In the press

Featured below are news articles and photos involving the Palestine Fire Department. The department would like to thank the contributing agencies for providing us with this material.

Luncheon honors four local soldiers

By CHRISTINA STEWART

The Palestine Herald

PALESTINE — Wednesday was a day for saying thanks at the Palestine Fire Department Station One in Palestine.

The Palestine Fire Department hosted a “thank you” luncheon for four local soldiers, who recently returned from Iraq where they served with Charlie Company, 2-142 Infantry, and their families.

“They sacrifice for us,” said Roy Patterson of the Palestine Fire Department. “This lunch is a small way to say thanks.

“Sometimes we get the limelight but it is those guys that deserve it.

“We are not the heroes, ya’ll are, it’s a job for us. We are not on the same pedestal as you guys,” Patterson told the soldiers before Wednesday’s luncheon.

Earlier in the year the Palestine Fire Department sent the soldiers and their unit a care package of Nerf® footballs, Frisbees® and baseball items.

To show their appreciation the soldiers presented the fire department with an American flag that had been flown in Al Asad, Iraq.

“We flew the flag on a flag pole outside my room and everybody signed it,” said Spc. Bo Tillman.

The four soldiers, Tillman, T.J. Allen, Jessie Allen and Benjamin Smith, are members of the Delta Company, 3rd Battalion of 144 Infantry Division of the Texas National Guard who are stationed out of the Palestine National Guard unit and have been out of the country for almost a year.

“We are proud he is home,” said Terry Raybin, mother of Bo Tillman and administrative assistant to Anderson County Sheriff Greg Taylor.

“We are all glad they are back safely, they have been away a lot for four years,” Raybin said. “We keep them in our prayers and send them care packages.”

Present at the appreciation luncheon were members of the Palestine Fire Department, Anderson County Sheriff’s Office, Anderson County constables and Palestine Regional Medical Center EMS.

In April, Tillman presented Palestine EMS director John McMeans, Anderson County Sheriff Greg Taylor and Kyle Betterton of the Palestine Fire Department with an American flag at a brief ceremony at the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office in return for Christmas care packages the three groups collected and mailed to the entire Charlie Company, 2-142 Infantry division.

Spc. Bo Tillman, center wearing cowboy hat, presents Palestine Fire Department Chief Henry York with an American flag in return for care packages. Tillman and fellow soldiers, from right front, T.J. Allen, Jessie Allen and Benjamin Smith are members of the Delta Company, 3rd Battalion of 144 Infantry Division Texas National Guard. The four served with Charlie Company, 2-142 Infantry in Iraq where they flew the flag.

CHRISTINA STEWART / The Palestine Herald

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Grant alows PFD to buy dive gear

By WAYNE STEWART

The Palestine Herald

A new level of ability is being added to the Palestine Fire Department with a grant from the East Texas Council of Governments (ETCOG).

The $34,061.55 grant allowed the Palestine Fire Department (PFD) to buy equipment and to train firefighters in advanced open water diving. The grant, according to Palestine Fire Department Capt. Kyle Betterton, allowed for almost $25,000 worth of equipment to be purchased and $9,700 in training.

“Eventually we will end up with 20 advanced open water divers,” Betterton said.

The different phases of diver training include search and recovery, underwater navigation, deep diving, dry-suit diving, night diving and peak performance buoyancy.

Training is being done through the Athens SCUBA Park which is owned by Calvin and Shannon Wilcher, who also are instructors. They are also being instructed by Bill Cherry and Stuart Phillips and dive master Eric Williamson. Cherry, Betterton noted, trained the rescue crew who worked with the Twin Cities Bridge collapsed in Minnesota two years ago.

“Training is the most important part of this,” Betterton said. “If you are not trained properly you can get yourself hurt or killed in a hurry.”

With acceptance of the grant, the PFD dive team will be asked to respond to emergency situations in the 14 counties that make up ETCOG.

“Search and recovery of course includes people, but it also includes item retrieval like if a gun gets thrown in the water,” Betterton explained. “Or, if a boat sinks and the insurance company wants to retrieve it, they will pay the city and we can bring it up for them.”

The other aspect of the grant covered equipment, which according to Betterton is major upgrade compared to what the PFD used to have.

