Shippensburg Auto Accident and Collapse Part 2...

Today is the second and final installment of Friday's auto accident and structure collapse in downtown Shippensburg. I want to point out that this post in not meant to glorify the incident that occurred but to report what happened and show the public what the volunteer and paid fire services do in there line of work. The incident lasted for what most is a regular work day but for the men and women that operated at this call there was no compensation except for the fact that they helped there fellow man and a scene of community involvement. When I left you yesterday firefighters were preparing the structure for a lift that would allow them to remove the jeep safely. In this photograph special operations members put the finishing touches on there cribbing in preparation to install the air bags.

The cribbing is ready for the air bags at this point but members retreated to determine if the structure is still stable and safe to work in before continuing.

One set of air bags are placed on the cribbing while the other set lays ready to place on top in order to give them the amount of life needed to raise the structure enough to remove the auto.

This photos illustrates the two sets of air bags in place before the lift. Above the air bags is a steel I beam that will provide the area support in lifting it enough so a roll back can be used to pull the auto free of the building. Once the firefighters are ready, team member George Lazorchic (pictured on the right) will coordinate the inflation of the air bags side to side to safely lift the load evenly.

If you look to the center of the photograph you will see the air bags are inflated. The lift was sufficient to remove the auto from the structure allowing the victims to be removed and the fire department to begin demobilizing.

With the air bags inflated the auto is slowly pulled from the structure.

This is the remains of the jeep that two people died in as a result of the accident. The auto was crushed by a limestone wall approximately 18 inches thick that came crashing down on it when the supporting column was taken out by the front of the jeep.

Pictured above is J. Danial Byers, Danny is the retired fire chief of the Letterkenny Army Depot fire department and past chief and current president of the Vigilant Hose Company in Shippensburg. Danny is one of those guys that gave me the skills as a junior member to be a fireman today.

The accident claimed the lives of the two individuals in the jeep, the person in the other vehicle was injured and transported to a local hospital and two people in the building escaped without injury. The building had to to be torn down do the the damage it received when it collapsed. The three Shippensburg Fire Companies, Vigilant Hose, Cumberland Valley Hose and the West End Fire and Rescue operated at the scene into the evening. They were assisted by the Shippensburg EMS, Franklin's of Chambersburg and the Cumberland County Rescue Team consisting of the Rescue and Citizens of Mechanicsburg, Hampden Twp., Carlisle and Citizens of Enola., I am sorry if I missed anyone. There were other agencies involved that included transfer fire companies, the county coroners office, Shippensburg Police, engineers, the towing company and others.

Please visit Shane's blog for a new psot today.

King Street Auto Accident, Shippensburg...

Lets hope this works, I normally post my photographs first followed by the text otherwise my photos will not get larger when clicked. But for the sake of telling the story of what occurred I am going to try and put text between the photographs. On Friday morning at 11:06 a.m. a box alarm was dispatched for 79 West King Street in the borough of Shippensburg for an auto accident with a vehicle into the building. Units arrived on the scene and quickly realized this was not the usual car into a building call. The jeep struck a limestone building that was constructed in 1806 and because of multiple occupancy changes over the years the structure had a supporting column installed in the front corner where the auto struck it causing a collapse of the limestone structure onto the vehicle. If you look at the photo above you will find four arrows with a red number inside, #1 shows debris from the initial impact of the jeep into the rear end of a passenger car, #2 indicates the area the jeep then entered the sidewalk and photograph #3 is the final resting place for the auto that was struck in the rear by the jeep. Arrow number 4 points to the building located past the red brick structure that was struck by the jeep causing the building collapse.

This photograph shows arrows 2 and 4 a little better. The bottom arrow points to paint markings on the sidewalk indicating tire tread for point of entry onto the sidewalk and the second arrow indicated debris as the jeep traveled down the walk. The arrow in the center of the photo indicated the building struck by the jeep. Somehow he managed to travel a distance in a straight line before striking the building in just the right location to bring it down.

The above photograph is the auto struck before the bridge by the jeep.

This was the scene when I arrived in Shippensburg. What you will not see is photograph of the victims or any part of them. For FD purposes those photos could have been taken by me but out of respect for the deceased and there family I have never felt right doing so and make a conscious effort to not have that in the photo.

