News: Firefighter charged Tuesday with three counts of second-degree commercial burglary.

Fireman charged in theft of station funds
Chief: Team feels violated after money went missing


It was the lack of integrity, not the wad of bills stolen from two fire stations, that made Crest Forest Fire Protection District firefighters feel violated.

One of their own, 20-year-old Burl Lee Baxter, was charged Tuesday with three counts of second-degree commercial burglary.

The charges stem from thefts at two fire stations and the Lake Arrowhead Deli.

"The guys are like a team, and they hate to see a guy go bad," said Chief Michael Sherman. "Like with any theft or burglary, they feel violated. They feel violated because someone inside their own organization was untrustable."

Baxter, who could not be reached for comment Tuesday, had worked for the district as a paid-call firefighter for 13 months before his arrest Saturday at one of the district's seven stations.

Firefighters first noticed money missing from several boxes set out on behalf of children's fundraising efforts. A memo even went out asking whomever had shortchanged the candy box to pony up the dough.

That's when they realized "it wasn't down a dollar or two, it was down quite a bit," Sherman said. "We started putting two and two together and called the Sheriff's Department. Everything pointed to this one individual."

Baxter had aroused suspicion because he had been spotted in areas of the fire stations where he wasn't supposed to be. He had also slept in an office at a fire station one night, and cash was discovered missing from that room the next day, officials said.

Paid-call firefighters work as needed and are bound by more restrictions than full-time career firemen. There are 45 paid-call firefighters and 27 career firefighters in the district.

Before being hired, Baxter had to undergo a background check, including his past employment. He is not expected to return to work for the fire district.

"We don't tolerate dishonesty. We don't tolerate that at all," Sherman said. "Especially being one of our guys."

Source: http://www.sbsun.com Stacia Glenn, Staff Writer- Link

Firefighter pleads not guilty to molestation

A Ventura County Fire Department firefighter pleaded not guilty on Thursday to six counts of child molestation and one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child.

Gary Taylor, 41, a resident of the Conejo Valley, is in custody under $1 million bail and is facing up to 28 years in prison if found guilty of the criminal charges, according to prosecutor Catherine Voelker.

Ventura County Superior Court Judge Kevin McGee set a disposition conference for the case on Feb 23.

According to court documents. the alleged abuse took place from 2000 up until last year. Voelker said Taylor is also charged with the special allegation of substantial sexual conduct with a child.

Taylor was arrested on Dec. 15, according to jail records.

Taylor’s lawyer, Mark Pachowicz, said his office will conduct its own investigation into the allegations.

Both Voelker and Pachowicz declined to comment on the victim’s age or other details pertaining to the charges.

An award-winning Ventura County firefighter is facing child molestation charges. Newbury Park resident Gary Robert Taylor, 42, was arrested December 15, 2008 on six felony counts of lewd acts on a child and one felony count of continuous sexual abuse.

Taylor most recently worked as a fire engineer at a Moorpark fire station. As a firefighter paramedic, he won the department's 2003 Annual Lifesaving Award.

Taylor is currently being held in Ventura County's main jail on $1 million bail. he is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday, January 8, 2009.

Source: http://www.keyt.com/home/ticker/37172434.html
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2009/jan/09/no-headline---nxxfctaylor09/

Vail, CO: Bare Bottom IC - Skier Rescue Vail resort

Ski Bum rescue

Cold Air effectCatching the Butt endPatient ass essment
Credit: Images were taken by Marty Odom Photo's acquired from the Smoking Gun then cropped by CFN for training purposes
Original photo's at Link

Technical Rescue: Bare Bottom IC - Skier Rescue
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Skier Suffers Exposure Man left dangling upside down, pantsless after Vail lift mishap

JANUARY 6--In a bizarre incident that will surely lead to litigation (or an out-of-court settlement), a skier at Colorado's ritzy Vail resort was left dangling upside down and pants less from a chairlift last Thursday morning.
The January 1 mishap apparently occurred after the male skier, 48, and a child boarded a high-speed lift in Vail's Blue Sky Basin.
It appears that the chairlift's fold-down seat was somehow not in the lowered position, which caused the man to partially fall through the resulting gap. His right ski got jammed in the ascending chairlift, and that kept him upended since his boot never dislodged from its binding.
As seen in the photos (which were snapped by fellow skiers), the Skyline Express lift was stopped shortly after the pair's botched boarding resulted in the man dangling from the lift. The exposed skier was stuck for about 15 minutes before Vail personnel backed the lift up and successfully dislodged the unidentified man from the four-seat chair. The images were taken by Marty Odom (who can be reached at martyodm@gmail.com if you're interested in licensing the photos). In a statement released this afternoon, Vail Resorts, which operates the ski area, reported that the skier was not injured after being "suspended for approximately seven minutes." The press release did not explain how the mishap occurred, only that "the man was caught on the chair.

