In Honor Of Fallen Heros...

Hey all,

Yesterday a horrible tragedy occured when a Maryland State Police Helicopter crashed transporting 2 patients from a vehicle accident. Four were killed, one survived. I did not know any of the providers involved. I do have a friend who happens to be a MSP Trooper and a flight medic and was not onduty at the time.

At my work, we work with MSP occasionally when we need a helicopter. They are a fine group of people to work with.

So, In honor of the fallen and my friend. I will be leaving this up for a week and will not be posting again till next week.

Here is more on the incident;

http://www.wusa9.com/news/columnist/blogs/davestatter.html


Stay Safe Everyone and I'll see you next week.


PhotoCredit to a Maryland Emergency Services Provider. I could not locate the name

Pretty In Pink...

Hey all,

These are photos from the pink fire truck that is currently touring the county. It is a group of firefighters from Arizone and New Mexico traveling across the country to raise awareness for breast cancer. Good group of guys. They are doing a great thing. Here is a link to their website if you are interested. www.pinkribbontour.com

These photos were taken at Clipper Magazine Stadium in the northern part of Lancaster City


Have a great weekend everyone!

Skywatch...

Hey All,

Happy SWF!!!

I took these photos last week right up the corner from my house. I was leaving to get dinner at the Olive Garden for the wife when I stopped and shot these photos.

For other great SKY photography. click on the link skywatch on the left hand side..

Have a great day!!

Mothers Day 2007...

Hey All,

Another one from the archives. This photo was taken back on Mothers Day Morning 2007
I was a brand new dad, having just gone back to work after a month off. A call comes in for a trash can on fire to the rear of a local pizza shop in the village of Neffsville. So we dispatch a single engine out for a trash fire. I take a second call back from the same female asking if we have the FD on the way. I told her yes, they should be arriving shortly and I asked her if anything has changed, she said yes, fire is now blowing out the window of the building. So I dispatch the 1st alarm structure assignment for a working fire and then my shift was over. So of course I had to detour on the way home and got some photos. My wife was not happy for having to get up with Wyatt, but I have a very loving and understanding wife. : )

As you can see, fire vented through the roof and went to a second alarm shortly after.

Have a good morning, see you all for SWF!

Woody

and no one was hurt by the way..

More Aerial Shots...

Hey All,

This will be brief as I am heading back to bed because I am not feeling that great. This is another shot of the barn fire from yesterday. The platform on the left is from my department. The platform on the right is the ladder truck from the Quarryville Fire Company(5-7).

That is all for today. Hope you are having a great week!


Woody

Aerial Recon...

Hey Everyone...

I was planning on turning in early tonight, but the final game ever to be played at Yankee Stadium was on tonight with the Yanks beating the Orioles 7 to 3. That's one ballpark I wish I could have gotten to for a game. When Wyatt's a little older, I'll take him up to the new Yankee Stadium.

Now for the photo. This is a photo of one of the LT's from my department in the platform of our tower at a barn fire we had yesterday, doing an aerial recon of the fire scene. Fortunatley, no injuries occured during the incident.

Have a great Monday folks!!


Woody

Fair Time...

Hello all,

This was taken yesterday at the Solanco Fair located in Quarryville in Southern Lancaster County. The weather has been great the past few days. This photo is of Wyatt, who just walked over to this mower that was on display, along with a variety of gators and other tractors and just sat down and had a ball. I thought it would look better black and white so I converted it over...


Have a great weekend and to those that stopped by my blog, thanks so much for leaving comments. I take good and bad..It's the only way I learn..


Stay Safe,

Woody

Skywatch...

Hey All,

Happy SWF!!

Sorry I was not prepared this week for a photo, so I had to yank one from the archives and I hope you guys like this one.

This photo was taken two years ago at a massive fire in Lebanon County. When I say massive, I could see the smoke from my house In Millersville and it's about 25 miles from my house to where this fire was at. The size of this building was 14 acres in itself. If that gives you any idea..

This photo is of a Dauphin County Tower Ladder flowing water on the backside of the building. I thought it would fit as all you have is the smoke, some clouds and the platform..

Hope you enjoy the day and Please check out the other great SWF sites at the link listed to the left!

Have a great day!

Woody

Happiest Place In South Central Pa...

