Firefighters

BURBANK — Police officers overwhelmed their firefighting colleagues in a softball battle Sunday that gave the Burbank Police Department a second year of bragging rights and also raised money for the American Cancer Society. A police team beat the firefighters, 13 to 5, in the second annual benefit game played between the two groups at Robert Gross Park. An early lead and a fifth-inning surge from the Burbank Fire Department wasn’t enough to hold off members of the police team, who regularly compete on a joint team with the Glendale Police Department.

Jenna Bordelon SOUTH SAN FERNANDO DISTRICT -- Firefighters were called Tuesday afternoon to rescue a man who had fallen into a flood control channel. The man, whose name was not released, told fire officials he had dropped his lighter over the wash overpass in the 100 block of West Verdugo Avenue and wanted it back. Fire Marshal David Starr said the man apparently lowered himself partly down the side of the wash and fell the rest of the way. Firefighters strapped the man, who appeared to be in his early 50s, to a stretcher and tied the stretcher to a fire truck ladder with rope.

Still fuming over orders to stand in the background of a gubernatorial news conference while brush fires raged around the county, Burbank and Glendale fire departments came out in opposition Thursday to a ballot proposition they claim would stifle their political involvement. If approved by voters in the special Nov. 8 election, Proposition 75 would require unions representing public employees to get permission from members before spending dues for political purposes.

Jenna Bordelon BURBANK -- Burbank firefighters voted openly to approve a tentative one-year contract with the city that would give them an 8.2% salary increase. Firefighters, engineers and fire captains voted 113-0 with two abstentions Dec. 17, 18 and 19 to accept the offer. Increased pay for paramedics and Hazardous Waste Materials response team members were also part of the package. The total cost of the increase in the contract -- which would be retroactive to July 1 -- would be $805,000.

Gretchen Hoffman BURBANK -- As brush fire season picks up with drier-than-usual conditions, local firefighters are being called on to fight blazes across Southern California. The Glendale, Burbank and Pasadena fire departments sent strike teams to fight a fire sweeping across the Angeles National Forest near Santa Clarita on Saturday and Sunday, Burbank Fire Marshal Dave Starr said. On Monday, they were called to send a strike team to a blaze in Orange County, but the team was canceled en route, Glendale Fire Capt.

Firefighters have a blaze that consumed 1,100 acres of brush over four days in the Verdugo Mountains, but not without some help from local businesses and nonprofits, who were called upon to help authorities as they worked around the clock fighting fire. "They're supplying food, sandwiches, anything we need all over the place," said Kirk Wishart, an engineer with Burbank Fire, adding that Wienerschnitzel even hauled a trailer to a firefighter camp to feed personnel.

FOOTHILLS — Firefighters Wednesday successfully cut off the Station fire’s march toward several foothill communities, lessening the immediate threat to homes and allowing crews to refocus their efforts on other hot spots. The destructive and deadly Station fire slowed down overnight Tuesday, but still consumed about 13,000 more acres, pushing the total so far to 140,150 acres. The fire remained 22% contained as of Wednesday afternoon. PicBits photos of the day “It was staggering to watch this fire climb toward homes at 1 a.m. the other night with a line a firefighters ready to do battle,” Assemblyman Anthony Portantino said at Wednesday’s news conference at the Station fire’s interagency command center at Hansen Dam Park.

CITY HALL ? A $150,000 grant awarded to the Burbank Fire Department Tuesday will fund a state-of-the-art training facility where firefighters will prepare for flashover fires, the second-highest cause of death for firefighters who are killed in action. Flashovers occur when a fire suddenly intensifies due to a quicker burn of heated gases, said Burbank Fire Capt. Dave Schmitt, an assistant training officer for the department. The new flashover-fire-survival facility will allow the department to put firefighters through the actual conditions of a flashover during three separate training phases in three different simulation trailers, Schmitt said.

Gary Moskowitz BURBANK -- Thousands of Burbank and Glendale residents joined in celebrating firefighters and police officers during Fire Service Day and National Police Week festivities. In Burbank, some residents took a cue Saturday from the Mutual Aid band when it played "Dancing in the Streets" outside Police/Fire Headquarters. The band, made up of area police officers, includes Burbank Police Chief Thomas Hoefel and Det. Paul Orlowski. Children wearing red plastic firehats climbed in and out of firetrucks and the police helicopter as the Nicholson Pipes and Drums group of Westminster marched through the crowd.

Glendale Fire Department critic Bruce Philpott has lost his battle to reduce the number of firefighters on each engine from four to three — and rightly so. The three City Council members — Ara Najarian, Frank Quintero and Dave Weaver — who rejected the proposal on Tuesday were 100% right in their assessment that this is not the place to save money. There are much better places to make cuts and save money than on services that hold human life in the balance.

