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01 Jun 2011 15:56

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U.S.: Budget cuts make fire department helpless in man’s drowning

  • ugh On Memorial Day, a man drowned himself in the waters off Alameda. The fire department wasn’t certified for water rescues, and the coast guard couldn’t retrieve him via boat, as it was too shallow. Waiting for a helicopter, the F.D. and coast guard watched the man drown.
  • fix? Seeking to remedy the situation that lets a man drown in full view of rescue teams, the Alameda Fire Department has changed their policy for land based water rescues — the program they’d had for those certifications ended in 2009 due to budget cuts. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Jan 2011 01:58

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U.S.: Protip: If your water bottle falls into Lake Michigan, let it go

  • My whole family was like that, we all have lead feet. Who would care about a water bottle? … I’m just like in damn disbelief.
  • Debra Hilling • On the death of her son, Michael. See, Michael, who couldn’t swim, jumped into Lake Michigan in an attempt to recover his girlfriend’s water bottle, which had fallen in. You know, on January 1st, in Chicago. The emergency call was received at 12:08 a.m., by the way, just minutes into 2011. Fark calls it “The first Darwin Award of 2011.” We just call it extremely unfortunate. See, Michael’s first anniversary with his girlfriend was Friday night. Now we’re really sad. Poor guy. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Aug 2010 10:09

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U.S.: In Louisiana, half a dozen teens drown in underwater sinkhole

  • Unfortunately, I’m afraid, and it’s with a heavy heart, to report that we have pulled so far (six) bodies from the river. … I can honestly say that in my 26 years of service I’ve never seen anything of this magnitude. And I hope I never see it again.
  • Shreveport, La. Fire Chief Brian Crawford • Describing the sinkhole that killed six people last night. (A seventh was rescued.) The 18-foot hole sucked in the teenagers, who largely didn’t know how to swim and had otherwise been in the shallow water. A friend of the families, Marilyn Robinson witnessed the deaths: “None of us could swim. They were yelling ‘help me, help me. Somebody please help me.’ It was nothing I could do but watch them drown one by one.” Harrowing. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Dec 2009 21:13

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U.S.: Was @military_mom right to tweet about her son drowning?

  • Please pray like never before. my 2 yr old fell in the pool.
  • Blogger @military_mom (a.k.a. Shellie Ross) • Regarding the drowning of her son. Many are up in arms about the fact that she tweeted about the incident half an hour after it happened. He died a few hours later. Our feeling? Twitter is just a communication mechanism like any other. It’s as easy to use as texting or phone calls, or any other mechanism you use. Twitter isn’t a faddish thing – Twitter is a communication mechanism. People can and will use it for this. Are we wrong? Let us know. (Either way, and let us be clear – this is a sad story and that doesn’t take away from that one bit. We actually find the New York Post story that brought up the issue to be quite disrespectful.) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

28 Nov 2009 09:50

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World: Another ferry capsizes, this time in Bangladesh

  • 1,000+ people were on the ship when it capsized
  • 28+ bodies have been recovered so far
  • 100+ people are still feared underwater source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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