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Greater Houston Fire Buffs is a organization of individuals with a common interest in the Fire Department and Fire/EMS activities throughout the Houston area. Membership is $12 paid annually. The group meets every other month, usually on a Saturday. Fire photos and descriptions are emailed out on a regular basis; and the end of year Houston FD Multiple-Alarm Report is also sent to current members.


I.F.B.A. Board Meeting Report

The International Fire Buff Associates, Inc. (IFBA) held its semi-annual Board meeting in Nashville on May 1, 2010. GHFB's Secretary/Treasurer and past IFBA President Tom McDonald was in attendance, as was Region 5 VP Wally Banks.

McDonald reports that Nashville's Box 55 Club is planning to host the 2010 national convention of the IFBA September 22-25. The host hotel is the Radisson at Opryland, 2401 Music Valley Drive, Nashville, TN 37214 (Tel. (615) 889-0800). The convention rate will be $99/night plus taxes.

That same May 1 weekend, an historic flood hit the home of country music and resulted in the closure of all key venues at Gaylord Entertainment's popular Opryland complex which sits right across the highway from the host hotel (where the Board meeting was held). As of May 3, the Grand Ole Opry building, the Opryland Hotel, and the Opryland Mills Mall all were under various amounts of water from the Cumberland River which runs alongside the complex.

Over that weekend, Nashville and most of middle Tennessee received more than foot of rain. Major flooding was widespread including much of downtown Nashville. More than two dozen people were known dead in the area. The damage was sure to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The IFBA's host hotel did not experience flooding itself, but it is unknown at this time how major damage nearby will impact upcoming convention plans. Further updates will be posted on this web site.

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Nashville firefighters and volunteers used boats to rescue guests from flooding at a campground and a Wyndham hotel, both just two blocks from the hotel used only two days earlier for the IFBA Board meeting on the weekend of May 1.












I.F.B.A. Region 5 Meeting Report

The 2010 annual meeting of Region 5 (south central states) of the International Fire Buff Associates, Inc. (IFBA) was held in Houston on the weekend of March 26-28. There were 27 paid registrants with the farthest traveled being IFBA Treasurer Paul Schaetzle, in from Jersey City, NJ.

The host hotel was the newly-renovated high-rise Sheraton Four Points on Highway 59 & Kirby, right in the heart of the city. The annual business meeting led off the program Friday night. Region Vice President Wally Banks (a member of both Dallas' Box 4 and Houston's GHFB clubs) conducted the meeting at which Banks and Bob Woody (of Signal 51 in Shreveport) were both reelected to their respective positions of Region VP and Region Secretary. IFBA Executive VP Bill Mokros and his wife Vickie were in attendance, as well, and Bill gave an update on matters pertaining to the association, including an update on the upcoming convention in September in Nashville.

Notably absent was John Hembrey, a long time associate of the region, from Canon City, Colorado, who passed away earlier this year. In his memory, the group voted to name its annual regional meeting attendance award in his honor.

On Saturday, meeting coordinator Tom McDonald had the attendees up early to visit Southside Place's new city hall and fire station on Edloe & University. A quick stop was also made at West University's fire station, just a block away (probably the two closest fire stations in Texas). He then led the group to one of Houston's newer firehouses, No. 37, at Stella Link & Lanark.

The group then headed to Humble in the far north part of Harris County where the Texas Gulf Coast Chapter of SPAAMFAA held its annual “Pumpnic,” a combination picnic and antique fire truck pumping demonstration. About a dozen of that organization's members were on site with about seven antique rigs, two of which were pumping from a large lake near Moonshine Hill. Humble Fire Marshal and “Pumpnic” Coordinator Clint Johnson had several of his trucks on site as did Tim Treadway.

