I was on my way home from work on October 26th around 2 pm when I came upon St Clair Fire Department on the scene of a semi jack knifed and blocking the eastbound lanes of 44 just east of the Hwy 47 Overpass, it was wet and rainy conditions, which may have contributed to the cause of the accident….the entire rear of the trailer was elevated up in the air due to the angle and steep embankment….
I rolled up on a vehicle accident on September 25th after hearing sirens, and spotted a pickup truck in the median of westbound 44 just west of the James K. Schatz Memorial Bridge over 44…Sullivan Fire and MoBap EMS were on scene with several troopers and I still do not know what happened here but this pickup was severely damaged on the front passenger side…
Around 9 am on August 25th, I heard Sullivan Fire Department dispatched to a semi trailer fire on EB I-44 at the 227 mile marker, so I took the North Service Road and spotted heavy brown and white smoke from a mile away….
and was pulling up to park seconds later, Sullivan Firefighters were working the fire and struck a first alarm, summoning St Clair Fire Department to the scene as well…
…and I spotted a good friend of mine, Michael Richardson with Franklin County Sheriffs Office, on the scene assisting with traffic control as well…
Firefighters were shorthanded but doing great work at the scene, they were having a difficult time getting into the trailer to the seat of the fire, so Jacob Dace started cutting his way into the trailer with the K12 saw….
and soon firefighters were again attacking the fire….
…and about 15 min later, additional Sullivan firefighters arrived with manpower and water, and St Clair arrived as well….
…and the fire inside the trailer flared up once again….
Sullivan Fire Chief Eric called for Chuck`s Towing to respond and Chuck`s son Louis, showed up with their newest fleet wrecker and assisted with removal of the load of freight to assist in fire extinguishment…Louis is quite talented in removing freight and vehicles both…
Great work by all !!
Was listening to the scanner when I heard Sullivan PD dispatch officers to the median crossover just west of Sullivan on I-44, to assist Crawford County Deputies and Rolla PD who were in pursuit of a suspect eastbound from Rolla at a high rate of speed…I alerted Jim Bartle that Sullivan was going to deploy tire spikes…they apparently did so under the Jim Schatz Memorial Bridge just west of the West Overpass and on doing so, the suspect`s pickup skidded in a long slide to an abrupt stop after taking down a tall steel light post and striking several other things….EMS and Sullivan Fire Department responded to assist, but by the time they arrived, the male driver was in custody….
You can see the skid marks above and the bridge way back in the background…there was a female suspect riding with the driver…I would bet they got more than they bargained for….could have ended alot worse than it did…crime never pays or ends well…
About a week after the lightning strike at work, I was picking up trash all over the golf course and then took it to the dumpster in the lower end of the parking lot. I opened the lid after hearing some noise inside, and discovered a young little raccoon inside the bottom at the back of the dumpster wall, looking about as frightened of me, as I was not knowing what I was about to find inside. 🙂
He sure was a cutie, had to take a few photos of him before going to get something to help him get out of there before the trash company folks came to empty the dumpster into their trash truck. Didn`t want to think about that type of ride for him…
I enlisted the assistance of a co-worker and we placed a pallet inside the dumpster that he could climb up out of the dumpster later on.
At the golf course where I work, we had one of our stately Walnut trees struck by lightning one day while we were working, and during the strike, we discovered later, a black snake had apparently been at the base of the tree and was instantly charged and fried by the strike…so far the tree has not died and still stands at the edge of the fairway….
I was at home listening to the scanner when I heard Cencom kick Bourbon out for a Garage Fire on Bohenkamp Road, and knowing how close that is to Sullivan Fire Department`s district line, I knew Sullivan Fire would be enroute shortly. I drove to the location taking the back way in and soon spotted a column of heavy black smoke, parking in a small field with a few firefighters who drove direct to the call and a Crawford County deputy friend. As I approached Bourbon`s fire trucks, I saw firefighters stretching out their hoselines to make a defensive attack and a small car parked in front of a totally engulfed two car garage….
…and Chief Daniel Whatley manning a large diameter hoseline with a portable deck gun attached….
