March 26, 2014

Dramatic fire rescue.

Watch!



This happened in Houston yesterday.

80 comments:

L Day said...

The way that guy kept his wits about him and swung and dropped to the ledge below, that's the stuff. The radiant heat had to be incredible.

Wilbur said...

My late father, a retired municipal fireman, liked to say they had a 100% success rate: they never failed to put one out. They may have ended up with a handful of ashes, but they always put them out.

madAsHell said...

She sounded bossy!!

Stephen Taylor said...

The HFD did a fine job; although there was no saving that complex they did rescue the worker, and prevented the spread of the fire to adjoining buildings. Good work on their part.

garage mahal said...

The Koch Brothers did a great job risking their lives to put this fire out. Wait, those were public workers. Grab their pensions!

The Crack Emcee said...

That's like black life - with spectators.

Never sure if the ladder's going to show up, though,...

alan markus said...

@ Garage:

The Koch Brothers did a great job risking their lives to put this fire out

Doesn't look like anyone risked their lives putting that fire out.

Curious George said...

"garage mahal said...
The Koch Brothers did a great job risking their lives to put this fire out. Wait, those were public workers. Grab their pensions!"

What public workers lost their pensions? I missed that. That's terrible. Link please.

George M. Spencer said...

Of course, the news story fails to answer one key question--why couldn't the hook-and-ladder get closer faster and why was the fireman on the end of the ladder gesturing so frantically.

What was the problem below?

Bizarre how the woman's voice almost seems 'entertained' by the events she is watching. OMG. Frickin'.

David said...

That was a nasty fire.

The guy on the ledge had to be under great stress but he did not panic. He essentially saved himself. I suppose the ladder might have reached the higher floor, but it probably would have been too late. That's a wonderful example of doing what you can to help yourself.

Kudos to the fire department too, which got there in time with the right assets.

David said...

St. George said...

Bizarre how the woman's voice almost seems 'entertained' by the events she is watching.


She wasn't entertained. She was worried and excited. Did you even notice the heartfelt "Thank you, Jesus!" when the man on the ledge made it to the ladder?

Wally Kalbacken said...

Action is back at Althouse!

Meade said...

"The Koch Brothers did a great job risking their lives to put this fire out. Wait, those were public workers. Grab their pensions!"

His snark aside, garage mahal is correct to credit the Koch brothers. Their refined crude oil (not unicorn juice) and their pipelines that delivered it fueled the firetruck that got to the scene just in time.

Also, garage can thank the Koch brothers for the "Brawny"® paper towels garage uses to wipe up all his hate spittle.

Skyler said...

My wife's first reaction was, "The fireman on top doesn't have control to move ladders. Hummm. Need to fix this problem"

David said...

I agree, Meade. And anyway, those firemen didn't invent that hook and ladder.

Actually, Daniel Dennis Hayes did. He patented the design. He made some good money selling the initial examples to the San Francisco Fire Department, and later sold his patent to American LaFrance.

Dirty capitalist.

David said...

I think the ladder had moved as much as it could. They needed to move the truck.

MadisonMan said...

It seems to me the guy *could* have jumped down to the ground, via successive leaps to porches. Not a safe way down, for sure, but he wasn't doomed if the fire truck hadn't shown up.

The Crack Emcee said...

MadisonMan said...
It seems to me the guy *could* have jumped down to the ground, via successive leaps to porches. Not a safe way down, for sure, but he wasn't doomed if the fire truck hadn't shown up.

Now that's just like black life,...

Anonymous said...

Some woman loves to hear her own voice too much.

Gahrie said...

The Koch Brothers did a great job risking their lives to put this fire out. Wait, those were public workers. Grab their pensions!

You sir are an asshole.

Good day!

Gahrie said...

Never sure if the ladder's going to show up, though,...

It probably won't if there's no White folks around....

Rob said...

That construction worker has two things to be thankful for: that his life was saved, and that he doesn't have to spend the rest of it listening to the woman who recorded the video.

Sorun said...

Garage reminds me of a dingbat environmentalist I once knew who got a free plane ticket from a small company to go protest about something. She then asked, "So what has Exxon ever done for me?"

