It was a great week at the Johnson County Fair for Austin Porter, son of BCFD Lt. David Porter.
The 13-year-old won a champion banner for being the outstanding beef showman in his age bracket early in the week.
Then Wednesday night, his steer was selected as the fair’s Grand Champion.
Proud father David Porter said he believed the judge’s selection was the result of a lot of hard work on the part of his son.
 “The steer was really good and Austin showed him really well,” the elder Porter said. “I am really proud of Austin.”

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Families of Bargersville Community Fire Department firefighters with deep agricultural roots and exposure enjoyed showing animals and exhibits at the 2010 Johnson County 4-H and Agricultural Fair.
 
The depth of participation drew applause from farm families and city slickers who appreciated the children’s efforts as well as the parents and grandparents who extended a few helping hands along the way.
 
Three BCFD families garnered Champion recognition from fair judges and other fire family participants were honored with hugs and slaps on the back.
 
Grand Champion Pygmy Doe goat was raised and shown by Riley Tharpe, 11, son of BCFD Lt. Tom Tharpe.
 
The insect collection of Carly Morris, 17, daughter of BCFD Battalion Chief Michael Morris, knocked out a Grand Champion ribbon in the Entomology category. Her display included nine years of insect collecting.
 
Another championship was awarded to Austin Porter, 13, son of BCFD Lt. David Porter, for his intermediate beef showmanship.
 
Other fire department family children who participated Tuesday at the fair included Brittany and  Autum Foster, 13-year-old daughters of Battalion Chief Rod Hayes. The girls showed sheep for the first time.

 
Heat kills and injures more people than any other weather event such as tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, and lightening, according to the National Weather Service.
 
Health warnings were issued early Thursday by the National Weather Service and Johnson County Emergency Management.
 
Summer heat waves can endanger the health of first responders, too. Firefighters, police officers, emergency medical technicians, and paramedics are among the most susceptible to heat related injuries.
 
The physical and mental demands associated with emergency operations, coupled with the environmental dangers of extreme heat and humidity, create conditions that adversely affect the health and impair the safety of responder personnel. With extreme heat pushing the thermometer toward 100 degrees and humidity creeping high too, dangerous conditions could cause heat illnesses for people and pets.

Medical warnings suggest drinking lots of fluids and staying out of the sun.
 

If possible, stay in air-conditioned rooms.

Small animals also should have plenty of water available and if possible keep them indoors, too. If left outside, animals not only should have water, but shade also.

It is recommended that friends and neighbors check on each other frequently. If you see neighbors pets left outside, make sure they have water available.

High heat and humidity create dangerous conditions and should be treated with extreme caution.
 

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A collision between a car and SUV on Ind. 37 at Travis Road caused the SUV to overturn onto its top.
The accident occurred Thursday about 10:40 a.m.
One female passenger in the overturned vehicle was trapped in the wreckage until freed by Bargersville Community Fire Department rescuers. She was taken by Rural/Metro ambulance to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. Her injuries were not believed life-threatening.
The injured woman’s adult daughter was driving the SUV. Two children in the vehicle were not seriously injured.
The occupants of the car were not seriously injured.
Johnson County sheriff’s investigators said the SUV was northbound on Ind. 37 when it collided with the car as it crossed the highway on Travis Road.

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Five people were injured July 2 after an eastbound van slammed into the driver’s side of a SUV being driven across Stones Crossing Road immediately west of Ind. 135.
Bargersville Community Fire Department and White River Township firefighters responded to the incident shortly before noon.
 
Four of the victims were children. They were taken to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. The woman driving the overturned vehicle accompanied the children to the hospital. She was not seriously injured.
 
None of the injuries were believed life-threatening. All the victims were riding in the SUV that overturned into the south curb near a strip center entrance. Arriving firefighters found some of the children dangling upside down, bound by their safety belts.
 
Rural/Metro dispatched five ambulances to the scene.
The cause of the crash was being investigated by Johnson County sheriff’s deputies.