Upon the Shippensburg Fire Departments arrival firefighters began removing the mass amount of limestone from the jeep to gain access to the patients. At the same time personnel had to enter the Sentinel office to insure everyone was evacuated and that a rescue effort would not be necessary in that location also. Besides these details utilities had to be controlled along with the potential for fire or additional collapse. I do not have a timeline on this but from sitting at home listening the volunteers accomplished this task in a quick and efficient manner.

Once determining that both patients were deceased and hazards were controlled a game plan was established that included calling Cumberland County Team 500 for technical rescue. There job would be to shore up the building and lift the center steel beam enough to remove the vehicle from the structure safely.

Firefighters finish cribbing up to the building and installing air bags to lift the beam from the jeep.

The limestone structure was attached to another one that created addition worries. Tape was placed on the opening between the two that was created when the collapse occurred. A safety person was appointed to watch this tape as work progressed to insure additional movement didn't occur.

The above photograph is firefighter Jamie White, Jamie assumed the operations role for the incident. Tomorrow I will bring you part 2 (of 2) that involves the actual lift and removal of the jeep along with the outcome of the incident. I want tip my hat the Shippensburg Fire Department, they are highly trained and always rise to the occasion. I listened to the initial phases of the incident before responding and they sounded professional. Shippensburg is blessed to have so many active well trained volunteers in it's community that are second to none. I for one am proud to have come from Shippensburg and thankful they gave me the skills to do it for a living. The SFD has truly earned the right to carry the slogan "No Body Does It Better". It was a hard day for shooting photos also, harsh bright sun and reflective surfaces, often shooting into the sun and jockeying for a position to get a photo made it difficult. If you look at this site but have never seen my other site visit "Shippensburg Fire and EMS History" for a daily history of the SFD and surrounding area.

Sunset Over Viera...

The one thing I planned to photograph while in Florida was the sunrise and sunsets. Compared to here in Pennsylvania the sky just glows with beautiful colors. Guess what it didn't happen, I got one sunrise and one sunset and neither were very good. Some of it was my fault, I didn't get out many early mornings or late evening to get the chance to photograph them. The trip was a family get away from winter to spend time with Linda's parents and have fun as a family. I do have to thank Linda for letting me get out as often as she did to photograph birds. I actually spent more time shooting than I expected, retirement and winters in Florida are going to be great in a few years.

UPDATE, coming Monday photographs from Shippensburg's deadly accident on West King Street.

American Bittern...

When I first seen this bird and photographed it I did not know what it was, it was not until I got back to the in-laws that Shane looked him up in ibird and told me what he was. With me close by it froze and remained motionless a trait for this type of bird giving me the opportunity to get a few photographs. A short time later it it took off to another part of the wetlands. I followed it's flight and tracked him down again. That was when he provided me with my best photographs of it flying with a frog in it's bill. More on that at another time.

Please visit Shane's blog for new post today.

Great Egret With Lunch...

There are times that I like back or side lighted photographs, they add a different element to the photograph, but this is not one of them. In this case it took away from the detail of this Great Egret with the fish it just caught and was about to eat. Not wanting to pass up a feeding time photo I fired away with the camera anyways. You know the saying when life hands you lemons make lemonade, I am not sure what I made. Remember clicking on the photos make them larger, in the first shot you can see the small fish with it's mouth open struggling to get away and if you look closely at the second photograph you can see Egrets throat beginning to distend as it eats the fish. Look closely and you will see the fish tail between the top and bottom bill before it disappears forever. I have a better beamer for my flash, I guess I could have used a fill flash for detail. But then again that would have required a little knowledge and I have not figured out the settings yet for shooting the better beamer at birds.

Please visit Shane's blog for a new post today.

Florida Gators...

I mentioned in an earlier post that I got to photograph more than just birds in Florida, that's a good thing as you will not have to look at birds for the next two months. The one thing Florida has many of is Alligators and they like to sun themselves laying still enough to photograph until your hearts content. Like many of my Florida wildlife photographs these come from Viera wetlands. You will not see as many post of these guys as you will the different birds but you will see some more again.

Flying Anhinga...

I decided not to skip any post this week, so I will end the week with another flying bird. This is an Anhinga, I am not an expert but I believe this is the female. Last year I was lucky enough to capture one trying to get a large fish down that small neck. No such luck this year but it was still a very productive trip.

Tomorrow is my wife Linda's birthday, I will not say how old she is and get myself in trouble. She still looks 20 to me. Happy birthday Linda, I love you.