With the new equipment firefighters will be able to dive in all types of water in all types of weather conditions. The new mask will allow firefighters to communicate via radio signal underwater and with personnel on the surface.

“What we will be able to see and do with the new masks is remarkable,” Betterton said.

Along with the new masks and wet and dry suits, divers will have new technical buoyancy compensators, which will allow them to work at a specific depth with all of the equipment they need attached to it. Betterton said his goal is to have 12 sets of recovery gear for PFD divers.

“We’ve moved from basically feeling our way around under water,” Betterton noted, “to being able to do what they did when the Twin Cities Bridge collapsed.”

Palestine Fire Department Capt. Kyle Betterton inspects a new dive mask purchased through a grant from the East Texas Council of Governments. The grant allowed PFD to purchase dive equipment and go through necessary training regimens.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Allen Parker, left, Derek Hunt, Donald Sloan, Drew McCuistion and David Taylor of the Palestine Fire Department pose for a photo in front of Houston ladder truck 96 Thursday at Station 96 near Willowridge. The five Palestine firefighters volunteered to help man Station 96 so that Houston firefighters could attend the funerals of two members of their department who were killed fighting a fire on Easter Sunday.

By BETH FOLEY/

The Palestine Herald

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A car crashed into the Cato store in the plaza next to Wal-Mart Supercenter around 9:32 a.m. Thursday. As of press time, no information was available about the crash. See more photos at the Herald-Press photo gallery on the newspaper Web site http://www.palestineherald.com

KAREN MARTIN/Herald-Press / The Palestine Herald

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Palestine firefighters use Tower One's water hose to spray hot spots on the roof of Little Mexico early Wednesday morning.

BETH FOLEY / The Palestine Herald

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fire Damages House in Westwood

By WAYNE STEWART

The Palestine Herald

A house in Westwood was partially damaged by a Monday evening blaze.

The damage to the residence, located in the 300 block of North Loop 256, was confined to the back of the house, according to Palestine Fire Marshal Alan Wilcher.

"The guys (Palestine firefighters) did a great job of getting it out," Wilcher said. "The house could have went up quick, but they were able to stop it in a back room."

A woman and a 7-year-old child were home at the time of the fire, according to Wilcher, but both got out safely including the family's small dog.

For more on the fire, see Wednesday's print edition of the Herald-Press

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fire damages duplex

By BETH FOLEY

The Palestine Herald

PALESTINE — Fire damaged a brick duplex at the corner of S. Royall Street and Huffsmith Street Tuesday evening.

Palestine Fire Department crews responded quickly to a fire at 1202 S. Royall St. around 9 p.m. Tuesday.

Firefighters arrived on scene to find flames and smoke pouring out of a front bedroom window but worked quickly to contain the fire to only one half of the duplex despite strong, gusty south winds, acting battalion chief Jeff Croft said.

“When we rolled up, flames were lapping out of the front window,” Croft said. “The guys did a good job.”

No one was at home in the apartment where the fire began, but a neighbor in the other half of the building smelled smoke and called 9-1-1, he said, adding that no one was injured.

“The fire was contained but there was heavy smoke damage in the rest of the apartment,” Croft said. “There was water damage in the other apartment.”

The cause of the fire is under investigation, Croft said.

The Red Cross has been contacted to assist both families living in the duplex.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Palestine Fire Department Combat Team members Shannon Davis, rear left, James Reed, David Giles, Tim Ingram, front left, and Kaylon Wade competed in the 2008 Scott Firefighter Combat Challenge held in Las Vegas on Nov. 10-15. The team finished in the top 75 out of around 1,000 teams to compete. Courtesy Photo/The Palestine Herald

Up to the Challenge

PFD team competes in world event

By BETH FOLEY

The Palestine Herald

When Palestine firefighters donned their gear to compete in the 2008 Scott Firefighter Combat Challenge in Las Vegas earlier this month, it marked a first for city firefighters.

If possible, the competition won’t be their last.

The team — Lt. David Giles and firefighters Kaylon Wade, James Reed, Tim Ingram, Shannon Davis and team captain Lt. Kelly Hughes — competed against over 1,000 teams from around the world in relay races involving firefighting skills — carrying hose up flights of stairs, pulling hose to the top of a tower, using a charged hose hit a target, using a sledgehammer to drive a sled backward and dragging a weighted dummy to safety.