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Center Grove High School safely hosted the National Association of Student Councils’ national convention this year.

 

Bargersville Community Fire Department Lt. David Porter inspected the campus for safety hazards on Friday and only a few minor changes were made.

 

“The facility planning for such a major event was outstanding,” Porter said.

 

The convention started its high-powered auto race theme program on Saturday and continued the contest through Tuesday.

 

About 1,300 students and volunteers safely participated in the activities.

 

 

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A 3-man team of Lifeline helicopter lifesavers introduced BCFD to its new $7 million air ambulance Tuesday afternoon.
 
The flight team included Andras Erdelyi, pilot, Timothy Short, registered nurse, and Jarrod Sights, paramedic. The group is stationed at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis.
 
The team collectively passed along information to the fire department to ensure patient and firefighter safety at emergency scenes.
 
Additionally, the air team detailed safety hazards they often encounter while approaching accident scenes. Some of the dangers were identified as power lines, tall poles, nearby buildings, soft ground the craft could sink into and obstacles that could pierce the aircraft’s body.
Another concern is fast-changing weather conditions that limit visibility and storms with high winds.
 
The Clarian Health-owned helicopter would rather be called to an emergency scene shortly after the incident occurs rather than delay the response.
 
The request could could always be canceled.

A Woodland Streams woman saw smoke surrounding her home's Newhouse Place swimming pool  June 11 and called BCFD.

Firefighters found a small fire near the pool's natural gas heating and pumping system.

The early detection resulted in the fire being put out quickly. Minimum visible damage was noted.

How the fire started was not immediately determined.

Firefighters told the homeowner to have the  heating and pumping unit examined by a technician.

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A Franklin childcare and preschool toured BCFD Station 1 on June 8 and 24 students learned firsthand about fire safety and a firefighter’s job.
 
The children from Kid Company Preschool & Childcare, 189 North Lovers Lane, Franklin IN, learned not to fear a firefighter wearing protective gear. They also learned why firefighters have the safety equipment.
 
The visitors varied in age between six and 12 years.
 
At first, the children were reluctant to get too close to a firefighter wearing his gear, but that changed quickly after the first child overcame her fear of the strange looking man whose voice was distorted.
“He sounds funnyyyyyyy,” one little girl said.
 
It was a great morning for the children, who climbed through an engine and sat in a firefighter’s seat inside the huge vehicle’s cab.

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With temperatures in the upper 80’s Friday afternoon, Cayman Jarvis displayed the coolness of an astute businessman while watching 90 school-age boys battle through game after game of 3-on-3 basketball.
Cayman didn’t care who won top honors. What he wanted was a huge monetary reward for Riley Hospital for Children. He was hoping for $20,000 – twice what he raised last year.
Here’s the scoop, as reported by the Indianapolis Star.
 
By Diana Penner
Posted: June 3, 2010
A Bargersville teenager's commitment to raise money to ensure patients at Riley Hospital for Children have fun has grown for five years.
And 14-year-old Cayman Jarvis hopes Friday's 3-on-3 basketball tournament is the biggest ever.
The first event, in 2006, inspired by Cayman's friend Tyler Genneken, raised about $1,500 for Riley's Cheer Guild, which buys toys and games for Riley patients.
This year, Cayman hopes to raise $20,000, twice what he raised last year.
He has extra incentive: Tyler, who had battled leukemia, died in November, so this is the first fundraiser without him.
"So that's why we're trying to make everything bigger," Cayman said.
In addition, Cayman's grandmother recently was diagnosed with cancer, and although she won't be a "Riley Kid," it brings home to him the threat of cancer.
"That makes me want to work harder for what I do," he said.
As he has in the past, Cayman has persuaded the city to block off his street so multiple basketball goals can be set up. He already has business pledges totaling more than $14,000, and those names will be printed on T-shirts his grandmother donates. His father will prepare hamburgers all day Friday, and they are free, but donations are appreciated.
Tournament participants -- boys only, middle school to high school age -- pony up $5 each to play for trophies, pride and just doing a little good.
Cayman just finished eighth grade at Center Grove Middle School Central and will be a freshman at Center Grove High School in the fall.
Friday's competition will be in the first block of East Harriman Avenue in Bargersville, beginning about 1:30 p.m. Players should be registered before 1 p.m.
Donations made out to Riley's Cheer Guild also can be mailed to Cayman Jarvis, 96 E. Harriman Ave., Bargersville IN 46106.