Full Story and original pictures at the Smoking Gun - Link

EMS News: Southern California Fire/EMS hiring

Southern California EMS Expanding Ops in 2009

Los Angeles, CA, January 06, 2009 --(PR.com)-- Southern California Fire/EMS, based in Santa Clarita, CA, is once again expanding it's already large arsenal of services and area of coverage to the film, music, sports and events industry which shows no signs of slowing down.

For the past three years, Southern California EMS has focused all of it's attention on the Los Angeles market but in 2009, it will be expanding operations to cover San Francisco (Bay Area EMS) and Las Vegas (Las Vegas EMS). Capt. Ed Castillo, founder and Dir. of Operations for Southern California Fire/EMS states, "The time is ripe for us to move into these two new markets since most private EMS companies have dropped the ball and we are ready to fill the gaps left behind." This is considered a bold move especially in the current U.S recession.

Joining the team to ensure quality control among incoming firefighters, medics and lifeguards will be Doug Gladstone who will be in charge of Human Resources for the entire company and will be the lead account executive/coordinator for the San Francisco division. No decisions have been made for the Las Vegas division as of yet.

Recently, Capt. Ed Castillo has secured support from a local businessman who believes in the core values and mission of Southern California EMS.

Additionally, he has secured more financial backing from an undisclosed source. The money will be used for equipment, vehicles and training ensuring that Southern California EMS is at the top of their game.

Some of the most unique services that will be offered by Southern California EMS will be the addition of horseback medics, motorcycle medics and tactical medics. All the new services are intended to give Southern California EMS more market share and makes them more highly sought out due to their specialties.

For more information or media inquiries, visit http://www.socalems.com -
Southern California EMS
Captain Ed Castillo
818-825-3950
info@socalems.com
www.socalems.com

Redding: 2 year old and father burned by gasoline fire - RC Fuel

UPDATED: Father and son burned in fuel explosion

By Record Searchlight staff
Originally published 06:46 p.m., January 6, 2009
Updated 07:52 p.m., January 6, 2009

Dylan Darling / Record Searchlight

A Redding man had a fire cauldron made from one end of an empty Vietnam-era bomb casing. Nearby flammable liquid exploded tonight, injuring the man and his 2-year-old son.

Dylan Darling / Record Searchlight

Investigators at the scene of tonight's flash fire that injured a 2-year-old boy and his father on De Moll Drive in Redding.

A 25-year-old man and his 2-year-old son were burned tonight when fuel spilled near a fire exploded outside a home on De Moll Drive in Redding.

Neighbors identified the victims as Justin Cornell and Cody Cornell, who live at the house south of Enterprise High School.

Redding fire investigator Dean Herzberg would not confirm the identities, but said the victims were father and son.

Initial reports said the man was burned over most of his body. Rescue workers later reported that he had suffered burns on his chest, face, neck and back. The boy, they reported, had burns on his face, head, neck and ears and his eyelashes were burned away by the blast.

The two were taken to Mercy Medical Center in Redding. Information on their condition was not immediately available.

Neighbors said that Justin Cornell used a fire cauldron made from one end of an empty Vietnam-era bomb casing. He used the fires for warmth while he worked on his vintage pickup in the driveway, the neighbors said.

Shonn Schmidt, 16, who lives down the block, said witnesses told him that somehow a can of fuel for a remote-controlled car had been kicked over near the fire cauldron and that the fuel exploded.

The explosion was reported just after 6 p.m.

Herzberg said he wanted to interview the burned man in the hospital before releasing additional information on the explosion.

"We really don't know much at this point," he said.

Source: Redding.com - Link

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Rescue crews are responding this evening to a report of a child and a man who were burned by gasoline at De Moll Drive in Redding.

The boy is about 2 years old and the man is about 25 years old, dispatch reports said.

Further details weren't immediately available.