Flying Ibis...

Before heading to Florida I went out numerous times to local lakes to practice panning flying birds. Unlike last year when I seen many flying birds and was not prepared for it missing many shots this year the flying birds opportunities were few and far between. I do not know if that is because I was there a month later, at the wrong locations or just out at the wrong time of day. I did get a few like this White Ibis captured at Viera wetlands. I will have more to post in the future including my best photos of the trip, an American Bittern flying with a frog in it's bill.

Please stop by Shane's blog for a new post today, I am hoping he will soon start posting some bird, planes or baseball photos from Florida soon.

The Bull and His Cow...

This is another one of those photographs that had something ugly in the back ground keeping me from getting a full body shot. It is also the same bull as last week taken during the same trip north. Can you tell it is getting hard for me to come up with something to say?

10 Days In Florida...

Hello everyone, it was back to work yesterday after 10 days in beautiful Florida. Like other times I go away, blog posts are uploaded and running as if I were home to not let people know I am away with an empty house. We had a great time watching baseball games, an air show, Andretti speed park, Merritt Island and lots of Viera wetlands for birding. While away I shot many gigs of photos and Shane shot a fair amount also.

As luck would have it I ran into fellow bloggers Klaus, Ken Conger and Tim Rucci. We got to photograph some birds together including a good session with a juvenile Crested Cara Cara, but more on that later. For today I am I posting a Green Heron that I spent time photographing. If you look close you will see his catch in his bill just before he ate it.

Just getting back I will need time this week to catch up on every ones blogs, while away the only time I spent with the laptop was to download the days memory cards. Since being back and talking with a few people and reading my comments I found that some of you noticed I was missing a few days post. I have noticed that views of my site have been going down the last four months and staying low. With that I just can't see posting everyday. I will probably continue to only post four days a week and maybe less. If I notice activity going back up I will increase the posts. I was lucky enough to get many good bird photos of different species some that were very exciting to me. I also got to photograph some alligators, snakes, turtles, wild bores and an armadillo so I will have plenty to last me for awhile. I do promise to mix things up so the non birders do not get bored.

By the way it is Tuesday so please visit Shane's blog for a new post today.

Panning With The 200-400mm Lens...

A couple of weeks ago I went to the lake in Boiling Springs to get some panning practice with the 200-400mm lens. From what I read about the lens before I purchased it many referred to the lens as a hand held unit. That may be true and these were taken hand held, but you do not do it for very long before needing a break. I guess if I use it long enough I will get some guns for arms for the first time in my life. I would like to hear from any one else that has this lens and has used it for flying birds but here is my take on it. It does bring the subject closer and that is what a big lens is for, with the f4 it allows me to get my shutter speed up without increasing the ISO to high. But I felt that it was harder to pick the bird up initially and slower to focus on the subject and keep the focus like the 70-200 f2.8. Now this was only the first time I used this lens for this type of photography. To be honest I would like to shoot it for about a year before I really make my final decision on the lens.

Young Bull Portrait...

This young bull was photographed right in the town of Bennezette, Pa. My intentions were to take more full body shots and not portraits but the surroundings just didn't want to cooperate. There was a shed behind this bull that I didn't want in the photograph. When I take photos of wildlife I like to keep the back ground natural and sometimes this is the only way. I want to remind everyone that I do not photograph caged animals or at zoo's all the animals are wild in in their natural habitat.

Our Cats...

I thought I would change the wildlife today to something different. These are our three cats, that is Cappy and Alex in the first photograph and Kyle in the second. The cats are laying on a shelf at the window that has a few bird feeders at. They spend many hours there often watching the birds with me photographing from the chair.

Please stop by Shane's blog for a new post today.

Back To Elk Country...

It is the time of year that my wildlife photography really slows down, and that makes it difficult to find photos to post. What will pick up soon for me is photography birds. I have a few places I shoot like Wildwood Lake, Boiling Springs Lake, Middle Creek and a few small other places. This year I hope to add a few places to that closer to the shore. Today's photo was taken last month on Winslow Hill, this was the bull that was still showing rutting activity in the large herd posted last week.

More Battle Of The Buldge...