“It’s called the toughest two minutes in sports and it is,” Giles said.

The course was set up in the Fremont Experience on the Las Vegas strip and teams competed over the course of five days in front of as many as 25,000 spectators. The Versus Network plans to air competition in January.

“It takes the average fireman five to seven minutes to complete,” Giles said. “Our total time was two minutes flat. We qualified in September in Tyler in 1:58 but we were a little bit slower in the world competition.”

Fireman David Andrews had trained and competed with the team in Tyler, but remained in Palestine during the world competition to be present for the birth of his child. Davis took his place on the team and did well, despite lacking the training time the others had put in, Giles said.

“He did great but he just wasn’t used to that,” Giles said.

Even so, the team finished in the top 75, and in doing so, lit a fire to crack the top 10. Although not the first Palestine team to compete in firefighter events, the Palestine Fire Department Combat Team is the first to compete in the world games, he said.

“We’ve got the first world competition under our belt,” he said. “We’ve got three events coming up at the start of the season that we want to make here in Texas. It’s just a matter of keep practicing to get down near those low world record scores.”

To prepare for the world competition earlier this month, team members used homemade practice equipment and the tower at Station 4 to simulate the equipment and conditions they would face in Vegas.

Since then, the Tyler Fire Department has offered the Palestine team the use of its facility, as has Arlington, Giles said. The team plans to train locally once a week, and to travel to Tyler once a month.

In addition, it’s looking for continued sponsorship so that it can purchase the lighter gear designed for speed in competition, rather than use its normal bunker gear.

“We went bare bones. We didn’t buy anything, equipment-wise, that we needed,” Giles said. “We used what the city issued, which is about 22 pounds worth of gear versus about eight pounds if it were racing gear. It’s going to cost exactly $10,000 to outfit the team.”

The Palestine Fire Department Combat Team relied on the generosity of local businesses and individuals to pay entry fees and traveling expenses, he said, while nearly all of the other teams had corporate sponsorship.

Team members would like to thank Dr. Chad Crystal; Dr. Chris Garrett; Dr. Eric Shroeder; Sweet Dreams Winery; David Barnard; Emergency Service Partners L.P.; Palestine Regional Medical Center; Michael Gorby, M.D., P.A. and Associates; Gerry Red, Inc.; Johnson Lab and Supply Inc.; East Texas National Bank; Kim’s Convenience Stores; Dr. Jay S. Herrington DDS; Charles W. Nichols P.C.; Dr. James Orthodontics Inc.; Tony Rhone; Action Pawn Shop; Whitaker and Whitaker; Artistic Signs and Graphics; and L&P Paint and Body.

A “Combat Challenge” account has been set up at Regions Bank to take donations for equipment and expenses, Giles said.

“I think we’ve got what it takes to get down pretty low in the rankings, with practice and hard work and a little bit of money to help us along the way,” he said.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Breaking News: Early morning blaze destroys home

Family escapes unharmed

By BETH FOLEY

The Palestine Herald

PALESTINE — After spending several hours without power Tuesday after part of a pecan tree broke and fell onto an electrical line and their car, Stewart and Holly Cannon went to bed Tuesday night thinking the worst was past.

Then Stewart woke up around 4 a.m. to find smoke rolling out from under the bedroom door where eight-year-old Sebastian and four-year-old Elizabeth were sleeping.

“I woke up and heard the smoke alarm going off,” Cannon said this morning. “I smelled smoke and ran to the kids’ room. They were fine. I got my wife and we grabbed the kids and ran downstairs.”

Neighbors from several surrounding homes quickly joined them outside to watch the children and offer comfort as firefighters arrived.

Next-door neighbor Stacy Sweet and husband Scott were awakened by their teenage daughter, whose bedroom was closest to the Cannons’ home. They ran outside to make sure everyone was safely out of the house, Sweet said.

Earlier in the day, Sweet said she had sat with the Cannons on their front porch swing, waiting for the power line to be fixed and the electricity to be turned back on.

“My concern was to make sure they got everybody out,” Sweet said.

Palestine firefighters continued to battle the fire after 7:30 a.m. today.

The house was built with “balloon” construction, a style common 100 years which featured very long boards with little or no firebreaks built in, which can allow flames and heat to run upwards with a chimney-like effect.

