Tonight a Roswell man is dead - apparently of his own hand - and his home is in shambles following an explosion. The victim, age 53, faced eviction from his home. Investigators surmise than rather than face the loss of his home and the daunting task of starting over, he doused the structure with gasoline and then ignited it. Looking back at the circumstances that led up to today's tragic events, I can only wonder if city officials, in their efforts to enforce the law, pushed the man nicknamed "Chicken Man" too far and the only way he knew to push back was to destroy the house and end his life? Consider these facts:
1. The man, who raised chicken on his property, had recently been jailed due to violating what officials called "various property codes". Apparently that following a neighbor's complaint about the chickens.
2. While he was incarcerated, he fell behind on his mortgage payment and had been struggling to bring payments current since his release. In an interview last month with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution he was quoted as saying "I'm still trying to get this resolved, but it doesn't look like it's going to be happy".
Although I'm not an expert in the field, I can imagine that the "Chicken Man" was under considerable stress knowing he was about to lose his home and, this morning, when Fulton County Marshal's arrived at the house shortly before 11 a.m., he couldn't take anymore and decided to end it once and for all. Moments before igniting the house, he talked with a reporter for WSB television and thanked him for all that he had done. He ended the conversation with "I can't tell you what's going to happen . . . it ain't pretty though".
Until next time . . .
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By today's standards, this 1973 Mack/Baker Aerialscope looks kind of plain and utilitarian, but I've always like them for just that reason . . .they are work horses! This particular rig - "Yellow 11" - is part of the Atlanta Fire & Rescue Department's fleet and still protects Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. Please don't misunderstand me, I'm a fan of our modern day apparatus, but there was (and still is) something about those "old" apparatus slogging away on the fireground. I don't know how many times I've seen East Point's 1970ish Ford/Pirsch engines (pictured at left) still sitting on a fire scene going strong after an all-night battle with the "Red Devil" (fire). The hood would probably be up to give the big motor some extra fresh, cool air and the lights had probably been shutoff but it was still there doing what it does best! Then, when the job was done, it would rumble back to life and return its crew to their quarters..jpg)
Of course the title of workhorse wasn't limited to just the engines and trucks . . .starting back as early as the mid sixities many departments had begun to operate "first aid squads" -- a precursor to today's modern Emergency Medical Service (EMS). Like it's counterpart across the bay in the firehouse, these units weren't afraid of a little hard work. I think one of my favorites was this one from Baltimore, Maryland which, incidentally was in service with that department when I was born in 1963. And, make no mistake, when they started to get some age that didn't mean their fire service career was over. They would be rehabbed - either by the original manufacturer or by the department shops - and begin a second life as an air unit (to refill self-contained breating apparatus (SCBA) on the fire ground) or some other job for a workhorse with a proven track record of service!