Manpower: January 1 and 3, 2008

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Manpower December 24th and 26th, 2007

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Click here for latest, online version.

2008 Vacation List In-Progress

Making A-8 Look Good By Comparison

Worst Ambulance Ride Ever - Watch more free videos
Note to Supervisor 17: We're not this bad.

(hat tip: DP)

Manpower December 16 & 18, 2007

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Manpower 12/8 and 12/10/2007

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Or scroll down this online sheet, or click on the boldface words to open it:

Vacations 2008: New Rules

I've been studying Special Bulletin 171 and talking to the Lead Chief and other people about the new vacation policy. A lot of things are still unclear, but as of now these are the rules we'll go by for requesting vacations for 2008:

* Send your vacation requests by email to: capcuervo@gmail.com. You can just send them as text in the email. You don't have to send them on a special form.

* On the first go-around, everyone will be allowed to put in for up to their maximum number of vacation days accrued, as follows:

• 1 to 15 years of service: accrue 7.5, 24-hour vacation days
  
• 16 years of service: accrue 8, 24-hour vacation days
• 17 years of service: accrue 8.5, 24-hour vacation days
• 18 years of service: accrue 9, 24-hour vacation days
• 19 years of service: accrue 9.5, 24-hour vacation days
• 20 years of service: accrue 10, 24-hour vacation days
• 21 years of service: accrue 10.5, 24-hour vacation days
• 22 years of service: accrue 11, 24-hour vacation days

After everyone has had a chance to ask for all their accrued days, we'll have another round of requests for the remaining days. How exactly will we dole out those remaining days? I'm not sure yet.

* Unless someone tells me otherwise, the "point five" days I'll round up to the next number. For example, if you're allowed 7.5 days, I'll let you request 8. [This may be subject to change if I get new information.]

* A total of 6 B-Shift members may be off on any one day.

* A total of 6 members in the district can request all of their debit days as their first vacation choice. What about partial debit day requests? I don't know yet.

* In June, July and August you can only take 2 tours and a debit day.

* As the vacation requests come in I'll enter them on this on-line spreadsheet vacation list, so you can see if you got the days you requested, or got bumped out by someone with higher seniority.

* IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to check the list and make sure that your requests are entered accurately and fairly, and to notify me if there are any problems.

* The deadline for the whole vacation request process is December 20th. That's when I have to send the finalized official vacation sheet to Emergency Operations.

* Please get your requests in AS SOON AS POSSIBLE and be patient during this process. Everything has changed this year. I'm trying to be as fair and organized as I can, but there will be changes and mistakes along the way.

Check Your Seniority

Click the image to see the (tentative) seniority ranking for District 8B personnel. If there are any errors call or email me to let me know.

I'll post the new rules for vacation requests shortly.

District 8B House Fire Bailey at W. Dallas 11/24/2007

Manpower November 30 and December 2, 2007

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Happy Thanksgiving--Before Butterball

Gobble, gobble.

Ghost at Houston Implosion Site

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Vacations Updated 11/16/2007

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Manpower 11/22/2007 & 11/24/2007

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Click here for latest, online version.

Fire Photofest

Click image for an online photo album of photos of the fire at Crockett and Willard.
You can download the photos from that website if you want them.



Click this image for some photos taken by HPD Officer Christopher Thompson, who was first on the scene of the fire at Dowling at Dennis the previous tour.

Finally, here are some photos of the C-Shift fire on West Dallas, September 16.

Manpower November 14 & 16, 2007

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Click here for latest, online version.

Vacations Updated November 8th, 2007

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Dowling at Dennis House Fire 10/30/2007

New Use For An Old Tool

Chris Tyra passes along this interesting video of how to use a flat head axe in a new way for roof ventilation.

Vacations Updated October 31, 2007

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Manpower November 6th and 8th, 2007

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Amateur Gas Station Firefighting

Next Tour's Manpower: Oct. 29th and 31st, 2007

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Click here for online version. (Latest version with any updates will be here.)

NY Fire Department Returning To Quarters 1903

Vacations Updated October 15, 2007

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Manpower October 21 and 23, 2007

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Vacations Updated 10/7/2007

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Next Tour's Manpower: October 13th & 15th, 2007

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Today's Lineup

Click above for today's lineup.

Manpower October 5th and 7th, 2007

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Vacations Updated October 4, 2007

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Here's a link to the online version.
Here's a link to Chief Mikeska's latest D-shift Vacation sheet.

Parents of the Year

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Manpower Sept. 27th and 29th, 2007.

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Manpower Sept. 19th and 21st, 2007

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Vacations Updated September 10, 2007.

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Manpower: Sept. 11th and 13th, 2007

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North Loop Fire Report

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Here's a direct link to the confidential report.

No Comment

Seeking Opportunities To Serve

(Click above for story.)

Click here for video.

Manpower September 3rd and 5th, 2007

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Vacations Updated 8/20/2007

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Here is a link to D-shift vacations.

Guaranteed Holidays Next Tour

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Netflix It

Click image for video about the North Loop high-rise fire.

Available for purchase here as DVD

Manpower August 18 and 20, 2007

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Territory Quizzes R.I.P.

Territory quizzes will be suspended for now. I'm fresh out of ideas, and will be starting back to school and short on time. Thanks for playing. Maybe there'll be more in the future.

Radio Traffic From Charleston Fire

(Click to play.)

Audio recordings have been released of radio traffic from the fire that killed 9 Charleston firefighters.

More here.

Google Street View: District 8

(click to go to map)

Google Maps now has complete 360-degree views of every street in our territory, and most of the rest of Houston. Drag the little man and pan around the picture to see any street, any place, any angle.

Here's the street in front of 7's. (The pumper was in the shop when the camera went by.)

Here's the view in front of 17's.

More on this from the Chronicle.

Manpower August 10 & 12, 20007

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Quiz Answer

Station 7 wins.



The building is on the northwest corner of Fannin at Prairie. Here it is above, showing surrounding buildings.

Territory Quiz: Five Story Hazard

Here's a dangerous abandoned commercial building in District 8. Some of the building's surroundings have been erased to make its location less obvious.

Notice all the danger points:

Burglar bars at street level.

Plywood-boarded windows on upper floors.

Heaving awnings held by rusty metal supports.

Old crumbling brick on the back wall.

I want the street intersection where it's located.

Prize for first correct answer in comments...



...peanut butter cups.

Good luck!

Manpower August 2nd & 4th, 2007

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