Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We still have time to mess this up!

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

Cancel the cowardly WaPo and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

This really is a full service blog.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

You cannot shame the shameless.

You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / More Good News

More Good News

by | 134 Comments

This post is in: 

Apparently a six alarm fire in NJ is destroying the boardwalk that was rebuilt after Sandy- this report states the boardwalk is being destroyed as a firebreak. I have no idea what six alarms mean, but I am assuming it is pretty damned big, because I think we only get to about two alarms in WV, and by then the trailer is destroyed anyway and you’re really just making sure it doesn’t spread to the pick-up truck collection on cinder blocks in the front yard or the neighbor’s double-wide next door.

Sigh. Those guys up there can’t catch a break.

*** Update ***

Just remembered one of my favorite West Virginia jokes:

Q: “What do a tornado and a West Virginia divorce have in common?”

A: “Either way, someone is losing a trailer.”

I’ll be here all night.

Reader Interactions

134Comments

  1. 1.

    raven

    “One-alarm, two-alarm, three-alarm fires, or higher, are categories of fires indicating the level of response by local authorities, with an elevated number of alarms indicating increased commitment of resources. The term multiple-alarm is a quick way of indicating that a fire was severe and difficult to contain. This system of classification is common in the USA among both fire departments and news agencies.”

  3. 3.

    TAPX486

    Looking at some of the video and it looks like the fire extends for 4-5 blocks along g the beach. Watching the firemen put water on it give a whole new meaning to pi–ing in the wind

  4. 4.

    PurpleGirl

    To further what Raven said: Six alarms also means that six fire companies have responded to the fire. Yeah, severe and difficult to handle and contain.

  5. 5.

    ranchandsyrup

    How quickly we all forget that Obama’s weather control powers created Sandy to turn the tide of the election. This fire is just a diversion away from the historic bungling of the Syria non-events because no chemical weapons were ever used.

    I write tomorrow’s chain emails today.

  8. 8.

    The Pale Scot

    Fuck, not the custard shop, I hope the fun house next door survives.

    6 Alarms = 6 firehouses responding, in this area, adjacent townships are sending teams.

  9. 9.

    CS

    To add to what raven said, six alarms means six fire stations’ worth of equipment and personnel have been called out to deal with it. That many people usually pulls in some higher-rank fire subchiefs/lieutenants to coordinate everything, plus specialized teams like search and rescue (not here) or hazmat teams. With specialized teams “six-alarm” isn’t perfectly accurate, but it serves the purpose for easy description as noted above. The fire lieutenants drive the Suburbans that still say FIRE TRUCK on them, which is always funny to me because when else are Suburbans ever the smallest vehilcles at the scene?

  13. 13.

    The Dangerman

    You want GOOD NEWS? Michelle Obama endorsed drinking water today; nutters should be dropping from dehydration left right and right.

  15. 15.

    Jay C

    The local (NY) news have been covering this fire from the first spark: apparently it started with just one building going up, and then high winds blew embers/ashes all the hell over the place, and set off more fires in more of the surrounding structures (basically, like most beachfront amusement buildings, wood-framed shanties). And the wind is still blowing….

  16. 16.

    Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader

    My favorite West Virginia joke.

    Q: What do West Virginians do on Halloween? A: Pump kin!

    I probably don’t have to remind you that Halloween is right around the corner, John.

  19. 19.

    Walker

    How on earth is anything on the east coast burning in this weather? I am convinced my woodpile would not burn if you threw gasoline on it.

  23. 23.

    Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader

    @Walker:

    I am convinced my woodpile would not burn if you threw gasoline on it.

    It would because gasoline doesn’t burn, the fumes do. The fumes would come off the wood and catch fire and the resulting heat would evaporate the water in the wood enough to allow it to burn.

  25. 25.

    Long Tooth

    A boardwalk being destroyed to serve as a fire break? How can that be? By [my] definition, one side of a boardwalk is always sand and sea.

  26. 26.

    MikeJ

    Sending out people to FIGHT the fire before we’ve even heard from the UN. They’ve already got boots on the ground!

  28. 28.

    StringOnAStick

    In other disaster related news, I live on the west side of Denver, and it has been raining. Not just raining, but getting more than the typical 1/2 year’s worth of rain just since Monday; 3 people dead (so far), Boulder basically on lockdown (7 inches of rain near there just last night), CU cancelled classes today since 1/4 of their buildings are taking on water, mountain communities west of Boulder and Fort Collins completely cut off due to road washouts and mudslides, etc.

