With
the high cost of land these days, condo and office developers are
building
up. But does your city have the high-rise firefighting trucks
it needs to protect those taller buildings?
Florida Today found, a few weeks ago, that the answer on Florida's Space Coast is "No."
A Florida Today
computer-assisted analysis of property records, ladder-truck locations
and insurance-industry standards shows that more than one-fourth of the
378 buildings four stories or taller are beyond the recommended range
of a ladder truck.
Industry standards say ladder trucks are needed to perform rescues and fight fires in buildings four stories or taller.
Older tourist cities with many high-rise hotels and condos -- namely Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral -- appear well-protected.
But more residential
neighborhoods in the South Beaches that have experienced a recent
condominium boom lie outside the safety radius established by the fire
protection industry, or are in cities with ladder trucks that don't
reach the higher floors.
"Honestly, it's scary," said Melbourne Beach
resident Tanya Apt, who also owns a condo at the six-story Tidewater
condominium in Aquarina. "If there's a fire, we need help quickly."
To give you an example of how you might go after the story, here is how the paper cited specific examples of problems:
Interviews and records, however, indicate [Brevard] county and its cities
are approving tower projects without evaluating whether their fire
departments can protect them:
- The three new eight-story Ocean Dunes towers in Aquarina are
30 minutes or 16 miles from the nearest ladder truck, in Melbourne.
- The three 98-foot towers in Satellite Beach are only minutes
away from the nearest ladder truck, in Indialantic, but it only reaches
five stories when fully extended.
- Merritt
Island's newest tower, the 11-story Island Pointe condo, is more than
five minutes away and across the Indian River from the nearest ladder
truck, a 75-footer in downtown Cocoa.
- Melbourne's
recently approved 120-foot downtown towers are only blocks away from
the nearest ladder truck, but its reach is only 70 feet. The city isn't
scheduled to buy a 100-foot ladder until 2009.
"It sounds very reckless that permits are being given out, but
nobody is thinking about it," said David Dasgupta, spokesman for
Insurance Services [Office], [a] national [organization] that rates
communities' firefighting readiness.
Here is a link to ISO's "Public Protection Classification" program.
"Gas Mouth" and Locking Gas Caps
My old friend and longtime Al's Morning Meeting reader Orpheus Allison, from Shanghai, China,
tells me that, as gas prices soar there, too, there are increasing reports
of "gas mouth." That is what happens when somebody tries to siphon
gasoline out of a tank by sucking on a tube. He reminds me to ask you
if you have heard of an increase in gas-tank thefts since this latest
price spike began.
I have seen a few stories about siphoning thefts. Here is one from San Jose.
It looks as though locking gas cap sales
began picking up a few months ago, when gas prices started to leap
upwards. And it seems as though the trend continues,
according to a Pep Boys news
release earlier this month. Here are some stories:
Cost of Wiring Money Dropping
A new study by the Inter-American Development Bank
and the Annie E. Casey Foundation
says competition has forced the cost
of wiring money way down. It is no small thing, the report suggests,
since Latin American and
Caribbean emigrants wired about $53.6 billion home to relatives last
year. Nearly three-quarters of that amount, the study said, came from
the United States.
The Washington Post summarizes:
The fees charged to send money from the United States to Latin America
have dropped from about 15 percent before 2000 to 5.6 percent last
year, meaning the cost of sending $200 went from about $30 to $11. The
report covered only licensed money-transfer companies.
Good Pets Gone Bad
The Tampa (Fla.) Tribune
discovered that cats in the Tampa Bay area generated more complaints to
local animal-control departments than dogs. Here is more from the paper's report:
Records from [Hillsborough County's Department of] Animal Services show that 1,219 animals caused 1,382 bites and
scratches reported during the past 12 months, 221 involving children
ages 1 to 12. At least 400 bites have been reported since Jan. 1.
The worst offender is the domestic shorthair cat, the culprit in 341 incidents.
The second-worst is
the pit bull, a classification that includes the American Staffordshire
and Staffordshire bull terrier. These were involved in a total of 309
incidents.
Wildlife such as raccoons, bats, rats, squirrels, a ferret and a hawk bit or scratched in 51 cases.
Most people are
bitten by a cat while tending to one they think is a stray, said Dennis
McCullough, the agency's investigations supervisor. They feed the
animal and try to pick it up or pet it, and it lashes out. Cat
scratches can transmit rabies because the animals lick their paws and
interact with wildlife.
Most dog bites, however, occur closer to home, usually by the family pet or a familiar dog, he said.
States Adopting Hospital Infection-Disclosure Laws
The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention say about 250
people die each day from infections they pick up in the hospital. The
CDC estimates that two million Americans suffer from infections they
acquire in the hospital every year -- and 90,000 of those patients die.
Now, states have
begun requiring hospitals to publicly disclose how many of their
patients develop infections during treatment.
The Consumer's Union (publisher of Consumer Reports) points out:
Prior to this year, hospital infection reporting requirements were
adopted by six states: Illinois, Pennsylvania, Florida, Missouri,
Virginia, and New York. The Maryland General Assembly passed
reporting bills in April of this year and a Vermont
health agency is implementing a state committee's recommendations for
hospital infection reporting and is expected to issue its first report
in June.
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a
compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a
variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When
the information comes directly from another source, it will be
attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible. The column is
fact-checked, but depends upon the accuracy and integrity of the
original sources cited. Errors and inaccuracies found will be corrected.
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