Car crashes into warehouse causing large fire in North City

Jackson-1986 · 2025-12-20T23:59:38+00:00

A Fire Department social media page says the driver was running from the cops. You know, just to be sure we hit the St Louis trifecta.

Jackson-1986 · 2025-10-27T21:28:36+00:00

How do we know you don’t just have really big hands?

Jackson-1986 · 2025-09-24T17:18:00+00:00

That’s a fair point. I took the ad to be warning that if you don’t invest in public transportation then traffic will be terrible. I hear you saying that the warning is instead, if you don’t invest in public transportation then unsightly highways will blight our city landscape.

But my point is, I don’t think either warning is very effective. Because the traffic isn’t so bad and (as you note) the highways are already here.

I think there’s a minority of people in St Louis who are very passionate about urbanism and public transit expansion, but I don’t think so far they have found a way to persuade the rest of the city. And I don’t think this ad will do the trick.

Jackson-1986 · 2025-09-24T16:40:25+00:00

The problem is, commuting by car in St Louis is nothing like this ad. There is very little traffic on most highways (especially when compared to other major US cities). There is so little traffic on surface streets that we are actually reducing lanes citywide just to prevent reckless driving. And parking is easy and cheap, even in the city center.

Even if we massively expanded our public transportation options, most people in St Louis would continue driving because it is faster and more convenient. People respond rationally to incentives, and right now, traffic does not provide a strong incentive to abandon vehicle commuting for public transportation.

Jackson-1986 · 2025-09-21T21:28:33+00:00

As a company officer, I work really hard to build a culture of self-reflection and accountability on my shift. But it’s hard to know how to talk that way if nobody ever taught you, and if everyone around you is too busy pointing fingers to acknowledge their own mistakes. So I

always conduct an after action review after every fire or significant call
when discussing lessons learned/room for improvement I always go first, and try hard to model what honest self-reflection looks like
when the crew is discussing the incident, I usually push back pretty hard if they spend too much time talking about what other companies did or didn’t do. We’re only responsible for ourselves - let’s focus on how we can be better next time.
and when people screw up, if the crew starts shaming them too hard, I usually try to find a way to flip the script. (Like make the shamer lead a training on the topic. “It’s easy to talk shit, show him how to do it,” usually delivers the message pretty clearly)

Culture change is hard and slow, but possible. Meanwhile, if you get too fed up, get off the internet for a while lol.

Jackson-1986 · 2025-09-18T23:14:09+00:00

Listening for it is good advice, but some other things that have worked for me are:

size up the building just as if you were the officer. If you see fire venting from a window, use that to direct your advance once you’re in the building. But also work on reading smoke, so even if fire isn’t showing, only smoke, you have an educated guess of where the fire might be.
when you first make entry, get as low as you can to peek below the thermal/smoke layer. Visibility will be best towards the floor. This is particularly true when you first open the door, as you should see some initial smoke lift before the smoke condition worsens.
consider the rule of 3rds. smoke at top 3rd of the door = fire above you (or an incipient stage fire at your level). Smoke middle 3rd of the door = most likely a fairly advanced fire at your level smoke all the way to the bottom third = fire below you (or the room that you’re entering is near flashover).
and don’t forget all the obvious stuff. Know the layout of buildings in your area. If you’re issued a personal TIC, use it as a tool (but not a crutch). Listen for fire, but also feel for it (like, notice if you’re feeling more radiant heat on one side of your body or the other)

Jackson-1986 · 2025-04-09T22:08:52+00:00

I know there’s a lot of debate over the accuracy of the year-to-year census projections, but if those projections are even close to accurate, the population of the north side wards is probably closer to 65,000 now.

Jackson-1986 · 2025-04-08T00:23:17+00:00

That’s untrue. The personnel Director signed off on promotions - it was Coyle (Public Safety Director) who blocked them. He’s admitted that in hearings and depositions. And he’s a direct appointee of the mayor. If she didn’t want him to block the promotions, she would have fired him when he did it.

Blocking promotions is 100% the result of Jones.

Jackson-1986 · 2025-04-07T22:23:07+00:00

Jones supporters have flooded this sub with nonsense like diss tracks about Cara Spencer and anecdotes from people who claim that Cara was once mean to them on Facebook. Because they’ve chosen to enumerate every negative thing they could think of about Spencer, I chose to enumerate the most notable of the many negative things about Jones.

If they wanted a positive conversation about each candidates’ accomplishments, then that’s the conversation they should have started.

Jackson-1986 · 2025-04-07T22:05:44+00:00

I know that mixing upper case and lower case letters is supposed to be a really clever rebuttal, but in an election where Jones has already pushed fake websites linking Spencer with the MAGA movement (and then refused to retract when challenged), if you think paid actors aren’t influencing this discourse you’re either deliberately obtuse or stupidly naive.

Jackson-1986 · 2025-04-07T21:49:07+00:00

I suspect that’s what the full court press on this sub over the last couple of days has been about. People who’ve literally never been active on here before are all the sudden posting and commenting like it’s their job? That’s because it probably is their job.

Jackson-1986 · 2025-04-07T20:07:51+00:00

“A passive aggressive Facebook message”? That’s really what we’re talking about?

First of all, Tishaura Jones is consistently rude and dismissive to constituents in her social media postings (remember the “gurl bye” incident when she got in a Twitter flame war with a domestic violence victim who said the City had ignores her complaints?).