    I’ve lived in CO my whole life and I have never seen such an extended period of hard, unrelenting rain. Looks like it keeps on going through the coming weekend too. The precip totals will make the drought look like it is over, but everything that has fallen since the soils got saturated (basically, since Monday night) is already in Kansas/Nebraska or on its way there now. Wild, and glad we live on top of a ridge.

  29. 29.

    Bobby Thomson

    @Long Tooth:

    A boardwalk being destroyed to serve as a fire break? How can that be? By [my] definition, one side of a boardwalk is always sand and sea.

    The other dimension. I assume they don’t want it to spread to other buildings along the shore through the boardwalk.

  30. 30.

    j

    I never heard of a “six alarm fire”. I have fireman relatives who were killed in the line of duty, and “SIXXX!!!11!11” just seems like turning something up to eleven.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple-alarm_fire

    The always accurate (ymmv) Wikipedia only goes to “5 alarm”, and the Google thing just now has a bunch of headlines calling this SIX! DAMMIT!!! USA! USA! USA!!, or whatever.

    http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/six-alarm-fire-rages-seaside-park-n-boardwalk-article-1.1454116

    Until the National Fire Fighters Assn or who else does these categorizing things changes the ratings, “six alarm” don’t exist.

  31. 31.

    dmbeaster

    The joke out here in California when we get one of those massive urban brushfires is that they are 1,000 alarm fires. Literally. The 1993 Old Topanga Fire (which almost burnt down my house) <a href="http://www.malibucomplete.com/mc_history_malibucity_1993fire.php&quot; rel="nofollow"rolled that many trucks from everywhere west of the Continental Divide./> Within 12 hours of the fire starting, there were trucks staged in my neighborhood from over 300 miles away, meaning the alarm went out and a bunch of guys started driving.

  32. 32.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I’ll be here all night.

    You won’t, though. Steve and the Piglets will lure you to bed, and you’ll miss the Night Crew.

  33. 33.

    shelly

    We’re having massive thunderstorms with drenching rain rolling thru New Jersey tonignt. Only pray that the rain helps a tiny bit.

  36. 36.

    PsiFighter37

    My mom is in Tanzania and about to go climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. Goddamn, that sounds like fun.

    Me, it’s starting to thunderstorm like mid-summer here in NYC, and I’m hoping the J-E-T-S can steal one away from Tom Brady and the no-names who play with him. Honestly, I don’t understand why everyone is so high on the Patriots, merely because of the presence of Brady and Belichik. You need 51 other players on your roster to be good, too.

  38. 38.

    ? Martin

    The law is working: “A new report released today by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) shows that 6.8 million consumers saved an estimated $1.2 billion on health insurance premiums in 2012, due to the “rate review” provision of the Affordable Care Act, which brought unprecedented accountability to slow the growth of health insurance premiums.”

    Repeal it! That’s $1.2B denied to our job creators that could have been creating jobs!

  47. 47.

    shelly

    what’s going on with the molasses spill in Honolulu Harbor?

    If it’s another sign of the End Of Times, it’s a pretty wacky one.

  49. 49.

    gbear

    @StringOnAStick: I called up Weather Underground in Denver when I started hearing the stories. I clicked the ‘total precipitation’ option. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen that much rain on one map. There were places that were reading over 12″ of rain. I’ve never seen light blue on a WU map before.

    Hope that things improve and the roads can be repaired soon.

  51. 51.

    NotMax

    @SiubhanDuinne

    Not really keeping up, as it is 100 miles away on another island altogether. It’s in an industrial area, so all sorts of crap in the water there already. Likely that currents will flush the bulk of it out to sea, where it will be diluted.

    Here’s link to Honolulu paper, where there are several additional stories about the spill also listed.

    In the late 1980s, the town where the main harbor is here was all but shut down for most of a day due to an on land molasses spill. What was normally a 20 minute drive from home to work took 3½ hours that day, and for about 10 years afterwards, if going past the right spot when the winds were blowing from a certain direction could still get whiffs of molasses.

  54. 54.

    jl

    5 PM news here says the fire started under the boardwalk.

    If so, then at least part of the boardwalk was on fire before the FD responded. Maybe they are tearing some it down to keep the fire from spreading. Which makes some sense.

