Jeff Dunham will be performing in Roanoke tonight. For all of us working I thought I would share some of his videos with you. We shall start with none other than….”Silence…I KEEL YOU!” I guess the only bad thing is that because these are youtube vids you will be unable to watch them on City computers.

Bubba J

Then Peanut

A couple of very funny bloopers with Peanut and Walter

Melvin the Super Hero

Enjoy

Did you know that you can follow RoanokeFire.com on Twitter. I utilize @FireFleitz for updates to RoanokeFire.com, VAFireNews.com, VAEMSNews.com, and VirginiaFireEMSJobs.com.You can follow the posts and every once in a while I add a little bit more directly to twitter. Don’t worry, I don’t post about what I am doing every minute of the day!

Follow along: @FireFleitz

Hey guys and gals,

RoanokeFire.com is expanding to incorporate the following areas of the Roanoke Valley:

• Roanoke County Fire and Rescue
• Salem Fire-EMS
• Vinton Fire and Rescue
• Roanoke Emergency Medical Services *New Website

Feel free to send in information on the various departments etc.

The look of the site will not change, we will just be adding some new stuff and covering a larger area.

According to the video: A quick compilation of the beginning of 2009. More to come later.

Youtube video is below the Facebook video. The sound was disabled on the youtube video.

I thought I saw one of these flying over Roanoke the other day. Apparently there were two of them and someone caught them taking off on video. Check it out:

Lt. Darren Parker has spent his last days as a Lt. on ladder 7 today. Fridge, as he is known around the department, has been with us for around 12 years. You can view more information over at Station 9′s blog. I should be getting some more images for you soon, I found the one below on a previous post on RoanokeFire.com. I have not heard any word on his plans after his departure with the department.

Updated: I added a picture at the bottom and this information:
Fridge is only leaving because of a job promotion that his wife recieved at Anthem which requires her to move to the Raliegh/Durham area.

Good Luck Fridge!

Hey all, I am currently on vacation but I want to share an email with you that I just received pertaining to this blog. First off though is a picture of Preston and I with a Striper that he caught this morning. It is hard for me to write about that darn ampitheater mess when I am having fun on vacation. I will be writing about that mess when I get back.

Here is the comment I recieved via email this morning. Enjoy. Oh, and if you want to leave comments just click on the title of the blog post you want and you will see if there are any comments and it will give you the ability to leave your own. I plan on a little code change in the future which will make it show on the front page. If you would like you can also email comment such as this one below and ask me to post them or not. I always love hearing from the readers good bad or indifferent.

The comment:

Rhett,
You were ambushed at that union meeting. I guess someone didn’t intervene because he didn’t want the pack jumping on him. The mob had a few valid concerns but dumped their aggression on you instead of trying to find a balance with you. Since that time, I’m not aware if any of them have made any effort to improve anything here. I am certain that the people that hurt this department are glad you stopped writing and accepting comments exposing them.

The actions of the mob were short sighted. Sure they expressed their displeasure with you (I have disagreed with you on some things), but the only winner from their action was downtown.
The petty attacks on each other were and are wrong. The comments exposing how we are mistreated should continue. My issue and hopefully those of the readers are for the welfare of the firefighters. It is our management that has hurt us, so we have had no one to turn to for help. We have only been able to expose conditions by writing on the blog. It’s a shame many placed personal attacks here.

We have suffered many losses under the Burcham/Grigsby reign. We have lost and continue to lose benefits. Our workplace has become hostile from above. Morale is ever spirally down. Apathy grows and is reflected in all aspects of the job.
There is money for an amphitheater and other projects, but no raises for us, and the coming loss of the “insurance stipend”. This speaks of the regard council has for us. It’s shameful.

Please post articles like this and the comment by the ghost on the attack on firefighter pensions.
The blog serves a good purpose in the reasons you listed.

Keep up the good work.
Diogenes

Check out the footage at VAFireNews.com here.

If you have video, links, or photos to share let me know. You can email me at admin@roanokefire.com.

Engine 13 was out of service and Ladder 13 had a crew of 4 for the day. We were toned out when the fire went to 3 alarms. The images below are from the video on Roanoke Times located here.

On July 19th there was a car fire at the Mill Mountain Star. Check out the video below.

I am not sure if this was Roanoke or Vinton. If you know where it was let me know.

The all new Ladder/Quint 7 is just about ready to be put into service. Here are some photos.
2009 Pierce Velocity 75’ Heavy Duty Ladder

TAK-4 Independent Front Suspension
Hendrickson Air Ride Rear Suspension
Side Roll Protection
Frontal Air Bags
6-Man cab with two EMS compartments
5 Hands-Free SCBA Brackets
Cummins ISM 500 hp engine
Hale 1500 gpm QMAX pump
480 gallon water tank/20 gallon foam cell
On-Scene LED compartment lighting
Intec Backup Camera System
10 kW Harrison hydraulic generator
FRC 120V lights
Aerial Remote Tip Controls
Aerial Collision Avoidance System
Pinless Semi Retractable Waterway Locking System
Whelen LED lighting package
Pierce paint and graphics

Today, Brother Firefighter Barry Kincer was injured in an accident. I understand that he has undergone surgery for some broken bones. Please keep him in your prayers.

Hey all,

I got a phone call today from a brother out of State. We hadn’t talked in about 6 months and he regularly kept up with the Roanoke Fire Blog. Apparently, he missed the transition from the old blogspot address and hosting to the new and improved site here at RoanokeFire.com. In all actuality, he had emailed me back in February, as a lot of other guys did, but I did not return their emails. It was not out of disrespect, I just didn’t feel like talking about what was going on in Roanoke. I didn’t care about what was going on.