It was a few minutes before help arrived from Cuba and Sullivan Fire Districts and Bourbon`s firefighters made a great knockdown on the fire in that amount of time…
Fires 2020-0719 Garage Fire 664 Bohenkamp Rd Bourbon AVI 63
Fires 2020-0719 Garage Fire 664 Bohenkamp Road Bourbon AVI 91
It was about this time that Sullivan Pumper 854 arrived with Captain Dave Konys and his crew, and they entered the structure shortly to knock down remaining fire inside the building…
As I was leaving, I spotted Bourbon`s new tanker parked just off the driveway in the woods and snapped this photo of it…
I apologize for not keeping up on my blog site, didn`t realize til today that I had let it go for so long…will double down on my efforts to keep up more currently with it from here forward. I hope to retire next year and then should have more free time to devote to my other websites.
I set up on the north side of I-44 once again and shot from one of the entrances to Atlas and it worked out for me once again. This year I was able to include the full moon in my images….
Fireworks Sullivan 2020-0702 Finale AVI 86
I was off all day Wednesday, June 3rd, and right before sunset, a massive storm with a huge gust front, had made its way down to our area from central Illinois…the Weather Service had been tracking it all day…I drove over to the City Park behind Cracker Barrel to photograph it…this thing was HUGE…super high up into the sky and super wide as well…
T Storm 2020-0603 Coming In From NE to SW
cant hear me very well on the next video because the wind came up pretty good on it…
Thunderstorm 2020-0603 Huge Storm Approaching Sullivan From NE
…the storm rolled in and right in front of the setting sun, which was able to squeeze out a little bit of color at the base of the massive storm clouds…
I turned around and shot the other side of the storm as well, which is where most of the lightning was centered as well…
…I was able to capture one of the lightning bolts, seen above. 🙂
On Saturday, May 23rd, 2020, around noon, Sullivan Fire Department was dispatched to a residential structure fire at 281 Hwy WW, about half a mile north of the Sullivan City Limits. I drove out and was on the scene pretty quickly, a good minute ahead of the Fire Department, heavy fire through the roof of a single story residence that had sat vacant for quite a while….
Fires 2020-0523 House Fire Hwy WW Acr From Joe Eye Residence AVI 91 Video 1
Chief Eric was first on the scene for Sullivan Fire Department, with Pumper 854 arriving a minute later, Captain Ray Enloe`s crew stretching hoselines and preparing for a good attack on this fire…
Fires 2020-0523 House Fire Hwy WW Acr From Joe Eye Residence AVI 98 Video 2
Drew Richards is on the nozzle of the line in front of the house and Trevor Woods stretched the red hoseline to the rear of the house in the above video….I walked around the house to the rear a few min later and shot some video of Trevor on the hoseline at the back door…between he and Drew, they did a good job banking that smoke down upon Kyle Robertson and me…
Fires 2020-0523 House Fire Hwy WW Near Joe Eye Residence AVI 110 Video 3
After a good knockdown from front and back sides, the fire came roaring back on the south side and firefighters had to attack through the window on that side…
Fires 2020-0523 House Fire Hwy WW Near Joe Eye Residence AVI 131 Video 5
…they ran out of water about that time and while waiting for another tanker to arrive and hook up to the pumper, Bourbon firefighters arrived on scene to help out in Dr Destructo mode….
…the Bourbon firefighter with the pike pole in his hands, walked over to Drew Richards and singlehandedly pulled the remains of the front porch down and out of Drew`s way….
…while Trevor worked on the south side fire through the window….
As I was leaving and got back out to the highway, all sorts of extra help were arriving, manpower, Pumper 814, Tanker 853, Crawford County Deputies, Crawford Electric crews…the deputy told me he was able to see the smoke from near Cuba…
…these guys are the background guys, the unsung heroes on every call, they stay in the background doing very important work…supplying the wet stuff to the guys on the front lines…alot of teamwork goes on at every call to make for a very successful effort by all involved….law enforcement officers are very vital to the success of a good firefighting team in terms of protection, traffic control, crowd control, etc. and other agencies like Crawford Electric and city crews can make things go much smoother and safer as well, shutting off electric or responding to make sure electric is shut off as in this case…making the job of fighting fire a much safer environment for all involved on the scene….
