Fireman

A three-alarm fire this morning swept through a restaurant and adjoining apartment building in West Oak Lane. One fireman sustained minor injuries but there were no other casualties. Fire officials said the blaze broke out in a one-story section of the Oak Lane Banquet Room, Restaurant & Lounge, at 7170 Ogontz Ave. and spread into a section which occupies the first floor of the three-story adjacent building. The fire then engulfed apartments on the upper two floors of that building.

Firefighter David Zborowski grew up in Southwest Philadelphia and as a child played on the banks of Cobbs Creek. But on the afternoon of Sept. 16, 1999, the waterway turned from a creek into a raging river of floodwaters as Hurricane Floyd pummeled the region. Zborowski said the "river" nearly claimed him that day as he used a jet ski provided by a neighborhood resident to rescue a man and wife and four firemen trapped after they set out to walk the couple to safety from their stranded SUV near Cobbs Creek Parkway and 61st Street.

Curtis, 9, is full of energy. He's a natural-born entertainer and loves to dance and tell jokes. When he's outdoors he rides his bike, swims, and plays basketball, baseball and soccer. Indoors, computer games capture his attention. His favorite foods are pizza and hot wings, and he's always ready to eat. Curtis is on a fourth-grade level in special education. He has an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder but benefits from a structured environment, responds well to directions, and is eager to please.

Philadelphia firefighter Tyrone Appling died last night in a Pittsburgh hospital where he was awaiting a liver transplant which the city, in an unprecedented decision, had agreed to pay for. A hospital spokeswoman said Appling, 33, died of "systemic complications, due to acute hepatitis. " Appling, 33, of West Oak Lane, was airlifted to Presbyterian-University Hospital Feb. 19 after the city officials said the city would pay for the $130,000 transplant. A doctor who had treated Appling for hepatitis at Albert Einstein Medical Center, Northern Division, before the fireman went to Pittsburgh said then that Appling was "gravely ill. His only chance is for a transplant operation.

Francis E. "Frank" Burke, a retired Philadelphia fireman, tireless fighter for a free Ireland and a man who gave every ounce to any job he undertook, died Tuesday. He was 83 and lived in Pennsauken, N.J. Frank Burke was like a lot of men of his generation who knew how many hours he had to work to buy a pair of shoes. For the rest of his life, no matter how much money he made, he kept his shoes shined and put shoe trees in them so they would keep their shape a little longer. He would work at a number of different jobs before and after his time on the Philadelphia Fire Department.

An off-duty fireman was asleep in his bed when he was awakened by a crash at the front door of his apartment in Fern Rock just before 1 p.m. yesterday. Jack Arnold, 46, dialed 911, then grabbed his gun, a .32-caliber revolver, and hid in the bathroom of his quarters in the Ivy Hill Court Apartments on Champlost Avenue near 9th Street. The door crashed open to reveal a man with a crowbar, and Arnold yelled out, demanding to know what he was doing there. Turning, the man brandished the crowbar and Arnold fired twice, he told police, striking the intruder in the head and side.

Louis S. Antosh, a retired Philadelphia firefighter who typified that cast- iron generation of Americans who survived a Depression, won a World War, and put the national economy into high gear, died Tuesday of a heart attack. He was 71 and lived in the Pennypack Woods section of the city. Lou Antosh and his peers were the parents of the oft-maligned generation called "Baby Boomers. " The postwar kids who are sometimes criticized for being a want-more, get-more, have-more segment of the population.

The controversy over hunky Philadelphia firefighter Jack Slivinski was nipped in the bud Tuesday by Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers. Slivinski landed in hot water with the department's top brass after he posed topless in front of the Logan Circle fountain two weeks ago. His photo was snapped by Katherine Kostreva, who's photographing firefighters across the country for a charity calendar that's supposed to be released later this year....

The lights were on all through the NovaCare Complex early Thursday night. They were on in the war room where the Eagles' player-personnel brain trust readied another deep-thinking assault on the college draft, and, for a change, the lights were turned on in the locker room, too, as Andy Reid fluffed the towels and made sure everything looked nice for the players who might wander in soon. One of the guys who will be stopping by very soon is Danny Watkins, a 26-year-old with more experience at fire protection than pass protection.

