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Written and Submitted by Marla Jo Fisher,

A memorial is scheduled Friday for the associate dean of the fire technology program at Santa Ana College, who died after a year spent battling a malignant brain tumor.

Richard Bridges, 64, worked at Santa Ana College since 1997. A past president of the California Fire Chiefs Association, he was previously fire chief at Santa Monica, Redondo Beach, Daly City and National City.

His daughter, Cindy Creager, said her dad loved his job at the college and the people he worked with.

Bridges died Monday of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His wife, Alice, found him about 9 a.m. on the deck of their home in Redondo Beach, his daughter, Cindy Creager, said. He had been ill for over a year and toxic chemotherapy was making it difficult to get around.

Before coming to Santa Ana, Bridges had started his career in Indio, later working in Banning, Rialto, Daly City, National City, Redondo Beach and Santa Monica.

Bridges’ Christian faith was important to him, his daughter said.

“He witnessed even when he was ill,” she said. “He served at a church service that gave groceries to people in need.”

Bridges is survived by his wife of 28 years, Alice Bridges of Redondo Beach and daughters Creager, of Lakeview, Oregon, and Lisa Baker of Simi Valley.

“He was a great man and touched many hearts,” his widow, Alice Bridges, said.

Friday’s memorial service is scheduled for 3 p.m. at Rolling Hills Covenant Church, 2222 Palos Verdes Dr. North in Rolling Hills Estates.

Family Writes Obituary…

Richard Blair Bridges, a 20 year resident of Redondo Beach, passed away on Monday, September 1, 2008 at his home in Redondo Beach.

Born in Oxnard, California on July 11, 1944, he was 64 at the time of his death.  Richard’s career began in the fire service when he was in his early twenties.

He worked his way up the ranks from volunteer fire firefighter and eventually retired as Chief of the Santa Monica Fire Department. He also was the Fire Chief for the City of Redondo Beach. He was a graduate of the University of Southern California with a Master’s Degree in Public Administration.

His current employment, of the last eleven years, was with Santa Ana College where he was the Dean of the Fire Technology Department. He was concerned for the community and state that he lived in.

He was a past participant in Rotary International, Lions Club International and was the President of the California Fire Chiefs Association.

Fire Ordinances regarding residential sprinklers for three different cities are in place today because of his concern for public safety.

Richard loved to read, study financial planning and the stock market and enjoyed giving the wisdom he had to others.

His active participation at the Rolling Hills Covenant Church lead him to service with the ACTS ministry. Delivering groceries to the needy and praying with those who were hurting gave him great joy. He befriended all he encountered.

He and his wife Alice loved to travel the world and when at home gave much attention to their daughters and four beautiful granddaughters. Richard will be greatly missed.

He is survived by his wife Alice Bridges of Redondo Beach, Ca., his Father, Jay Bridges of Banning, Ca., Daughters, Lisa Baker of Simi Valley, Ca., and Cindy Creager of Lake View, Or., he was preceded by his wife Jeannette Bridges.

A Memorial service will be held on Friday, September 5th at 3:00 p.m. at Rolling Hills Covenant Church, Palos Verdes California. All are welcome to this Celebration of his Life.

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West Coast 911 story source - OC Register

A slow-moving fire burning for about eight weeks in Kings Canyon National Park has now spread across the park boundary and into the neighboring Sierra National Forest.

The Tehipite fire was started by a lightning strike in mid-July, rangers believe, and has been creeping and smoldering with occasional flareups in a mixed forest of conifer, fir and oak trees in the Tehipite Valley area of the park. It is burning in steep terrain at elevations between 4,000 and 8,000 feet.

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As of today, the fire’s area was estimated at 1,603 acres — about 400 acres larger than a week ago, said Deb Schweizer, a fire information specialist for the park. About 10 acres of the fire is on the Sierra National Forest land, in the John Muir Wilderness.

So far, no structures or property are threatened, but Sierra National Forest officials are taking steps to protect a cabin in Dear Meadow. Firefighters are simply monitoring the fire’s growth with periodic helicopter flights, a pair of rangers on the ground and from the Buck Rock Lookout in the Sequoia National Forest.

Two trails in the park remain closed: the trail between Simpson Meadow and the park boundary and the Blue Canyon Trail at the park boundary.

Check out the fire with the Buck Rock Lookout webcam.

West Coast 911 firefighter news source - Fresno Bee

Firefighters from three departments battled a 30- acre grass fire along Interstate 5 on Aug. 26.

Firefighters from the Cosumnes Community Services District were dispatched at 5:13 p.m. to the blaze south of Twin Cities Road in San Joaquin County, said district spokesman Steve Capps.

