PFFM District 1 Vice President Rich Mackinnon visits the members of Group 2 of the Rockland Fire Department for lunch. Also in attendance was Dave Wooley, President of Local 1602. Rich discussed new ideas and upcoming issues dealing with collective bargaining, new state laws, and internal operation of the Professional Firefighters of Massachusetts. Rich also discussed call volume and staffing of our department to get an idea of how we operate on a day to day basis.
New Rockland Engine 1 arrived at Greenwood Emergency Vehicles from E-One. They have already done some lettering and other prep work before delivery. Stay tuned for updates. Click the photo above for more images. Photos courtesy of Chief Duffey.
ROCKLAND — Rescue workers in Rockland had to cut an SUV apart and use airbags to free a woman who was trapped for about 30 minutes.
The SUV hit a curb and then grazed a utility pole and tipped over onto the driver’s side at about 6:10 p.m. Thursday at Market and Old Market streets, firefighters said. They said the woman was partially trapped underneath the vehicle.
Rockland and Hanover firefighters used airbags to lift the SUV off of her and then cut through the roof of the vehicle. The woman was taken by ambulance to Boston Medical Center.
The woman’s name and condition had not been released as of this morning. Firefighters said they had requested a helicopter but that it was grounded because of the weather.
Firefighters said it took about 30 minutes to remove the woman, who was alone in the vehicle.
Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz said the driver of a car involved in a Boston to Rockland car chase on Wednesday was shot and killed by police.
The driver was a suspect in a hit-and-run accident in Boston, Cruz said. His identity has not been released
The district attorney could not say how fast the suspect was driving or whether he crashed into any property or vehicles, besides a police cruiser, before he was stopped in Rockland. He said at least four officers were injured during the persuit and apprehension of the suspect.
"This was a very dangerous event that had to be dealt with and now we’ll deal with the aftermath and go from there," Cruz said.
The chase started on Blue Hill Avenue in Roxbury when Boston Police observed a hit-and-run accident involving a female pedestrian, Cruz said. State Police joined the chase on Route 3 and the pursuit ended with a crash and shooting at the Route 228 exit on Route 3 in Rockland, near the Norwell line.
One Rockland Police officer was injured in a spinout accident on his way to the scene of the crash, according to Cruz. The woman only suffered minor injuries.
Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis confirmed that Boston police fired their weapons on the Route 3 on ramp in Rockland, about 20 miles from where the chase started in Roxbury. He said his department is investigating the shooting.
A dozen police vehicles from Boston, State Police and Rockland were parked at the intersection of Route 228 in Rockland, following the crash.
A burgundy-colored Hyundai sedan with front-end damage could be seen parked across a grass median between the on and off ramps at the crash site. The doors were open and the air bag had deployed.
State Police said in a statement that State Police units were involved in an active pursuit of a reported hit-and-run suspect on the Southeast Expressway.
The suspect was taken into custody following the crash and was transported to South Shore Hospital, where he was pronounced dead around 12:45 p.m.
Police have blocked the on and off ramp at Route 228 and traffic is backed up at least to Derby Street. A crowd of spectators has been watching the action from the Home Depot parking lot.
Efforts to save a burning house in Hanover early Tuesday were hampered by difficulty getting water, firefighters said.
The rambling Queen Anne style home at 70 Elm St. is a total loss, despite the efforts of firefighters from Hanover, Norwell, Rockland, Pembroke and Hanson, Deputy Hanover Fire Chief Barbara Stone said.
The house is at the end of a long driveway some 1,000 feet from Elm Street and the nearest hydrant, which was about 500 feet away, was obstructed by brush, Stone said. Firefighters had to lay about 1,200 feet of hose to get enough water to the blaze, she said.
Hanover firefighters received a call at about 2:25 a.m. reporting smoke on Pantoosett Road.
The owner does not live at the house on Elm Street and Stone said that firefighters did not encounter anyone who lived in the building at the scene.
Hanover firefighters and the State Fire Marshal’s Office were trying to determine the fire’s cause Tuesday.
Stone said there had been a small fire at the house in May that was extinguished by a person who was there.
Rockland Fire Chief Scott Duffey is credited with saving a helpless dog tied to a work bench in a burning apartment on Monroe Street Monday.
