December 28, 2007 - San Jose House Fire

On Thursday morning, Dec. 28, at 3:20 A.M., Fire Associates was paged by the San Jose Fire Department to a 3-alarm house fire in the city's Almaden Valley. Located at 6662 Graystone Lane, the 11,000 sq. ft. mansion was a total loss. Don Gilbert came in Support Unit #2 and was assisted by John Whitaker and his son, Jeff; George Hoyt; Mike Chappell; and John Whiteside.

The early morning fire and an approaching weather front dictated that coffee was the first order of business. The weather was very windy, damp and COLD! Eventually, FASCV provided and/or served 5 dozen donuts, 60 Breakfast Macs and 60 hash-brown patties. So much coffee was made that the supply had a hard time keeping up with the demand. FASCV was released during the early afternoon after a very busy 11 hours.

John's photos of the event can be seen at: SJS - Almaden Mansion Fire
A Mercury-News story is at this location: Fire Destroys Almaden Home
And, video can be seen at: House Fire Video (allow time to load)

February Monthly Meeting Details

The FASCV February monthly meeting will be held at the offices of FASCV member Len Williams'office, 455 S. Mathilda Ave., Sunnyvale, 94086. Meeting time will be 7:30 P.M.

Our guest speaker will be Sunnyvale Dept. of Public Safety Lieutenant A.J. Berrien. AJ will discuss his experiences while deployed on a strike team in Southern California as part of last summer's wildfires. Come hear what he has to say. Should be interesting to everyone!

2007 Year-end Response Totals

2007 Year-end Response Totals are now available on line. Thanks to FASCV member Bob Gundrum for preparing the information. Click on the following links for the data:

• Agency Response Totals
• FSU Response Totals
• Member Response Totals
• Member Response Totals (Sorted By Rank)
  

January 2008 Meeting Reminder

Attendees are advised to bring folding chairs as we will have to hold our meeting on the apparatus floor.

Click on this link for the meeting location and further details:

January Monthly Meeting

"The Embers" - January 2008

The January 2008 edition of "The Embers" is now available on line.

MacDonnell Services Held

Memorial Services for Chief John F. MacDonnell were held at 10:00 A.M. on Friday, Dec. 14 at St. Victor's Catholic Church in San Jose. In attendance for FASCV were: John Whiteside, John Whitaker, Bob Gundrum, Jerry Haag and Paula Holcomb. Speaking on behalf of the gathered fire service community was Chief Steve Kelly, of Moffett Field Fire Department.

The memorial pamphlet for the service can be viewed at this link: John F. MacDonnell.

John MacDonnell Memorial Announcement

The following is a compilation of two e-mails received by Fire Associates detailing plans for Chief MacDonnell's memorial service:

Chief John MacDonnell passed away during the overnight hours of December 6, 2007 at his home. Chief MacDonnell will be remembered for his 43 years of professional devotion to the Fire Service. John, began his career in the summer of 1964 with the California Division of Forestry, (then) later served with the Orange County and Santa Barbara County Fire Departments.

He then moved from pubic service into private industrial fire protection, and later served as Fire Chief for both United Technology Corporation and the NASA Ames Fire Department at Moffett Field. John was also an instructor for First Contact 9-1-1 and helped with the development of their dispatcher training program.

A memorial will be held in Chief MacDonnell’s honor at 10:00 A.M., Friday December 14, 2007 at St. Victors Catholic Church located at 3150 Sierra Road, San Jose, CA 95132.

Information:

Lynne Engelbert

SECTEK, Inc

650-604-3112

or

Steven Kelly

Fire Chief, NAFD

650-604-6953

John's family has requested that in lieu of flowers, donations should be made in memory of John MacDonnell to the Fire Associates of Santa Clara Valley, Inc.

Fire Associates of Santa Clara Valley, Inc.

455 S. Mathilda Ave.

Sunnyvale, CA 94086

For those of you who may not be familiar with the important support function that the "Fire Associates" regularly provides to all Santa Clara Operational Area fire agencies, here's some cogent information about them.

The Fire Associates of Santa Clara Valley, Inc. is a volunteer, fire buff organization that since 1969 has staffed and maintained multiple fire support canteen vehicles which respond to multiple-alarm fires and other emergency incidents at all hours of the day and night (and in all types of weather!) - as well as to major drills and exercises - throughout the Santa Clara Operational Area supplying hot and cold beverages and related rehab supplies to firefighters and emergency responders.

Over the years (actually, several decades!), the "Fire Associates" unfailing and enthusiastically provided canteen services at the annual Santa Clara County "Wildfire" wildland fire readiness exercise. For many years, this exercise was delivered at and hosted by United Technologies Corporation' s site south of San Jose, where, as you know, John served as Fire Chief for many years as well as a guiding force within the Santa Clara County Fire Chief's Association in the exercise's sustainability and growth - which, in later years, included considerable participation by San Mateo and Santa Cruz Operational Area fire agencies.

Thus, there is both this professional and personal nexus between John and the "Fire Associates."

Please contact me directly at if you have any questions:

Herb Jewell, CFPS

Deputy Fire Marshal

NASA/Ames Fire & Emergency Services Branch

NASA/Ames Research Center

M/S 158-1; 158 Carroll Drive/Room #202;

Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000

650/604-2024

Herb.R.Jewell@ nasa.gov.

January, 2008 Meeting Site Announced

The monthly meeting of Fire Associates for January, 2008 will be held at Milpitas Fire Department's Station No. 3. Located at 45 Midwick Drive, Milpitas, 95035, the station is basically sits on the corner of N. Milpitas Blvd. and Midwick.

Highlight of the evening will be a walk-around of Patrol 3. Although not brand new, this rig is less than one year old and probably has not been seen by many of our members. Attendees are advised to bring folding chairs as we will have to hold our meeting on the apparatus floor.

-- Thanks to Milpitas Fire's Battalion Chief Scott Brown for making these arrangements.

Chief John MacDonnell -- 1946-2007

Former UTC Fire Chief Passed Away On Dec. 6.

Former United Technology Corporation (UTC) Fire Chief John MacDonnell has passed away at the age of 61. Over his career, he was a good friend of Fire Associates. Many of our members will remember coordinating FASCV support at the Live Wildland Fire Training that John arranged annually at UTC. He will be missed by all those involved in the fire service of Santa Clara County.

Additional remembrances by those who knew him can be found at this link: www.firstcontact911.com.

December 5, 2007 - 2nd-Alarm Milpitas Response

On Wednesday morning, December 5, FASCV was paged by the Milpitas Fire Department. The 7:15 A.M. page was for a 2-alarm mobile home fire at the Mobilodge of Milpitas, 1515 N. Milpitas Blvd. Jerry Haag responded in Support Unit 1 and was met by John Whitaker.

Located in space 134, the older-style, small doublewide unit was a total loss. Fortunately, the owners were awakened by the barking of their dog as no smoke detector was installed. The fire was burning in the curtains of the front room as the couple escaped with few belongings. The heroic dog was lost in the fire. FASCV was released at approximately 9:30 A.M.

John's photos of the event can be seen at this link: MIL - Mobilodge.
Be sure to check out a mention of our Support Unit in this "Milpitas Post" news report: "Mobile Home Loss...".