Who knows, other than refine the jet fuel that made her flight possible.

traditionalguy said...

A good Southern Baptist evangelist could work that video into his sermon.

garage mahal said...

Just a little morning humor Meade. Not sure why righties are so touchy about the Koch Bros. They make sure we can get to work and donate money to cure cancer

Ann Althouse said...

You know, if you have the video, you can cut out the audio. We did not need to hear the people talking, but it was interesting to hear their reaction, which was much calmer than I would have thought.

It reminded me of some to the 9/11 video that had people watching from Brooklyn. There's something intimate about hearing how people talk from the helpless observer position. Mostly, they say "Oh, my God."

Ann Althouse said...

They are praying.

Wince said...

I prefer the Dirty Harry method.

Anonymous said...

The Crack Emcee said...
"That's like black life - with spectators.

Never sure if the ladder's going to show up, though,..."

Why are blacks so dependent on other people's good wills? The ladder may never show up, so deal with it. Build your own ladder, jump, take a chance.

Heard of the Chinese Exclusion Act? Heard of Chinese coolies building the transcontinental railways? Heard of Internment of Japanese citizens? Life in America was a cake walk for these people.

Only black liberals, black poverty pimps dwell on things happened centuries ago to exploit the current situation. They passed Affirmative Action to help white fake Indian woman, they kept shoveling taxpayers' money to enrich community organizers. Blacks are so helpless without govt. handouts.

Jesse Jackson and his family became millionaires. Obama got his sweet heart deal from the slum lord he community organized against. Blacks are so helpless... Whites are so bad... White Men's Burden?

SJ said...

@Ann,

It can be called prayer.

People think about and talk to God (or whoever/whatever they think is equivalent) when under stress.

It's not foolish to invoke Divine help in times of crisis.

But Christian Scripture and Tradition call on believers to pray much more regularly. In times of sorrow, times of joy, times of trouble, and times of blessing.

I won't lie; there was a time when emergencies (real or imagined) were the only thing that drove me to prayer. Since that time, I've learned much more about the life of prayer.

Reflexive prayer in emergency is still a good thing. However, I think it is better described as the beginning of a prayer.

L Day said...

When the construction worker was hanging from the top porch his fall line was beyond the edge of the next porch down. This was a very real problem, made even more difficult by the fact that the porch looked to be better than a foot thick. This would make it hard to get a good swing. If he'd just let go and dropped he would have missed the next porch down and died. The subtle little swing of his legs and then arch of his back was the only way he could get his mass inside the edge of the next porch. He took a very hard hit when he landed. People that have never been athletes or never made a living with their hands almost certainly would have blown their last chance at survival.

Curious George said...

"garage mahal said...
Just a little morning humor Meade. Not sure why righties are so touchy about the Koch Bros. They make sure we can get to work and donate money to cure cancer."

Yeah, it's righties that are touchy about the Koch Brothers. Lefties protested a $100 million donation to build a needed hospital wing.

No the problem with your post is that it is bullshit. Like almost all your posts, based on bullshit.

No public workers have had their pensions "grabbed". Not in Wisconsin, not anywhere. In Wisconsin, most have been required to pay a small percentage into their pension. But ironically, firefighters, the public workers referred to in your stupid post, don't even have to do that.

You're an idiot.



The Crack Emcee said...

elkh1,

The ladder may never show up, so deal with it. Build your own ladder, jump, take a chance.

Right - I'll be a drug dealer like Jay-Z. No, whites won't like that.

And they criticized Obama's moves, too - can't go the clean route, either.

Let me cut to the chase - be a house nigger for the GOP and damn if everything won't work out fine,...

L Day said...

You're pathetic, Crack.

Anthony said...

I'm impressed by two things:

1) The drop by the worker. He made it look easy, swinging like that, but it's not. Especially under stress. But he had to: in the next minute or two, the fire reached the balcony he was on.

2) The firemen really knew what they were doing. At first it looks like they're swinging the ladder away just as part of rescuing him, but I think they knew the upper story was about to collapse.

garage mahal said...