Good morning everyone,

Hope you all are having a great week so far. These two photos were shot at Dutch Wonderland Amusement Park down here in Amish Country. Right along Route 30.

The park has kind of a special meaning to me as this was my very first job I ever had(I've only ever had two, this one and where I work now at the 911 center) so it was cool to take my son and nephews here for the first time. Quite a few different changes since I worked here, but I was still able to navigate my way through without having to look at the park map.


Back when I worked there, Dutch Wonderland sort of had a black cloud to it. The department I belonged to, Lafayette Fire Company had responded to several major incidents over the years at the park. When it was donation time, the park was always very good to us and when my boss found out I was a member of the FD, If I wanted to leave on a call, I could and get paid for it. I only ever did that twice in the years I worked there, and both were for second alarm fires in my companies first due and both happened in the daytime when manpower was low.

Some of the incidents over the years;

-The Dutch Wonderland Sign Burned, 1.5 Million Fire Damage(Just to the sign)
-The Castle Burned Twice-Both 2nd alarm fires
-The Monorail Station Once-2nd alarm
-The Riverboat ride burned at dock-local alarm

I want to say that one of the monorail cars burned as well but I can't remember...

I hope you enjoyed your brief Lancaster County History Lesson..

Thanks for visiting my blog and feel free to leave any comments...


Have a great week!

View From Chickies Rock...

Hey Everyone,

I shot this photo back in July. This was taken at Chickies Rock park overlooking the Susquehanna River. This photo is looking towards the town of Marietta and just north of that, is the village of Maytown. The park has a beautifull view of the river and also of York County.

That is all for today. Have a great day!!


Woody

University Pond...

Hey All,

Hope you all had a great weekend. I worked but now am off and I actually just got home from work so this will be brief.

First, I want to thank everyone that stopped by my blog and left the comments. It is greatly appreciated. Those that did leave comments, If I have not been to your blog yet. I promise I will get there.


Ok for the photo,

This was taken at the Millersville University Campus which is a stone's throw from my house. This photo was taken on one of the bridges over the pond behind the theatre where they conduct plays and other functions. It is one of the oldest buildings on campus. If you ever get the chance to visit Millersville, they do have a beautifull campus to walk through and alot of neat architecture. I took this photo about two months ago.

I hope to be getting out soon to shoot some more photos. I have taken on some projects at work and that has kept me busy. I need to learn to say NO once in awhile.


Allright, have a great week everyone!

Stay Safe,

Woody

Roofs Cracked Chief....

Hey All,

First I want to thank all the people who visited my blog and left comments today. It is the most comments I have ever received. Please keep them coming!!

Because of my work schedule. I will only be able to join the links every other week. But I promise you I will have a SWF every week. Please continue to visit and comment on any photo. That is how I improve.

Ok, these photos. These were taken Tuesday morning. We had severe storms roll through the area that morning and lightning is most likely the cause of this house fire. My wife had taken my son to school so I could sleep in abit before work. Well, first the phone rang which woke me up and then I woke up to the thunder. I was half asleep in bed and decided to turn on the scanner and see what was going on. I was starting to fall back asleep when I heard the box put out for this house fire. My initial gut reaction was that it was not a normal address. Meaning that to me, it was odd that a fire was being reported in this development because you won't find a house under $300,000 and this was not an area known for calls. So my initial thought was, this has a good chance of being a fire..then I thought, Naa..this will probably be not as reported and I really wanted to get back to sleep..


Well..I should have listened to my gut..I woke to the engine company calling for the truck to crack the roof and open up the second floor as the fire was running the walls.

So since the phone rang again and the dog was barking at the local delivery man..I headed out to grab some photos. I arrived about 40 mins into the incident.

Oh well..

Thanks again to everyone who has left comments. I will do my best to get to each of your sites as soon as I can. This weekend is my long tour at work, so If you don't hear from me, I will get to you..

Have a great weekend!!


Woody

Skywatch...

Hi Folks,

I am back for my third week of Skywatch. These photos were taken last night right around sunset from the back of my house.

I hope you guys like them and please feel free to leave any comments..

Have a great week...


Woody


To see other Skywatch Sites, clik on the link listed on the left under sites I like..

More 9/11...

Here are a few more from the museum...