Burbank firefighters put out small vegetation fires near the Burbank City Yard facility Wednesday afternoon, after an explosion shut down streets near Lake Street and Olive Avenue, officials said. Burning leaves on the roof of a collision center on the 300 block of South Lake and other small, vegetation fires were doused in about 10 minutes, Capt. Peter Hendrickson said, adding that no substantial damage was reported to the site. At about 4:20 p.m. Wednesday, a short in an underground 69,000-volt line caused what officials think was an explosion in an underground vault and blew the cover off a manhole at Olive and Lake, Hendrickson said.

A Burbank firefighter remains hospitalized after an equipment malfunction caused him to fall 25 to 35 feet while he was rock climbing late Monday morning in Chatsworth, officials said. Battalion Chief Steve Briggs said he and other firefighters and family members have been visiting with the 32-year-old firefighter, who was off duty at the time of the accident. His identity has not been disclosed. At about 10:30 a.m. Monday, the firefighter was climbing at Stony Point and was lowering himself down from a rock face to the ground when his equipment malfunctioned and he experienced a “controlled fall,” Briggs said.

Former Burbank Water and Power employee turned firefighter has died. Services for Glen W. Duke, including brief memorials at Fire Station 14, were held last Friday. He was 89. Duke, who died Jan. 14, was born in Idaho in 1922 and had seven brothers and sisters. The family moved to Long Beach before settling in Burbank. He graduated from Burbank High School in 1940 and began working for Burbank's Public Service Department (now Burbank Water and Power) later that year as a meter reader.

At 6-foot 5-inches, crawling through a 16-by-16-inch hole with more than 50 pounds of gear is no easy task for Burbank Fire Engineer Matt Garland. When it's dark, smoky and loud and the floor moves like a teeter-totter, he lets muscle memory kick in. “The main thing is to keep calm,” Garland said after climbing out of a manhole at the Burbank Fire Department Training Center Saturday morning. Garland is one of 120 Burbank firefighters who took part in a three-day training course aimed at keeping firefighters alive.

Firefighters contained a vehicle fire Thursday afternoon that caused damage to a garage and closed off local streets. The incident occurred in the 1900 block of North Ontario Street. Officials estimated thousands of dollars in damage to the truck and garage. No injuries were reported. -- Ross A. Benson, Special to Times Community News Photo: Burbank firefighters put out a fire that caused damage to a truck and a garage. Credit: Ross A. Benson.

Twelve-year firefighter Grant Stephens, recently named Firefighter of the Year, said he just likes helping people. “That may sound cliché, but it's truly what we do,” said Stephens, 40. “It's been a great short time,” he added, noting that careers in fire can last 30 years or longer. “It fits myself and now my family very well,” he said. Stephens, who is married with two daughters, 4 and 2, said service to others was a focal point for his family. “As I'm raising a family, I want them to see how important it is to help others,” he said.

A residential fire on Santa Anita Avenue near Bel Aire Drive Thursday afternoon began after a gas stove suddenly caught fire, causing about $25,000 in damages, fire officials said. Burbank Fire Capt. John Nare said an oven malfunction caused the fire in the 1000 block of Santa Anita Avenue. The fire began shortly after 3 p.m. and was knocked out in about 10 minutes, he said. “The oven came on in self-cleaning mode and caught the grease on fire,” Nare said. The homeowner, Maria Zurita, was cooking on the stove top when the oven suddenly turned on, Nare said.

In his 35 years on the job, retiring Burbank Fire Capt. Ron Bell witnessed the departure of Lockheed and the machine shops that soon followed. He has seen changes in how firefighters protect themselves when battling blazes and worked with the department's lone female firefighter. Part of his duties as a spokesman for the department included working with the studios and ensuring safety procedures are followed with special-effects sequences. He was also a point man for residents at grocery stores, calmly providing information when fires were raging around their homes.

Burbank firefighters used the Jaws of Life to cut off the top of a vehicle just after 12:30 p.m. Wednesday afternoon to free a man from his overturned vehicle.

A proposal to close firefighting operations out of a West Burbank station for nine months will allow the fire department to meet its 5% spending cut, but Chief Ray Krakowski warned that emergency response times will be affected citywide. Under the plan, crews housed at Station 14 at 2305 W. Burbank Blvd. would be split among other stations, saving the department more than $650,000, according to Krakowski, who said the shut down could happen as early as July. Krakowski presented the scenario to the City Council as a cost-saving measure to contribute to the target 5% budget cut called for among all city departments.