Fire officials say it appears a lit cigarette sparked Monday’s fire in a third-floor apartment at 85 Monroe St., where the terrified boxer clung to life by hunkering down on the floor.
“I went upstairs to search for victims. That’s when I saw the dog tied up,” Duffey said.
Fortunately, the dog was lying flat on its stomach. This provided a pocket of air in the smoke-filled room for the dog to breathe and stay alive, Duffey said.
Duffey untied the 40-pound dog and carried it to safety.
The apartment was unoccupied when the building owner reported the fire at 1:50 p.m. Monday, Abington Fire Chief John Nuttall said.
It took firefighters from Abington, Whitman and Rockland about 15 minutes to knock down the fire, which traveled up a rear wall and threatened to spread into the attic.
The state fire marshal’s office investigated. Weymouth firefighters manned the Abington fire station.
“It appears at this point (the fire) was due to improper disposal of smoking materials,” Nuttall said.
The apartment’s smoke detectors also did not work. This caused a delay in the fire’s detection, he said.
Nuttall said firefighters tore down the rear wall to make sure the fire was out.
“This is a large, old house. My main concern was the fire was going up into the attic,” Nuttall said.
The chief said that smoke and fire, and water to douse the fire, caused an estimated $20,000 in property damage.
The second- and third-floor units were not habitable as of Monday, he said.
Residents of a house on Webster Street discovered smoke pouring from a second-floor bedroom after returning indoors from spending time at their swimming pool on Thursday night.
Fire Chief Scott Duffey said quick action by firefighters saved the house from extensive damage. The family spent the night there despite smoke and heat damage to one bedroom and smoke damage to adjoining rooms, Duffey said.
The fire, at 566 Webster St., was reported in a 911 call to police at 10:50 p.m. Thursday.
Duffey said a preliminary investigation by the state fire marshal’s office showed the blaze began due to careless disposal of smoking materials.
He said the residents closed the door to the second-floor bedroom and went out to their swimming pool. When they returned, they discovered smoke in the room and called for assistance.
Firefighters, assisted by Abington and Hanover, were at the scene for three hours, while Hingham firefighters covered the station. The fire closed Webster Street, Route 123, to traffic for about 90 minutes.
A 41-year-old steelworker was flown to a Boston hospital after falling 30 feet at the site of the Rockland High School expansion project Monday afternoon.
As he awaited the arrival of personnel from the federal Occupational Safety Health Administration, Rockland Fire Chief Scott Duffey said firefighters went to the site after receiving a 911 call.
“He fell approximately 30 feet from the upper beam and, on his way down, he hit another steel beam, landing in the dirt below,” Duffey said.
The protocol for dealing with such a job-site accident calls for asking OSHA to perform a site inspection, according to Duffey.
He called the man’s injuries “potentially life-threatening.”
The man, a New Hampshire resident, was taken by Rockland medics and Abington ambulance to Reed Field. A medical hospital transported him from there to Brigham and Women’s Hospital at about 4 p.m.
The injured man, whose name was not released, was talking and conscious when he was taken from the accident scene, Duffey said.
Rockland High School is being renovated as part of an $86 million project that includes construction of a new middle school next door.
It was a night that Norwell Fire Chief T. Andrew Reardon will not soon forget. Within a span of about five minutes Wednesday, lightning struck two homes, setting both on fire.
The fires at homes on Winter Street and Craneberry Lane both started when lightning struck nearby and electricity was conducted to the houses by wires buried in the ground that were part of invisible dog fences, Reardon said.
Lightning was still flashing as firefighters from Norwell and seven other towns battled to save the buildings. “I’m very proud of my people. They made a textbook fire attack under extreme conditions,” Reardon said.
The first lightning strike at 10:02 p.m. set a garage attached to a large colonial style home at 341 Winter St. on fire.
“There was heavy fire in the two-car garage on the left side of the building which had a finished room on the second floor,” Reardon said. No vehicles were in the garage.
A second alarm was struck when flames threatened to spread to the main house, bringing firefighters from Hingham, Marshfield and Hull to the scene. The family living in the home had left without injury, and while fire damage was contained mainly to the garage, the house sustained extensive smoke damage, Reardon said.
