As many of you may know, my son is a volunteer fireman/EMT.

I had today off from work. Early this afternoon I heard a very loud and heavy boom. Checked out my house, nothing wrong. Checked outside nothing wrong.

Unfortunately, there was something very wrong elsewhere in my neighborhood. One mile away a house exploded from a gas leak. A four year old little girl was thrown out of the house, across the street into a neighbor's yard. Her grandfather was thrown out of the house into the driveway and covered with rubble. Unfortunately, the grandfather died.

My son just called to advise me to keep away from that area of my neighborhood as natural gas is still leaking. Fifteen houses were damaged from the explosion. People were evacuated from the area and still are not allowed back to their homes.

My son's complaint was when he called me, was as the several different volunteer fire companies and EMT/ambulance companies were trying to do their job, there the media was up in their faces asking them for an 'official report'. Can you believe that? My son would not talk to them and asked to be left alone so he could do his job. They even showed the grandfather getting CPR. How cruel can they get, just for a story?

JUST FOR THE SAKE OF A STORY.

i think that media does a lot of things wrong this being on of the many. I or anyone for that matter could go on and on about the kind of things they do that often times hurt others. case and example princes D. Or think about what the family of that grandfather is going to think when they see him on the front of the six o'clock news lying dead...

the media always seems to have to get in the way of things.. even thought they do have their job to do.. his job was to save lives .. good for him not talking to them

It's all about ratings and who gets the story aired first. Who's fault is that?. The rating depend on how many people are tuned in and the media companies I'm sure would claim they were only doing what the consumer wants. And they do have a valid point...so who is to blame?

Well, pose that question to a fireman/EMT trying to save a house and/or life and see the reaction you get.

You do not get in the face of someone who is trying to put out a fire or doing cpr on an individual just for the sake of a story. Unless, perhaps, you want the hose turned on you.

Really, there has to be a line drawn.

Lindyy

Lindyy......

Thank God your house was not involved in the above and you are safe. Otherwise, you wouldn't be initiating this thread. A gas leak sounds as if this was a needless and careless tragedy that could have been averted. However, once again God was with you in that you are safe and your son warned you of the danger.

It is outrageous that the newspeople would "get in the faces" of those helping the injured. Taking pictures of the grandfather getting CPR goes beyond human decency. What if he had died?! It would be so terrible for family/friends to see his last moments of life on a TV screen, as one poster said.

You should be proud of your son since he acted sensibly and kept his cool with these insensitive media people. Many a time TV journalists do go too far to get a news story. I agree with you in that there are certain lines that should not be crossed. Clearly the media on this scene crossed those lines.

I wasn't agreeing with their tactics. I watch maybe an average of 10 minutes of tv a week. I was just expressing the publics hunger to watch other people's misfortunes. The media is feeding that hunger so which one has to be dealt with to cancel the other?

Oh, I know northrn yanke. I understood what you were saying. But still, they were not only putting the firemen in unnecessary harm's way, but themselves too.

That was a huge explosion, 15 houses damaged from it. And, there the grandfather is in the driveway getting cpr. My son called again and said that he was already dead on the scene, but they were still trying to revive him.

My son has seen so many DOA's. I do not know how he handles it.

One time there was a really bad accident, the 'jaws of life' had to be used to get the passengers out. This was a case where the young teenager had to be handled very carefully because of the obvious injuries. One wrong move and he could have been paralyzed. My son was the one who had to hold the kid's head in place while getting him out. Months later, the teen (via a friend of mine through me to get to my son) wanted to ask Jaime about the accident. He could not remember anything and wanted to know what the accident scene was like. Jaime would not talk to him, always made excuses because he said the kid 'would not really want to hear how bad it all was.'


Lindyy

i was a volunteer fireman for many years

and to be honest

i know of no one that was also a fireman

that i knew that would turn the hose on a civilian

no matter how much they may have deserved it

you son is a very courageous person, you must be very proud and pleased with your efforts to guide him to be who his is.

Hey you,

I was TRYING to be light hearted.

Lindyy

I spent many years doing hazardous material emergency response and in later years also taught the subject. Dealing with the media is always difficult and it was one of the subjects covered in the classes. They have only one objective, get their story on the air as fast as possible. If they can't get information they will make it up.

The best way to deal with them is to set up an area for the media and keep them in that area. Appoint a PR person and have him or her deal with them. Make it damn plain to all media at the scene that if they cross the hotline and enter the scene, they will be stripped naked, decontaminated, all their clothes and equipment including billfolds will be drumed and shipped off for disposal and once they are scrubbed clean and checked by medical personnel they will be dressed in paper coveralls and taken to jail for trespassing on the Haz Mat scene.

some of those female reporters are pretty attractive....this might be an incentive to move the line right behind one of em....

You guys are soooooo bad.

BUT,we have another emergency here. There is now another gas leak, only closer to my home and right in the vicinity of 2 schools! Kids were sent home.

Oh, boy. Always something.

Lindyy

where is that fire hose when you need it

Lindyy have you ever considered moving to another neighborhood with better gas pipes. When I lived in Phoenix about 20 years ago they were having problems with plastic gas lines that had been laid in the 60 breaking and causing explosions. Do you perhaps have the same problem where you live? There was a lot of plastic pipe used back then.

Do they not use surge shut off valves so if a pipe does break the gas is shut off....

I don't believe they do Yankee. The only place I have seen that type of valve is the internal valve on Propane Tank Trailers.

Much of our infrastructure here is pretty antiquated. I remember a gas line explosion up in Washington State in the 90's that laid waste to a pretty large area.
Our bridges are failing... Our power grid overwhelmed... Fail safes ignored. New technology passed by.

Yesterdays explosion, unfortunately, is par for the course.

we used them on fuel lines and oil lines on aircraft....one of the valves even made it onto one of my cars..