“The fire started in the center (of the home), dead in the middle,” firefighter Kyle Betterton said. “We stayed inside 45 minutes to an hour cutting holes. It’s balloon construction. Once it hit the second subfloor, it spread in both directions and went outward toward the front.”

Cannon and his wife were able to save their pets and retrieve some family photos and a few belongings from the house, a two-story wood frame home built in 1892 and once occupied by the mayor of Palestine in the 1930s.

The couple had lived in the home for three months, renting it before closing on the house just two weeks ago. They had planned to remodel and landscape it further, Cannon said, as they watched with neighbors from the sidewalk across the street.

“We had worked so hard to get the house,” he said.

Palestine firefighters prepare to attack flames inside a house at 207 W. Reagan St. early this morning, as Engine 1 directs its water cannon onto the second floor.

BETH FOLEY / The Palestine Herald

Palestine firefighters use hoses to extinguish flames erupting from the exterior wall by a drain pipe on the second floor of a century-old house at 207 W. Reagan St. early this morning.

BETH FOLEY / The Palestine Herald

Palestine firefighters cut ventilation holes and spray water into the siding and walls of a house at 207 W. Reagan St. early this morning in an effort to put out a fire spreading through the walls of the home.

BETH FOLEY / The Palestine Herald

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By PAUL STONE

The Palestine Herald

An early morning fire caused substantial damage to three classrooms at Westwood Junior High School, causing the start of classes at all Westwood Independent School District campuses to be pushed back to 10 a.m. today.

WISD Superintendent Dr. Ed Lyman told the Herald-Press this morning that classrooms housing the junior high’s alternative and special education students — approximately 30 students total — were likely destroyed as a result of the fire which was reported to authorities by a nearby resident at 2 a.m. today.

“They’re completely gutted,” Lyman said. “The roof’s gone. It’s just a shell right now.”

Lyman said local fire officials indicated the blaze started in the north end of the building where the three classrooms are situated. The south end of the building contains the campus’ maintenance shop.

An air conditioning truck, three lawnmowers, a tractor, a trailer and other items in the maintenance shop were either destroyed or heavily damaged, according to the superintendent.

Fires have plagued Westwood ISD campuses over the past dozen years or so, with the elementary and high schools being the target of arsonists during that span.

Lyman said officials had not determined whether today’s fire was arson.

“They’re a little hesitant to say right now because there was lightning last night,” Lyman stated. “There are some things right now that are suspicious.”

Classes for the campus’ alternative students were canceled today and will resume at Westwood High School Friday, Lyman said.

Lyman said the district was in the process of ordering two or more portable buildings and was hopeful those will arrive by sometime next week.

Westwood ISD follow up story.

Lightning probable source of WISD fire

By PAUL STONE

The Palestine Herald

PALESTINE — The cause of a fire causing substantial damage to Westwood Junior High School last month has been ruled weather related by the Palestine city fire marshal.

During the wee morning hours of April 24, a nearby resident reported the fire at Westwood Junior High School which ultimately gutted three classrooms housing the campus’ alternative and special education students.

The school’s maintenance shop also sustained significant damage, officials have said.

The Westwood Independent School District has experienced multiple arsons over the past dozen years, with buildings at the elementary, junior high and high school all being affected.

On Friday afternoon, Palestine Fire Marshal Alan Wilcher, however, told the Herald-Press that he had determined the cause of the most recent fire to be weather related.

Also, a sample taken from the scene and sent to the state arson laboratory in Austin was negative, according to Wilcher.

The fire marshal said he consulted with Tom West of Tyler-based Dennis Investigations before reaching his conclusion.

“Both of us agreed it started in possibly more than one spot,” Wilcher said. “It looks like lightning was prevalent in the area. I don’t know if it (the building) took a direct hit.”

According to information provided by the National Weather Service, there were 167 lightning strikes out of the thunderstorm which rolled through the Westwood area sometime after midnight on April 24, Wilcher said.

“About 50 of them were concentrated right there” in the area of the Westwood schools, he added.

If the affected building was not directly struck by lightning, Wilcher explained the blaze could have been started by a surge from an electrical power line. The fire marshal said one of the locations inside the building where the fire originated was “about two or three feet up the wall” where a bank of computers was located.

