Latest news with #firetruck
Yahoo
19-07-2025
- Yahoo
Police seize fire truck in posh LA neighborhood in case with bizarre twist
(KTLA) — Police and federal agents raided a California home Wednesday afternoon and seized, among other evidence, a fire truck that may be tied to a Chino Hills man who was arrested nearly two years ago for impersonating a law enforcement officer and creating a fictional fire department. The Los Angeles Police Department's (LAPD) Major Crimes Division confirmed to Nexstar's KTLA that they, along with assistance from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, executed a search warrant at a home in Brentwood. Officials would only say that a person at the residence was arrested on charges related to firearms violations, government fraud and impersonating a first responder. One of the items taken from the home and impounded at a tow yard in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Wilmington was a fire truck registered to the Santa Muerte Fire Department. The Santa Muerte Fire Department and law enforcement arson investigative unit, which does not exist despite a website claiming it does, came up in a July 2023 investigation in San Bernardino County. During that incident, a Chino Hills man identified as then-42-year-old Andrew De Boer, was caught on surveillance cameras dressed in a fake uniform, armed with a gun, baton, pepper spray and a Santa Muerte badge, illegally conducting a traffic stop. De Boer's vehicle, a white Ford F-350 truck, was equipped with California-exempt license plates, fire department decals and emergency lights. California professor shot dead in Greece in apparent plot involving ex-wife De Boer was arrested and booked on charges of impersonating a law enforcement officer and false imprisonment. Investigators with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department executed a search warrant at his Chino Hills residence and found additional evidence, including body armor, firearms, an identification card, badges and uniforms with patches for the Santa Muerte Fire Department. So far, the LAPD is being tight-lipped about Wednesday's raid in Brentwood. The identity of the person taken into custody has not been released, nor have police said what other evidence was seized during the operation and whether there are any ties to De Boer's 2023 arrest. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Solve the daily Crossword
ABC News
17-07-2025
- Automotive
- ABC News
Canberra's issue-plagued $1.6 million hybrid electric fire truck is out of action again
A $1.6 million hybrid electric fire truck, delivered to ACT emergency services two years ago, has been taken off the road again due to battery issues. Meanwhile a fully electric truck which arrived in late 2023 is yet to enter service. Costing about $700,000 more than a diesel truck and touted as an Australian-first when the agreement with manufacturer Rosenbauer was signed in 2021, the plug-in hybrid electric fire truck did not go into operation until late last year. Even then, for several months it had to be accompanied by another fire truck when it attended emergencies, in case it did not work as intended. The truck was taken off the road in January due to a problem with its main water hose pump. Now, an ACT Emergency Services Agency (ESA) spokesperson has confirmed it is again offline, this time over a "mechanical issue involving its battery packs". "Our teams are working closely with the manufacturer to resolve the issue and return the vehicle to service as soon as possible," the ESA said in a statement. An ACT Auditor-General's report has slammed the process used for procuring the truck, saying it failed to adequately assess the vehicle's value for money. The United Firefighters Union says it was negotiating an enterprise agreement with ESA, at the same time as the deal with Rosenbauer was being signed which mandated the deployment of an additional pumper and crew to a new fire station in Acton by the end of 2021. The Rosenbauer hybrid electric fire truck was to be based at the Acton station. The station was not completed until last month and became operational this week. The union's ACT secretary Greg McConville said the absence of the hybrid electric fire truck was a source of "great frustration". "We're using conventional pumpers and the reason for that is that despite all the work our members have done trying to get [the hybrid electric truck] on the road, it keeps being beset with problems," Mr McConville said. "A conscious decision was made to get that truck, instead of two other conventional trucks which were tried and proven. "And the result of that is that we are three years late in getting additional resources on the road to protect the Canberra community. "The Canberra community expects fire protection; it doesn't expect trinkets and unfortunately that's what this seems to be turning out to be," he said. Meanwhile, a New Zealand designed and built Volvo electric breathing apparatus (BA) truck, spruiked as "the nation's first zero emissions logistics vehicle" on the ESA's website, is also off the road. It was acquired by ACT emergency services in 2023 in a multi-million-dollar deal with Volvo to deliver seven vehicles. The ESA said the BA truck had an "intermittent fault that was depleting the 24v battery system". "ESA worked with Volvo to diagnose the cause of the fault which proved difficult to replicate in controlled conditions," the spokesperson said. The ESA confirmed the BA truck has never been operational, but expects it will be handed over to the ACT Fire and Rescue in the coming weeks for crews to begin a commissioning and familiarisation process. Mr McConville said it was another sign of poor procurement processes and planning. "The decision to procure the hybrid truck, the breathing apparatus vehicle ... and the plug-in hybrid cars at headquarters were all made by the ESA or the [Justice and Community Safety Directorate]," Mr McConville said. "None of them are living up to potential. "I mean, who buys electric vehicles when they don't own charging infrastructure? "These decisions need to be made closer to the coalface and directly involve firefighters. "That's simply not happening," he said. ESA Assistant Commissioner of Capability, Glenn Brewer, insists "public safety is not implicated or affected". "Fire trucks are certainly not invincible, they do go in for service quite often," he said. "That's why we maintain a 50 per cent reserve for our frontline pumper fleet and it's one of those reserve vehicles that's replacing the electric pumper at the moment." Assistant Commissioner Brewer said issues with firefighting vehicles are common — regardless of their power source. "Vehicles are frustrating regardless of what the vehicle is, they are always going in always struggling with issues that we need our wonderful mechanics at ESA workshops to be able to work through," he said. Because the Rosenbauer vehicle was the first of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere, Assistant Commissioner Brewer said ESA needed to go through a process to get it registered with the heavy vehicle regulator. "When this vehicle was first delivered to us it did have internal, electronic mirrors," he said. "It didn't have mirrors on the outside. The heavy vehicle regulator in Australia hadn't necessarily seen that before. "Obviously when you start to take delivery of a new vehicle — especially a specialised vehicle like a fire truck — there's absolutely some teething problems that you need to go through and there's always going to be problems that you find, regardless of whether the vehicle is an electric vehicle or a diesel vehicle. An ACT Legislative Assembly committee inquiry which examined the damning auditor-general's report made 10 recommendations for greater transparency around the acquisition of the hybrid electric fire truck and improvements to procurement processes. The government agreed or agreed-in-principle to nine of those recommendations. Assistant Commissioner Brewer said the agency doesn't plan to acquire further hybrid or fully-electric fire fighting vehicles in the near term but, they'd likely be part of the fleet in the future. "We want to bed-down these concepts first and make sure that they're working the way that we want them to before we progress any further," Assistant Commissioner Brewer said. "But there are fire services across the rest of the world that are buying electric vehicles and are looking at more electric vehicles. It is absolutely the way of the future. "Transitioning to an electric fleet and going across to electric fire trucks is absolutely one way of reducing [fire crew's] exposure to diesel particulates. "If the opportunity arose we'd absolutely consider an electric vehicle."
