Independance Day

How fitting to start a blog on the day we are celebrating our freedom - including the sometimes messy "freedom of speech". Somehow I got rotated out to work this shift at the airport. Real exciting - like watching paint dry. We did get to watch the Space Shuttle launch on TV and then heard about the missile launches out of North Korea. Not sure what they are trying to prove.

Since I will not likely run any calls today, I will bore you with one from several months ago:

We had a call for a man with burns in a residential neighborhood. Since I was working as the Chief's driver that day, another officer had taken my place on the engine. Once they arrived, they found a man with burns on his arms and a large commercial coffee grinder smoldering on a small table in front of the garage. The crew hit the grinder with an extinguisher and then went to move it further from the house. As it was set on the ground - it detonated! It literally exploded causing significant damage in the area. The damage included; window blown out on the occupants BWW as well as a large dent in the door; one firefighter with hearing loss in one ear; one firefighter with a significant hematoma (bruise) to his let that resulted in two weeks off work, and the coffee grinder all but disappeared. I arrived shortly after this happened, and tried to get the guys to the hospital, call the bomb squad, and figure out what happened. Since this is still in litigation, I won't be able to give all the details, but apparently the couple was grinding and mixing chemicals to make exploding targets. Just what you would expect in a quiet upper middle class neighborhood! I will give a more complete update once the trial is over.