Source: Redding.com - Link

News: Santa Clara Valley Dam could fail after major earthquake

Results of a preliminary seismic evaluation of Anderson Dam: Anderson Dam could fail after major earthquake - Specifically, the study says a magnitude 6.6 earthquake centered directly underneath the reservoir, or a 7.2 temblor centered within a mile or two, could cause the dam's foundation to liquefy and collapse.

Anderson Reservior from Dam‎
Credit: flickr.com (Scott Holmes) - link

Google map of Anderson Lake Dam
- View Larger Map

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Anderson Dam could fail after major earthquake
A major earthquake near Anderson Lake east of Morgan Hill could cause the reservoir's earthen dam to collapse and send a wall of water rushing toward downtown.

That's what the results of a preliminary seismic evaluation of Anderson Dam say, according to Santa Clara Valley Water District spokeswoman Susan Siravo. The study, conducted by AMEC Geomatrix, was part of the district's ongoing program to monitor dam safety at its 10 reservoirs.

Specifically, the study says a magnitude 6.6 earthquake centered directly underneath the reservoir, or a 7.2 temblor centered within a mile or two, could cause the dam's foundation to liquefy and collapse. If the foundation were to collapse, the top of the dam could slump down.

Such a failure "could likely result in an uncontrolled release of water from the dam" if the reservoir was at full capacity, potentially flooding the valley floor from Gilroy to north of San Jose, the study says.

Siravo said the study is only preliminary and is based on incomplete data, and more detailed engineering studies will be commissioned in the coming months.

Nevertheless, she added that given the reservoir's current level at about two-thirds of its 90,000 acre-feet capacity, Morgan Hill is not in any immediate danger of flooding.

"Even if we were to experience a major earthquake, there's not enough water in the reservoir to spill over the dam at this point," Siravo said.

Furthermore, the district announced Monday that it will not allow the water level at Anderson Lake to exceed 87 percent of capacity, keeping the water level about 30 feet or more below the spillway, until more extensive studies can be completed.

Morgan Hill City Manager Ed Tewes said the city has figured the possibility of a "low risk, high impact" failure at Anderson Dam into its emergency preparedness scenarios since it was built in the 1950s.

However, he said the new study "indicates that the risks are a little greater than we had previously thought."

City officials plan to attend the water district's board of directors meeting Tuesday, Jan. 13. At that meeting the board will review the district's dam safety program. Tewes said the city prefers a conservative approach that will minimize the threat to Morgan Hill as much as possible, and will thus ask the district to keep the reservoir at or below its current level.

Tewes said that property owners below the dam, including the commercial development Cochrane Commons, have long been notified of the potential for a dam failure via real estate disclosures. He added that the city's emergency plan includes using an automated telephone message system to notify residents in the event of a failure of Anderson Dam.

Source: http://morganhilltimes.com - article Link

News: Schwarzenegger seeks to terminate CCC

"Hard work, low pay, miserable conditions." "Excellent results" "Model for the Nation" - The California Conservation Corps.

Schwarzenegger - Dismantle it
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Budget cuts target California Conservation Corps

The Schwarzenegger administration's recession-driven budget would dismantle the California Conservation Corps, an iconic state agency that became a national model for tapping at-risk youth, and shift the CCC's functions to a dozen local county conservation programs funded largely by nonprofits.

"This proposal will provide additional support for the 12 certified nonprofit local conservation corps by eliminating the state-level Conservation Corps and increasing state grant funding to the local corps," the administration said in its summary of looming budget changes. The state temporarily would provide $10 million to the locals, instead of the current $7 million.

The budget reductions, described by the administration as a $17 million "realignment," would result in the transfer of a myriad of CCC functions to the local groups, which rely heavily on volunteers. The locals' tasks include traditional environmental projects, such as tree-planting and trail-cutting, but the CCC also fights fires: In June, the CCC put some 90 crews on the fire lines.

"I totally think this is a bad idea," said Bruce Saito, a former CCC official now with the Los Angeles County conservation corps. "We talk about economic stimulus packages, so we need to bring in and employ more young people, who historically face the toughest and most challenging obstacles."

"CCC has many years of experience fighting fires and responding to emergencies, which the local nonprofit corps do not have. They do not have the capacity to respond the way the state does, and that's a very important part of what they do."

