Now We're Killing Fire Fighters ?!?!

[Va Beach VH Fan]

What the fuck.....

http://www.whec.com/news/stories/S2876697.shtml?cat=566

Two firefighters shot and killed after responding to fire in West Webster
Posted at: 12/24/2012 7:19 AM | Updated at: 12/24/2012 10:48 AM

News10NBC has learned that four firefighters have been shot, two of them were killed, while responding to a fire on Lake Road near the Outlet Bridge.

The other two firefighters are at Strong Hospital in guarded condition.

The West Webster Fire Department was called to the area for the report of a structure fire on Lake Road just before 6:00am. As the firefighters arrived to the fire, there was gunfire and four firefighters were shot. Two of them died from their injuries.

Right now, three homes and a vehicle are burning. Firefighters are now attacking the fire. They had to stay away because The homes are both occupied and unoccupied homes.

Monroe County Sheriff's Deputies say they have located one gunman at this time. They are not releasing his condition. There is no active shooter right now, but sheriff's deputies are still looking for other possible suspects. Neighbors in the area have been evacuated.

Currently, Monroe County Sheriff's Deputies and the SWAT team are on scene, along with multiple fire crews.

News10NBC has multiple crews on scene. We will bring you more updates as they come in.

For more Rochester, N.Y. news go to our website www.whec.com.

[fraroc]

Fuck.

This.

World.

[PETE'S BROTHER]

just makes no sense

[FORD]

Can't wait to read the NRA press release that calls for 50 caliber rifles to be mounted on all fire trucks......

[sadaist]

Fuck.

This.

World.

I think we have been through an extremely rough period as a nation. Still in it. And Christmas is an especially hard time of year for many people. Add to that all the news, people on prescription mind altering drugs, and the overall culture.....sadly I think events like this will become more the norm than the exception and we will barely blink when we hear the news of a small business shot up and a handful of people killed.

Here is what I imagine most peoples reaction to todays news will be....if they even hear of it.


Two people shot? Dang that sucks. Fireman you say? Sad. Hey, do you know when the final season of Breaking Bad starts up? Sucks I have to work Christmas Eve. Yeah, the in-laws are coming over tonight. We got a 23 pound tur........

Unfortunately with so many of these happening we become numb unless it's something huge like twenty 6 year olds, a full movie theater, or someone of note. Anyone remember for a while after 9/11 there were stories of celebrities that were supposed to be in the building that day or were there just a day before or scheduled the day after? Wow, Leonardo DiCaprio was just in the twin towers a week before. WHEW! We sure dodged a bullet there.

It's like....3,000 people? Anyone famous or that I know? No? Whew!

Just nameless, faceless numbers in the news and it doesn't affect us. Until you watch a youtube of a guys final phone call where you hear him scream "OH GOD" as the plane hits & the line goes dead. Or you actually see the people jumping to their deaths. Then you realize that it was real. But if you only hear about it on the regular news or the news breaks in between your top 40 songs, you are numb to it.

[sadaist]

And the top news right now on the news radio is graffiti on a local manger. someone put a Hitler mustache on the baby Jesus and some other stuff around like pentagrams & heil Hitler. I got $10 that says it was some 14-15 year old boys thinking they were being funny and not any type of actual hate crime.

No mention yet of the firefighters. Second story was NRA calling for guards at schools, then 15 second ad break for premature ejaculation medicine, then the weather, then gas prices. Sorry folks.....2 firefighters just isn't enough to make the news everywhere. Isn't that shitty? When you really pay attention to shit around you, you realize it is a pretty fucked up society we are in.

[ELVIS]

Nah, it's when you only pay attention to the fucked up stuff that it definately seems like it's a pretty fucked up society were in...

Lighten up dude...

Maybe totally turn the TV off try to completely ignore the constant stream of the sky is falling bullshit propaganda that is spoon-fed to the masses in heavy doses...

I've done that and it's pretty amazing...

[FORD]

Speaking of TV.... did anyone else happen to see the most recent episode of "Chicago Fire" last week?

There was an incident in that episode where firefighters responded to a call and were shot at. I don't think any of them were hit though. Of course in this episode, one of the firefighters found a gang leader trapped in a burning room, and left him there to die. Too bad it didn't end the same way for the douchenozzle that did this.

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Well, not only were the fire fighters shot and/or killed, but now it appears that the fires were set as an ambush....

Just fucking lovely....

[ELVIS]

This bullshit could be a black op for sure...

[fraroc]

I think we have been through an extremely rough period as a nation. Still in it. And Christmas is an especially hard time of year for many people. Add to that all the news, people on prescription mind altering drugs, and the overall culture.....sadly I think events like this will become more the norm than the exception and we will barely blink when we hear the news of a small business shot up and a handful of people killed.

Here is what I imagine most peoples reaction to todays news will be....if they even hear of it.


Two people shot? Dang that sucks. Fireman you say? Sad. Hey, do you know when the final season of Breaking Bad starts up? Sucks I have to work Christmas Eve. Yeah, the in-laws are coming over tonight. We got a 23 pound tur........

Unfortunately with so many of these happening we become numb unless it's something huge like twenty 6 year olds, a full movie theater, or someone of note. Anyone remember for a while after 9/11 there were stories of celebrities that were supposed to be in the building that day or were there just a day before or scheduled the day after? Wow, Leonardo DiCaprio was just in the twin towers a week before. WHEW! We sure dodged a bullet there.