Here's a story about a little dog and a fireman, and what happened when they met each other in a burning apartment building yesterday. The dog was hiding in a bathroom closet, "curled up and shaking," said Chester fireman Kevin Snyder. Snyder spotted the pooch and carried him down three flights of stairs to safety. On the sidewalk, a paramedic from the Crozer-Chester Medical Center took over, clamping an oxygen mask over the animal's mouth and scooping up water in his hand to try to get it to drink.

Gerard Shaffer Jr. sobbed throughout his sentencing hearing this morning, just as he did through the trial in which he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the 2010 road-rage beating of a Northeast Philadelphia pedestrian. The emotional display of the 24-year-old Shaffer did not impress Common Pleas Court Judge Lillian Ransom, who sentenced him to 11-1/2 to 23 months in prison followed by two years probation. Nor did it impress the family of Shaffer's victim, Mark Wallace, 54, whom Shaffer and his father, Gerard Sr., beat to death when he walked too slowly in front of their SUV. "You blame your dad," said Wallace's sister, Nancy Kolenkiewicz, looking directly at Shaffer.

THE CONTENTION that the Fire Department is following the model from the 1950s could not be further from the truth. ("A Red-Hot Issue: Phila. Fire Department must get its priorities straight," Daily Views, Jan. 11). In the 1950s there were at least 69 engine companies and 34 ladder companies. Currently, there are 56 engine companies and 28 ladder companies, not including the three daily brownout companies. Over the years, staffing has been reduced significantly. Engine companies were staffed with an officer and five firefighters, ladder companies with an officer and six firefighters.

An early morning fire in Delaware County damaged a home, sent a firefighter to the hospital with minor injuries, and killed a family dog. Fire companies were called to the 500 block of North Oak Avenue and found the first floor fully involved. The blaze, which started in the kitchen, quickly spread to the second floor, said Briarcliffe Fire Company Chief Brian Ganley. The home was occupied by a woman and three children. One child was able to escape though the front door. The mother, the other two children and a dog were able to get out onto a second floor porch and cross over to the adjoining twin.

This week's DVD releases feature a Norse god, a former princess, and a New York fireman. Thor , Grade A-minus: The God of Thunder gets sent to live with humans to find his humanity. Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman star. It takes three elements to make a great movie based on a comic-book superhero: an actor who embraces the role, a director who treats the material with respect, and fantastic visual effects. Thor has all three. The hulky/hunky Hemsworth embodies the charm, strength, and power of the character.

NOTE: This date of the calendar's release in Philadelphia has been clarified from an earlier version WHEN "NATION'S Bravest," a calendar honoring the nation's firefighters, comes out Aug. 18, the late Philly firefighter Jack Slivinski will grace its cover. Firefighters from around the country posed shirtless for the charity beefcake calendar created by photographer Katherine Kostreva. Slivinski, 31, a former Marine, was disciplined in April by removal from elite Fire Rescue 1 by Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers for posing for the calendar without department permission but was reinstated to the unit less than a week later.

The man who died after falling over an outfield railing at a Texas Rangers game with Oakland on Thursday was a decorated firefighter and devoted father who had taken his 6-year-old son to the ballpark in hopes of catching a ball. Suzann Stone said that her son, Shannon, and young Cooper Stone had even stopped on the way to the ball park in Arlington, Texas to buy the boy a new glove. The two were "almost attached at the hip" and went to Rangers games often, including a World Series game last season.

HEY, guess what, all you female Daily News readers - yes, Jack "the Shirtless Fireman" Slivinski is HOT. I know because we used to work together as pizza deliverymen years ago. But not only is Jack as hot as the DN portrays him to the female readers, the same can be said about his sister, who also deserves a spread on the cover or perhaps the center of the new sexy DN. Bill Heiser Jr. Philadelphia Fire Commissioner...

The controversy over hunky Philadelphia firefighter Jack Slivinski was nipped in the bud Tuesday by Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers. Slivinski landed in hot water with the department's top brass after he posed topless in front of the Logan Circle fountain two weeks ago. His photo was snapped by Katherine Kostreva, who's photographing firefighters across the country for a charity calendar that's supposed to be released later this year....

The lights were on all through the NovaCare Complex early Thursday night. They were on in the war room where the Eagles' player-personnel brain trust readied another deep-thinking assault on the college draft, and, for a change, the lights were turned on in the locker room, too, as Andy Reid fluffed the towels and made sure everything looked nice for the players who might wander in soon. One of the guys who will be stopping by very soon is Danny Watkins, a 26-year-old with more experience at fire protection than pass protection.