He was on his way to the Winter Street home when the dispatch center received a call for a fire at a home close by at 11 Cranberry Lane. Firefighters from Norwell along with Rockland, Scituate, Pembroke and Cohasset contained the fire to a laundry room and surrounding area, Reardon said. Several people who were in the house when the fire started were not injured.
Lightning struck a 40-foot high tree behind the Winter Street house, then jumped to an underground wire that was attached to the garage. The top of the tree was set on fire, and the bottom was splintered. Firefighters cut it down as a precaution.
Firefighters from Hanson and Hanover covered Norwell’s fire station until the fires were out.
National Grid reported that about 360 customers in Quincy and about 1,400 customers in Cohasset, Norwell, Rockland and Scituate lost electricity during the storm.
The lights were back on as of 7 a.m. Thursday, company spokesman David Graves said.
Firefighters spent about 20 minutes extinguishing a fire in an abandoned truck trailer off Beech Street.
Firefighters found the trailer, which is about 40 feet long, and some cardboard that was inside ablaze in a lot near 254 Beech St. shortly before 10 p.m. Wednesday. The fire’s cause had not been determined as of Thursday morning.
Area fire crews responded to a fire in Norwell at 22 Longwater Drive, the address of the Zildjian cymbal factory.
Reports of heavy smoke coming from the building came in just before 2 p.m. Thursday; the fire quickly went to a second alarm.
Engines from Hingham, Rockland and Scituate were called to the scene for mutual aid, while Hanover and Hull fire departments were requested to provide station coverage in Norwell.
By around 2:15 p.m. officials were reporting that the fire was knocked down, but extensive overhaul would be required.
Fire officials say they are not sure what caused the fire, but suspect that it may have started from a malfunction somewhere in the manufacturing process.
No one was injured in a two-alarm fire at the Avedis Zildjian Co. headquarters this afternoon, the fire department said.
The fire department was alerted around 2 p.m. that the Norwell building, located in the Assinippi Office Park. The fire was extinguished by around 2:15, the fire department said.
The Scituate, Hingham and Rockland fire departments assisted at the scene.
Zildjian has been a family business since it started in Turkey in 1623. The company's rich history packs its Norwell factory - from black-and-white photographs of former presidents Avedis and Armand Zildjian to the drums used by jazz legend Buddy Rich.
Three people from Hanover and Pembroke were taken to South Shore Hospital following a crash Sunday night on Route 3. State police said the driver, Jacquelyn Mahoney, 19, of Hanover, was injured when her 2002 Toyota Camry left the road at about 9 p.m., crossed the median and went down an embankment, coming to rest against a tree. Police said two passengers, Kenneth J. Sullivan, 20, of Pembroke, and Ross S. Buckley, 19, of Hanover, were also injured, but not seriously. The Rockland police and fire departments and Norwell Fire Department responded.
Rockland High School was evacuated Thursday afternoon while fire fighters extinguished flames in a locker, fire officials said.
The fire department is investigating the cause of the fire at the high school, which is under construction as part of a full- scale renovation. A new Rock land Middle School is being built next door.
Fire officials had no further information Thursday after noon. Principal Stephen Sangster was in a teachers meeting and not immediately available for comment.
Car crashes through front of Union Street store in Rockland
Photo Courtesy of Stephanie Spyropoulos
The driver of a 1994 Oldsmobile Cutlass was said to have drifted off the road and smashed through the front of the Rockland Music store, 327 Union Street in Rockland, according to the Rockland Fire Department.
No one was injured after a car swerved onto the sidewalk and crashed into the front of a music store on Union Street in Rockland on Thursday.
The driver of a 1994 Oldsmobile Cutlass was said to have drifted off the road and smashed through the front of the Rockland Music store, 327 Union Street in Rockland, according to the Rockland Fire Department.
Deputy Chief Bill Ferguson of the Rockland Fire Department said there was little damage to both the store and vehicle.
“There was very little damage to the building and the car but he building inspector was notified,” Ferguson said. “The glass company was called and is currently in the process of repairing the front of the store.”
A woman was seriously injured when she was struck by a pickup truck in a pharmacy parking lot.