“That’s where most of the char was,” Wilcher said. “A lot of the wall studs were gone.”

Fire damages Ranch House

By BETH FOLEY

The Palestine Herald

PALESTINE — An early morning fire damaged a popular restaurant in Old Town Palestine this morning.

A fire broke out in the attic of The Ranch House Restaurant at 305 E. Crawford St. around 1:20 a.m. today, damaging the roof but leaving the building standing.

“When we pulled up, flames were on the roof, on the ridge and on both ends,” Palestine Fire Department battalion chief Mike Pell said. “I was very leery of getting people on the roof because it’s a ‘bowstring’ roof. A lot of firefighters have gotten hurt over the years on those.

“We put a master stream through the hole (in the brick facade front) and it knocked (the fire) down. It gave us the upper hand.”

In addition to using the water cannon on Engine 1 and lines from nearby fire hydrants, firefighters also positioned Tower 1 in a parking lot behind and above the rear of the restaurant as a precaution in case the fire had intensified, Pell said.

“We got real lucky,” Pell said, noting that the dining room suffered mainly water damage. “In the middle of the building the ceiling did burn through.”

The cause of the fire is under investigation by city fire marshal Alan Wilcher.

While the age of the historic building was not immediately available, it had been converted into a steak house restaurant and opened in late September, 1996. Current owner Lannie Dugan had purchased the restaurant in May, 2007.

By BETH FOLEY

The Palestine Herald

Palestine firefighters use a platform behind the old Palestine Ice Company to spray flames at the rear of the William George produce building on Saturday afternoon. Crews had the fire under control in about half an hour. The cause of the fire is under investigation, according to officials.

Fire damages warehouse

PALESTINE — Billowing black smoke and flames brought out onlookers as fire damaged part of an empty storage area at the William George Wholesale Produce facility on Spring Street Saturday afternoon.

The fire broke out around 4:16 p.m. Saturday, according to Palestine Fire Department battalion chief Ernest Crawford, and was brought under control by 4:48 p.m.

“It was a storage building right on the back side of the William George Produce building,” Crawford said. “It was contained to that one building.”

The building, between 50 and 60 years old, had been used as a storage cooler, he said.

Palestine police officers diverted traffic off of Spring Street between Kroger and Sycamore Street for a short time while firefighters brought the blaze under control. Some curious onlookers gathered briefly in the parking lot behind First Presbyterian Church to watch as firefighters suppressed the flames from a platform by the old Palestine Ice Company, behind Security Finance on Spring Street.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, Crawford said.

BETH FOLEY / The Palestine Herald

Palestine emergency personnel watch as Rick Zambotti, owner of Auto Clinic wrecker service, uses a hydraulic lift on his flat bed wrecker to slowly pull a maroon Chevy S-10 pickup truck upright Monday morning.

MARY RAINWATER / The Palestine Herald

Santa Claus and his helpers wave to fans from a fire engine while riding along the route of the Palestine Christmas Parade of Lights Saturday night. The parade concluded at the Palestine Visitor Center, where Santa was on hand to visit with children. The overall winner was the Palestine Firefighters Association.

BETH FOLEY / The Palestine Herald

Palestine firefighters use Tower One’s ladder and lights to check the roof at the Wal-Mart Supercenter on S. Loop 256 Sunday night for a possible fire after receiving a call about smoke in the building. According to Battalion Chief Ernest Crawford, a mechanical problem with an air conditioner on the roof led to the alarm. The McDonald’s restaurant at the front of the building was evacuated as a precaution.

BETH FOLEY / The Palestine Herald

Palestine firefighter Steffen Wilson, left, uses a hydraulic cutting tool to assist in removing the driver of a 2004 GMC Sierra pickup truck which rolled on Texas 155 Friday morning, while firefighter John Norwood, center, stands by.

MARY RAINWATER / The Palestine Herald

Members of the Palestine Fire Department clean up after a two-vehicle accident that occurred at about 5:15 p.m. Tuesday in the 200 block of E. Spring Street in front of Security Finance. According to fire department officials, the female driver of a white Chevrolet sedan was trapped inside the vehicle and had to be extracted. While the extent of the driver’s injuries were not known, PFD officials reported that she was taken by helicopter to a Tyler hospital. The driver of the Dodge truck, an unidentified male, was unharmed.

