Japanese Firefighter's Sacrifice in Quake-Tsunami Disaster

From the AFP:

When Fujio Koshita rang the bell at Otsuchi fire station to warn the fishing village of the imminent tsunami he undoubtedly saved countless lives -- but the bell also tolled for him.

Residents of Otsuchi, in northeastern Japan near the quake epicentre, vividly recall the eerie sound and salute the fireman for his sacrifice, an action they see as in keeping with age-old Japanese notions of duty and honour.

Koshita, 57, one of 28 members of the Second Otsuchi Fire Unit, rushed to his seaside station in the afternoon of March 11 after he felt the first massive jolt of the earthquake.

There, he found an electrical blackout had put the station's siren system out of action.

Amid the frantic melee in the minutes after the magnitude-9.0 tremor struck, Toru Suzuki, a 41-year-old fellow firefighter, also reached the station, but the older man waved him off.

"You go. Don't worry about me," Koshita told Suzuki.

Koshita grabbed an old-fashioned bell, only kept in storage as a back-up for the siren, held it tight and climbed to the roof, where he started ringing it vigorously.

"It was really loud," said Kaito Yamasaki, a 16-year-old high school student, who heard it as he ran to safety. "The fireman was brave. I'm proud of him."

The sound echoed for several minutes across the village until the giant waves came crashing over the horizon, sweeping away the station, its watch tower, and Koshita himself.

Read the entire thing HERE.

Japanese Firefighters on the Front Lines of Nuclear Incident

From The Daily Beast:

Ken'ichi Kunisawa and his fellow firefighters braved boiling nuclear reactors for more than 13 hours. He talks to Lennox Samuels about radiation fears and why this wasn't a kamikaze mission.

Watching television images of reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant smoking and exploding en route to a possible meltdown, Ken'ichi Kunisawa knew he would be joining the battle to end Japan's worst crisis since the Second World War. Now, almost two weeks after he and his team rushed to help cool down the overheating plant, the Tokyo firefighter remembers getting as close as six feet to the radiation-spewing reactors, acknowledges that he will have to be checked for contamination for months to come—and almost cheerfully says he would do it again.

Read more HERE.

How Fairfax County (VA) Fire Department is Faring While Firefighters Are Aiding Japan

From the local Patch affiliate in Vienna, Virginia, comes an update on how the Fairfax County (VA) FD is functioning with 72 of its members in Japan:

With 72 of their firefighters deployed to Japan as part of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) search and rescue team, Fairfax County Fire and Rescue has not had to cut back on service.

Monday, fire and rescue spokesman Dan Schmidt said the agency has the vacated shifts being filled by the remaining firefighters. The county is operating with a minimum number of firefighters on some apparatus.

Read it all HERE.

Video: Nuclear Plant Explodes in Japan

Today's explosion at a nuclear power plant in Japan which was damaged during Friday's earthquake has raised some concerns to the safety of the region. One Report outlines the incident:

CNN Reports, "An explosion at an earthquake-damaged nuclear plant was not caused by damage to the nuclear reactor but by a pumping system that failed as crews tried to bring the reactor's temperature down, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Saturday.

The next step for workers at the Fukushima Daiichi plant will be to flood the reactor containment structure with sea water to bring the reactor's temperature down to safe levels, he said. The effort is expected to take two days."

Read More HERE

L.A. County fire search and rescue team headed toassist after Japan tsunami

United States USAR Teams are beginning to deploy to assist in Japan where already more than 1,000 are feared dead after an earthquake and tsunami impacted the region.

"The 74-member team -– along with about 74 tons of equipment, including swift-water rescue gear and six search dogs –- is expected to arrive in Japan early Sunday, said fire Capt. Ed Lozano."

Read the complete story here.

Tsunami Watch: Live stream of waves off the CA coast

Watch multiple views of the waves off the California coast in the wake of the tsunami caused by the huge earthquake in Japan.

Video from Sendai (Japan) Petrochemical Explosion after Quake

On Youtube there's some video of the fire at a petrochemical plant in Sendai, Japan, after a major earthquake struck that country.

Check the FE archives for a report on the response to the major Thailand tsunami of 2004 as well as an article on the dangers of responding to tsunamis for firefighters by Larry Collins of the Los Angeles County (CA) Fire Department.