MYRTLE BEACH – Horry County fire crews battle a blaze at a Myrtle Beach restaurant. The Seafare Restaurant at 9925 North Kings Highway caught fire at approximately 9:23pm Saturday night, said Horry County Fire Rescue spokesperson Lesley Yancey. (more…)

Bones Heal in Days, Not Weeks

RESEARCH SCIENTISTS AT THE UNIVERSITY of Georgia Regenerative Bioscience Center have achieved a breakthrough in the development of a gel that they call Fracture Putty.  This new substance will significantly shorten the healing time and completely alter the method of bone fracture treatment.  Instead of spending 3 to 6 months healing a bone fracture, humans are expected to be able to be up and moving around after a few days once the new product is refined and tested.

The substance has been used successfully in rodents and small animals, and more recently they have been introducing it to larger animals such as sheep.  The University of Georgia Office of Public Affairs explains:

Steve Stice, a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar, is working with Dr. John Peroni to develop a fast bone healing process. "This process addresses both human and veterinary orthopedic needs," said Peroni, an associate professor of large animal surgery in the UGA College of Veterinary Medicine.

"In our experiences with large animal models, following the guidelines established by our animal care and use committee," Stice said, "we have been successful in formulating a product that contains mesenchymal stem cells and allows them to survive in the environment of the fracture long enough to elicit the rapid formation of new bone."

This year, the group showed bone can be generated in sheep in less than four weeks. The speed in which bone is formed is one of the truly unique features of this study.To start the bone regeneration process, the RBC used adult stem cells that produce a protein involved in bone healing and generation. They then incorporated them into a gel, combining the healing properties into something Stice calls "fracture putty."

With Peroni's assistance, the Houston-based team used a stabilizing device and inserted putty into fractures in rats. Video of the healed animals at two weeks shows the rats running around and standing on their hind legs with no evidence of injury. The RBC researchers are testing the material in pigs and sheep, too.

Where other research has been focused on chemical compounds to create cement-like putty, this technique uses stem cells to create a biological gel that actually creates bone growth.  The time it takes to heal depends largely on the severity of the fracture.  In extremely complex fractures it could prevent the necessity of amputation and instead lead to a full recovery.

Read the full article from the UGA Today HERE.

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Glenn Usdin's FireTruckBlog.com has a look at a controversy in Virginia's Richmond Fire Department which may be played out at other fire department's. New black boxes to ensure that certain safety perameters are being met (seatbelts, speed, etc) have been added to the fleet. The union says the department's priorities are wrong. Check it out.

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CLINTON – Fire crews are still on the scene of a fire that destroyed an Upstate mill. Clinton firefighters responded just after 7pm Saturday to the Lydia Mill on Peachtree Street. The fire destroyed what was left of the now vacant mill. It was in the process of being demolished. The Laurens County Sheriff's Office is handling the investigation.

HOLLY SPRINGS – A massive fire destroyed a home on Ben Hurt Road Extension tonight near Lyman Lake in Spartanburg County. Holly Springs Fire responded just before 7pm Saturday. Nine other fire departments joined the effort.  Firefighters couldn't immediately provide details on whether anyone was home at the time of the fire. 7 On Your Side learned the Red Cross is assisting.

ANDERSON COUNTY - Flames and black smoke billowed from a tanker truck that caught fire after a crash in Anderson County. The South Carolina Highway Patrol reported the accident on Shady Grove Road near Holiday Dam Road at 10:23 a.m. (more…)

Advanced Forestry Tactics in 1949

THIS DOCUMENTARY FILM showing Smoke Jumper training and procedures from the late 1940's is provided by the National Archives and Records Administration.  The video runs for 54 minutes, so grab a cuppa first, then sit back and enjoy:

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Not Enough Fur

AN ARVADA, COLORADO, HOME HAD EXTENSIVE damage Saturday morning after a fire destroyed the garage and burned off the roof of the house.

Arvada FD / Scott Prible

The fire broke out around 4 am and when the first units arrived they found the garage fully involved and beginning to extend into the attic.  Despite the below-freezing temperatures that turned the driveway into a "skating rink," they were able to contain the fire, but the loss was substantial.