  55. 55.

    jenn

    @j: The wikipedia entry is based on FDNY categories. My understanding is that the scale differs somewhat according to jurisdiction, and that different jurisdictions use different formulas to arrive at the # alarm designations.

  58. 58.

    jenn

    @jl: Yes to prevent spread, plus since the fire is in/among the boards, they’re having to rip the boardwalk apart just to get water on the flames.

  63. 63.

    Mike in NC

    I think we only get to about two alarms in WV, and by then the trailer is destroyed anyway and you’re really just making sure it doesn’t spread to the pick-up truck collection on cinder blocks in the front yard or the neighbor’s double-wide next door.

    In many rural areas, it seems if you have a house or trailer sitting on a piece of land, sooner or later you feel the need to fill that land with broken shit: cars (with or without cinder blocks), pickup trucks, buses, horse carriers, tractors, lawn mowers, boats, refrigerators and washing machines, etc. Then they turn to rust and get overgrown with weeds.

  64. 64.

    Randy P

    The one-l lama, he’s a priest.
    The two-ll lama, he’s a beast.
    The three-l lllama is a hell of a fire.

    (I could swear I saw that version of the Ogden Nash poem once, but all the references I find online just give the fire joke as a footnote added by Nash)

  65. 65.

    JPL

    I’m hoping that we hear again from Tamara. The flooding in Colorado is terrible. I’m sure that Christie is a large enough figure that he can take care of the fire.

  68. 68.

    jenn

    @TaMara (BHF): Man, I would’ve taken it as snow! That’d be AWESOME! Plus precip as snow tends to be more useful. (Ok, granted the roads departments aren’t going to be ready to deal with over a meter of snow in September, so it’d be a pain in the butt, but snow days in September – I woulda killed for that as a kid!)

  74. 74.

    jl

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    News said it was electrical wiring under the boardwalk. I assumed they were talking about under the flat boardy walking-on part, the bottom of which is usually above the water. But don’t know for sure, news just said ‘under the boardwalk’.

  75. 75.

    realbtl

    @TaMara (BHF):
    That’s incredible, glad you’re out in the flats. The little place I lived in a couple of miles upstream of Lyons must be gone. It was about 50′ from and 8′ above the St. Vrain.

  79. 79.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    Yay, SECU approved my loan, which means I can go home for my Mum’s 80th birthday partay. I am letting you know that I will begin Eating English food the minute I get off the plane and not stop until I get back on the plane.

  80. 80.

    JPL

    @TaMara (BHF): Four years ago, the Atlanta area had heavy rain and flooding. There was an elementary school evacuated an hour before it was covered in water. It’s amazing to watch the ground, say I just can’t absorb more water, sorry.

  81. 81.

    Anne Laurie

    @NotMax: Do not dismiss the killing potential of molasses:

    The Boston Molasses Disaster, also known as the Great Molasses Flood and the Great Boston Molasses Tragedy, occurred on January 15, 1919, in the North End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts in the United States. A large molasses storage tank burst, and a wave of molasses rushed through the streets at an estimated 35 mph (56 km/h), killing 21 and injuring 150. The event has entered local folklore, and for many decades residents claimed that on hot summer days, the area still smelled of molasses…

  83. 83.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Litlebritdifrnt: Roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, trifle, sticky toffee pudding, fish ‘n’ chips, warm beer, mushy peas, Cornish pasties, crumpets, clotted cream, what am I forgetting?

  87. 87.

    Steeplejack

    @j:

    There was a six-alarm fire in the Washington area in the last week or so—a warehouse in (I think) Alexandria that went up in what has since been determined to be arson. More than 200 firefighters involved, and all the TV stations reported it as a “six-alarm” fire. I presume that designation came from officials and was not just made up to sound cool by the media.

    ETA: The City of Alexandria called it a six-alarm fire. And it happened September 2.

  88. 88.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @jl: Wait. Hold on a second. This is not necessarily so. If you drink a quart of molasses you could theoretically drive. Not so with rum.

  91. 91.

    Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Wait. Hold on a second. This is not necessarily so. If you drink a quart of molasses you could theoretically drive.

    Very slowly.

  93. 93.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Meat and Potato pies, crumbly Lancashire cheese, pork pies, sausage rolls, there is a whole menu of things that I will be eating, for instance Gammon Steak with chips and peas…..

  96. 96.

