NFPA Journal - September/October 2020 - 23

Dispatches Oddities

HUH?

GETT Y IMAGES

RECENT HEADSCRATCHERS
FROM THE WORLD OF FIRE AND
LIFE SAFETY

FIRE, ICE, AND TORNADOES
The last thing wildland firefighters
might be thinking as they battle a
raging wildfire is whether they'll get
pelted on the head by ice or swept
away by a twister. But two wildfires
in California this summer triggered
what experts say are rare occurrences
of extreme weather, including hail and
tornadoes.
The first event, the Hog Fire, created
thunderstorms that sent dime-sized
hail falling from the sky in northern California in July. "As if this fire
couldn't get any weirder! A smoke
column from the #Hogfire collided with
a storm cell evolving into a hail storm
(w/lightning) that dropped dime-sized
hail RIGHT on the fire!" freelance news
photographer Josh Edelson tweeted on
July 22. "The temp dropped 40 degrees
in like 10 min." In August, the Loyalton
Fire in northern California triggered
what several news agencies reported
as "fire tornadoes," which complicated
response and evacuation procedures.
"It's not like a typical tornado where it
happens, everything clears out, and you
safely go and investigate," a meteorologist told the New York Times. "In this
case, there's a massive wildfire burning
in the same location, so the logistics are
a lot more complicated."
According to The Weather Channel, it's not uncommon for wildfires
to generate clouds that then produce
thunderstorms-but hail and tornadoes
are uncommon.

SEWER SIRENS
In June, firefighters in Pennsylvania
had to use an industrial saw to cut a
sewer grate open and free a man who
claimed to have been trapped for days.
According to local news reports,
the man told authorities he entered
the sewer somewhere in Scranton and
ended up being rescued over three
miles away, in the town of Taylor. It was
unclear why he entered the sewer in
the first place, but that's not even the
strangest part of this story. That would
be the fact that this is the second time
in six months that a man needed to be
rescued from Scranton-area sewers. In
December, firefighters rescued a man
after he reportedly fell into a nearby
river and made his way up an outflow
pipe into a sewer catch basin.
NFPA Journal wasn't the only one
to connect the two incidents. "Wonder
if it's the same dude they pulled out
of the sewer in Scranton over the
winter?" one person pondered online,
responding to a Taylor Fire Department
Facebook post about the more recent
incident. There must be something in
the wastewater in Scranton. Either that,
or a scary clown is luring them in.

SWAN SONG
It's a bird! It's a plane! Wait-is that
a giant swan on the loose in the East
River?
In July, two people in New York City
apparently thought it was a good idea

to seek relief from the summer heat
by lounging in the river on a giant
inflatable pool toy in the shape of a
white swan. The float drifted into the
middle of the fast-moving river and
entered an area of heavy marine traffic,
and FDNY was called to rescue the two
individuals.
The floaters were uninjured, though
they were subjected to an intense
roasting by their fellow New Yorkers
on social media. "Only transplants
would do this," one person wrote on
Instagram. "No real [New Yorker]
would do something this stupid."
It's hardly the first time firefighters
had to save someone under strange
circumstances on the East River. In
2018, a 20-year-old woman declared
"I'm from Boston!" before jumping into
the river naked. Despite not knowing
how to swim, a 29-year-old onlooker
jumped in after her. Both had to be
rescued.

RAGING BULL
Wildland firefighters battling a fire in
southern California in August were
met with a surprise as they climbed
a hillside to clear the way for fire
trucks-an angry bull who proceeded
to chase them away.
The Ventura County Fire Department posted footage of the incident on
Twitter. The video shows five firefighters frantically scrambling down a trail,
with a hulking, horned bull-known
locally as Ferdinand-hot on their
heels.
"Ferdinand wasn't clowning around,"
the department reported in its tweet.
"Luckily no one was injured and Ferdinand went about his day."
N F PA . O R G / J O U R N A L * NFPA JOURNAL

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NFPA Journal - September/October 2020

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