Battalion Chief

Three fires in separate sections of Baltimore left at least six people homeless yesterday, fire officials reported.In each incident, icy streets hampered firefighters.Seven ambulances, nearly half of the Fire Department's complement of 18, were pressed into service during the hour between the three fires, said a communications dispatcher.The latest fire, a three-alarm blaze that was reported at 5: 08 p.m., destroyed the third floor and part of the roof of 2409 Linden Ave. in Reservoir Hill, a three-story house being renovated, said Battalion Chief Hector L. Torres, a department spokesman.

In Baltimore CityPromotion ceremony set for 57 in Fire DepartmentFifty-seven members of the Baltimore Fire Department will be promoted at a ceremony at 9 a.m. tomorrow at the Baltimore City Fire Academy, 6720 Pulaski Highway.Six people will be promoted to battalion chief, 11 to captain, 28 to lieutenant, two to fire inspector and 10 to emergency vehicle driver, said Battalion Chief Hector L. Torres, department spokesman.They will fill vacancies caused by recent retirements.Baltimore man sentenced to 12 years in fatal shootingA 32-year-old Baltimore man convicted of manslaughter has been sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Andrew P. Shows began fighting fires in Baltimore 44 years ago, and has risen to become the most senior battalion chief in the department. But he has now embarked on a new battle -- this time over his age and whether he is fit for work.The city says it's time Shows, 67, ended his career and retired. He was diagnosed with congestive heart disease in April 1998 after he woke up at home early one morning struggling to breathe.For all practical purposes, Shows is on unpaid leave. He spends some mornings at his old station house on Harford Road sipping coffee with his buddies -- though the city stopped paying him in April in hopes of forcing his retirement.

The Baltimore Fire Department plans to promote eight of its members today, bolstering the minority representation at the top of the command chain.Shift Commander Carl E. McDonald will become assistant chief of support services, making him the only black among four assistant chiefs under Fire Chief Herman Williams Jr., who is black.With the promotions, the department has re-created the position McDonald has taken after eliminating it a year ago.The lack of minority representation in the Fire Department, particularly in the upper ranks, has been an acknowledged problem for years.

Frederick C. Byrnes, a retired battalion chief in the Baltimore Fire Department, died Sunday of complications of a stroke at Mariner Health of Glen Burnie. The longtime Pasadena resident was 73.He entered the Fire Department in 1946. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1954, captain in 1959 and battalion chief in 1964. He retired in 1990.James M. Holthaus of Glen Burnie, a captain and 35-year Fire Department veteran, described Mr. Byrnes as "really sharp and the kind of man who really put himself into his job."

In the hour after an explosion at Condea Vista's chemical plant Oct. 13, residents in nearby Wagner's Point struggled to find out what happened.One woman called 911 and was put on hold three times. Susan Skrzecz of Leo Street approached a fire battalion chief but was rebuffed. And fire officials who responded to the blast provided no instructions to residents. The result, concludes a report by the University of Maryland Environmental Law Clinic, was panic.Some residents barricaded themselves in their homes.

A headline in yesterday's Maryland section incorrectly identified a Baltimore firefighter as an "officer."The Sun regrets the error.A Baltimore firefighter is being accused by colleagues of balking and blocking a stairway of a burning rowhouse during a search for a missing child who later was found dead.There is no evidence that the delay, about 90 seconds, contributed to the death on Thanksgiving of 7-year-old Randi E. McDonald, whose body was found in a rear bedroom on the second floor of the three-story rowhouse in the Upton neighborhood.

Kayton G. Moses, a retired battalion chief for the Baltimore Fire Department and one of the founders of the Box 414 Association, died Aug. 16 of heart failure at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore. He was 83.A Mount Washington resident, Mr. Moses was a city firefighter from 1942 to 1973, rising to become head of the Sixth Battalion at Light and Montgomery streets, in the No. 2 Engine House. He also was coordinator of the department's communications division and battalion chief assigned to the Marine Division.

Irvine H. Rutledge, 85, circuit judgeIrvine H. Rutledge, a retired judge of the Washington County Circuit Court and descendant of two signers of the Declaration of Independence, died Thursday of heart failure at Washington County Hospital in Hagerstown. He was 85.Judge Rutledge was appointed to the circuit bench in 1962. At the time of his retirement in 1980, he was an administrative judge for the 4th Judicial Circuit.Judge Rutledge began his legal career in the mid-1930s, when he joined the Hagerstown law firm Lane, Bushong and Byron.

County Fire Administrator Steven D. Halford is expected to promote 35 career firefighters during a ceremony at Anne Arundel Community College this morning.Halford announced yesterday that he will promote 11 firefighters to the rank of emergency medical technician/firefighter III, a position responsible for driving heavy fire apparatus.Eleven more firefighters will become emergency medical technician-paramedic/firefighters, or firefighters who have two additional years of training in advanced emergency medical life support.