Daily Mail
17-07-2025
- Daily Mail
LA man charged with impersonating cop has now been caught with FIRE TRUCK at enormous mansion
A Los Angeles man who was charged with impersonating a cop two years ago has been arrested again, this time for harboring a pretend fire truck at a mansion. LAPD's Major Crime Division raided an $8 million Brentwood home linked to Andrew De Boer, 44, and seized several items, including the vehicle, on Wednesday afternoon. De Boer is accused of creating a fictional fire service, called the 'Santa Muerte Fire Department', and collecting body armor, firearms, police badges and uniforms. He was charged with firearms violations, government fraud and impersonating a first responder during the raid on Wednesday, officials told LA-based TV station KTLA5. A large haul of weapons and fake first responder uniforms were found at the mansion on the 100 block of South Rockingham, which appears to be De Boer's home, though this has not been confirmed. The Daily Mail has contacted LAPD's Major Crime Division for clarification. Photographs obtained by KTLA5 show a firetruck registered to De Boer's fictional department in a Wilmington tow yard after cops seized it from the LA property. De Boer was previously arrested on July 11, 2023, after he was caught on camera impersonating a policeman and attempting to arrest someone for a traffic violation. Video shows him pulling up in a white Ford F-350 truck with California Exempt license plates had emergency lights and 'fire' decals on the front hood and rear tailgate. De Boer dressed as a cop for the 'arrest' wearing full uniform including a duty belt with a firearm, equipped with a 'Santa Muerte Fire Department' badge, baton, pepper spray and handcuffs. Surveillance footage released by the San Bernardino Sheriff at the time showed De Boer's truck pulling up with the red-and-blue lights flashing. He emerged from the car and approached the driver's window of the vehicle in front. De Boer can be seen speaking with the motorist before strolling back to his truck and driving away. Police said De Boer, from Chino Hills, LA, does not work in law enforcement on federal, state or local peace officer levels. He was booked at the West Valley Detention Center after being arrested for false imprisonment and impersonating an officer. Aerial photographs of the home where De Boer was arrested show a sprawling five-bedroom property located in Brentwood, just west of Beverly Hills. The property has a large backyard with a pool, and is surrounded by large trees and hedgerows which shield it from public view. De Boer's fictional fire department website is still active. It includes a logo of a skull wearing a fireman's yellow hard hat and a gas mask in front of two axes. The location listed as its HQ is the address of a UPS store in Los Angeles. The Daily Mail has reached out to LAPD for more information on De Boer's charges.
CTV News
16-07-2025
- Business
- CTV News
New St. Albert tower fire truck to be responding to calls by fall
St. Albert's second tower fire truck has arrived. The former stock truck has had the city's name on it for about eight months. Buying a stock truck was quicker than having one built, and more ideal in the face of increasing build costs and tariff uncertainty, said fire chief Everett Cook. It cost $3.1 million. The truck will be put into service potentially by the end of August, after staff have trained on it. A tower truck goes to almost every call that could be fire related. The new truck can reach between 19 and 21 metres. 'They are a busy piece of equipment. Having a second apparatus in our fleet also allows us the opportunity to not have to rely on our neighbours around us should one of our units go down for routine or non-routine maintenance,' Cook said. Expand Autoplay 1 of 2 St. Albert new / second tower fire truck 2025 St. Albert firefighters operate the city's new and second tower fire truck on July 16, 2025. (Dave Mitchell / CTV News Edmonton) St. Albert new/second tower fire truck St. Albert firefighters operate the city's new and second tower fire truck on July 16, 2025. (Dave Mitchell / CTV News Edmonton) He noted the city has grown to about 74,000 residents and is seeing more multi-storey buildings be built, including some 10-storeys. 'As we grow and our fourth fire hall comes online, we'll likely have one of these tower units established or set up at both ends of our city.' The truck's life should be about 20 years. With files from CTV News Edmonton's Dave Mitchell
CTV News
16-07-2025
- Climate
- CTV News
Firefighters in Arnprior help kids cool off
Ottawa Watch Some kids in Arnprior got to cool off with the help of local firefighters and their fire truck.