Shifting functions to privately funded volunteer organizations is consistent with the Schwarzenegger administration's focus on volunteerism and makes fiscal sense, the administration said. But the elimination of the CCC and a strengthened policy on volunteerism won't hurt the government's ability to handle emergencies, including fires.

"We are still going to fight fires and we are going to keep people safe," said Sandy Cooney, a spokesperson for the Resources Agency. "It is absolutely important to stress that we are going

to do that." Cooney said that in emergencies, the state would reach out to local volunteers and others - as it has in the past. "No one is being critical of the CCC," he added. "but we've got a $42 billion deficit and we've got to make decisions about where we can try to save money. The CCC is an expensive operation," Cooney said.

Whole story and rest of the article at: http://www.capitolweekly.net

LACoFD: 25 years of dedicated service - Retiree Funeral

FFS Wallace (Bill) White - LACFD camp 7

On January 4, 2009 FFS Wallace (Bill) White passed away due to a short term illness. He was 83 years old

His wife Marie wanted everyone to know there will be a Celebration of Life in August in Idaho

Prayers, cards and phone calls are welcome.

Marie White

4854 Lakes Edge Place

Garden City, Idaho

83714

208 853 6573

Wallace (Bill) White worked at camp 7, retired approximately in 1980, after approximately 25 years

Source: Smoke Showing visit

Found: Fire Truck - Joshua Tree National Park

California Highway Patrol officers have found a fire truck about a mile from a visitors center at Joshua Tree National Park but can't figure out whose truck it is.

The 36-foot-long truck was found along with a disabled white Chevrolet pickup truck, a CHP dispatcher said.

Officers found the fire truck around 6 p.m.

A Cal Fire dispatcher said he received a call from the CHP asking him if the agency was missing a fire truck.

FEMA: California Wildfire Victim Assistance Tops $13.6 Million

Federal, State Wildfire Assistance Tops $13.6 Million

» More Information on California Wildfires

PASADENA, Calif. -- Federal and state assistance topped $13.6 million in 2008 for residents who suffered in the November wildfires in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and Santa Barbara counties.

Assistance is available from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) because of the presidential major disaster declaration. The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), the California Emergency Management Agency (Cal EMA) and the California Department of Social Services also are providing assistance.

"The assistance total will be climbing daily with the new year as more people register with FEMA and more applications are processesed," said Mark Neveau, federal coordinating officer. "By design, most of the money to help people recover is in the form of SBA low-interest disaster assistance loans to homeowners, renters and businesses."

As of the end of 2008, SBA had approved 84 loans for a total of $11,366,800.

FEMA grants are much more limited in scope, but do not have to be repaid like SBA loans. Also, they are not taxed as income nor do they affect Social Security benefits. So far, FEMA has approved $2,285,103 for 352 households.

For people who still have unmet needs after receiving the maximum FEMA grant ($30,300), a referral will be made to the California Department of Social Services for consideration of the State Supplemental Grant Program (SSGP), where up to an additional $10,00 grant may be available.

"California's supplemental grant program has provided $130,000 to 13 households as of the year end," said Tom Maruyama, deputy state coordinating officer.

So far, 2,251 persons have registered with FEMA for assistance, which automatically registers them with Cal EMA. Many are insured and not immediately eligible for FEMA assistance until after they have completed settlement with their insuror. If at that point they have uninsured losses, they can ask FEMA to reconsider their application.

To be considered for FEMA assistance, including uninsured losses, persons must be registered with FEMA before the registration deadline for this disaster, January 20. They can register at FEMA's toll-free line, 1-800-621-3362 (FEMA), TTY 1-800-621-7585. Online registration and application status also is available at the new federal disaster registration website, www.disasterassistance.gov. That comprehensive multi-agency site also can be reached through its link at www.fema.gov.

FEMA coordinates the federal government's role in preparing for, preventing, mitigating the effects of, responding to, and recovering from all domestic disasters, whether natural or man-made, including acts of terror.

Release Date: January 2, 2009
Release Number: 1810-036
Source: http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=47216
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FEMA Increases UTMB Funds to $73 Million
Thu, 01 Jan 2009 23:00:00 -0600

AUSTIN, Texas -- The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has approved a total of $73 million in funds for the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) on Galveston Island.

By the Numbers 018
Fri, 02 Jan 2009 23:00:00 -0600

AUSTIN, Texas -- Federal and state disaster assistance for Texans affected by Hurricane Ike continues to grow daily. The total now tops $1.8 billion.