The IFBA group then had lunch at Humble Inn, owned by SPAAMFAA members Mary and Harvey Trigg. Before Harvey could offer complimentary bread pudding for dessert, half the buffs bolted from the restaurant with napkins still in their collars to go to a bridal store fire on Highway 59 near Tidwell. The one-alarm blaze gutted the large, metal building. After the fire, the group visited the Houston Fire Museum and HFD's showpiece central station, No. 8 downtown. The group finished the evening with dinner at Pappadeaux's Seafood Restaurant on Richmond.

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IFBA Executive VP Bill Mokros displays a new poster available to member clubs for public relations as Wally Banks (left) and Bob Woody listen.











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Region 5 meeting attendees listen to West University FD Captain Joe Gebhardt as he describes his department's apparatus and operations.











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Three master streams are pumped by antique apparatus at the annual SPAAMFAA "Pumpnic."                                                          











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Wally Banks, Marion & Larry Palmer, and Mike Kuk talk tactics as HFD puts the finishing touches on a bridal store fire in northeast Houston on Saturday.











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Region 5 members listen to an HFD firefighter describe the department's new "showpiece" central station, Firehouse No. 8 downtown.












 

Recent Photos

  • Fondren - 08/25/10
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    Houston firefighters battled a 3-alarm blaze that completely destroyed a wholesale cleaning supply business in a strip shopping center. The fire was reported at 5 AM at Fondren & Harwin. First units found the one store fully engulfed on arrival. The crew in this photo awaits water in their 2 1/2-inch hoseline on the "A-B" corner about 15 minutes into the fire. The "B" exposure shown on the left was a separate strip center that was successfully protected. Several other stores, though, in the primary building were heavily damaged by smoke and some fire. -- Tom McDonald
  • S. Gessner - 08/01/10
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    A 3-alarm fire raced through a common attic over about 14 Houston apartment units at 3230 S Gessner near Richmond Ave. just before 1 AM. Shown here, HFD firefighters move in about mid-building in the 24-unit structure to cut off flames from any further advance, an effort that proved successful. -- Tom McDonald
  • Lombardy - 07/06/10
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    A two-story garage-apartment building on the corner of Lombardy & Munger in southeast Houston went up in flames around 9:45 AM. Here, first-in Engine 18's crew members get air bottles changed while their station-mates on Tower 18 vent the roof. Aggressive interior followed by exterior attacks knocked the bulk of the one-alarm fire down in about 15 minutes. -- Tom McDonald
  • Bering - 06/26/10
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    Houston's famous "Uptown-Galleria" area has been the site of four multiple-alarm fires in just as many days. Just after 5:30 AM, a 3-alarm fire destroyed an 8-unit apartment building at 1881 Bering Drive between San Felipe and Westheimer, just west of the Galleria Mall. The photo shows the crew of Ladder 28 abandoning their ventilation attempt as the fire does it for them. Investigators are looking into the cause of this fire, but lightning has been blamed for the three mutliple-alarms earlier in the week. There were localized, yet severe, thunderstorms on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday in the area where all of these fires have occurred. -- Tom McDonald
  • Oak Hollow - 06/25/10
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    Village (Tex.) FD Ladder 1, a 2002 Pierce Quint (2000 gpm/75-ft), was the attack pumper as well as the aerial pipe provider at this large, stubborn house fire at 10,806 Oak Hollow in Hunters Creek, Texas, a bedroom community on Houston's west side, dispatched at 13:37 June 25. HFD was also called and ended up with almost two alarms on scene. Career Village FD protects six high-income, incorporated "villages" (hence the name) with one station housing an engine company, a chief car, EMS units, and this quint, which is the only non-HFD apparatus to have an HFD number; it is Ladder 301 when responding into Houston. -- Tom McDonald
  • Augusta - 06/24/10
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    HFD firefighters move lines into postion to protect the "B" exposure adjacent to a burning 120 x 60 apartment building with a common attic. Eight large units were heavily damaged and the tile roof completely burned off the building at Augusta & Valley Forge in west Houston on June 24 just after 11 PM. The area had experienced severe lightning earlier in the evening, but investigators were on the scene to determine the exact cause. -- Tom McDonald