Police
Firefighting exercise turns real after lightning strike
Source: Bangor Daily News
Published: Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Photos: None
Editions: 2, 3
Section and Page: B1 (State front)
Headline: Firefighting exercise turns real after lightning strike
BY ANDREW KNAPP
OF THE NEWS STAFF
CORINTH, Maine — A fire sparked by lightning at Morrison Elementary School would have gone unnoticed Tuesday night if firefighters were not conducting training exercises nearby, according to Corinth Fire Chief Scott Bragdon.
As a result, he said, the town is fortunate to have an elementary school today.
While practicing on the town’s new ladder truck at Central Middle School, a firefighter noticed a visual fire alarm around 6:39 p.m. at the elementary school about 200 yards away. Upon investigation, crews found a blaze in the attic and managed to extinguish it before flames spread elsewhere.
The school’s attic area and electrical, computer and telephone systems had about $100,000 in damage, Bragdon estimated.
Bragdon said lightning struck the roof of the building, blew mortar and bricks off the chimney and ignited insulation.
When firefighters entered the building, they smelled smoldering electrical wires and noticed a charred telephone junction box through which external lines enter the school.
The smell led firefighters to the attic, which was filled with smoke from burning insulation and wooden rafters. Crews promptly doused the blaze.
“It was a close call — closer than what I care to have,” Bragdon said Tuesday night. “It was one of those cases when we were at the right place at the right time.”
If they weren’t close by, firefighters wouldn’t have responded until it was too late, Bragdon said. When activated, the school’s fire alarm automatically dials 911. Because lightning fried the telephone lines, however, dispatchers never received the call.
“No one would have seen it; no one would have called if we weren’t there,” he said.
About 30 members of the Corinth Fire Department and five vehicles were on hand for the training exercise, facilitating a swift response, according to Bragdon.
The Kenduskeag Fire Department also responded.
No one was injured.
Bragdon said hidden problems in the school’s electrical system may boost initial damage estimates. Custodians will survey the destruction today.
“They’ve got a lot of work ahead of them,” he said.
Firefighters contained water damage to the top floor and prevented the fire from entering the lower level.
Rain fell while crews fought the blaze. Fierce lightning also struck nearby several times during the training exercise, Bragdon said. Crews didn’t notice any problems until they saw flashing lights at the elementary school about 10 minutes after the storm moved out of the region.
A cold front that moved across Maine on Tuesday afternoon brought severe thunderstorms, according to meteorologist Derrick Weitlich of the National Weather Service in Caribou.
Two severe-thunderstorm warnings were issued Tuesday for central Penobscot County. The first started at 4:42 p.m. and ended at 5:45 p.m. The second was issued at 5:52 p.m. and expired at 6:30 p.m.
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Truck driver killed in crash
Milo man may have suffered heart attack before vehicle flipped
Source: Bangor Daily News
Published: Thursday, June 15, 2006
Photos: 1 with graphic
Edition: All
Section and Page: B1 (State Front)
Headline: Truck driver killed in crash: Milo man may have suffered heart attack before vehicle flipped
BY ANDREW KNAPP
OF THE NEWS STAFF
GLENBURN, Maine — A Milo man was killed Wednesday morning when his concrete-cargo truck drifted off Route 15, hit a power pole and rolled over.
Kenneth Scanlon, 48, died at the scene, Maine State Police said.
Heading south toward Bangor, Scanlon’s truck, owned by American Concrete Industries of Veazie, left the road at about 11 a.m., struck a utility pole, flipped and landed in the southbound breakdown lane, according to police. The impact crushed the truck’s cab.
Scanlon was wearing a seat belt.
Witnesses who stopped to assist said Scanlon was unconscious and had no pulse, according to state police Trooper David Millett. A dump-truck driver saw the accident and phoned police at 11:05 a.m. Crews arrived within 10 minutes.
Millett said the lack of signs of braking indicated Scanlon may have suffered a medical condition, possibly a heart attack.
“No skid marks or attempts to steer back onto the road show that a medical condition may have existed,” Millett said Wednesday afternoon.
Weather, which was clear and dry at the time, wasn’t a factor, police said.
Police didn’t know what caused Scanlon’s death; however, substantial trauma from the accident was not evident.