Elaina Leonard stood in a driveway slippery with fire-hose ice and looked with disbelief at her destroyed apartment. "I don't have anything now," she said, wiping the tears from her cheeks. "I'm looking right through my living room. There's nothing there, not even a couch. Everything you work for is where you live. I have to start all over again." Leonard, 22, was one of about 80 residents displaced by a four-alarm fire that roared through part of the Berkshires at Satyr Hill apartment complex in Carney shortly after 1 a.m. yesterday, wiping out 24 units and drawing 150 firefighters.

Man arrested and charged in hit-and-run County police have arrested a 32-year-old Dundalk man who said someone else was driving his car when it struck and killed a motorcyclist this month. Shawn Lee Gray of the 2100 block of Jasmine Road was charged with three counts of giving false statements to officers and one count of hindering and obstructing, Cpl. Michael Hill, a police spokesman, said yesterday. Gray was also charged with eight traffic violations, Hill said. Gray told police investigating the May 4 crash on Lynch Road that a man he knew only as "Reds" was using his 1997 Dodge Stratus when it hit a motorcycle driven by James Bruce Sasser, 47, of the 2900 block of Sollers Point Road, Hill said.

Thomas Joseph Baginski, a retired Baltimore City Fire Department battalion chief whose career spanned 41 years, died of cancer March 30 at Good Samaritan Hospital. The Parkville resident was 72. Mr. Baginski, who was born and raised in Baltimore, was a 1953 graduate of Calvert Hall College High School, where he played varsity football. He served in the Army for several years before joining the Fire Department in 1958. He was promoted to pump operator and lieutenant in 1964, and captain six years later.

A piece of aluminum from the wing of a U.S. Airways jet headed to Philadelphia from Orlando, Fla., on Saturday fell from the aircraft about 9 a.m. and landed somewhere in Maryland, Anne Arundel County fire officials said. Airline officials contacted at least three fire departments in Maryland yesterday and said that a 5-foot-by-7-foot piece had come off the jet's left wing and is believed to have landed in Anne Arundel, Prince George's or Queen Anne's counties, according to Matthew Tobia, battalion chief for the Anne Arundel County Fire Department.

Battalion Chief Charles T. King Jr. of the Howard County Department of Fire and Rescue Services has been given the National Gold Medal Award for Emergency Medical Technicians, the county executive's office announced last week. The award, from the Veterans of Foreign Wars, recognizes one EMT from around the nation each year for such qualities as experience, training, accomplishments and community service. "I want to thank the VFW for recognizing the important work of emergency medical service providers and for selecting me for this honor," King said in a statement.

Gregory B. Ward was named acting chief of the Baltimore Fire Department yesterday, replacing William J. Goodwin Jr., who announced his resignation in November and is to depart Dec. 31. Mayor Sheila Dixon's office said in a statement that Ward, who was the deputy chief of operations, will be acting chief until a nationwide search for a permanent leader is completed. Officials are accepting applications, and top candidates will be interviewed by a six-member panel. Ward, a 30-year veteran of the department, graduated from Loyola High School in 1974 and from the Baltimore Fire Academy in 1977.

As Hurricane Mindy barreled north with 130-mph winds and the promise of a Chesapeake Bay storm surge as high as 8 feet, Anne Arundel County fire Battalion Chief John McNally and Lt. Kent Roddy were trying to keep track of the department's available manpower and debating whether to get a 6- or 10-wheel dump truck. "We're not looking for weight distribution -- just to clear roads," Roddy told McNally, who sipped a cup of coffee across a conference table. Amid renewed concerns about how agencies communicate during disasters, a regional brain trust of emergency, health and public works officials used the faux crisis yesterday to practice their planning during an all-morning exercise at Anne Arundel County fire headquarters.

On November 15, 2006, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN "Frank" SEIPP, of Stewartstown, PA.M-BM- husband of the late Geneva H. Seipp, father of Franklin W. Seipp and Richard L. Seipp,M-BM- son of the late Benjamin F. Seipp, Sr., and the late Margaret (nee Neeb) Seipp.M-BM- He is also survived by four grandsons and four great grandsons.M-BM- Mr. Seipp retired in 1979 after 30 years of service as a Battalion Chief from the Baltimore County Fire Department. Following cremation, interment will be private at the convenience of the family.

Francis Webster, a retired battalion chief of the Baltimore City fire school, died of respiratory disease Oct. 2. The former Baltimore resident was 88. Born and raised in Baltimore, he attended Polytechnic Institute from 1931 to 1933 before leaving school to help his widowed mother at home. Mr. Webster joined the Baltimore Fire Department in April 1942, leaving to serve in the Army Air Forces during World War II. He was discharged with the rank of staff sergeant in 1946. He returned to his career in the Fire Department where he became battalion chief of the fire school in 1966.

Police Corp. Donald C. Wyant works night shifts and issues more tickets and makes more arrests than most. That means that during the day - his off time - he has to go to court and wait until a judge calls him to defend those tickets and arrests. Those hours have paid off handsomely for him. He earned time and a half during that time, which is largely how he made $131,378 during the last fiscal year, or $334 less than County Executive James N. Robey. Wyant's overtime pay nearly doubled his salary and put him at No. 7 on the list of the top 10 Howard County government earners.