The Cosumnes firefighters joined units from the Thornton and Walnut Grove fire departments in fighting the fire, which started in the median and spread across the highway to the east side, where the majority of the burn was, he said. There were no injuries, and no structures were affected. The cause of the fire is under investigation, Capps said.

West Coast 911 news source - Sac Bee

The Sacramento region is a tinderbox waiting to explode, and fire prevention officials are warning that it won’t take much to ignite an inferno.

The Labor Day weekend was the last hurrah for many on summer vacation. But for local firefighters, the next few weeks will be some of the most critical in a fire season that has already started too early and burned too hot.

“We’ve been really lucky so far,” Capt. Jim Doucette,spokesman for the Sacramento Fire Department, said last week.

For many local fire-prevention experts, the question is not whether the Sacramento region will have a catastrophic fire, the question is when,” Doucette said.

Tossed cigarettes, backyard barbecues and unattended campfires are some of the main concerns cited by local officials.

They also warn that well-meaning residents trying to clear their land could be surprised by a single spark from a lawn mower blade striking a rock.

Officials in the Eldorado National Forest – one of Sacramento’s outdoor playgrounds – term the fire danger in their area critically high. Strict controls on any type of fire outside hosted campgrounds have been in place since June, but many visitors are ignoring those rules, officials said.

Dangerous conditions extend all the way down into urban areas, said Assistant Chief Greg Mugartegui, with the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District.

State officials measure the moisture in vegetation to provide local firefighters with a burn index and those measurements are “off the chart,” Murgartegui said.

“In June and July, we were seeing conditions that were as dry as they usually are in September and October,” Doucette said.

He recently returned from visiting relatives in Boise, Idaho, where a wind-driven fire devastated a neighborhood Aug. 25.

“I started driving around, taking a look at the many neighborhoods that we have in Sacramento that are just like that neighborhood in Boise,” Doucette said.

The common elements include older homes with wood siding and shake roofs surrounded by wooden fences and dry, brushy fields, Doucette said.

Mugartegui said Metro Fire regularly deals with wildland fires along the American River Parkway.

“On the north side of the American River there are a lot homes at the top of the bluffs and a fire could race right up those hills,” Mugartegui said.

West Coast 911 firefighter news source - Sac Bee

RENO, Nev. - An air tanker hoping to drop retardant on a wildfire in the Sierra Nevada crashed on takeoff near Reno, killing all three crew members on board.

The twin-engine P2V air tanker owned by Neptune Aviation of Missoula, Montana, had been fighting a wildfire earlier Monday at had forced evacuations over the weekend in California’s Alpine County near Hope Valley south of Lake Tahoe, Reno fire spokesman Steve Frady said Monday night.

Names of the three confirmed dead in the crash had not been released, said Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

Preliminary reports from witnesses suggested the tanker lost a piece of its engine or a wing after its 6:11 p.m. takeoff from Reno-Stead Airport before it caught fire and went down about a half-mile (800 meters) away, he said.

The crash started a small brush fire that local crews extinguished, Frady said. He said the debris field from the crash covered approximately 5 square miles (13 square kilometers) northwest of the airport northeast of U.S. Highway 395.

“It was full of fuel and retardant and had been on the Hope Valley fire and apparently was headed back to make one last drop,” Frady told The Associated Press.

West Coast 911 firefighting news source - The Associated Press

A small army will be hiding today at Auto Club Speedway.

They will be lurking behind the grandstands, in the infield, at a whole host of tactical locations, ready to respond at a moment’s notice.

If fans never see this legion of firefighters, physicians, nurses, emergency medical technicians, paramedics, dispatchers and ambulance drivers, it means all has gone right.

Photo by Frank Bellino/The Press-Enterprise “There are unique things you get into when you specialize in motor sports medicine that typical field EMS guys just don’t deal with,” says speedway medical chief Dr. Jeff Grange.

When things do go wrong, the emergency teams are there to make sure the show goes on.

That’s not an easy task. The emergency professionals not only have to be able to react quickly to save lives, but they also have to do it in an especially compact time frame — and with something like 30 cameras and a national audience watching their every move.

“With a crash on the highway, you’d shut down the whole highway and take time to do whatever you need to do,” said Dr. Jeff Grange, the speedway’s medical director.

“Here, in the time of a commercial, you have to get out there, put out the fire, cut the driver out of the car, start medical care and get the whole scene cleaned up. All in the time of a commercial so the show can go on.”

The most vital part-time employees at the track include the 100-person medical staff that answers to Grange and the 120-plus firefighters who operate under the speedway’s fire and safety director, Mike Carnes.

Both men have worked at the track since it opened in 1997.

Grange, of Yucaipa, is director of emergency medical services at Loma Linda University Medical Center and the medical director for Symons Event Safety, a company he co-founded to fill a void in event medical and safety services. This weekend, Symons is providing ambulance support.