Photo #4 to me is a very powerfull photo. It is a photo of TL 118 responding to the trade center. Just looking at the photo, I can't imagine what the crew was thinking coming across what I believe to be the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhatten to the trade center.

At that point, If I can remember, all the bridges were shut down except for emergency vehicles. The Tower is the only vehicle on the bridge. Just being the lone rig responding into a call like that...

The entire crew of Tower Ladder 118 was lost on 9/11/01...

The last post of the day coming up will be a Skywatch post...

9/11....

Hey Everyone,

September 11th 2001...One of the darkest days in the history of the United States Fire Service...

I can still remember that day like it was yesterday. I was at work on fireboard. It was a fairly slow morning and we had the Today show on and I can remember Matt Lauer saying that a plane had crashed into the WTC Tower 1. My first intial thought was, how could that happen on a beautifull day like that Tuesday was that morning. There was not a cloud in the sky at all. My second thought was, wow what a horrific accident as I thought that the pilot maybe had a medical problem or the plane had some type of mechnical problem. Terrorism was the farthest thing from my mind at that point. When they showed the first live footage of the tower and the gaping hole in the side of the tower. I had a bad feeling something was just not right.

We were glued to the TV when I can remember seeing the second plane come into the picture and I remember saying to a coworker, "Holy S$!t, It's gonna hit the second tower!!" I can remember the sicking feeling I got in my stomach watching the second tower get hit.

My boss walked into the room, he's been in the fire service over 30 years and was a former chief officer. We started talking about the tactics and hoping the FDNY would be able to get everyone out of the towers.

I can remember talking with my cowokers when pieces of Tower 2(correct me If I am wrong) started to fall and the tower collapsed. I can remember litteraly wanting to throw up watching that live and saying that the FDNY just lost alot of men.

I can remember a coworker saying that she is hoping the other tower would hold and I can remember saying that If one tower can collapse, the other one can most certainly come down as well.

At the end of the day, It was one of the most emotionally draining days I have ever worked.

My point to all this rambling I have been doing. I have not forgotten and neither should anyone else EVER forget what happened on that day and the sacrifices that were made that day. While the losses were huge by the FDNY, NYPD and other emergency services. It has also been listed as one of the most successfull rescue operations as over 25,000 people were able to be evacuated from the towers.

People have said to me that I should move on and forget about the day., but I can't. As long as I am a proud member of the fire service in some capacity. I cannot and will not ever forget and I will always remind people to never forget.

People say Derek Jeter, Kobe Bryant, Terral Owens are their Hero's..

Not me..I'm 34 years old and Firefighters are still my hero's. Along with my brother in law who is currently serving in Iraq.

Ok, now a little about the photos.

This is at the FDNY Fire Museum. This is the 9/11 Exhibt section of the museum. If you ever get the chance, Take a day and go to the Museum. It is well worth it.

A little info about the 3rd photo..

The camera is a Nikon camera that was recovered from the rubble. It belonged to a member of the FDNY Photo unit who was lost that day. The photos in the display case were taken from that camera. The camera still worked when it was recovered.

I will be posting a few more photos from the FDNY Fire Museum. At the end of our trip. We all stopped at Ground Zero and paid our respects. I did not post any photos of the site, simply because they don't do it justice. We also went over to the 10/10 house located across the street from Ground Zero and saw the beautifull bronze memorial wall along the side of the firehouse. If you go to NY, you simply have to see it..

God Bless the FDNY 343

God Bless all the fire service brothers, past, present and future...

Fire Showing 13th Floor..

Hey All,

So I decided to post some photos from a fire I witnessed in Brooklyn NY a few years ago. These photos were shot with my old Sony Cybershot Point and Shoot.

I went up with a bunch of friends from another firehouse to the FDNY for the day. We visited Rescue 5, Special OPS, and other firehouses. This was our stop to Rescue 2. I have to say though, all the guys in the houses were fantastic and great hosts.

The Rescue was just coming back from another run and pulled up in front of the firehouse. The captain knew my friend who organized the trip and just opened the door when the Rescue got another run. Where Rescue 2 is located, is not in the safest neighborhood, day or night. So the Captain has us wait inside the house till they got back.