No public workers have had their pensions "grabbed". Not in Wisconsin, not anywhere.

Not anywhere?

You've been pretty quiet on Walker lately. Everything alright?

The Crack Emcee said...

Larry Day said...
You're pathetic, Crack.

Oh, you ain't seen nothing yet - I'll probably be homeless in a week, while in a state that had anti-black laws on their books until 2001.

That's because y'all's so nice,...



SJ said...

@garage,

That article refers to Gina Raimondo, a Treasurer of the State of Rhode Island. It doesn't mention her party. (However, it does mention that she's Harvard/Yale/Wall-Street material.)

Wikipedia claims that Raimondo is of the Democratic Party, and defeated a Republican challenger by approximately 2 to 1.

The claimed donors supporting Raimondo were all Wall Street banking firms, not Midwest oil executives.

Gahrie said...

I'll probably be homeless in a week

The White man is stealing Crack's home!

Gahrie said...

Right - I'll be a drug dealer like Jay-Z. No, whites won't like that.

So close...the problem isn't that Whites don't like drig dealers...its that the rest of you do like them. Start dropping a dime and things will begin to improve in the innercity.

The Crack Emcee said...

Gahrie said...
I'll probably be homeless in a week

The White man is stealing Crack's home!

No shit, how'd you know?

When black kids start to read they call it "acting white".

When black kids actually start acting like whites, they call it "you've got a problem"

Gahrie said...

And they criticized Obama's moves, too - can't go the clean route, either.

Who said Obama went clean...he admitted to using coke and dope...and I'm still betting he lied and applied to college as foreign exchange student Barry Sotero.

The Crack Emcee said...

Gahrie,

So close...the problem isn't that Whites don't like drig dealers…

Wow - so the majority of drugs used in the US are by black folks?

Man, to that ignorant MUST be a luxury of whiteness,..

Gahrie said...

When black kids start to read they call it "acting white".

They don't, Blacks do.

Gahrie said...

Wow - so the majority of drugs used in the US are by black folks?

Nope...but we don't allow the dealers to take over our neighborhoods.

Curious George said...

"garage mahal said...
No public workers have had their pensions "grabbed". Not in Wisconsin, not anywhere.

Not anywhere?"

There pensions weren't grabbed. Typical bullshit.

"You've been pretty quiet on Walker lately. Everything alright?"

I've commented on multiple Walker posts, in many cases rebutting your bullshit, which you ignored. Just because you ignore it doesn't mean it didn't happen.

Gahrie said...

Tell you what Crack...start a kickstart campaign for a one way ticket to Africa, where you can live freely among your people and no longer be oppressed by the White man. Think of it as reparations.....I bet it'll take less than a month to raise the money to buy you that ticket.

garage mahal said...

I've commented on multiple Walker posts

I've just noticed much less chest beating and bravado. Did something finally hit home and become personal? I have noticed that elsewhere on Facebook and comment sections. Maybe it's just me. It's hard to leave a cult. Because you don't know you're in one most of the time!

Tari said...

HFD are awesome folks, that's for sure. And they are mostly not full time or that well paid. Many of them work other jobs. I know realtors, DUI lawyers, and so on, who also work for the fire department.

My son's MS is a little over a mile away as the crow files. He came home from rugby practice all sooty, because the fields were covered with ash. Freaky.

Anonymous said...

The Crack Emcee said...
elkh1,

Let me cut to the chase - be a house nigger for the GOP and damn if everything won't work out fine,...

I can't stand the GOP. They are spineless Democrat lights. But it doesn't help to be a Democrat house nigger: vote Democrats all your life, get scraps from them.

Do you know Obama gave more taxpayers' money to his white billionaire buddies than to blacks? $535 millions to white billionaire buddy Kaiser at Solyndra, $135 millions to white billionaire buddy Buffett's A123 Battery, $2 billion to white billionaire buddy Soros for Petrobra. Who is white men's house nigger? Slave for white men for scraps.

SJ said...

@Tari,

it is good to hear that HFD is so good, even if many members aren't full-time firemen.

Curious George said...

"garage mahal said...