BETH FOLEY / The Palestine Herald

Palestine Fire Marshal Alan Wilcher, foreground, takes down information during a mock disaster drill Wednesday morning at the Emergency Operations Center in the Anderson County Courthouse Annex. Tom Wardell of the Palestine-Anderson County Amateur Radio Club is in the background. Representatives from numerous city, county and state agencies, as well as from surrounding counties, participated in the drill, which was designed to test the coordination of and communication between a variety of agencies during a disaster. The drill’s scenario involved a series of explosions in Palestine, Anderson County and the Lake Palestine area, and concludes today.

Late-night blaze damages local business

By PAUL STONE

The Palestine Herald

PALESTINE — No injuries were reported as a result of a Tuesday night fire which caused severe damage to a local mailing business.

A fire at Mail & More located at 712 W. Oak. St. was reported to authorities at 9:39 p.m. Tuesday, according to Palestine Fire Marshal Alan Wilcher.

Firefighters arrived to discover “heavy fire coming out of the front west end of the building,” Wilcher said. The fire started in the business’ office area and was at least partially electrical in nature, he added.

“We’re still looking into it,” Wilcher said late Wednesday afternoon. “There’s two or three things I’m looking at. It (electrical) definitely had a part in it.”

Although the blaze was mostly “under control” within 10-to-15 minutes of firefighters’ arrival, the business sustained heavy damage, according to the fire marshal.

“It can probably be rebuilt,” Wilcher said about the building, saying much of the damage was smoke-related. “There’s going to be some structural damage. The fire did actually burn into the attic space.”

Wilcher said there is nothing presently suspicious about the blaze.

The building’s owner is Marsha Langston, while the business is owned by Bill Rawson, according to Wilcher. Neither the building or business were insured, he added.

Rawson has indicated he hopes to reopen his mailing business in the near future at another location in Palestine, possibly as soon as two-to-three weeks.

Palestine firefighters remove the burned remnants of a bed after a house fire at 721 Fulton St. Thursday afternoon.

ANGIE ALVARADO / The Palestine Herald

Playing with matches cause of local house fire

By ANGIE ALVARADO

The Palestine Herald

PALESTINE — A fire started in a bedroom by young children playing with matches damaged a wood frame house at 721 Fulton St. Thursday afternoon.

The blaze originated on a bed in the children’s room at the front part of the house, according to Palestine Fire Marshal Alan Wilcher.

“The fire was mainly confined to the one room,” Wilcher said, adding that the rest of the house suffered smoke damage. “The sheet rock in the bedroom kept the fire in the room.”

The fire marshal commended the quick thinking of the home owner, Dedrick Lacy, for attempting to extinguish the fire, first with a bed comforter and then with a garden hose until it got too hot.

“He then woke his wife up and told her to call 911,” Wilcher said. “He (Lacy) did a fantastic job. We don’t recommend fighting a fire. But from the start, he had good instincts.”

Lacy, who watched as firefighters brought out burned remnants from his children’s bedroom, said he was sitting on the front porch waiting for the newspaper to be delivered when he noticed smoke coming from the home.

“I got up quickly and tried to put it out,” he said adding he was glad no one got hurt. His wife, DaWanda Lacy, had been asleep in another bedroom when the fire started at about 2 p.m.

Units from the Palestine Fire Department responded quickly, Wilcher said.

“Thankfully no one was injured,” he added. “We’re going to be talking to the little ones about (fire) safety.”

According to Wilcher, the Red Cross was putting the Lacy family up in a local hotel for the next three nights and had given them money for clothes and food.

Palestine firefighters and DLS HazMat officials work to drain an overturned tanker truck of its remaining fuel Monday afternoon on Loop 256 near U.S. 79.

BETH FOLEY / The Palestine Herald

Leaking gasoline leads to precautionary evacuations

By PAUL STONE

The Palestine Herald

PALESTINE — Traffic was rerouted near the intersection of U.S. 79 and North Loop 256 throughout the day Monday after a tanker truck spilled hundreds of gallons of gasoline onto the roadway following a collision with another vehicle.

Around 8:40 a.m. Monday, a Spencer Distributing tanker truck overturned after colliding with a Ford F-150 pickup carrying a trailer loaded with a car which apparently attempted to turn onto the Loop in front of the oncoming tanker truck, according to authorities.

