Fire Department

HERE'S WHAT will be making news in Philadelphia this week: POLITICS Make the debate go down easy Do you think Vice President Joe Biden is a beer-and-a-shot kind of guy? Does U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan like a stiff whiskey and soda? Sadly, those questions probably won't get answered in Thursday night's vice-presidential debate. But we've figured out some places where you can watch the action and imbibe. Here are a few Philly bars that promise they'll be airing the anticipated face-off between the feisty duo: Doobies, at 22nd and Lombard streets; The Good Dog, on 16th near Locust, and the Nodding Head on Sansom near 15th.

Police and firemen who responded to a house fire in Chester County Friday morning were met with the sad spectacle of two elderly hoarders dead amid the ruins of their cluttered home. But coming from a screened-in porch behind the two-story structure were chirping sounds - the voices of 17 pet birds, police said. Rescuers who followed the chirps found lovebirds and parakeets that had survived due to a door separating the porch from the smoky house. The birds were taken by animal rescuers to the Chester County SPCA for evaluation.

William H. Mensing, 88, the owner of an aircraft sheet-metal business whose improved water-drop tanks made for Los Angeles County Fire Department helicopters in the early 1970s became widely used, has died. Mr. Mensing died July 26 at his home in Santa Paula, Calif., after a brief illness, said his family. A World War II veteran, Mr. Mensing opened a precision sheet-metal business called Sheetcraft in Los Angeles in the early 1960s and became known for his skill in making new parts for damaged helicopters and airplanes.

After a water-main break near 21 st and Bainbridge streets late Sunday night, homes in at least four blocks surrounding the break were evacuated, and a spokesman for the Red Cross said the organization was setting up temporary shelter from displaced people at Stanton School, 17th and Christian streets. Several blocks surrounding the site of the break were flooded, and reports indicated that water service was affected for more than a two-mile stretch, as far north as west of Rittenhouse Square and as far south as parts of Point Breeze and South Philadelphia west of Broad Street.

Eagles running back Dion Lewis was arrested and charged with a low-grade felony over the weekend after Albany, N.Y., police said he pulled a fire alarm at a Hampton Inn where he was staying. Lewis and his brother, Lamar, couldn't get in to the hotel shortly before 5 a.m. Sunday morning and began banging on the door and eventually pulled the alarm, according to police. Initial news reports said the incident happened Saturday morning, but a police spokesman said it was early Sunday.

The volunteer fire chief in Allenport, Pa., near Pittsburgh, has been arrested and accused of stealing more than $13,000 from the organization. Victor Anthony Fedrick was charged with 159 felony theft-related counts by police. The alleged thefts occurred in 2010 and 2011, and were discovered by members of the fire department who found discrepancies in the department's bank account, according to reports. - McClatchy Tribune News Service

Pat Nally got a hero's welcome as he stepped off a fire truck to the embraces of friends who had gathered Saturday for a fund-raiser and block party in Torresdale. It had been 21/2 months since Nally was pulled from the rubble of a building that collapsed in an adjacent warehouse fire and killed two fellow firefighters, Daniel Sweeney, 25, and Robert Neary, 60, in the city Fire Department's worst day in more than seven years. Still on crutches, with his badly crushed foot in a cast, Nally, 26, chatted with throngs of friends and well-wishers.

KARL BLANK SR. began his life amid the stark realities of Germany under Adolf Hitler, and wound up in Philadelphia as a firefighter and founder of the German American Firefighters Association.   He was born in Munich in 1936 as Hitler was preparing to wage war on Europe. Karl was the son of a firefighter and had naturally adopted that profession when he arrived in Philadelphia in 1957. He served in numerous fire companies, rose to the rank of lieutenant and became an instructor at the Fire Academy and a fire investigator as an assistant fire marshal.

An alternative school in South Philadelphia was evacuated this morning after a staff member reported smelling acrid fumes. Some 25 students spilled from the Ombudsman South Accelerated School, on the 2700 block of S. Front Street, about 10:40 a.m. as officials called the fire department. One student was taken to Methodist Hospital for chest pains, and two other students were went home early after reporting they did not feel well, said district spokeswoman Deirdre Darragh. Darragh said an inspector traced the fumes to the school's air-conditioning system.