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Firefighters in Bridgend, Wales, were called to a home in Pontycymer because a sheep had been spotted walking around on the roof. A fireman at the scene said,
“We have never had anything like that before, though we have found sheep in some difficult places.
“It was running back and forward on the roof, but eventually it must have realised how many firefighters were there trying to get it down and thought, I’d better come down now, I think.
The sheep was absolutely fine and not harmed at all, and it was certainly an interesting call-out, it’s not where you’d expect to find a sheep, really quite funny.
“It brightened up our weekend, that’s for sure.”
The sheep was back on the ground about 40 minutes after the fire crew arrived. Link -via Arbroath
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A family in Yuma, Arizona, called the Humane Society about a stray dog in their refrigerator. But they got a faster response from the local fire department. Yuma Fire Department spokesman Mike Erfert said the terrier-type dog was on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator and wouldn’t let anyone near.
Erfert said the apartment’s residents told firefighters that the dog was a stray and that it rushed into their apartment when they opened their front door. They said they tried to catch the dog but, every time they tried, the dog would snap at them and attempt to bite them.
Unable to catch the dog, Erfert said they then planned to lure it outside using some food, but when they opened the refrigerator door, the dog jumped inside and they couldn’t get the dog to come out.
Firefighters wore protective suits as they extracted the dog. An animal control officer took the dog, which was later reunited with its owner. Link -via Arbroath
Orville Douglas Denison thinks that telescoping ladders used by firefighters are too slow for firefighters to use effectively. So he designed a system that would lift up firefighters on something like a conveyor belt or an escalator:
In a rescue, firemen could extend Denison’s hydraulic ladder to windows as high as 113 feet. But rather than clamber up the ladder, the firefighter would hop on, and the rungs would roll up at 200 feet per minute—more than twice the average climbing speed of a firefighter weighed down by 130 pounds of gear. The firefighter would ride to a window, load unconscious victims into a rescue bag, hook the bag to the ladder, and shift it into reverse to bring the person to safety. Denison says it can now take up to 15 minutes, and sometimes several men, to carry one victim down a ladder from 10 stories. He estimates that his ladder could lower four people to the ground in less than four minutes.
Link | Image: Kevin Hand
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Hmm, this looks like someone doing a steampunk version of Star Wars, doesn’t it? Wrong! These are real antiques.
This pair of early rescue masks, shown above, dates from between the mid-1800s and World War I. They look a bit familiar, right? Almost a 100 years before Darth Vader and 3-CPO hit the big screen in “Star Wars” in 1977, these two smoke helmets were worn by firefighters carrying our rescues in smoke-logged buildings. The buzz among collectors is that George Lucas’s designers must have found inspiration in these smoke helmets and other like them. In fact, one well-known 19th-century manufacturer was named Vajen-Bader—you could easily get the name Vader from that.
The mask on the left is German; the one on the right is French. Maybe the resemblance is coincidental, or maybe George Lucas and/or his designers saw these masks at one time or another. Link -Thanks, Ben Marks!
In early January Tokyo’s Fire Department struts its stuff with a large exhibition known as Dezomeshiki which has parades, firefighting vehicles, and firefighting techniques. It’s a 5-year old’s dream come true! Professional firefighting in Japan goes back centuries starting with the hikeshi, acrobatic firefighters who are now one of the highlights of the Dezomeshiki. They scale bamboo ladders and perform acrobatics stunts.
There have been professional fire fighters in Japan since the 17th Century. They were known as hikeshi. Unlike modern firefighters who seek to extinguish fires, the hikeshi’s main task was to pull down buildings near the fire so that the flames would not spread.
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Robots that served in Afghanistan by remotely detonating explosives are now repurposed as “firebots” in London. These machines can safely get much closer to the source of the fire than human firefighters, which is particularly useful for gas fires.
The three robots are the Talon, a small, manoeuvrable machine with thermal-image cameras; the Black Max, which is similar to a quad bike and has a high-pressure hose, and the Brokk 90, which is a heavy-duty digger that removes debris.
The robots, manufactured by QinetiQ, went into service in London yesterday. Link -via Unique Daily