I've just noticed much less chest beating and bravado. Did something finally hit home and become personal? I have noticed that elsewhere on Facebook and comment sections. Maybe it's just me. It's hard to leave a cult. Because you don't know you're in one most of the time!"

You aren't paying attention. I can't think of one Walker post I passed on one bullshit post of your that I haven't rebutted.

nono said...

@ garage mahal said...:
The Koch Brothers did a great job risking their lives to put this fire out. Wait, those were public workers. Grab their pensions!

Sir please if you can not comment on a nonpolitical post without bringing politics into it please do not comment. You just look like a Troglodytarum when you do.

Meade said...

garage mahal said...
No public workers have had their pensions "grabbed". Not in Wisconsin, not anywhere.

Not anywhere?

You've been pretty quiet on Walker lately. Everything alright?


garage, did you read the article you linked to? If so, can you please link to the evidence in the article of Governor Walker and/or the Koch brothers "grabbing" public workers' pensions? I couldn't find any.

alan markus said...

@ Garage:

You've been pretty quiet on Walker lately. Everything alright?

Maybe because things are "chill" right now.

Marquette poll shows Walker up on Burke 48%-41% (3/26/14)

the numbers from the latest Marquette Poll were nearly unchanged from a January survey that showed Walker ahead, 47% to 41%.

Emails! Secret Routers!! Koch Brothers!!!

The Crack Emcee said...

Gahrie,

"We don't allow the dealers to take over our neighborhoods."

I know, you've got the plantation overseers - now called officers - to protect you.

Why you ignore them not protecting blacks is, maybe, racism?

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Pathetic. The two most boring trolls in the world have infected all threads. Crack with his everything is racism and Garage with everything is Walker and Unions.

There is no discussion that cannot be turned into a steaming pile of excrement by either of these guys.

The Crack Emcee said...

elkh1,

Do you know Obama gave more taxpayers' money to his white billionaire buddies than to blacks?


You poor deluded fool:

The great Tea Party swindle: How to make lots of money off the naive

Tea Party PACs raise a ton of money from conservatives -- and spend it on enriching their friends

Gahrie said...

Why you ignore them (police officers) not protecting blacks is, maybe, racism?

No...I think it has more to do with the whole "don't cooperate with the man" and "snitches get stitches" thing.

The Crack Emcee said...

Dust Bunny Queen,

There is no discussion that cannot be turned into a steaming pile of excrement by either of these guys.

"steaming pile of excrement"


Is that above or below "subhuman" again?

Gahrie said...

Is that above or below "subhuman" again?

See Crack..this is the problem when you insist on seeing everything through the prism of race.

She isn't calling you a "steaming pile of excrement" because you're Black...she's calling you that because you are an asshole and a troll.

Skyler said...

Crack is proving the rule, proven by the election of Obama, that blacks are the real racists.

William said...

The play by play by the woman added to the immediacy of the moment and that includes the borderline fatuity of some of her comments. It's not that easy to describe such an event in calm, measured tones.....If the Fire Dept. Is looking for new hires, they could do worse than recruit this guy. That was some maneuver.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

There is no discussion that cannot be turned into a steaming pile of excrement by either of these guys.

"steaming pile of excrement"


Is that above or below "subhuman" again?


No need to take it personal or racially. Garage is a fat white guy and he is just as tedious, boring and dopey.

I'm not calling either of you steaming piles, but rather the results of your (both)constant trolling and turning every single thread into your one track mind quests.

Mrs Whatsit said...

What kind of mind does it take to watch a scene like that and think first of . . . the Koch brothers? Or, for that matter, of racism? Could anybody tell the race of the rescued person or his rescuer, and does anyone besides Crack care?

It's beyond me why Althouse tolerates the trashing of thread after thread after thread after thread by these two. I seem to remember some strongly-expressed opinions about "bad faith" commenting here not so long ago. Good faith commenting, this definitely isn't.

Anonymous said...

St. George said...
Of course, the news story fails to answer one key question--why couldn't the hook-and-ladder get closer faster and why was the fireman on the end of the ladder gesturing so frantically.


