By Robert A. Baker, Elizabeth Doran and Diana LaMattina
The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York)
Copyright 2006 Post-Standard
All Rights Reserved.
It was a long, hot morning Wednesday for the firefighters of Syracuse’s Rescue Company.
The company began its shift fighting a fire at 7:54 a.m. at 129 McClennan Ave. The fire on a rear porch extended into the vacant building, District Chief Bill Elderbroom said.
At 10:52 a.m., the company was called to a vacant building at 364-366 Seymour St., where trash and debris were burning in the middle of a first-floor room, Elderbroom said.
Both fires are under investigation, with an early determination that the McClennan fire was intentionally set, said Lt. Joe Galloway, who is investigating both fires.
About noon, the company was called out again, this time for an overheated television set in an apartment in the 400 block of Burnet Avenue. Sweat dripped from the firefighters’ faces as they got out of their turnout gear.
“They’re wearing 50 pounds of gear and in this heat, it gets tough,” Elderbroom said. “That’s a real problem for us, making sure our guys and girls are hydrated.”
Car strikes boy on bike
An 11-year-old boy was injured Wednesday when he rode his bike into traffic in East Syracuse, police said.
The boy rode down a hill about 2 p.m. on Roby Avenue and into James Street, where he was struck by a car, village police Chief Douglas Robertson said.
The boy, whom Robertson did not identify, was taken to University Hospital, Robertson said. Police released no information on the driver.
Car strikes motorcyclist
A motorcyclist was struck by a car backing out of a driveway Wednesday on Route 5 in Elbridge, according to state police.
David J. Jardine , 30, of 114 Sylvan St., Elbridge, was eastbound on Route 5 on his Yamaha Virago motorcycle just before 8 a.m., said Trooper Thomas Quilter. Eleanor J. Goodfellow, 63, of 248 E. Main St., struck Jardine while backing her Ford Taurus out of the driveway, Quilter said.
Jardine was taken to University Hospital by Jordan Ambulance with injuries that were not life-threatening, Quilter said.
Goodfellow was ticketed for failure to yield while entering a roadway.
Teen falls into 10-foot hole
A16-year-old working for the Solvay school district lost control of the riding lawn mower he was operating and fell into a 10-foot-deep hole behind the high school Wednesday.
Dan Gosson, of Lakeland, was able to crawl from under the mower and out of the hole, said Solvay police Officer Ed Kieszkowski.
Gosson was mowing sideways across a hill when the mower began to go straight down the hill and tipped into the hole. The Solvay Fire Department and Solvay and Geddes police responded about 11 a.m.
Gosson was taken to University Hospital with what appeared to be knee and leg injuries, said Darrell Clisson, superintendent of buildings and grounds for the Solvay school district. Gosson also suffered scrapes and cuts.
The hole, which is at the edge of the grass and the concrete walkway, was surrounded by orange netting to keep people away from it.
“It’s there because there needs to be some repairs to the underwater storm sewers damaged from the floods over the last couple of days,” Clisson said.
Animal cruelty charged
Two men face an animal cruelty charge after a Syracuse police officer spotted the pair driving Tuesday evening while one man held on to a leash attached to a dog running beside the car.
Officer Pamela Otis saw the car pass in the 400 block of North Geddes Street just before 5 p.m. The dog was almost being dragged as it struggled to keep up with the moving car, according to police reports.
Jose Rivas, 21, of 1110 W. Belden Ave., who was driving, was charged with unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle. Rivas and Christian DeJesus, 19, for whom police don’t have an address, were both charged with carrying an animal in a cruel manner, a misdemeanor.
DeJesus said the dog was put outside the car because it was jumping all over the car, police records state.
The dog, which Otis described as a skinny, panting 5- to 6-month-old pit bull, was seized by a dog control officer.