police officers tried to knock it down with a fire extinguisher….

SPD Tries to Knock It Down

..but thats hard to do when standing back from it that far……our paid crew was returning from a call out north of town so Capt Kyle and Nolan responded from station one with Pumper 814 and while they were on the way, Chris geared up and tried to hit it with some more powder…

Chris Tries to Use Extinguisher

..but found out the SPD extinguisher was empty, so he walked around and released the hood latch to speed things up when the firefighters arrived with the truck…here Nolan and another firefighter wait for Capt Kyle to give them some water….

Nolan Waits For Water

..then as the line is charged and Nolan bleeds air out of the hoseline, they start their attack…

Attack Started

 

Nolan Kneels Down to Hit Fire

 

Kneeling Down to Hit Engine Block

and pretty soon they have it under control…before the paid crew arrived….

Mopping Up

Multiple Accidents May 24th…

Sorry I skipped a day…Thursday the 24th was a day of multiple accident calls for us…not sure what happened  on the second call, but two vehicles wound up under our west overpass, the first on its side and the occupants had to be extricated…I was on my way to get supper before heading to work so I responded to the top of the overpass and photographed it from there…then heard one of our Chiefs call for Arch and to land them on the overpass, so not seeing any additional police officers available to stop traffic, I remained on the overpass to block traffic if needed…

1st MVA Ray at the Pump

..luckily the occupants in the second vehicle were out of the car and standing…

1st MVA Extrication In Progress 2

..and a few minutes later, our officers decided to land Air Evac on the westbound lanes so I headed off to get some supper…no sooner had I ordered, then we were toned out for yet another call, overturned tractor trailer on fire, with haz mat, westbound 44 half a mile east of the first accident scene, in front of Domino`s and Pizza Hut. So I took off again, and stopped down at Express Care where Brian and the guys were standing out in front and saw it happen…a tractor trailer driver driving westbound on 44 into the city limits at a fast speed, wasnt paying attention apparently to traffic ahead or he would have noticed the slowdown for the one lane change ahead for the accident ahead…instead he comes barreling down the highway and clips a car and another tractor trailer in an effort to get stopped in time and SLAMS into the back of a stopped tractor trailer, resulting in his truck overturning, spilling his load all over the median and westbound lanes, and catching fire.

2nd MVA 3 Tractor Trailers

 

2nd MVA Extricating Truck Driver

fortunately there was a trooper on the scene in seconds as well as a few of our firefighters, who were in the area of the first accident. The truck driver that caused the accident was trapped in his truck and had to be extricated, so more of our personnel had to scramble to the scene in additional trucks with rescue equipment, causing some tense moments on the scene and someone was able to knock down the engine fire with a couple of fire extinguishers.Apparently this driver didnt want to come out of his cab and was refusing to be extricated as well…..

2nd MVA Extricating Truck Driver 6

 

2nd MVA Extricating Truck Driver 7

…luckily he didnt hurt anyone else too badly….

Severe Weather Today, May 25th…

Well I came home sick last night and knowing there were some severe storms, possibly tornadic activity coming our way through the night, I went to bed as early as I could and of course the first storms hit about 4 am and the wind blowing into my bedroom window brought me right out of a deep sleep….I texted my supervisor and warned her it was a bit windy and coming through my town and likely headed toward St Louis County…she couldnt believe I was awake that hour of the morning after going home sick, lol. I felt a sense of responsibility about warning them at least.

I then slept through the next storm about 5 am, when my mom later told me that the second storm actually had more wind with it, but I remember I had shut my bedroom window so likely didnt hear it that time.

When I finally woke up about 9:30 and opened the front door to let the house air out…I found this large limb waiting on the front porch, inches from my door, to greet me….

Limb on My Front Porch Waiting For Me

..this afternoon when the storms fired up, and boy did they fire up…we had notice that one was south of Rolla and coming right at Cuba and then Sullivan, and it had prompted tornado warnings south of Rolla and for us in advance of it, so I boxed up all my nicer crystals and minerals and packed them to the basement…thinking they are going to stay down there til the season is over.

We had a vehicle accident call about 4 pm and so Missy and I headed that way, two miles west of town on I-44 and while out there on a hilltop, I spotted what looked like a wall cloud over Bourbon…shot this photo of it…

Wall Cloud over Bourbon  0525

…we had mostly flash flooding more than anything else, but after seeing what the folks in Joplin have had to endure the last few days…..its just really scarey when the clouds darken down and roll in….and our thoughts and prayers are still with the folks down in southwest Missouri, especially the Joplin area and now the Sedalia area, as the city of Sedalia took a direct hit from a severe tornado this afternoon as well…