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EverettsPride
Advanced Member
1140 Posts |
Posted - 12/06/2007 : 9:28:10 PM
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I was talking to a neighbor who mentioned that the armory and other buildings are overwhelmed by the donations. She suggested giving gift cards to Target or wherever so the families could replace things like dishes, sheets, towels, and everything else they will need to start over again. I think that makes a lot of sense.
Sally |
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massdee
Moderator
5299 Posts |
Posted - 12/06/2007 : 9:56:02 PM
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| Sally, what a great idea. I was reading on The Mirror, and someone there is telling people who usually give them a gift for Christmas to donate to the relief fund instead. I thought that was a great idea, too. |
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arthur
Senior Member
212 Posts |
Posted - 12/07/2007 : 05:35:22 AM
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HERE IS SOME FOOD FOR THOUGHT, AND THAT IS A GREAT IDEA WITH THE GIFT CARDS
Tanker in crash predated reforms
But specs not seen as factor in Everett
By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff | December 7, 2007
The gasoline tanker that flipped over and set an Everett street ablaze early Wednesday was a 28-year-old model that federal safety regulators allowed to stay on the road even after they toughened design and engineering standards to limit rollover-crash damage in the early 1990s, officials said yesterday.
Massachusetts State Police said they were continuing to investigate the 1:41 a.m. Wednesday accident and had no conclusions about what caused the crash besides speeding. They gave no estimate of the truck's speed.
State Police Sergeant Robert Bousquet said records show the rig consisted of a 2007 Peterbilt tractor pulling a 1979 trailer containing 9,400 gallons of gas, a typical-size delivery to refill a 10,000-gallon underground tank at a gas station.
The trailer was built at least 10 years before the federal government began imposing stricter construction and safety standards for new tankers hauling flammable liquids, standards that took effect between 1989 and 1995.
The design changes involve what federal officials described as technical, incremental improvements in damage prevention during accidents, such as requiring stronger valves and more secure tank covers to hold back leaks if the trailer flipped.
Older trucks are allowed to operate as long as they continue to pass external visual and leak tests every year and, ev ery five years, an internal inspection and a more advanced leak test that involves being put under the pressure of a full load.
"You don't get a free ride. You have to test them," said Charles Hochman, director of the office of hazardous materials technology for the Transportation Department's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, which regulates trailer construction standards.
Officials of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and Massachusetts State Police could not answer yesterday whether the truck involved in Wednesday's accident was up to date on all those tests. Officials at Abenaqui Carriers of North Hampton, N.H., the company that employed the truck's driver, Chad LaFrance, could not be reached by telephone yesterday. LaFrance has been cited by State Police for speeding.
Studies have found that flammable-liquid tankers built to the post-1989 standards are substantially less likely to spill in major crashes than older tankers. In an April 2005 report for the motor carrier administration, Battelle, a nonprofit research laboratory in Columbus, Ohio, found that pre-1989-standard tankers carrying flammable liquid spilled 20 percent of the time when involved in serious crashes, compared with 13 percent for tankers built to the newer standard.
Hochman, the hazardous materials transportation safety official, said all indications are that speed was the primary or sole factor in the crash and a tanker built to the tougher standards would have capsized and ruptured, too.
"I don't think - and I'll wait to see until the State Police complete their investigation - it would have made any difference," Hochman said. "If this thing was going too fast and flipped over, I don't think there'd be much difference" in the size and scope of the ensuing gasoline spill and blaze.
Technology that can reduce the risk of truck rollovers by improving braking, similar to antilock braking systems on cars, can be installed on trucks for as little as $600 to $1,000, though federal studies have warned that the systems are not foolproof and roughly half the time won't prevent a rollover accident caused by a speeding driver. It was not known yesterday whether the truck that rolled over in Everett was outfitted with such a system. Additionally, an April 2007 DOT study said rollover risks could be cut 12 to 30 percent with squatter tank designs that have a lower center of gravity than ones commonly used.
Industry officials sought to stress that accidents of any kind are rare for gasoline tankers. In 2006, the National Tank Truck Carriers Inc., an Arlington, Va., trade association whose members haul tankers of all kinds, including gasoline rigs, cited just one federally reportable accident for every 183 million miles driven. Abenaqui is a member of the trade group.
For flammable-liquid tankers nationally, there were 914 crashes in 2002, the most recent year studied. Of those, 182 led to spills, the 2005 Battelle report found.
"This is a very safety-conscious industry with a very strong safety record, but unfortunately when there is the extremely rare incident like this one, it can be a high-profile occurrence," said Tom Lynch, vice president and general counsel of the tank truck group.
Massachusetts Fire Marshal Stephen D. Coan said he hadn't reached any conclusions yet about what, if any, aspects of gas-tanker safety regulation and enforcement may need to be changed.
"When you look at the frequency of this type of incident, they are fairly infrequent," Coan said. "With that being said, we clearly would acknowledge that when they do occur, as we saw in Everett, they can have catastrophic results."
Revere Fire Chief Eugene Doherty has responded to at least eight rollover spills of flammable liquids during a 32-year career in a city that, like Everett, is home to gasoline and oil tank farms. He said that, based on all he's learned so far, "It's more traffic enforcement than anything. The truck drivers, some of them are still cowboys. Coming into these rotaries, they don't want to shift down - they just want to keep going."
Peter J. Howe can be reached at howe@globe.com.
© Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company
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wanda bee
Member
54 Posts |
 Posted - 12/07/2007 : 09:03:13 AM
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The Armory does have a list of appartments for the victims.
Gift cards and money to the Eagle Bank account would be the best
way of helping at this point.
I forgot to mention that Mayor Hanlon and Mayor Elect DeMaria
also did a wounderful job of reassuring people that the City would provide help. But to me the most compasionate man in the room was State Senator Anthony Galluccio, he was truly touched by the loss
these victims have suffered and I believe he will use his influence to help each and everyone of them.
The Fireman and Chief Butler, the Police and Chief Mazzie did an
outstanding job as well! |
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massdee
Moderator
5299 Posts |
Posted - 12/09/2007 : 10:46:48 PM
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From the Boston Herald.
The river of fire unleashed by an overturned fuel truck in Everett this week tossed dozens of lives into turmoil but perhaps none more so than the young Da Silva family.
Juliane Da Silva, 28, is seven months pregnant and mom to a 14-month-old and 4-year old. She and her husband Vandereli and their boys now live in one cramped Rodeway Inn room in Revere, with nothing left but their nightmares.
“The house on fire, the cars that blew up - my children saw all of that,” Da Silva said through a translator in Portuguese, “and I can’t erase that.”
The Da Silvas narrowly escaped the conflagration that engulfed their triple-decker home on Main Street early Wednesday morning. The family lost its minivan, the children’s baby pictures, their clothes. And they lost the crib, the high chair, the swing and the stroller they had planned to use for Mateo, the yet-to-be-born son Juliane is carrying.
They even lost the kids’ Christmas presents - a Batman figure for 14-month-old Thiago and a PlayStation for 4-year-old Gabriel.
“She doesn’t know what she’s going to do for Christmas,” said Da Silva’s cousin, Mariana De Paula.
Vandereli Da Silva returned to his job as a mechanic for the first time yesterday, so at least some of these things can be replaced. What concerns Juliane Da Silva more is what she would like to be removed.
Gabriel is tormented by terrible dreams and his memories of someone “putting fire in” their house and “killing” it.
His little brother is now uncharacteristically aggressive, pushing people the way his father had pushed open a locked door so the family could escape the inferno.
“The little one gets angry, but he never used to,” De Paula said.
During a conversation with a reporter in their hotel room yesterday, Thiago burst into tears repeatedly as his mother spoke.
Because she is pregnant and has two children, state and city officials say, finding the Da Silvas a home will be a priority. Whether their lives will ever be the same is less clear.
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H1ghCh4r1ty
Advanced Member
967 Posts |
Posted - 12/09/2007 : 11:20:04 PM
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I hope the Herald will publish stories about the non portuguese speaking people who also lost their belongings and vehicles and are having nightmares as well.
Like many of the elderly who can't comprehend what happened that night are afraid to go to sleep at night.
Sounds like the "lib-tards" are running this show already.
The Pup and Emile Schoeffhausen
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"Time to make the donuts" |
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ItalianDevil021
Member
41 Posts |
Posted - 12/10/2007 : 3:33:45 PM
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| god be with all the families who lost their homes is all I can say..... |
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massdee
Moderator
5299 Posts |
Posted - 12/11/2007 : 5:57:08 PM
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A little boy with a big heart has set up a Christmas collection for kids left homeless by the raging inferno that ravaged an Everett neighborhood last week.
Peter-Anthony Hereu, 10, of Wellesley was so moved by the disaster that he launched a mission to collect toys, clothes, blankets, pillows and other goods for victims of the Dec. 4 fire that left 47 people homeless, including nine children, and destroyed 21 cars in Everett.
“I know one morning that people lost everything and, since we have things they don’t, I just really wanted to help them out,” said Hereu, a fifth-grader at the Katherine Lee Bates Elementary School.
“I couldn’t believe it when I saw it on the news. I couldn’t believe what they were suffering. To see your house burning down must have been horrible,” he said.
The youngster wrote a touching letter to his principal, Amber Bock, and she agreed to help organize the drive by placing four collection boxes at the school.
“This is Peter’s mission and we are just playing a small part in it,” Bock said. “Peter is just a great person. It shows that one child can make a big difference.”
Local businesses Gretta Luxe, Gretta Cole, Kiehls on Central Street and Fells Market on Western Road will also have collection boxes, starting today.
“I have organized it myself but my mom and dad are helping me,” said Hereu, who moved to Wellesley from Miami a year ago with his mom Judy, 37, dad Pedro, 46, sister Anna, 6, and 4-year-old twin brothers Robert-Patrick and Albert.
Young Hereu said he feels he owes it to Everett survivors because of a “miracle” in his own family when his baby brother Robert-Patrick survived a brain aneurysm after pioneering surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital.
“I’m very proud of him,” said his mom. “The news was on, and I saw Peter-Anthony teared up, so I asked him what was wrong and he told me.”
The boy said he was deeply upset by the images of fire trucks, flames and fleeing residents when an allegedly speeding gas tanker flipped and exploded into flames, sending a river of fire cascading down Main Street early Wednesday morning.
She suggested he write his principal and set up the collection.
Tanker driver Chad LaFrance, 30, of Dover, N.H., was cited by Massachusetts State Police for speeding and not carrying his medical certificate.
LaFrance and his family have ignored repeated interview requests since the fire.
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MAIN ST FIRE LOOKS LIKE WAR ZONE