Nobody here ever get their hands dirty in construction or heavy equipment?

a Ladder truck, like any crane has a set of safety limits that allow the ladder to extend at different vertical angles depending on what part of the horizontal plane it is pointed.

Typically a crane (or ladder truck can be extended farther (or carry a heavier load) when it is aligned at the 0 or 180 degree position. at 90 degrees off either beam, not so much.

That ladder was fully extended at a low angle making the stress on the truck at its maximum, thus endangering a jacking flip.

as for the moving closer, the standard solution to the risk of a flip is to extend pedestals/feet/jacks on a crane to provide additional stability.

If the feet are down, the truck can't move...

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=ladder+truck+short+jacking+failures&qs=AS&sk=IA3AS4&FORM=QBIR&pq=ladder%20truck&sc=8-12&sp=8&qs=AS&sk=IA3AS4#a

Jason said...

Yep. And if you put the machinery and controls out on the end of the ladder, you make it a whole lot more unstable and it can't reach as far. This was a tricky operation. Kudos to the HFD.

The Crack Emcee said...

Skyler said...

"Crack is proving the rule, proven by the election of Obama, that blacks are the real racists."


BWAAAAA-HAHAHA!!!! Funniest thing I've seen all day. Look, guy:

Martin Luther King told blacks not to get with you until you got rid of the racists. You didn't. It shows itself every time there's a "Trayvon" incident.

Not to mention, have you seen the Republican demographics? It's the all-one-color-party-now. So who's the racists?

I've gone over to the other side, I'll see you there, eventually,...

Unknown said...

Just stunning. I saw this yesterday from a link on reddit (at which point even atheist reddit didn't care that she said "Jesus" and "OMG"). It looks almost choreographed. The stunt jump from one balcony to the next, the building collapsing just after the construction guy is on the ladder.

I checked back this afternoon to send it to a few people and was surprised at what a Rorschach test it had become. People/misogynists bitching about the women. (Personally, I liked the emotion in her voice.) People/get off my lawn types bitching that the guy among them told a joke in the midst of a crisis. People/atheists bitching because she thanked God. People/believers bitching because her reference to God seemed insincere. People/Quien es mas macho guys bitching that the construction guy should have taken several more chances and swung all the way to the ground himself. People/partisans bitching about government on either side.

Come on. A guy just scraped by with seconds to spare. A student documented it in all its hair-raising splendor and put it up on line. Let's be happy it turned out alright.

Unknown said...

Oh yeah, and white people bitching that she sounded black. And black people bitching that she deblacked her voice for her white friends.

(That was on youtube comments.)

The Crack Emcee said...

Unknown said...
Oh yeah, and white people bitching that she sounded black. And black people bitching that she deblacked her voice for her white friends.

(That was on youtube comments.)


Hilarious - when you're right, you're right.

I am very happy he's alive.

Gahrie said...

You didn't. It shows itself every time there's a "Trayvon" incident.

Trayvon was a punk and a thug who fucked with the wrong guy and got what was coming to him.

Not to mention, have you seen the Republican demographics? It's the all-one-color-party-now. So who's the racists?

I know a smaller percentage of White people vote Republican than the percentage of Blacks who vote Democrat...so who are the racists?

Helenhightops said...

That construction worker is 56 years old. Man alive, that is what you call functionally fit!

Anonymous said...

It's better to be lucky than good

David said...

Helenhightops said...
That construction worker is 56 years old. Man alive, that is what you call functionally fit!


The hardest physical work I have ever done was to work as a construction laborer in Ann Arbor in the late 1960's. I was young and in pretty good shape but for the first few weeks it just laid me out. There were guys 20 years older than me who could run rings around me. I was quite in awe of them.

Eventually I lost 20 pounds and got very lean and strong. But it remained hard work. The guys who had done it for years could still kick my ass.

Skyler said...

Wow, Crack. You've lost it. You were never quite right in the head, but you've gone completely mental. And you are thoroughly racist.

Unknown said...

Did she say OMG enough? NO!! OMG!!

Helenhightops said...

David, that is Old School Boot Camp!

Jason said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tamaay said...

OMG!