Fighter

Firefighters will be going door to door Saturday morning in West Baltimore to check for working smoke alarms and install them if requested, a fire official said. The safety sweep comes one week after a rowhouse fire in the 400 block of S. Fulton Ave. killed two people. Mother and son, 30-year-old Ernest Ridder and 60-year-old Donna Ridder, were found dead on the third floor when firefighters reached them, said Chief Kevin Cartwright, a fire department spokesman. The cause of the fire is still being investigated, he said Friday night.

Foo Fighters performed at the Verizon Center Friday November 11 in support of "Wasting Light. " Contributor Jay Trucker reviews the show. From the opening riffs of “Bridge Burning,” Foo Fighters were locked in, often transitioning from song to song without pause for up to six songs in a row. Grohl, a veteran of the arena setting, and to a lesser extent, drummer Taylor Hawkins, are the showmen of the group. But rest of the band, including eleventh-hour Nirvana guitarist and smile-machine Pat Smear, are clearly comfortable playing with one another and in front of a large crowd, keeping the pace of each song a half step faster than the album versions without pushing the songs to an unrecognizable tempo.

Georges I. Selzer, who cheated death twice while a concentration camp prisoner and after World War II became a Baltimore jeweler, died Oct. 17 of heart failure at the Edenwald retirement community in Towson. The former longtime Lutherville resident was 99. Mr. Selzer, who was born, raised and educated in St. Gallen, Switzerland, settled in France in 1927, when he became an apprentice jeweler. When the Nazis seized power, Mr. Selzer's father told him he was not to disguise his Jewishness.

Looks like the Foo Fighters will play the DMV this year after all. It was announced today the band will perform at the Verizon Center in Washington November 11 , just a week after Kanye West and Jay-Z perform there on their "Watch the Throne" tour. There had been disappointment when the band was not included in this year's Virgin Mobile FreeFest, as had been speculated. But at least the band will make an area stop on their current tour, even if it won't be the outdoor, rain-drenched performance they put in over the weekend at Lollapalooza . The band is touring in support of new album, "Wasting Light.

Every day in America thousands of police, fire and health-care personnel confront life's "unplanned" moments by responding to the chaos, crises and catastrophes that threaten the public. Meanwhile, our elected representatives in Washington continue to engage in a self-inflicted debt ceiling crisis marked by blame, bluff and who will blink first before the nation suffers devastating and permanent consequences. We, the people, deserve better. Now is the time for leadership. Let the politicians follow the example of our public service heroes.

Elly Wierda, a volunteer who was a member of the Dutch Resistance during World War II, died July 7 of cancer at her Rock Hall home. She was 88. Born Elly Klein Bog, the daughter of a wealthy textile company owner and a homemaker, she was raised in Amsterdam, where she received her education. During World War II, she joined the resistance movement in her homeland. With the cessation of hostilities in 1945, she went to Germany seeking art that had been looted during the Nazi occupation of Holland.

Charm City residents looking to tone up for beach season have a number of options. They can hit the treadmill, take up yoga or start dancing off the pounds with Zumba. But there’s another, more extreme way to get in shape that’s gaining popularity in Baltimore: training with cage fighters. At Ground Control Academy in Canton, where some of the area’s top mixed martial arts fighters train, owners are seeing an increasing number of members who never plan to step foot in a cage, but value what the intense MMA workouts can do for their bodies.

Stanislaw Edward Bask Mostwin, a highly decorated World War II Polish freedom fighter whose exploits were worthy of a Hollywood film, died Monday of arrhythmia at his Ruxton home. He was 94. Recalling his years in the underground during World War II, Mr. Mostwin described the experience for the old Sunday Sun Magazine in 1986 as "fantastic, a James Bond life for a young man. " He added, "You are defending your home. There is no hesitation, you just have to go and do it. The alternative is not to be yourself.