Rail Road Bridge Fire and Collapse Over the Colorado River in Lampasas County Texas

When fire broke out on Sunday afternoon on a railroad bridge that spanned the Lower Colorado River between San Saba and Lometa, Texas, local officials had no choice but to let the structure burn to the ground.

The intense heat of the creosote-soaked structure kept volunteer firefighters a good distance away. The fire started about 4:00 PM, and the entire trestle was engulfed within 20 minutes.

Video below, taken by one of the first responders, shows the domino-like collapse of the bridge.

Full SZSU Article

You see the collapse start to happen around the 24-second mark . . .

Posted in Interesting, Texas | 5 Comments

Police officer dies in the line of duty days before his daughter’s kindergarten graduation, but his fellow officers stood in for him

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Hundreds of Phoenix police officers showed their support for a fallen colleague by attending his daughter’s kindergarten graduation in Anthem on Wednesday.

Officer Daryl Raetz was killed in the line of duty while working the scene of a DUI arrest near 51st Avenue and Cambridge early Sunday morning. Raetz, 29, an Iraq war veteran, joined the Phoenix Police Department on June 8, 2007.

Phoenix police officers, showing how much the Raetz family means to them, greeted a motorcade at the school carrying 5-year-old Tatum Raetz.

“The purpose of us is to be here in proxy for Daryl and to let her know that we’re here for her,” said Phoenix police Officer Keith Garn.

Uniformed officers three deep lined the walls of the room where Ridgeline Academy held the ceremony.

Full KPHO Article

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Bag of Randomness

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  •  The Boy Scouts of America held a meeting at the Gaylord Texan to decide whether they should drop its long-standing ban on openly gay members.  Surely I’m not the only one that sees the irony of the name of the venue they decided to use to discuss such a thing.
  • WifeGeeding, honestly, it wasn’t me, made the observation that CBS11 has the most top heavy on-air talent than any other station.  When you compare Karen Borta, Tammy Dombeck, Whitney Drolen, Suzy Solis, and Gina Miller, they totally outweigh the competition.  I’m surprised they haven’t reached out to Macy Jepson.
  • The one million dollar donation Kevin Durant is giving to the Red Cross will actually cost him $640,000 since he gets a write-off.  Per Buzzfeed: It’s roughly the equivalent of someone who makes $50,000 up and writing a Red Cross check for about $2,000, of which they’d get $500 back at the end of the year after taking the cost of the donation off their taxable income.
  • Spanish golfer Sergio Garcia’s racist comments towards Tiger Woods reminded me of Spain’s 2008 Olympic men basketball team’s insensitivity while competing in Beijing Olympics.
  • Top 10 coolest companies to work for in Dallas-Fort Worth – Andy and BibleScholarGeorge are fortunate men.
  • Tim Cook confirms: Apple spending $100 million to build new Macs in Texas
  • Apparently the San Francisco Fire Department only uses wooden ladders because of all the low hanging power lines and trolley cables.  This article also states they are all hand made.
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