    The Dangerman

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    This is not necessarily so. If you drink a quart of molasses you could theoretically drive.

    Not after blowing molasses chunks all over the interior windshield.

  102. 102.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @SiubhanDuinne: One of the favorite things DH and I love to do in England is walk down town and have a pub lunch, DH usually has a burger, I always have Lancashire Hot Pot. I cannot wait for that.

  107. 107.

    Origuy

    @Litlebritdifrnt: You’re from Lancashire, aren’t you? I’ve spent most of my time in Britain in Scotland. Do you get tablet that far south?

    The butter in Britain is better than what we get here. Toast with Scottish butter beats a croissant, IMO.

  112. 112.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Litlebritdifrnt: I love love love English custard. It improves just about everything.

    Maybe not Lancashire Hot Pot, or kippers, but pretty much everything else. Mmm, baked apples with runny custard.

  114. 114.

    Ellen

    Unfortunately there is a firefighters’ convention going on right now about 90 miles south of Seaside Heights in Wildwood, and all of the firehouses in NJ are shorthanded because of that. These people truly can’t catch a break.

  116. 116.

    Buffalo Rude

    I’m sure the numbered alarm system varies by jurisdiction, but I cannot imagine a jurisdiction where “6 alarm fire” does not wander into the realm of “oh shit!”

  117. 117.

    FlyingToaster

    @j: Around Boston, six-alarms are common for “fire has spread beyond original building” fires. You’ll end up with fire crews on all sides of a — we call it “block”, but it’s not close to being rectangular. Or any other recognizable polygon.

    There was a 7 alarm fire in Somerville in July. It spread to 4 buildings in a neighborhood of wood-frame, multi-family homes on narrow streets.

  122. 122.

    Jamey

    @Anne Laurie: I had an uncle who worked in a paint factory. He fell into a vat of varnish and drowned. Despite his horrible death, he had a beautiful finish….

  127. 127.

    SectionH

    @SiubhanDuinne: Chicken Tikka Masala, Real Ale, blood pudding, scrumpy… (well, a lot’s been covered already… and I’m not recc’ing some of those, merely noting that they’re parts of English food/drink.

  131. 131.

    Scamp Dog

    @StringOnAStick: Yep. I don’t think I’ve seen this much rain in CO in the 12 years I’ve been here. Like you, I live at a relative high point, so I have no personal worries about flooding, but I know lots of people will be dealing with it. And one of the campuses I teach at closed this afternoon due to the rain.

    By the way, TaMara, the Balloon Juice food godess, is organizing a Denver get-together, so contact her and get signed up!

  132. 132.

    Bill Arnold

    @ranchandsyrup:

    How quickly we all forget that Obama’s weather control powers created Sandy to turn the tide of the election. This fire is just a diversion…

    One presumes that hurricane control is a finicky superpower, requiring sustained very deep concentration, but fire-starting has been done by ordinary humans for hundreds of thousands of years.
    Seriously, my weather station recorded 28.17 inches Hg during Sandy, about 150 miles from the worst affected parts of the Jersey shore. It was a weirdly huge storm. The existence of conspiracy theories related to Sandy is understandable.

  133. 133.

    Mart

    @Anne Laurie: Western Sugar lost a large steel tank of molasses near Scottsbluff, NE in 1989. Collapsed a processing building and killed fish but no people. Close though – The three workers caught in the goop, Russell Dilley, 69, Vernon Dyer, 45, of Gering and Gloria Thompson, 45, were treated at Regional West Medical Center in Scotts Bluff for cuts and scrapes. Sheriff’s Deputy Jack Medearis said the workers told him they heard a rumble and knew the building they were in was starting to collapse. Medearis said Dyer, who was washed out of the building, told him he kept trying to scramble to his knees as he tried to get back to the others. ”He said he was submerged but then was able to see daylight,” Medearis said. The molasses damaged four vehicles near the building, two of them apparently rolled over by the wave. ”I just heard a big old boom, then I saw a wall of molasses that carried those cars about 25 or 30 yards. It just picked them up and slid them,” said witness Paul Hansen.

    Why isn’t the UN investigating the gooey menance?

  134. 134.

    Davis X. Machina

    @Anne Laurie: My dad as a young teacher in the early ’50’s worked in the North End, a couple blocks from the site, and knew people who had lived through it, and people who lost relatives to it.

Comments are closed.