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One woman was injured and another woman and two small children were shaken in a two-vehicle crash on Ind. 37 at Travis Road.

 

The crash occurred about 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

 

The injured woman was taken to St. Francis Hospital South Campus by a Rural/Metro ambulance crew.

 

The victim was riding in a southbound car that clipped the rear of a small Jeep crossing Ind. 37 west on Travis Road.

 

The car careened off the highway and over an embankment southwest of the intersection.

 

The Jeep’s driver was not injured.

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 Bargersville Community Fire Department Station 2 firefighters and volunteers spread mulch, pulled weeds, cleaned carpet, stained new wooden trim and painted the building’s conference room.
 
 
For 15 hours, the 11-member team worked to spruce up the station and do the spring cleaning.
 
A team of six firefighters and five Explorer Scouts trimmed trees and spread 10 cubic-yards of mulch around nearly a dozen trees across the multiacre-acre station's grounds.
 
Shrubs around the building also received a layer of fresh mulch, and all the mulch areas was edged.
 
Trees and shrubs were trimmed, too.
 
It was a general clean-up day for the station that included removing insects from light fixtures. In addition to the new wooden trim in the conference room, a new dry eraser board was installed.
 
“The results are fantastic,” said BCFD Chief James White. “The guys did a lot of work in one day.”
 

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Firefighters must practice drafting water from dump tanks because much of Bargersville Community Fire District’s 64 square miles is without fire hydrants.
Division Training Chief Michael Tibbetts dedicated three consecutive shifts this week for firefighters to rehearse their dump tank skills.
The spray from hoses was welcomed as morning temperatures soared.
The warmer weather provided a relaxed training atmosphere for firefighters as hundreds of gallons of water was released from a tanker into a portable plastic-lined pool.
The exercises allowed firefighters to practice using tankers to fill the pool, establishing a draft with the engine’s pump and utilizing various types of hoses and nozzles to deliver water.
A recent maintenance overhaul of an engine pump was successfully tested during one day’s training.
At the end of the training days, Tibbetts applauded the talents and skills of firefighters engaged in the exercises.

Three new weather warning sirens now will serve White River Township neighborhoods in Bargersville Community Fire Department’s response area.
White River Township Trustee Jay Marks purchased the sirens for neighborhoods south of Stones Crossing Road. The equipment cost was $48,000.
Marks said the area was in dire need of a severe weather warning system. The northern half of White River Township had some warning devices, he said.
Bargersville Community Fire Department provided space to install one of the new sirens at its Station 2, 5886 Smokey Row Road. Another of the sirens was placed on a tall pole on Smokey Row Road, about a half-mile east of County Road 400 West.
A warning siren was operational at an elementary school on Whiteland Road, west of Ind. 135.
An antiquated siren at Bargersville Community Fire Department Station 1, 89 S. Baldwin St., Bargersville, was not loud enough to warn all the town’s residents.
 
Bargersville’s town officials allowed one of the new warning devices to be erected at its waste water treatment plant.
Johnson County’s Emergency Management Director Tug Sutton supports warning devices throughout the county. However, funding and maintenance costs are difficult to find in county budgets.
With the most frequent month for severe thunderstorms coming in May, the new warning system is welcomed.
Following is information about tornadoes maintained by Sutton.
Tornado Climatology  
Because  a  tornado  is  part  of  a  severe  thunderstorm,  and  thunderstorms  occur  all  over  the  Earth,  tornadoes  are  not  limited  to  any  specific  geographic  location.  In  fact,  tornadoes  have  been  documented  in  every  one  of  the  United  States,  and  on  every  continent,  with  the  exception  of  Antarctica  (even  there,  a  tornado  occurrence  is  not  impossible).  In  terms  of  absolute  tornado  counts,  the  United  States  leads  the  list,  with  an  average  of  over  1,000  tornadoes  recorded  each  year.  A distant second is Canada, about 100 per year.  
 
