According to the story written by Amy Hawley of KSHB-41 Action News- Mr. Priest's son "saved" the family by crying all night- but that wasn't the headline.
The story was that the Priest family's home suffered more fire damage than it should have was because the fire department- even with their three pumpers called to the scene initially- ran out of water.
CSW checked recordings of fire department radio communications that morning- and the following was clear:
First-arriving- let's call them Pumper (engine) A- sees smoke and/or fire but no hydrant immediately nearby and used the water in the truck's tank- anywhere from 500 to 1000 gallons- to take a hoseline into the 1-story house to get the first attack the flames.
Standard procedure ... this leaves the second arriving Pumper B to find a water source i.e. a fire hydrant- which was done that morning- BUT...
That hydrant is dead- and- having lived in that general area once- hydrants are far-between (as are curbs- storm sewers or sidewalks)
This leaves either Pumper B or just arriving Pumper C to supply Pumper A with their tank's water with the other patrolling for a hydrant in the area- or both just get in close using their own lines and water.
By 2:14 a.m.- the water supply was so untennable and the fire had become intense enough that the battalion chief ordered the interior firefighting crews outside the house.
Shortly- a fourth pumper that had been dispatched arrived with a water supply- and the fire in the Priest family home was declared under control at 2:25 a.m..
The KSHB story notes that not only was one of the relatively-few fire hydrants in that area dead- but that there are more than 800 defective hydrants throughout KC-MO..
That's when the daily leaking/breaking water mains aren't making other hydrants useless.
Reporter Hawley's story states that city water rates will go up $9 per month to help alleviate those issues.
Still- one wonders how many new hydrants- streets with curbs and stormwater drainage and sidewalks a proposed $100-million or so the City of KC-MO wants to spend on a streetcar system downtown could buy.
5 comments:
I have read Amy Hawley's KSHB-41 Action news.But stories are stories.Yes,Reality is not just like them.I like the way of your thinking.sell my house
Sly says to hell with hydrants we need a train instead.
And the sheeple stood by and let it happen.
I think that you need to understand that the idea behind public transit development is to increase city revenues for just such matters and to help with Kansas City's image on a national stage, the sort of image upon which convention and investment dollars rely. Our current public transportation picture is a travesty and a joke. Being so bound to automobile-only transit in this day and age is an albatross around the city's neck. Its time to move forward or be left behind. I encourage any of you to visit a city where public transit is far-reaching, well-implemented, and as a result, is widely used, and see if your tune is the same.
Do not get me started on the useless Water Department!
To the people discussing mass transit as a way to increase city revenue: I would remind you that even in a city as friendly to mass transit as NYC still makes no money with their transit authority.
Michael-
I have been to a number of cities with ACTUAL mass transit (not just a streetcar line downtown) and yes- they are used- but as The Observer points out- much if not all systems require taxpayer subsidies to keep running.
I feel as though a streetcar line downtown isn't really "mass transit" because except for the apartment and condo dwellers down there- there isn't really any "mass" to transport.
Thanks for playing BTW...
T.O.- notice how the city's pollys shot down the citizens' wishes- now the clowns want a street car to nowhere (where people actually commute from and to anyway).
Post a Comment