Carnes, who is a Lancaster-based Los Angeles County fire captain in his full-time job, started at the track on the medical side before taking over the lead of the fire and safety unit nine years ago.

The fire and safety and medical units work closely, going through annual 16-hour NASCAR-specified training sessions to prepare for race weekends by keeping up with technological advances and ever- improving operating tactics.

“We’re definitely not out there alone,” said Carnes, of Highland. “We have so many people coming together from different agencies for a common problem. It’s like the fire service on a major fire. So many people from so many different walks of life, it’s great to be a part of.”

The fire and safety team — made up of active firefighters as well as recent fire academy graduates looking to build their resumes and retirees who miss the action — will respond first to a crash.

Their responsibilities include, if necessary, extinguishing fires and extricating drivers.

On their heels comes the ambulance crew to care for the driver once he’s out of the car. If the situation is particularly serious, an on-track physician will be called out. On Sunday, the physician at the ready will be Grange himself.

The procedures aren’t all that far removed from what these emergency professionals do daily, said Carnes, whose wife, Sandy, works in the infield care center, where drivers often are taken to be checked after a crash.

“It’s all more similar than different,” Carnes said. “We’re responding into an area that is not totally controlled yet. There’s really no difference between freeway traffic and racecar traffic. A lot of the same safety procedures that we practice on the street we carry over onto the track.”

West Coast 911 Firefighting News Source - Press Enterprise / Read Entire Article

At 6:54 P.M. on Monday September 1st, the SBFD responded to the report of a structure fire in the 100 block of east Eleventh Street. First arriving units found heavy fire showing from the first floor of a two-story residence. The residence was determined to be uninhabited after a through interior search was conducted. Fire fighting efforts were significantly impacted when firefighters discovered that the residence had been subdivided into three distinct living areas. This made access very difficult and necessitated the response of additional fire units to the scene to assist in fire control and extinguishment. Fire control was obtained in approximately forty minutes. Two firefighters were injured and taken to a local hospital for treatment.

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West Coast 911 firefighting news source - Kenny Yellen PIO SBFD

APPLE VALLEY — Investigators are looking into the second fire at a local apartment complex this month, and they now believe both fires could be arson.

Around 7:20 p.m. Saturday a fire was reported in the 15300 block of Broken Bow Road, and emergency personnel from the Apple Valley Fire Protection District could only contain the blaze in two of the building’s eight units, said Division Chief Art Bishop.

Photo by Sarah Alvrado, VV Daily Press

Bishop called the complex — which he believes was in foreclosure and being handed back to an area bank —a complete loss.
“The fire is under investigation for suspicion of arson,” Bishop said.
The first of seven fire engines was at the location 12 minutes after it was reported, and firefighters remained at the location for over an hour, extinguishing and cleaning up remains of the fire, he said.

It was the second time firefighters were at the location this month. On Aug. 5, there was another blaze at the complex, which was unoccupied both times, said Fire Investigator Brian Pachman.
The two fires seemed strange to firefighters, who called for assistance from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department’s Bombs and Arson team.
“We never say ‘suspicious fire,’ but yeah, I’m thinking the other one could have been arson too,” Pachman said.

During the first fire, one of the units still had furniture in it, as residents had only been given notice to move some weeks earlier, investigators said. The fire on Saturday was in the same area, with units 7 and 8 being destroyed, Bishop said.

West Coat 911 Firefighting News Source - Victorville Daily Press

A grass fire near Lincoln burned more than 500 acres and destroyed multiple structures, fire officials said Monday.

The blaze, named the Gladding fire, started at about 12:40 p.m. on Gladding Road and Merritt Lane.The fire started burning about an acre of land but quickly grew with the aid of 30 mph wind gusts, officials said.

“There are a lot of homes that remain threatened,” Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant said. “This fire is still actively burning … hopefully, though, the winds will die down a little bit more, and we’ll get some containment.”

The fire was 60 percent contained by 9 p.m., Berlant said.Fire officials said all evacuations have been lifted with the exception of Virginiatown Road.An evacuation center opened at Carlin C. Coppin Elementary School in Lincoln.Animals may be taken to the Gold Country Fairgrounds in Auburn.

West Coast 911 firefighting news source - KCRA

Three members of Las Vegas Fire & Rescue (Medical Director/M.D., Engineer and Firefighter/Paramedic) have been deployed with FEMA’s Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) Nevada Task Force One, to the Southeast U.S. to assist because of the Hurricane that is expected to hit this weekend.

60,144 - TOTAL NUMBER OF CALLS JAN. 1, 2008 TO DATE (57,399)

84,762 - TOTAL NUMBER FOR THE YEAR 2007