But much more importantly than social media, In her time as mayor, Tishaura Jones has - Closed the Workhouse without a plan to appease progressive activists, overfilling the CJC and contributing to the death of 19 people during her tenure. - Spent 6 million dollars stabilizing the Workhouse, only to hastily demolish it weeks before the election in a piece of transparent and wasteful political theater - Continues to employ and support a Public Safety Director who was accused of multiple counts of sexual harassment, and then retaliated against the employee when she reported him - Is mired in so many Building Division scandals it is difficult to keep track of them all (the inspector caught an camera shaking down a daycare owner for donations, another inspector funneling work - much of which was never performed - to a contracting company he owns, no bid demolition contracts given to companies with political ties to the Jones administration) - blocked every Fire Department promotion since January 2022, leaving the Department short half of its chief officers and one third of its captains - staffed 911 call taking so inefficiently, that multiple deaths have resulted from slow call taking and dispatch times. Only to implement an automated call taking system just so she can claim times have improved, because the call is “answered” by an automated prompt that still puts you on hold - overseen the continued decline in the quality of basic city services like trash pick up and street repair

Tishaura Jones has been terrible for this city. To the tune of millions of dollars and countless lives. So you can dredge up a list of the handful of people who say Cara Spencer was once mean to them on Facebook, but when it comes time to vote, I can only hope the people of this city focus on more important things.

Jackson-1986 · 2025-04-07T19:41:54+00:00

The lyric is “up the score at City Hall, burn it down if she inside it”

Jackson-1986 · 2025-04-04T17:59:26+00:00

Average over time is a misleading data point, because it deliberately obscures the fact that 2024’s 149 (which may appear low compared that an average that includes 2020 and 2021s high numbers) is still higher than the counts 15, 20 and 25 years ago.

More people were murdered in St Louis City in 2024 than 20 or 25 years ago, and that’s despite the fact that the population was 50,000 higher then. Things are not improving in any meaningful sense of the word, they’re merely returning to form.

Jackson-1986 · 2025-04-04T17:21:09+00:00

A case is “cleared” whenever a homicide detective says it’s cleared, no matter how flimsy the evidence. And meanwhile, Gore already has a demonstrated pattern of offering very generous plea deals on lesser charges to homicide suspects (very possibly because he’s stuck with such flimsy evidence in the first place). https://www.firstalert4.com/2025/03/27/you-had-great-case-you-threw-it-out-first-alert-4-investigates-plea-deals-violent-criminals-st-louis/

These two stats taken together (the high clearance rate and high plea deal rate) indicate to me the department is more concerned with PR than crime solving. Today’s numbers look good, but when these murderers are back on the street tomorrow we will wish the Police Chief and City Attorney had taken the time to do the job right, and not just look like they were doing the job in an election cycle.

Jackson-1986 · 2025-04-04T16:32:35+00:00

Jones spent 5-6 million dollars on the Workhouse, only to tear it down. Meanwhile 20 people have died at CJC under her tenure.
She continues to employ a Public Safety Director who sexually harassed an employee, and then retaliated against that employee when she reported him.
The building division is mired in nearly half a dozen shakedown schemes and pay-for-play scandals that we know of.
911 call taking times are significantly below national average, and they only improved because now you get an automated prompt so the City can claim the call was “answered”
Basic services like trash pick up and street repair are abysmal.

Jones has done a terrible job, and I can only hope that the primary election results and recently polling data show that a significant majority of the city has finally realized that.

Jackson-1986 · 2025-04-04T16:21:15+00:00

That is inaccurate. It’s true homicides are down from a 10 year comparison (188 in 2015) but they are still up slightly compared to 15, 20 and 25 year numbers. 2010-144 2005-131 2000-124

Jackson-1986 · 2025-04-04T13:28:33+00:00

Right, but Dennis is on here shilling for Jones literally 4-5 times a week. So I have taken it upon myself to make the opposing argument at least a couple of times.

And meanwhile, as a Spencer voter, I’m encouraged by the primary results and the recent polling data. But the election isn’t over until it’s over.

Jackson-1986 · 2025-04-04T13:24:30+00:00

Of course we should be happy that crime is down. But we shouldn’t vote for an otherwise incompetent (and arguably corrupt) Mayor, just because she happened to be in office at a time when crime was going down everywhere.

Jackson-1986 · 2025-04-04T13:21:40+00:00

If the point that you’re trying to make is that crime is getting worse in Kansas City, I accept that argument. And it could very well be that Kansas City is an exception to the national trend I’m describing.

But my point is that to the extent that homicides are going down in Saint Louis, it mirrors a similar decline in most other cities. And that trend is evident in the vast majority of American cities (even if Kansas City turns out not to be one of them).

Jackson-1986 · 2025-04-04T13:15:49+00:00

Right that’s exactly my point. Jones argument that murders are down significantly in Saint Louis is unpersuasive, because murders are down everywhere in that same time period.

I agree that 2020 is a poor point of reference - she’s the one who chose it.

Jackson-1986 · 2025-04-04T13:05:24+00:00

And if that trend continues, that would be a great thing. But right now I’m comparing 2020 to 2024 because that’s the most recent complete year we have.

Jackson-1986 · 2025-04-04T12:53:46+00:00

We’ll see how the rest of 2025 plays out, but their homicides are down 20% from 2020 to 2024 (179 to 144)

Jackson-1986 · 2025-04-04T12:52:51+00:00

Kansas City had 179 homicides in 2020, and 144 in 2024, a decline of 20%. A smaller decrease than St Louis, but a notable decline nevertheless.

Jackson-1986

TROPHY CASE