Monday 04/04/11

Human Interest News   —   Posted on April 4, 2011

Police: Pa. trucker saved from choking by crash
A Pennsylvania trucker may have saved his own life with an unintentional and very elaborate Heimlich maneuver.  Police say 55-year-old Richard Paylor, of Fairless Hills, Bucks County, was eating an apple as he drove on a busy highway in Reading when he began choking Tuesday morning. Authorities say Paylor then lost consciousness and crashed through a concrete median.  The Reading Eagle reports investigators believe the apple was dislodged when Paylor smacked his chest against the steering wheel. Police recovered a chunk of apple from the dashboard.  Investigators spoke with doctors who backed up their conclusion that the accident dislodged the offending fruit.

NJ bakery blows top, dusts town in flour
People might have thought they were part of a recipe when a northern New Jersey bakery blew its top and shot a cloud of flour over cars and buildings.  Acting Englewood Fire Chief Gerald Marion says a pipe became loose at the top of the La Esperanza Bakery silo as flour was being pumped into the building on Tuesday. 

Some people thought there was an explosion as flour filled the air and coated several adjacent buildings.  A spokesman for the bakery told The Record newspaper it lost probably less than 10 bags of flour from the 20,000 pounds that were being delivered.  The pipe has been resealed.

Conn. brush fire consumes firefighters’ pump truck
Kent, Connecticut firefighters responding to a brush fire instead watched one of their trucks go up in flames.  Kent Fire Marshal Stanley MacMillan says the pumper truck pulled onto a field Wednesday to battle a blaze when it had a mechanical problem and stalled. The wind picked up, the fire spread, and soon the truck was ablaze.  The vehicle and equipment on board, including half the department’s self-contained breathing apparatus were a total loss.  Fire Chief Eric Epstein tells The Waterbury Republican-American he’s unsure what the truck was worth, but the volunteer department was talking about buying a new one for $450,000.  The good news is the blaze, sparked by a large grass mower, was brought under control and no one was hurt.

From The Boston Herald. Reprinted here for educational purposes only. Visit the website at BostonHerald.com.