Firemen have been battling a big fire at the New Albany Sanitary Landfill off CR 75 since about 2:40 pm Monday, January 16.
Fire departments from Center, Myrtle, Northeast, Southeast, North Haven and New Albany have been hauling water to the site and pouring it onto the fire for several hours.
There is no routine burning at the landfill site, so the origin of the fire has not been determined.
Construction waste and materials from clearing brush, etc. are the only types of material accepted at the landfill, so there is ample fuel.
Large, dangerous fire at Landfill off CR 75
The firefighters have struggled all day to keep the fire under control. Wind gusts of 15 mph or more are making it a stubborn and dangerous blaze. Firemen will remain on site until it is extinguished.
Firemen are fatigued and hope for rain forecast later this evening to assist their efforts.
Extinguishing a fire in a Federal Express rig, consisting of a tractor pulling two trailers, required four Myrtle Fire Department trucks and multiple firemen Friday afternoon.
Myrtle Fire Chief Clay Morman said his department received the fire call at 3:45 p.m., July 8. About ten Myrtle firemen plus firemen from the West Union Fire Department fought the blaze on Interstate 22, a short distance west of the Myrtle exit. Westbound lanes of I-22 were closed while they fought the fire and helped clean up the mess.
Damaged FedEx tractor being removed from I-22 accident.
Chief Morman said the fire was apparently caused by a malfunction of the braking system on the tractor. That set fire to the first trailer immediately behind the tractor, destroying much of its contents.
Firemen also helped off-load undamaged merchandise from the burned trailer to another trailer. A large trash container was brought to the scene for the damaged freight.
There were no injuries to fire fighting personnel or to the truck driver. Westbound I-22 had been reopened, but traffic was still backed up for more than a mile when these NEMiss.News photographs were taken at 6:30 p.m.
It was the second truck fire in three days at nearly the same place on I-22. An 18-wheeler was on fire at mile marker 53 between 10 and 11 a.m. Tuesday morning, July 5. The Myrtle Fire Department also extinguished that truck fire, for which both east and west-bound lanes of the interstate highway were closed for a time. The Tuesday fire did not involve a FedEx truck. There were no injuries in that fire.
Just two days earlier, Sunday, July 3, a motorcyclist was seriously injured in an accident at the Myrtle I-22 exit. The injured motorcyclist was airlifted to a hospital. Although his injuries were described as very serious, he was expected to survive.
Myrtle firemen were also the first responders to the Sunday motorcycle accident.
Clay Morman got home about 9:30 Friday evening and said he and his fellow Myrtle firemen were hoping for a quieter weekend.
There are widespread complaints that Federal Express trucks are involved in too many accidents. Some statistical data say FedEx trucks were involved in 1,762 accidents in the years prior to 2017, which caused 573 injuries and 41 deaths.
Tragic and memorable was the 2014 incident in which a FedEx rig pulling two trailers crashed through the barrier dividing an interstate highway in California. It struck an automobile, then struck a bus transporting high school students to a college visit. The bus was destroyed by fire taking ten lives and causing many serious burn injuries.
More recently, about seven months ago on Dec. 17, 2021, a FedEx truck on Interstate 35 near Denton, Texas, hit a concrete barrier, flipped, and burst into flames. There were injuries in the Texas incident, but no deaths.
I-22 traffic was backed up for several hours Friday afternoon while truck fire was extinguish and clean-up accomplished.
Closer to home and even more recently, on Feb. 8, 2022, a FedEx truck struck multiple other vehicles on southbound Interstate 55 near mile marker 16 at McComb, MS. There were multiple injuries in the McComb accident.
A few days later, on February 16, 2022, on Interstate 10 near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a FedEx driver crashed through orange warning cones that had been set up because of an earlier accident. A wrecker driver there to deal with the earlier accident was seriously injured when the FedEx truck knocked another vehicle into him as he was doing his work. The wrecker driver had to be airlifted for emergency medical care. The FedEx driver was arrested.
Public safety personnel, lawyers and insurance company people blame the FedEx truck wrecks on everything from poor truck maintenance to improper loading of trailers to driver error, including drivers operating trucks without adequate sleep.
Much of the evidence is anecdotal and available statistical data are neither comprehensive nor conclusive.
In March of this year, a statement by Federal Express claimed the company operates 87,000 vehicles and had had only 400 accidents during a recent year. The FedEx statement said, “…you have to agree that having less than 1% of their vehicles involved in an accident is quite a feat.”