Ernest Crawford, battalion chief for the Palestine Fire Department, said the tanker truck spilled “between 800 and 1,000 gallons” of gasoline onto the roadway.

The tanker truck was transporting approximately 8,500 gallons, according to authorities.

Nearby homes, hotels and businesses within roughly a 1-mile radius, including the Palestine YMCA, were evacuated shortly after the accident due to safety concerns.

Traffic was also rerouted around the area beginning shortly before 9 a.m.

The driver of the Spencer Distributing tanker truck, whose name was unknown as of late Monday afternoon, was transported to Palestine Regional Medical Center, but his injuries were not believed to be serious. Meanwhile, a haz-mat team remained on the scene late Monday afternoon helping clean up the spill.

Palestine firefighters use a heavy duty fan to blow smoke toward the back of an apartment building at 1404 N. Queen St. Wednesday evening. Battalion chief Victor Poff said the fire was electrical in nature and quickly contained. No one was injured.

BETH FOLEY / The Palestine Herald

Palestine Police Det. Nick Webb, center, takes photos of an accident involving a tractor-trailer, passenger car and two pickup trucks on West Oak Street Friday afternoon as Justice of the Peace James Westley, left, arrives at the scene.

BETH FOLEY / The Palestine Herald

A pair of Palestine firefighters climb down from the roof of the burning house. No one was injured in the Thursday morning blaze.

CHRISTINA CUTLER / The Palestine Herald

Fire pours out of a house located at 703 N. Queen St. in Palestine Thursday morning. Palestine Fire Marshal Alan Wilcher said an electrical short started the fire.

SUSIE MOORE/Courtesy Photo / The Palestine Herald

Local law enforcement and firefighters work to clear U.S. 79 west of Palestine after a fatal two-vehicle accident Monday night.

BETH FOLEY / The Palestine Herald

Palestine firefighters check an overturned Target tractor-trailer on North Loop 256 near East Murchison Street Thursday afternoon. According to Palestine Police Cpl. Gregg Loden, the truck, driven by Alva Murphy of Huntsville, was traveling south on Loop 256 about 3:14 p.m. when its right-side tires left the pavement, pulling the truck down into the ditch. Loden said that when the truck’s tires hit a culvert at Murchison Street, the impact caused the truck to roll onto its right side and slide across both lanes of traffic. No other vehicles were involved.

BETH FOLEY / The Palestine Herald

Texas Department of Public Safety officials and firefighters from the Palestine Fire Department and Lone Pine Volunteer Fire Department worked to clear debris and fuel from the road after a tractor-trailer overturned Friday afternoon on U.S. 287 just north of the split with Texas 19. Cleanup efforts took several hours.

BETH FOLEY / The Palestine Herald

A neighborhood dog sniffs around a mattress and box springs left outside after an early morning fire at Northside Heights Apartments at 1700 N. Jackson St. Wednesday. No one was injured in the fire, which destroyed the 16 units in the building.

BETH FOLEY / The Palestine Herald

Palestine Fire Department gets grant for new radios

By BETH FOLEY

The Palestine Herald

PALESTINE — Palestine Fire Chief Henry York’s firefighters soon will have several new radios, thanks to a $10,000 grant.

The fire department received the $10,000 grant from Papa John’s Risk Services Corp. and Fireman’s Fund Insurance to purchase 10 new narrowband radios to replace the department’s aging wideband radios now in use.

“The addition of this new equipment will improve our resources and ability to protect the residents of Palestine,” York said in a prepared statement. “Communications is key when responding to any emergency and the new radios will ensure that all Palestine fire-rescue personnel are receiving and transmitting information on the proper channel.”

By 2011, the narrowband radios will be a Federal Communications Commission requirement.

York said that bids have been let for the radios and he expects the department to have them in less than a month.

The grant is part of a nationwide program called Fireman’s Fund Heritage, which is funded by Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company. The program is designed to provide needed equipment, training and educational tools to local fire departments.

Since 2004, Fireman’s Fund has issued grants totaling more than $10 million to hundreds of departments, with the help of independent insurance agencies.

York urged area volunteer fire departments to take advantage of the program, too.

“The volunteer fire departments are encouraged to apply for that grant,” York said, “because they can get it just as well as I can.”

KatWeb Production