When getting photographs ready for posting I realized I only posted a couple from the January Battle of the Budge event at Ft. Indiantown Gap. The timing seemed right for these with the start of a new mini series on HBO. No I am not trying to sell HBO, but I couldn't wait for the "Pacific" to start. On Sunday March 14 a new 10 part mini series started, produced by the same people that did "Band of Brothers". My son and I are huge World War 2 buffs and the Band of Brothers for me was the best thing ever on television. I do not know much about the Pacific theatre, most of what I have studied has been the fighting in Europe. That may be because all my relatives that served were in Europe. I have been waiting for this series to come out for months and have just recently purchased the book, now to set back and enjoy.

It is Tuesday so please visit Shane's blog for a new post.

It Gets Hard To Find Titles Sometimes...

By now I guess you can tell that wildlife does not need to be a big bull or large rack buck for me to photograph or post it. I do this because I find the beauty in the animal and the joy of watching it. I have only been photographing wildlife the last five years but the last two years I have gotten pretty serious about it thanks to Willard and Coy Hill. Because of their blogs I have found new places to go and can't seem to get enough. By the way these were taken last month in Northern Pa.

More Red Tailed Hawk...

Last Monday I showed you a couple of close ups of the Red Tailed Hawk I photographed in Northern Pennsylvania last month. At that time I told you that there would be more to come and here they are. I think I could have done a better job but I often struggle a bit with a dark subject in the snow, but to date this has been my best encounter with a hawk.

It is Thursday so please stop by Shane's blog for a new post.

The Herd...

When I spoke of our recent trip to Elk County I mentioned the large herd of elk that we knew was in excess of 75, well here is some of that herd. I wanted to get photos of the herd and quickly changed lens to get a few shots. The herd was to large and spread out to get them all in a single photograph. While taking these photos I was not aware of what was happening at the time and didn't notice it until I went to process the photos. If you look closely at the first photo along the tree line to the left you will notice the bull has mounted a cow. I was aware that if a cow was not bread she would continue coming into heat but I was very surprised to see rutting activity in the middle of February. With Shane in school during the rut and not able to make the trip with me I was glad to see him get to experience some of what it is like and hear the sounds. Don't forget to click on the photographs for a larger view.

Speaking of Shane please stop by his blog for a new post today.

Feeding Frenzy...

More birds from the front window, I have to shoot something I can't just let the cameras lay. The video was taken with the D90, no need to turn up your volume, since this was taken from the comforts of my warm home there is no audio. The first photo I just liked because of the back lighting and the depth of field.

Yep More Birds...

Hey I started the week with bird photos I might as well finish it with bird photos. Like most these were taken from my front window. I think feeding them has brought them as much pleasure as it has me and the cats watching them.

Searching For A Post...

I have post made in advance for the next few weeks but realized I somehow missed today. Not wanting to take the time to look through files I searched my blog photo file looking for an unused photograph and this is what I found. This was taken over the winter at Wildlwood Lake in Harrisburg, I think I worked this photo up because I liked the angle of the light and the composition of the photo.

It is Thursday already so please stop by Shane's blog for a new post.

Winter Survival...

With the ground covered with snow wildlife must find ways to eat. With the snow cover we have in South Central Pa. that can become a difficult task. In Elk County the snow cover is not as bad and the elk were having no problems pawing at the ground to find food. These two decided to take an easier approach and eat from the cover that was not under snow. I also seen elk eating from feeders in peoples yards and corn that was left out for them. I have read articles on artificial feeding of the elk and the drawback to this but I am not educated enough to speak of it here. This recent trip north did nothing but wet my appetite for getting out and photographing more wildlife. I am looking forward to the coming year and many trips to SNP for the arrival of the fawns and the bucks in velvet. I love summer but after scheduling a week of vacation during the elk rut I can't wait to get back into the woods and here the sounds.

More From The Front Window...

A couple more from the front window of my house after our recent snow storms. These were my first attempts at using the 200-400 lens from inside the house. I think it is about time for me to get out and photograph some more birds, maybe a run down to Middle Creek Wildlife area is in order.

It is Tuesday already so please stop by and visit Shane's site for a new post.

Red Tailed Hawk...

I mentioned last week about photographing a red tailed hawk. Well here he is, these were taken along Route 555 in the area of Dents Run. This was the first chance I had to photograph a red tail and I was satisfied with the results. They were taken from the truck window with the 200-400 F4. You will see more of him in the future just not as close up. Hey! is is March, could that mean spring is on the way. I sure hope so.