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https://i0.wp.com/nemiss.news/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/FedEx-truck-burned-on-I-22.jpg?fit=1200%2C669&ssl=16691200NEMiss.Newshttps://nemiss.news/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/nemiss-full-logo-300x77.jpgNEMiss.News2022-07-09 01:02:342022-07-09 01:02:34Fedex truck catches fire on I-22 west of Myrtle Friday afternoon
A single-family home on Angel Street in Myrtle was destroyed by fire Monday afternoon, June 13.
Myrtle Fire Chief Clay Morman said his department was dispatched shortly before 4 pm.
“Ninety percent of the residence was fully involved in fire when we arrived,” said Morman. “We were glad to have a fire hydrant nearby.”
A Myrtle fireman entered the flaming house to attack the fire and check for any people inside. He was startled by a small dog. The dog jumped into the fireman’s arms and was removed from the building unharmed.
The residents of the home, a man and wife and small child were away when the fire started. The husband, a truck driver, was in Ohio at the time.
Temperatures near 100 degrees and high humidity added to the hazards of fighting the fire.
“Fortunately, we had a lot of help, a lot of manpower and plenty of equipment,” said Morman. Firemen from West Union, North Haven and New Albany joined the Myrtle department to extinguish the blaze.
Two firemen received minor burns that did not require treatment.
“We put out the fire and salvaged what we could for them. No lives were lost and there were no serious injuries,” said Morman. Among the items salvaged was the couple’s framed marriage license.
Charred firefighter’s helmet.
Fireman Jack Whiteside exits burned home. Photo courtesy Casey Whiteside.
In the feature photo, Jack Whiteside, a fireman with both the New Albany and North Haven departments, is shown as he exited the house. His charred fire fighter’s helmet is shown lying on the ground next to an empty water bottle.
https://i0.wp.com/nemiss.news/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Fire-scene-collage.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=16001200NEMiss.Newshttps://nemiss.news/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/nemiss-full-logo-300x77.jpgNEMiss.News2022-06-15 00:51:172022-06-15 00:51:17Four fire departments battled Myrtle house fire
Several public safety units were dispatched to a house fire on County Road 515 shortly after 1:30 p.m. Sunday, May 15.
The house at 1353 CR 515 was fully involved in fire when firemen arrived.
Upon arrival, responders found the home fully involved. Photo courtesy of NAFD
At first there were reports of two people entrapped in the house. Rescue crews made entry through a window into the burning house and performed a dangerous operation called VES (vent enter search). No victims were located and the VES operation determined there were no persons in the house.
“What was forming to be a terrible day for responders ended with good news of no injuries and no fatalities,” said New Albany Fire Department (NAFD) Chief Mark Whiteside.
Volunteer fire departments from West Union, Myrtle, Pinedale and the NAFD’s Rescue One Unit responded to the scene. An ambulance and EMS crew from Baptist Memorial Hospital-Union County were on site as were officers of the Union Count Sheriff’s Department.
Photo courtesy of NAFD
Photo courtesy of NAFD
Unfortunately, the house and all of its contents were considered a total loss.
https://i0.wp.com/nemiss.news/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Fire-5-15-22-feat.jpg?fit=1200%2C583&ssl=15831200NEMiss.Newshttps://nemiss.news/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/nemiss-full-logo-300x77.jpgNEMiss.News2022-05-15 18:51:022022-05-15 19:00:39Rescuers determined no people were inside burning house; home and contents a total loss.
Yesterday evening, Feb. 24, two ambulances and two fire departments were dispatched to an automobile wreck at the intersection of Highway 30 and County Road 515.
Five passengers were injured in the two-car collision and were transported to hospitals. It was not believed that any of the injuries were life threatening. Besides the ambulances from Baptist Memorial Hospital – Union County, emergency personnel from the West Union and New Albany Fire Departments responded to the collision scene.
About 7 p.m. yesterday an elderly woman choked on food she was trying to swallow. She reportedly had had trouble swallowing for some time previously. Personnel and equipment from the Myrtle and New Albany Fire Departments were dispatched to the woman’s home on Highway 478 near Myrtle. They took appropriate measures to clear her airway and perform CPR. However, they were unable to revive her, and she died at her home.
Earlier in the day fire department and law enforcement personnel responded to a 911 report of a car off the road near Mile Marker 61 of Interstate 22. A thorough search was made but no such car was found.
Also, during the day Thursday New Albany firemen responded to a commercial building on East Main St. People in the building had smelled something burning, which turned out to be a defective motor in a heating system. There was no actual damage to the building.
https://i0.wp.com/nemiss.news/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Ambulance-night-red.jpg?fit=1200%2C606&ssl=16061200NEMiss.Newshttps://nemiss.news/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/nemiss-full-logo-300x77.jpgNEMiss.News2022-02-25 14:00:592022-02-25 14:00:59Fire departments handled wreck injuries, choking victim and more February 24