Year in Review: Safety forces: A year of rescues, a grand opening and arrests

Email To A Friend
Printer Friendly
Comments

---

From staff reports

Rescues and crime kept safety forces busy over the past year. The following are some of the more remarkable stories covered by the Twinsburg Bulletin.

March 21 -- Worker pulled out of trench. A dozen fire departments responded to a trench collapse in Reminderville, where a 51-year-old Akron man was trapped in a 9-foot-deep trench for around two hours.

The man had been waterproofing the foundation of a Florida Street home when the vertical-walled trench collapsed. The homeowner called 911 around 11:30 a.m. and between 50 and 55 individuals from 12 departments, including the Summit County Special Operations Team, were on scene within 30 minutes. Rescuers used plywood to stabilize the trench walls and then dug from both sides of the trapped worker and used sledgehammers and pneumatic jackhammers to breach the basement wall.

In April, the Cleveland office of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined the company $3,150, but suspended $1,400 of the fines after the company agreed to have workers attend a safety course and make other changes to its operating procedures.

Dec. 29, 2006 -- Department goes off-road for rescue. The Twinsburg Fire Department needed an off-road vehicle to rescue a hunter who fell about 25 feet from a tree stand in a wooded area off Route 82 Dec. 29.

The man, who had been hunting off Route 82 near the Aurora border, suffered back pain and an injured arm around 4:30 p.m.

Firefighters using the department's $10,000 Kubota -- an all-terrain vehicle with a flat bed -- were guided more than 100 yards up a hill and into the woods to the victim by one of the victim's friends. Due to the steep terrain, firefighters took the victim about a mile and a half west to Liberty Road, where a helicopter landed to take him to the hospital.

Firefighters said the victim was expected to make a full recovery.

June 23 -- Fire Station No. 2 opens. More than 250 people attended the grand opening of the city's Glenwood Drive fire station June 23.

The $1.56 million station complements the city's existing facility on Ravenna Road, and serves the northeast quadrant of the city.

Fire Chief Richard Racine said the department's goal is to cut response times to that area from as long as seven minutes to approximately four and-a-half or five minutes. The city had been receiving automatic mutual aid from Reminderville for calls to the area.

Oct. 24 -- Hotel stay ends with grand theft conviction. A Wooster man was found guilty of grand theft for failing to pay nearly $7,000 in charges made to a Twinsburg hotel.

A jury took about an hour to find Michael Keiner, 30, guilty of grand theft and passing bad checks for failing to pay for $6,905.48 in charges to the Comfort Suites Hotel on Creekside Drive.

Keiner's arrest came after police investigating a $120 bad check written in May by Keiner to a pizza shop in Twinsburg discovered Keiner had left without paying his bill for renting three rooms -- including stays at "jacuzzi suites" -- at the hotel for about a month.

Keiner left the hotel after being asked to pay his bill and never paid an invoice for $6,905.48 hotel staff sent to Keiner's Wooster address.

Keiner was arrested at an apartment in North Canton by Twinsburg police Aug. 1. He filed an appeal of his conviction Nov. 28.

Dec. 17 -- Sergeant's son heralded as a hero in Washington. Officer Brian Bobick, 30, son of Twinsburg Sgt. Ray Bobick, was hospitalized but is expected to recover after police say he was struck by a stolen limousine in Washington, D.C., the afternoon of Dec. 13.

Brian Bobick, a police officer for the Washington, D.C. area Metropolitan Police, was in "fair condition" the morning of Dec. 17.

Brian, a bicycle patrolman originally from Twinsburg, and his partner stopped near an alley to speak with some juveniles when a limousine pulled up behind the two officers, its driver revved the engine and charged toward them. Brian pushed his partner out of the way and was hit by the vehicle, suffering broken bones in his face, losing seven teeth and fracturing an eye socket.

A 15-year-old boy was later arrested and was expected to be charged Dec. 20, police said.