The woman’s name was not available, but firefighters said she was struck in the Walgreens parking lot at 75 Market St. in Rockland at about 7:25 p.m. Thursday.
A helicopter landed in the parking lot of nearby Calvary Chapel and the woman was taken to a Boston hospital.
Police: man who drove over woman in Rockland was drunk
Police say the driver of a van was drunk when he struck a woman in the parking lot of a Rockland store, badly injuring her leg.
Philip R. Johnson, 48, of 79 Exchange St., Rockland, was driving out of the 7-Eleven parking lot onto Market Street when his Ford van struck a 66-year-old Braintree woman and he ran over her leg, Rockland Police Lt. Nicholas Zeoli said. The woman was flown to Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Zeoli said her injuries, while serious, were not life threatening. Her condition was not available.
He said Johnson was turning right onto Market Street when the woman, who was walking west, was struck at about 7:25 p.m. Thursday.
Johnson pleaded innocent at his arraignment Friday in Hingham District Court to charges of drunken driving resulting in serious bodily injury and driving negligently. Judge Ronald Moynahan set bail at $15,000. Johnson is due back in court March 7.
A roof is caving in at a Rockland commercial building where firefighters and police officials have been on scene since earlier Thursday morning.
Firefighters, police and town Building Inspector Jim Paul responded to a report of a buckling roof at a building at 199 Weymouth St., 9:30 a.m. Thursday.
The building has been evacuated and several businesses are listed at the Weymouth Street address including T&K Sealing and Camelot Graphics Inc. Cleanup crews were also dispatched to the building to shovel snow off the roof.
“I don’t think there’s a firefighter out there who looks forward to a snowstorm if they’re on duty,’’ said state Fire Marshal Stephen D. Coan.
On Sunday, firefighters responding to a house fire on Barnum Street in Taunton found that all three nearby hydrants were frozen and had to rely on the water carried in their trucks to douse the flames.
“Luckily, in this situation it was just a smoky fire without much flame,’’ said Taunton Fire Chief Tim Bradshaw. “The situation could have been a lot worse.’’
But the fire trapped five people on the second floor. Firefighters had to trudge through the snowbanks and balance ladders on the ground to save the residents, work made more difficult when water from the hoses freezes on the ladder’s rungs.
Frozen hydrants are typically caused by leaks in the valves that connect the hydrants with the water mains below. Hydrants are supposed to be empty until firefighters open the underground valves, but when those valves leak, water floods the hydrants. Once that water turns to ice, the hydrants are useless.
“It’s something that we have to deal with,’’ Bradshaw said. “Taunton is an older community, and in the older downtown area, hydrants that were put in commission 30 years ago are going to break more than [those in the] newer areas of the city.’’
Of course, even properly working fire hydrants are not much help when they are buried under packed snow.
Nearly every fire department sends its units out into the community after a storm to dig out the hydrants, but even with an entire department hitting the streets, it can take a week to clear a moderately sized town.
It is illegal in Massachusetts to pile, push, or plow snow on top of a hydrant, but there is no state law requiring people, even fire departments, to shovel out hydrants after a storm, Coan said. Some communities have ordinances or bylaws, and many cities and towns simply ask residents to pitch in when they can.
Before most storms, Coan sends out an alert, asking residents to “adopt’’ a local hydrant by digging it out after the snow.
“In a fire, seconds count,’’ Coan said. “It could be your house or your neighbor’s that you help them save.’’
During the Dec. 26 blizzard, firefighters were slowed in battling a building fire in Belmont because hydrants were buried. No one was hurt, but the scare prompted the town to ask residents to step in.
Belmont has no residential property shoveling law or anything addressing fire hydrants in the snow.
“It’s not a rule, but it’s a good citizenship thing to do,’’ said town administrator Thomas G. Younger.
Working in extreme cold also takes a tremendous physical toll on firefighters.
In a fire, overspray from hoses coats everything in an icy glaze. It’s common and eerie to see a firefighter coming out of a burning building, emerging from the flames with icicles hanging off his coat and helmet.
That sudden move from extreme cold to extreme heat and back again is dangerous; it impairs your memory and strains your heart, according to health specialists.