The state medical examiner’s office in Augusta will conduct an autopsy today.
American Concrete officials were at the scene of the accident Wednesday and unavailable for comment, according to a staffer.
Scanlon was traveling south on Route 15 near the intersection with Pine View Avenue when his truck veered off the road. The vehicle left a littered wake.
About 20 feet after leaving the pavement, the truck ran over roadside garbage bags, strewing rubbish across the highway. Its tires dug ruts in the rainwater-soaked embankment. The muddy grooves ran beneath remnants of the splintered utility pole and into the ditch.
When Scanlon’s vehicle struck the pole, its weight shifted, according to police. It rolled over and landed in the breakdown lane with the cab crushed to the hood and phone lines snagged on the rear of the vehicle.
Traffic continued to flow in the northbound driving and breakdown lanes. The scene was cleared by 4 p.m.
Determining the truck’s speed before the crash will be difficult without skid marks on the pavement, Millett said. The posted speed limit is 45 mph, but witnesses speculated the vehicle was traveling between 65 and 70 mph, according to the trooper.
“It’s going to be tough to confirm that, though,” Millett said.
Simultaneously with state police, utility crews arrived to replace the splintered power pole, Trooper Sean Hashey said Wednesday morning at the scene.
Nearby customers didn’t lose power immediately, but electricity was shut off at 11:16 a.m. to allow replacement of the pole, according to Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. spokeswoman Jen Brooker.
While Glenburn firefighters jacked the vehicle’s cab from the pavement, Bangor Hydro bucket crews held the power line in the air about 50 feet away. Ground workers erected a new power pole below.
Brooker said 2,400 customers were without electricity until power was restored less than an hour later at 12:13 p.m.
Kim Badershall, 41, was inside her mobile home next to the accident scene when she heard an engine revving, then a popping sound.
“The lights just dimmed down for a few seconds and came back on,” Badershall said Wednesday morning as she surveyed the aftermath from her lawn.
Maine Department of Transportation workers brought absorbent pads to soak up diesel fuel that leaked slowly from the vehicle’s tank, according to DOT spokesman Herb Thompson. The leak didn’t pose a serious health or environmental hazard, however.
State police are seeking additional witnesses, including a nurse who stopped to help but left before talking with investigators.
People with information should call Troop E in Orono at 866-2121 or (800) 432-7381.
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Two anglers thrown into river after boat capsizes in Hampden
Source: Bangor Daily News
Published: Friday, June 16, 2006
Photos: None
Edition: All
Section and Page: B1 (State Front)
Headline: Two anglers thrown into river after boat capsizes in Hampden
BY ANDREW KNAPP
OF THE NEWS STAFF
HAMPDEN, Maine — A fishing expedition turned into an unexpected and frightening swim for a Kenduskeag couple Thursday morning.
Denise Wood, 44, and her boyfriend, Fred Smith, 49, were drenched and shivering but safely ashore after their boat capsized around 8:30 a.m. in the Penobscot River.
Wood, owner of the 17-foot aluminum powerboat, swam to shore while three employees from nearby Hamlin’s Marina rescued Smith from the river.
Bangor firefighters arrived within minutes of receiving a call at 8:45 a.m. Marina employees, however, already had removed Smith from the water and towed the capsized boat to the public landing. Brewer fire and Hampden police departments also responded.
Neither alcohol nor foul play were factors in the incident, according to Hampden patrolman Joel Small.
The pair were fishing for striped bass about 100 feet off shore near Hughes Brothers construction on Route 1A. The current carried the boat downstream after the couple dropped anchor, Wood said. Once the anchor caught bottom, the boat flipped and heaved the pair into the cold water, which was about 20 feet deep in the area, she said.
Smith snagged the only visible life preserver and tossed it to Wood, who peeled off her heavy coat and shoes and donned the vest. She kicked her legs, waved her arms and screamed for help. After reaching shore, she worried about her boyfriend who was swept down the river.
“I prayed that someone heard me hollering,” said Wood, who stood barefoot and shivering Thursday morning after the incident. “I thought he was going to get sucked under.”
Another life vest was stuck beneath the boat, leaving Smith floating on his back without one. He quickly lost feeling in his legs from the cold water and no longer had the energy to fight the current.