It's like....3,000 people? Anyone famous or that I know? No? Whew!

Just nameless, faceless numbers in the news and it doesn't affect us. Until you watch a youtube of a guys final phone call where you hear him scream "OH GOD" as the plane hits & the line goes dead. Or you actually see the people jumping to their deaths. Then you realize that it was real. But if you only hear about it on the regular news or the news breaks in between your top 40 songs, you are numb to it.

The song explains it all.

[FORD]

This bullshit could be a black op for sure...

See my previous post.... I don't think it's a black op as much as it is some assholes copying something they saw on TV.

[DLR Bridge]

Unfortunately with so many of these happening we become numb unless it's something huge like twenty 6 year olds, a full movie theater, or someone of note. Anyone remember for a while after 9/11 there were stories of celebrities that were supposed to be in the building that day or were there just a day before or scheduled the day after? Wow, Leonardo DiCaprio was just in the twin towers a week before. WHEW! We sure dodged a bullet there.

It's like....3,000 people? Anyone famous or that I know? No? Whew!

Just nameless, faceless numbers in the news and it doesn't affect us. Until you watch a youtube of a guys final phone call where you hear him scream "OH GOD" as the plane hits & the line goes dead. Or you actually see the people jumping to their deaths. Then you realize that it was real. But if you only hear about it on the regular news or the news breaks in between your top 40 songs, you are numb to it.

Excellent post. I never understood the stupid American fascination with celebrity and tragedy. You're absolutely right. Look at how devastated the country was when that fucking junkie, Whitney Houston died. That mourning went on for damn near a month. On the flip side, I vividly remember people being completely unfazed by the string of beheadings of American contractors in Iraq in '04. Maybe if Leo DiCaprio suffered their fate, it would be worthy of a shit being given. Crazy.

[DLR Bridge]

I've done that and it's pretty amazing...

I find that a little hard to believe. You've got a well informed reaction to every story deemed news worthy enough to discuss here. Sure you're not fooling yourself just a bit?

[Va Beach VH Fan]

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/24/16125861-gunman-who-ambushed-firefighters-killed-grandmother-in-1980-police-say?lite

Gunman who ambushed firefighters killed grandmother in 1980, police say

Webster Police Chief Gerald Pickering says the gunman, who he identified as William Spengler, was a convicted felon who served 17 years in prison for killing his grandmother more than three decades ago.
By Jason White, NBC News

The gunman who ambushed four volunteer firefighters, killing two, in upstate New York had spent 17 years in prison for beating his grandmother to death with a hammer in 1980, police said.

William Spengler opened fire on the volunteers as they responded to a blaze just before 6 a.m. ET in a small cluster of homes along Lake Ontario in Webster, N.Y., police said, rocking this close-knit community.

The 62-year-old convicted felon had apparently set a trap, luring in first responders and then firing on them from atop an earthen berm.

"It does appear that it was a trap that was set," said Webster Police Chief Gerald Pickering, his voice breaking at times. “People who get up in the middle of the night to fight fires, they don’t expect to get shot and killed."

Pickering lost a colleague in the incident: Police Lieutenant Michael Chiapperini, who was a volunteer firefighter. The other firefighter killed by Spengler was Tomasz Kaczowka.

Despite being shot, one of the injured firefighters was able to flee from scene under his own power. But the others remained pinned down on the narrow strip of land between Lake Ontario and Irondequoit Bay until a SWAT team arrived.

As police closed in, Spengler took his own life with a gunshot wound to the head, Pickering said. He was convicted of manslaughter in 1981 after the death of his grandmother, Rose Spengler, and was paroled in 1998.

Spengler's 67-year-old sister Cheryl Spengler is unaccounted for, Pickering said. Spengler lived in the house with his sister and mother, Arline, who died in October.
Prior to Monday's shooting, Webster police had not had any run-ins with Spengler since he was paroled, they said.

Police would not say what kinds of guns Spengler used, but as a convicted felon, he could not legally own firearms.

The two injured firefighters, Theodore Scardino and Joseph Hofstetter, were being treated for "significant injuries," according to Dr. Nicole Stassen, a surgeon at the University of Rochester Medical Center. She said both were awake and alert and not on ventilators.

An off-duty police officer was also injured when he was hit by shrapnel after his car took bullets to the windshield and engine block, according to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. His condition is unclear at this time.

After the shooting, the fire grew to engulf at seven homes and one motor vehicle.

“These firemen are part of our family. You go into a fire with these guys. To see them go down with something like this is totally unexpected. We are in shock,” Billy Gross, fire commissioner for West Webster, told the Democrat and Chronicle.

Dozens of area residents were evacuated, with police searching them as they left, the newspaper reported.

"Miserable thing to happen this time of year," Mark Johns, a state assemblyman who represents the area, told local NBC station WHEC. Johns said he knew some of the firefighters who were shot.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued a statement after the shooting, offering his "deepest condolences."

“All of our thoughts and prayers go to the families and friends of those who were killed in this senseless act of violence," Cuomo said. “New York's first responders are true heroes as they time and again selflessly rush toward danger in order to keep our families and communities safe."