The Rescue just came back when they got put out on another run. The Rescue takes off and I watch them, they go one block and pull the rig off to the side and the crew bails out and they are running full sprint towards a building. I said to my buddy, I think the run is down here, let's walk down and watch. So we gather our group and start walking.

I turned on my scanner that I brought along and turned it to the Brooklyn Frequency and this is the transmission I hear, "Brooklyn to the 38th Battalion, getting numerous reports of people trapped above the fire floor" I said to my friend, "I think they have a job and it's somewhere in this block" He agreed and about that time, we both just looked at each other as we smelled a very strong odor of smoke.


My friend said to me, he was going to go around to the back and I said I'll check the front of the highrise we came upon where the rig was parked. There was no signs of fire or smoke from the front side, but my friend walked around to the back side and yelled for me to get my rear back there.

I came running around back and fire was visible out the 13th floor of this highrise.

It was a learning experiance watching the FDNY in action. The guys from Rescue 2 were operating by themselves for several minutes before any other rigs arrived.

If I remember correctly, If the Rescue Company arrives first, they assume the role of the first due truck company and do search and rescue and attempt to contain the fire untill the engine arrives.


Folks, Tomorrow is the 7th anniversary of the worst attack on the USA and one of the darkest days in the history of the Fire Service. Never forget the sacrifices those brave men and women made on that fatefull day.

God Bless The 343.

Walking around the ballpark...

Hey all,

Hope your week is going good so far. These are some more photos from the ballgame Wyatt and I went to on Sunday.

The first photo is Wyatt walking along the path behind the outfield. Home Depot was there doing a thing for the kids where they could build their own clubhouse with a wooden kit they had. Wyatt was a little too young, but as we were walking, I was stopped by one of the Home Depot ladies who said she thought Wyatt was the cutest little boy she had seen so far and even though he could not do a kit, she wanted to give him his own Home Depot Apron with his name on it. As you can tell, It was twice the size of him, but he loved it.


The second photo, is a side view of Wyatt taken at the playground they have at the park. I'm not really sure why, but my flash came on when I was taking the photo and pretty much washed out the entire background with white. So I cropped as much down as I could and converted to Black and White. If anyone has any suggestions on what I could have done different to change the photo, Please feel free to share them. I am here to learn..


Have a great week everyone!


Woody

Here comes the heat...

 

 

Hey all,

Hope you all had a great weekend. These photos were taken yesterday at the Lancaster Barnstormers game. It was a great day as I had Wyatt with me and he did pretty well. He did not take too kind to Cylo, the mascot of the barnstormers, but he did pretty well and was very tired by the time we left.

The Barnstormers won by the way, beating the Southern Maryland BlueCrab 5 to 1

If you ever get the chance to attend a game at Clipper Stadium. It is a beautifull ballpark, easy to get in and out of and compared to other ballparks I've been to, The prices for food and drink are not that bad.

Have a great Monday!!

Field Communications...

Hey all,

TGIF!! This will be brief as I only got 4 hours sleep and just got home from work. I was not sure what to post today. By the way, Sorry I logged onto Skywatch so late, I thought I could do it in the AM and when you could sign on, I was already at work. I am on now, so please feel free to leave any comments on any photos.


Anyhow, these two photos were taken at a terrorism drill earlier in the summer. They are the field communication units from our neighboring counties that surround Lancaster. The first one is the Derry Township Police FCU from Hershey, Dauphin County and the second one is the York Mobile Command Unit from the York 9-1-1 Center In York County. They were gracious enough to come over and assist our Field Communications Unit during this operation.


Allright folks, time to hit the rack. Have a great weekend! Hopefully we won't get flooded out by Hanna as We were planning to go to a baseball game Saturday night. That is up in the air right now.

Stay Safe and thanks for visitng my blog..


Woody

Skywatch....

Good Morning,

Yes it's that time of week again. This week's photos are of the Philadelphia Skyline. Heading to a Phillies game on a bus trip, I was going over my camera and looked over and saw the skyline with the blimp flying overhead and close to one of the high rise buildings. So I decided to start shooting, again forgive me for the quality of photos. I was in a bus doing 65 on I95. I have to be honest and admit I did do a double take as It looked at one point the blimp struck the building. As you can see, it did not.

Hope you all have a great week!

Feel free to leave any comments and thanks for stopping by!


Woody