“I thought this was going to be my last day of fishing,” he said. “The river was unbelievably strong.”
Hamlin’s Marina, located about a half-mile from where the boat capsized, received a call from a Brewer man who said two people were in the water yelling for help, according to marina manager Greg Parker of Albion.
Parker, 40, and two other employees jumped into a company vessel and saw the bow of a boat jutting out of the water and a man floating face up. The crew pulled Smith into the boat. He almost collapsed from the cold water, which soaked his bluejeans and sweat shirt, but he was otherwise in good health, according to Parker.
“He did the smart thing to tread water and not fight the current,” Parker said.
The boat had minimal water damage and its electrical system was still functional when a marina pickup pulled the boat from the water at 9:30 a.m.
The anglers lost fishing poles, the rear seat and some bait worms. Their lunch, a salad, drifted past Wood as he tried to stay afloat.
After the boat was flipped upright, it still was littered with tackle boxes, a spare anchor and the second life vest. Smith said he usually wears a life preserver but was too eager to go fishing and he failed to put it on Thursday morning.
“We’re very, very lucky,” Smith said, embracing his girlfriend.
They planned to drain the boat and go fishing again this weekend.
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Bangor firefighter teaches truck safety
‘Stand Down Day’ classes stress caution
Source: Bangor Daily News
Published: Saturday, July 1, 2006
Photos: 1
Edition: 1, 3
Section and Page: C2 (Local)
Headline: Bangor firefighter teaches truck safety: ‘Stand Down Day’ classes stress caution
BY ANDREW KNAPP
OF THE NEWS STAFF
BANGOR, Maine — As Fire Chief Jeff Cammack gazed Friday morning through the open garage doors of Central Fire Station on Main Street, the intercom buzzed and a voice dispatched a single engine to the scene of a minor fuel spill.
Walking calmly across the concrete floor and hopping into a massive firetruck, the driver flipped a switch that turned on the vehicle’s flashing blue and red lights and prepared to drive off with sirens blaring.
Cammack scurried to the driver’s side door, opened it and ordered the operator to shut off the lights.
Considering the nonlife-threatening nature of the incident, the call didn’t require the “Code Red” with which the driver was treating it, Cammack said.
“When they get a call, their adrenaline is pumping,” the fire chief said, his arms crossed as he stood near another firetruck. “But it’s better to go slowly and obey traffic laws than to crash and never make it to the scene.”
As part of the 2006 International Firefighter Safety Stand Down Day, Cammack aimed Friday to educate Bangor fire crews about truck-driving safety. Through a barrage of slide shows and demonstrations attended by the firefighters, he stressed the need for drivers to obey rules of the road binding all motorists. Firefighters are obligated to stop at red lights and drive at the speed limit, he said.
U.S. and Canadian fire departments participated in the second-year event. All nonemergency activities were suspended Friday while firefighters completed safety classes.
In 2005, 106 firefighters nationwide died in the line of duty — 26 of them as a result of vehicle-related accidents, according to U.S. Fire Administration statistics.
Cammack joked that the last accident involving a Bangor firetruck happened when an engine backed into a garage door four days ago. The last serious accident killed several occupants of a car that was hit by a firetruck in the 1970s on Interstate 395.
Years ago, firefighters rode standing up without seat belts, according to Cammack, who has worked at the department for 27 years. After this year’s stand down, he hoped his men will sit down, slow down and follow safety precautions.
The fire chief also inspected the 60 pounds of gear each firefighter wears. Out of 40 inspections in the past two days, about six pieces of equipment failed the scrutiny, he said.
Circling rating numbers on an inspection log sheet, Cammack informed firefighter Ron Green that his helmet lacked proper reflectors and heat-resistant paint. The headgear was worn from constant use.
“We get a little complacent sometimes,” Green said Friday after the inspection, “so it’s nice to have someone look over our stuff.”
In 16 years as a driver, Green has never been involved in an accident with a firetruck, he said. He has witnessed many, however.
“Some of the crashes are just stupid,” he said, with his hand resting on the truck he drives. “It’s human nature to get a little excited, but [traffic] laws are in place for a reason. We must follow them.”
Three of the four Bangor fire crews have completed the classes. The final group will undergo safety instructions on Monday.
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