Tornado Alley 
 
In  the  United  States,  there  are  two  regions  that  get  proportionately  more  tornadoes  than  anywhere  else.   
Florida is one and Tornado Alley, northeast from Texas, is the other.  Florida  has  a  lot  of  tornadoes  simply  because  it  is  home  to  almost  daily  thunderstorms.  In  addition,  the  Florida  peninsula  is  also  impacted  by  tropical  cyclones  and  when  these  cyclones  move  ashore,  the  embedded  thunderstorms  will  often  produce  tornadoes.  However,  despite  the  violent  nature  of  a  tropical  cyclone,  most  of  the  tornadoes  they  spawn (some being water spouts) are normally relatively weak.




 
Tornado Climatology
(Continued)
.Strong to violent tornadoes (those of F3 or stronger on the Enhanced Fujita Tornado Damage Intensity Scale), are relatively rare, and are not usually experienced outside of the central United States. Although its boundaries are debatable (depending on which criteria you use -frequency, intensity, per unit area), the area from central Texas, northward to northern Iowa and from central Kansas and Nebraska east to western Ohio is collectively known as Tornado Alley. Climatologically, Tornado Alley is ideally positioned for the formation of super-cell thunderstorms, and therefore is also home to many violent tornadoes. Overall, for the U.S., most tornadoes (around 83%) are considered weak (F0), and around 98% of all U.S. tornadoes are below F3 intensity. That leaves just about 2% of all U.S. tornadoes to be categorized as violent (F3 and above). Of these violent twisters, thankfully just around 0.4% achieves F5 status, with winds over 261 mph and nearly complete destruction. However, given that on average over 1000 tornadoes hit the U.S. each year, which means that 20 can be expected to be violent and around 4 might be incredible. Fortunately, recent years have not seen as many F4 and F5 tornadoes as those probabilities would indicate.




 
Tornado Climatology
(Continued)
.Daily and Seasonal Peak Occurrences
Because most tornadoes are related to the strength of a thunderstorm, and thunderstorms normally gain most of their energy from solar heating and latent heat released by the condensation of water vapor, it is not surprising that most tornadoes occur in the afternoon and evening hours, with a minimum frequency around dawn (when temperatures are lowest and radiation deficits are highest). Since tornadoes occur throughout the year and at any time somewhere in the U.S., there really is no national tornado season (as there is with Atlantic hurricanes). Regionally, however, the frequency of tornadoes in the United States is closely tied with the progression of the warm season. Most of the early spring tornadoes in the U.S. tend to occur in the lower latitudes of the Southeast and south Central regions. Gulf States, such as Mississippi and Louisiana, are the frequent recipients of tornadoes from February to April. Late spring tornadoes migrate a bit farther north, often into Kansas, Nebraska and the Tennessee Valley region. By mid-summer, Tornado Alley is active and tornadoes may occur throughout the U.S. Late summer tends to bring some of the stronger tornadoes into the upper Midwest and Ohio Valleys, and the pattern shifts back southward into late autumn. The fewest tornadoes are documented during the winter months. (Excerpt from http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/severeweather/tornadoes.html)
 

Crawling blindly through a smoke-filled building poses many risks and dangers of entanglement for firefighters.
 
The hazards can be dropped from ceilings or from walls that have broken open and exposed electrical, telephone, speaker or television wires.
 
And when you are wearing safety gear, a wire can easily become a firefighter trap. If a firefighter can’t find a way to get free, it could cost him his life.
 
Firefighters recently trained by crawling through a wooden box filled with fixed wires to familiarize themselves with the feeling of being trapped or snared.
 
The training concept helps firefighters avoid panic and search for alternate ways to free them.