The fire investigator found that the cause was an electric blanket that the residents were using to keep their cat warm.  The animal was laying on its favorite chair in the garage when the blanket set the chair on fire and then spread to the entire garage.

Arvada FD / Scott Pribble

The house had working smoke detectors that awoke the family.  All three residents escaped safely without injury, but the cat died.

KMGH-TV has a report HERE.

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Death in all it's blackness still has a shimmer, and that shimmer is coming through loud and clear. Bob is not only in trouble, but close to losing everything. The sun creeps toward the horizon agonizingly slowly, inching toward the ground in miniscule increments, slowly, slowly, slowly. As the edge of the giant orb touches the earth's line, I stir. The deadly UV rays diminish, and my eyes flicker, and the sun sinks, and I rise.

Smoke. There is something sinister in this, I know, for mixed with the pleasant aroma of burning wood, flesh mingles. Whose flesh is the question, and if the last of the light would finally creep into the abyss for the evening, I could crawl from my grave and find out. My body is stiff, but my brain increasingly alert. Going, going, gone! I'm free.

Heat. Intense heat. It sears my skin, but that's okay, my skin has taken much worse. Orange glow from the crack in the barn floor outlines the shape of the hatch that sealed Angus and I this morning.

"Malcolm, we need to get out. Crissy needs us."

"On three. One. Two. THREE!"

Together, we push the door up, exposing us to the smoke and heat. We are through the door in a flash, and tear through the flames and out of the barn, and into the cool Vermont dusk. Light retreats as the sun falls behind the earth, but its afterglow lingers, and fills me with mourning. If I had one wish, it would be to set foot on a bright, sun filled field, and walk among the plants and flowers, listening to the creatures that stir under my feet, and watch the birds in flight as they live their mortal lives, oblivious to their own impending demise, just content to be alive, and free, and busy, bathed in light.

Flames roll behind me, the heat now on my back as I run forward. Charlie is down, Bob swinging an axe as three fiends surround him. Sirens wail in the early evening stillness, beating the crickets to fill the quiet night with noise. Crissy is nowhere.

I surge. The fiends are new, no match. They are a mockery to the uniforms they wear. Firefighters! How dare they desecrate the name! Rage fills me as I attack. I've grown fond of the profession since joining the ranks some seventy years ago, and my affinity for those who filled the boots rather than simply wore them fuels my rage as their memory is tarnished by creatures of the night using the world's most honored profession as no more than a means to fill their veins with the blood of a populace that trusts them.

Just as Bob nearly succumbs to the onslaught, I appear in the fray, taking the heads of two of the vampires and smashing them together, stunning them, and crushing their skulls. They won't be dazed for long. The third looks upon me with eyes wide open, and anger fills his face, and his body prepares to attack.

"Malcolm! How could you turn your back on your own kind! You are Vampire!"

"You are neither Vampire of Firefighter!" I scream, the rage taking over now, blood lust creeps in slowly, but once stoked is difficult to control. I clutch the Vampire's throat with my left hand, put my right on his forhead, pierce his skin and clutch his skull, then twist, not stopping until the head is severed from the body. He doesn't bleed, does not scream, does not twitch, but does die, forever. His form is reduced to ashes, and they fall at my feet. Bob catches on quickly, and uses his axe expertly, taking the heads of the other two monsters, who also turn to dust and leave this earth forever. The sirens are closer now, no time to reflect.

"They have Crissy!" shouts Bob.

Angus appears, the Cadillac purring, and ready to go.

"Let's go!" he says, flashing a fanged grin that makes me believe for the moment that he has things under control. Bob lifts Charlie over his shoulder and puts him onto the stretcher in the back of the Caddy, then closes the door. I take the passenger seat, Angus hits the lights and sirens and the chase is on.

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This is PhillyFireNews.com video by George Tuttle of a house fire at 7:45 AM yesterday morning at 331 Myrtle Avenue in Berlin Boro in Camden County, New Jersey. 

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