Some of you might be asking how such a big proponent for positive change, safety concerns, and the all around need for truth in the department would suddenly not care. I will give you a short synopsis, and yes comments are open so you can throw in whatever the hell you want.

Prior to January, I was the Secretary/Treasurer of IAFF Local 1132, a position I held for somewhere around 4 years. I loved the job, with all of its ups and downs. The biggest perk was being able to meet and hang around many others locally, across the State, and even across the Nation who were like me, wanted change, and were committed to the IAFF and their Union Brothers and Sisters.

After January, I was no longer the Secretary/Treasurer. The reason being is because I resigned. I resigned at the request of some of the members of my Local. Don’t think for a minute that it was a majority of the members, it wasn’t.

It has now been several months since that meeting and I have not talked about it too much. Not because it is painful to talk about, but because it angers me. It doesn’t anger me that I resigned. It angers me because I figured if they weren’t happy with the way I was doing things, they would DO things differently. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Instead, the movers and shakers of the Local are still plugging away minus one and the the ones who wanted my head on a stake are still doing what they did before…nothing constructive.

I get asked all the time to post stuff on the blog. Things like “our apparatus was out of service” or “did you see what they did the other day” or “what about those cuts that City Council is thinking about”. I hear it, but I didn’t post it. I didn’t post it because I was sick of sticking my neck out.That is about over. I am going to get back into it.

I still believe that this site was a great way of educating:

1. The public learned about what was going on
2. The press learned about what was going on
3. The public and press were explained things that are usually swept under the rug
4. Other Union Brothers learned about what we were going through
5. Union Brothers learned that it is ok to speak up
6. Marketing the Department and Local across the Nation as a great department (faults and all)

After all, we are a great department.

I am looking out the window and noticing that nothing is still burning. We don’t burn houses to the ground like some neighboring departments (has a lot to do with response times). We work well together. For the most part, we look out for one another.

Our local has come along, but it hasn’t even scratched the surface of what it is capable of. One thing I was always weary of was exposing weaknesses of our Local. I wasn’t covering anything up, I just wasn’t giving attention to things we should be doing better.

Luckily, it doesn’t matter anymore. I can no longer be held accountable for my words as an officer of the Local. That is a big weight off of my shoulders. Therefore, you will soon hear more about what is wrong and what we need to do better as a Local.

The best part of not being the Secretary/Treasurer is that I get to coach my son in soccer and lacrosse. I get to go see my daughter do gymnastics and dance. I get to hang out with my wife. I get to get back to living and I am loving every minute of it.

I get to do all that and I don’t have some asshole standing by to say that I am not doing anything or asking what I am doing for them.

I have always stood by the reasoning that an organization is only as strong as its members. Local 1132 is no different as are most Locals in the States and Canada.

We could be so much stronger if the ones who say things like “What is the IAFF doing for me” would spend their energy becoming part of the solution.

I am still an IAFF member and I am looking forward to staying involved. I am a proud IAFF member.

- Rhett Fleitz

I have attached some odd photos from around Roanoke Fire-EMS and/or the previous Roanoke Fire Department. I apologize I don’t have photo credits. These were sent to me from a reader of the blog. If you know who took them let me know and I will get the credits up.

The photos below are of an old ARFF Truck.
It is actually a cadillac that is currently at the Transportation Museum in pieces.

It is about time…

On Monday the two Zaxby’s locations in Roanoke and Salem will be giving away a free Nibbler to all guests who visit anytime during operating hours.

WHAT: Two area Zaxby’s restaurants will give away one Nibbler , a snack-sized chicken finger sandwich, to each guest who visits on Monday. No purchase is required to receive the free snack.
WHERE: 3206 Ordway Drive N.W. — Roanoke
903 W. Main St. — Salem
WHEN: Monday, July 6
10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. at Roanoke location; 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. at Salem location

There’s an unmistakable difference between putting out blazes in the United States and putting them out in war zones. The most common causes of fires in Roanoke: smoking or cooking. The most common causes of fires in a military base: blasts from a mortar shell or a rocket.

And yet at the recent going-away cookout for Chuck Mills, a retired Roanoke firefighter who plans to spend the next 12 months in Iraq, there was no talk about that. It was all about the 72 he scored in his round of golf that morning, the 1968 Camaro he had recently restored, and his youngest son’s recent high school graduation.

“That’s what I’ll miss the most … my family,” Mills said. “I’ve never been away from them this long. I’ve never been gone for more than a week at a time.”

Read the Entire Story:  Roanoke firefighter retires to Iraq – Roanoke.com.

Captain Clayton Martin’s son was involved in a motor vehicle accident last night on the parkway. He is listed in Critical Condition at Roanoke Memorial Hospital. Visitors are NOT allowed to see him at this time. In lieu of going to see him please take a minute to offer a prayer for a speedy recovery.

God Bless

Dan Spearin forwarded me this photo one of his coworkers took last week of the new ladder 7. The truck should be in service soon. I must say that that truck looks pretty damn good.

Ladder 13 is reportedly ready to begin once the funds are allocated. The truck will be basically the same as Ladder 7 but have a 105′ ladder on top and be a little longer.

FireCritic.com – The Fire Critic – An Unadulterated View of the Fire Service.

There is a new blog on the horizon. The Fire Critic is kinda like Firefighter Hourly meets FireGeezer…some angst, some knowhow, some interesting stuff, and a little bit of the rest.

Check it out. It has been a while since I have had a link dump or highlighted other blogs but this one is promising. Check it out here or link on the image above.