“Firefighting in extreme weather, especially the cold, is extremely dangerous,’’ said Dr. Stephanie Moore, a cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. “You’re covered head to foot, operating heavy equipment, going into buildings with poor air quality, and the extreme weather adds stress to the body. For the fittest athlete, it’s a tough job.’’
Firefighters do prepare for winter conditions. At the Massachusetts Fire Academy in Stow Tuesday, cadets went through a normal day’s drills, climbed ladders, and battled training fires as the snow fell on them.
On Tuesday, a house fire in Grafton required response from several neighboring communities as firefighters trudged through the storm and thigh-high snowbanks to fight a natural gas-fueled fire. The fire was large, but the four alarms were called mostly to bring in fresh manpower, fire officials said.
“The snow really takes its toll on firefighters,’’ said Grafton Fire Chief Michael Gauthier.
As the forecast called for a pair of winter storms to strike Massachusetts this week, local fire chiefs had to brace themselves.
“Here we go again,’’ muttered Norwell Fire Chief Andrew Reardon, as he checked the weather reports Monday. “Our job is challenging at times, but when you add a couple feet of snow, it’s like, you’ve got to be kidding me.’’
The foul weather creates obvious driving challenges, and it leads to numerous accidents.
On Monday, Norwell and Marshfield firefighters responded to a rollover in the median on Route 3 north. Firefighters struggled in the slippery conditions to get the driver up the embankment, Reardon said. One firefighter fell and had to be treated for minor injuries.
Reardon, whose department handles fires and runs paramedic service for Norwell, said one of the pitfalls his rescuers face is trying to get a stretcher into a house, and then getting that stretcher — with a patient on it — back out to the ambulance without anyone getting hurt.
“Most folks have their walkways clear enough so that the door opens and they can let the dog or cat out, but they never really think about having three to four people get in there and pull them out on a stretcher,’’ Reardon said.
Firefighters say the cold weather dangers are all part of the job, but there are things people can do to help.
“If everybody could just look outside and make sure that the local hydrant is clear and the walkway to their house is clear enough so people can easily walk up and down it, it would make life a lot easier,’’ Reardon said.
The Rockland Fire Department came to the rescue at the height of Wednesday morning's storm, allowing Shauna McLaughlin to get her 2-year-old daughter Madison to a chemotherapy appointment at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
McLaughlin, 27, a native of Whitman, said she got up at 5 a.m. Wednesday to shovel her driveway. After she finished, she was inside having coffee when she heard "a large sound, like snow falling off the roof."
It wasn't snow, but a big tree limb, as wide as the tree itself, that fell across her driveway and across Liberty Street, blocking the road to traffic and pulling wires from the side of her house.
McLaughlin called the Fire Department.
"I said, 'I know you're busy, but can you help?'" said McLaughlin
She said a crew arrived quickly and used a chainsaw to remove the limb from the driveway and the street. Liberty Street is a major road in Rockland. Drivers were trying to drive around the limb and were getting caught on the wires, she said.
McLaughlin was able to leave her driveway and make it to Madison's appointment on time at 8 a.m., driving an sport utility vehicle with four-wheel drive that was loaned to her by a friend.
The normal one-hour drive to Boston took two hours, interrupted by another felled tree, this one on Botolph Street in Boston, that seemed to have a person pinned beneath it, though it was snowing so hard, she could not see for sure, McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin said she and Madison were the first to arrive at the Jimmy Fund clinic at Dana Farber.
Madison, who was diagnosed in March with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, was scheduled for a lumbar puncture that allows chemotherapy drugs to be injected directly into her brain and spinal fluid. She undergoes the procedure every seven weeks, so "you can't really miss the appointment," said McLaughlin.
McLaughlin said she is grateful to the Fire Department.
"Kudos to them," McLaughlin said. "They made it in and out of there in no time."
Firefighters quickly extinguished a blaze in a home before it could spread far from the chimney where it started.
They were called to 527 West Water St. in Rockland shortly before 8:30 p.m. Wednesday when a chimney connected to a wood-burning stove caught fire. Flames had spread into the space above the first-floor ceiling, but they were extinguished within about 15 minutes.
No injuries were reported.
Firefighters from Abington and Hanover were also called to the scene, while the Hingham Fire Department covered the Rockland station.
