Greetings from upstate New York as the weather here is cold and clammy…like my wife’s feet.  Not too much to go over this week, I hope everyone is doing well, so let’s begin with the good stuff.

·         Capt. John Long and his K9 Wall.E—are back from their deployment on the deadly mudslide in Oso, Washington, that claimed the lives of 43 souls.  He was deployed with FEMA to assist with locating the remaining bodies.  Here is his synopsis of the trip: 

o   Wall.E and I were activated by FEMA on Saturday evening with plane tickets set to leave Easter morning for the mudslide in Oso, Washington.  Wall.E and I boarded the plane and after a long flight, arrived in Seattle at 1230 a.m. and met up with my counterpart from NYTF1.  Chris was a NYPD officer and he had a German Shepard named Brutus.  We traveled another two hours north to the Base of Operation where Incident Command had been setup since the start of operations March 22.  The mudslide was incredible.  Literally, the mountain had fallen down on itself.  The mudslide came from a 800 foot elevation mountain and occurred on a Saturday morning at 1045 a.m. The event was described, by survivors, as a "tidal wave" event that lasted an estimated 9 minutes.  The speed of the flow was clocked at 200 + mph by estimates of the Corp of Engineers.  Wall.E and I were assigned to the mudslide operations and started work on Monday.  We were first assigned to searching from a boat where two people had been found the day before. Wall.E took us to where the previous days finds had been uncovered but no other locations were identified that day.  In the afternoon, we were transferred to the other side of the slide where the depth of the slide was significantly deeper.  Some estimates were up to 70 feet of debris, (mud, trees, houses, cars, fuel oil pools, etc.)  Navigating the debris was difficult and Wall.E handled it like a pro.  He identified several areas and the Wash National Guard searched with us for the remainder of the deployment.  Items were received for DNA throughout the process.  As it stands, only two people are unaccounted for out of 43 victims.  One is a satellite installer who is thought to been on the roof during the event and a Navy Commander's wife that may have been in her car and  is thought to be somewhere in the bottom of the debris field.  Whenever a victim was found, horns were blown across the slide and all work would stop.  A memorial had been erected by WATF1 to a tree that survived a slide and a plaque was place on it.  Wall.E and I were demobilized earlier than expected but all operations were being returned to the local authorities and FEMA demobilized the scene. The President arrived during that day and greeted the responders at the local firehouse for their courage and determination.   At its height there were over 40 excavators clearing the site and working to recover the lost.  Roughly half or 25 of the human remains detection (HRD) dogs in the FEMA system were deployed during this incident.  Travel to and from this incident was an experience of its own.  You cannot teach a K9 to not relieve himself for 8 hours of travel inside secured airports and 5 hour plane rides.  Wall.E was a pro the whole time and made both trips without a hitch.  I was proud to be a part of the deployment to Oso, Washington and understand their slogan of being OSO STRONG.  

·         Personal escape System TTT—class will begin on May 9^th.  Procurement has the bid specs and it should go out for formal bid next week;  21 days on the street and then we will award the bid.  Once the PO has been cut, the vendor will have 30 days to begin delivering 200 units per month, for a total of 1100 PES’s.

·         New thermal imaging cameras—are being tested now.  FLIR, Argus, and others are being tested by ladder companies and Squads.  Please give Capt. Powers any feedback as to what ones you like best. 

·         New Recruit graduation—is May 7^th.  I will not be stacking any new recruits on a company that has a member from the February class.  All indications is that we have another great class of recruits for our department, many of which already have red card, hazmat and USAR tech classes.

·         How many Firemen does it take to extinguish an electrical vault at 200,000+volts?—easy….6!  Want to see?

o   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvOUqeAyJuw

o   On a serious note, this was a job well done by Command and all the units on scene as well as EPD who helped coordinate the behind the scenes issues.

Time to give some thanks…

·         To Capt. Rob Miracle, who called to check on one of our firefighters after hearing about an exposure.  This wouldn’t normally be an out of the normal occurrence, except it happened at midnight.  Capt. Miracle not only called the individual, but the OIC, and the chief to help with the Pt. exposure reports.  On behalf of everyone involved, thank you…!

Here are some of the runs we’ve gone on this week:

·         W3 STRUCTURE FIRE SINGLE FAMILY RESIDENCE FD57 10700 NORMANDY BLVD. TGB1..

·         MCI LEVEL 1 5 PATIENTS 3 ADULTS 2 PEDIATRICS FT CAROLINE AND ROGERO... TGB1

·         Structure Fire/Single Family Residence/W3/FD 28/2756 Jewel Rd/TGB1/End

·         FD19/ MCI LEVEL 1 /5 PATIENTS/ TRAFFIC ACCIDENT/ 8031 GALVESTON / TGB1/ END JLC

·         FD26/ MCI 1 / 5 PATIENTS/ GREEN STATUS/ N295 1/2 M S OF COMMONWEALTH/ TGB1

·         FD41 W3 STRUCTURE FIRE MOBILE HOME 1021 FANTASY DR...TGB1

·         STRUCTURE FIRE/ W3/ FD 19/ 1358 W HOLLYHOCK CIR/TG B1/END

·         STRUCTURE FIRE/ W3/ FD 7/ 1815 W 3RD ST/ TG B5/ END

·         MOBILE HOME STRUCTURE FIRE/FD 25/6152 CATAWISSA CT/F6 ADV 1 CIVILIAN PT SIGNAL 7/TG B1/ENDTRUCTURE FIRE/W3/FD 25/6154 CATAWISSA CT/TG B1/END

·         W3 STRUCTURE FIRE SINGLE FAMILY RESIDENCE FD12 4129 EMERSON ST..TGB1

·         FD4/ CSX/ 550 W WATER/ TWO TRAUMA ALERTS/ ELECTRICAL BURNS/ TO JEA EMP AND ANOTHER PATIENT/ 2ND-3RD DEGREE BURNS

·         And these are just the ones we get paged on during the day!

·         Did I mention the few thousand medical runs too?  Busy week!

Well that’s it for this abbreviated WIR.  I hope everyone is having a good weekend and I hope you get to spend it with family and friends.  I’m at a National Guard exercise in Utica, NY, probably the farthest away from my master bathroom as I can get!  Please continue to keep our members in your thoughts and prayers as some are truly having a bad week.  As always, we thank you for what you do, why you do it, and for always showing why you are the Best Fire Department on the country!

Very respectfully,

Kurtis R. Wilson

Chief of Operations