We are True Believers

We are True Believers

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Trenton house fire kills 7-year-old but spares 18-month-old

On the second floor of their Vine Street home, 7-year-old Aldrey Anderson was found dead after a raging fire gutted the house and forced Anderson’s mother to jump from a second-story window, leaving him behind.

But in the basement, Aldrey’s cousin, 18-month-old Augustine Pope, was discovered more than two hours after the fire began, alive and unhurt. The youngster was treading water to keep himself afloat in the flooded basement when a fire chief happened to look in the window.

“And I just saw these two eyes staring back at me,” Battalion Chief John Gribbin said.
Gribbin ordered an immediate rescue, and within moments the boy was brought out to cheers from bystanders on the street.

“It was a pretty sad night when we realized we lost the boy on the second floor,” Gribbin said. “I know everybody took that really hard.”

“This is a good thing,” he said of the 18-month-old’s rescue. “I still didn’t believe that it happened.”

“In essence, it’s a miracle on Vine Street because more lives weren’t lost,” Mayor Tony Mack said.

Aldrey’s mother, Evie Anderson, suffered a compound fracture to her leg when she jumped from the window. Two young children who escaped the home with another adult were treated at the hospital for smoke inhalation.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation by police and the county prosecutor’s office. Gribbin, the city’s fire marshal, is also investigating.

“At this point, we don’t have anything that looks suspicious,” he said of the fire.

Evie and Aldrey Anderson were asleep on the second floor of the house while young Augustine and his mother, Monkanjay Sengblah, along with family friend Mamie Deah and her 5-year-old daughter, Ferdisha, and Sengblah’s 7-year-old goddaughter, Bithia Jeanpierre, were in the finished basement.

Around midnight, Sengblah left the house to drive her boyfriend to work. While she was away, a fire broke out on the first floor, police said.

The blaze spread upstairs, and the house was soon engulfed in flames.

“So when I opened the door from my house, I saw flames rushing from the kitchen,” said a woman whose house has a rear entrance just feet from Anderson’s back door.

“But the fire was blasting out,” she said.

Neighbors raced into the house and woke everyone in the basement while Anderson escaped through the second-floor window.

At 12:18 a.m., firefighters were alerted. Engine 1 arrived four minutes later to find the first and second floors fully involved in flames, fire officials said.

Sengblah returned and pulled up to the house, saw it on fire, and desperately alerted firefighters about the children remaining inside the house.

“I kept saying, go upstairs, my nephew is upstairs,” she said. “Go downstairs, my son is downstairs.”

Firefighters tried to gain entry, but the flames were too intense.

“It was a really hot, fast-moving fire,” acting Fire Director Leonard Carmichael Jr. said.
Crews struck a second alarm at 12:31 a.m. and a third alarm at 1:16. The fire was not brought under control until 2:52 a.m., Carmichael said.

Neighbors all along the narrow one-way street heard the commotion and went outside their homes to see what was happening.

“I woke up and saw a lot of smoke and heard a lot of screaming and saw a lot of cops,” said a neighbor, who asked that her name not be used.

“It was out of control,” she said.

Flames spread next door, gutting the second half of the duplex and threatening to jump across a narrow alley to more homes. Firefighters had the blaze mostly contained when Gribbin, who had been called in from home two days after returning from a long medical leave, walked to the side of the house.

“For some reason, I went over and I wanted to look in that basement window,” Gribbin said.
Pipes had burst during the fire, and the water, combined with hours of flow from hoses, had left about 3½ feet of water flooding the basement, Gribbin said. It was there that he saw little Augustine, struggling to stay afloat with his head nearly submerged.

“I started talking to him,” Gribbin said.

The boy waved. Gribbin called to firefighter John Barone.

“John come over here. I got a kid here,” Gribbin remembered saying. “Get inside man, he’s drowning! You got to get him out, you gotta get him out!”

Augustine’s head slipped below the waterline twice as Barone rushed into the home. He got into the basement and grabbed Augustine.

“The little boy put his arms around John and hugged him,” Gribbin said.

Despite Augustine’s salvation, there is still grief for Aldrey.

“Evie was just crying when she saw me,” said Anderson’s neighbor. “Because every morning she opened the door for him to come to my house.”

Both the neighbor and her mother said Aldrey was a mature, intelligent, special boy.

“He’s so grown up,” the mother said. “He had that ambition that he would be someone someday.”

“He was like a grownup,” the neighbor said. “He was so sweet.”

The neighbors knew Aldrey so well because of the close nature of the city’s Liberian community.

“They come over. We eat with them. They eat from us. We are family, together,” the neighbor said.

Anderson and Sengblah’s father came from Liberia and raised them in the Vine Street house. Last night, dozens of members of the Liberian community gathered at Father Rocco Park in Trenton’s North Ward for an emergency meeting of the Liberian Community Association of Central New Jersey & the Metropolitan Areas.

“Actually, there’s no Liberian vernacular that calls someone a cousin,” said Andrew Gursay, a member of the group. “It’s, ‘my mother’s sister’s child.’”

Instead of that cumbersome term, even distant relatives refer to each other as immediate family members.

“So it’s my mother, my brother, my sister, my child,” he said.

The Liberians filled the bleachers at the soccer field, as group president Tarlow Miller spoke about paying for a funeral for Aldrey and a new home for his mother. A goal of $5,000 was set.
As others were speaking, Sengblah arrived, quietly filing into the bleacher row with Augustine in her arms. She sat among friends and her sister Saycon, her voice raw after a grueling night and day. One of the friends broke in to introduce Sengblah and Augustine.

“This is the miracle baby!” she said. Attendees gasped and applauded. Another woman stood up.

“I don’t have much to say, but I want to start with $50,” she said, offering a donation.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Thirty-three miners

Thirty-three miners who have been trapped underground in a Chilean gold and copper mine for the past 17 days are all alive

Thirty-three miners trapped underground for more than two weeks after a cave-in said they are all alive in a message tied to a drill, Chilean authorities said on Sunday.

President Sebastian Pinera said the piece of paper was tied to a drill that rescuers used to bore through to the area where the miners are located. But he said it will take months to get the trapped miners out.

"The 33 of us in the shelter are well," read the message held up by Pinera on television.

"It will take months (to get them out). It will take time, but it doesn't matter how long it takes, but to have a happy ending," the president said.

Relatives hugged and kissed as news of the message reverberated outside the entrance to the mine, where they have been camped out since the mine caved in on August 5.

Rescuers plan to send narrow plastic tubes down the narrow borehole with food, hydration gels and communications equipment. Deep in the mine, there are deposits of water and ventilation shafts that could help the miners survive.

Relatives of those trapped said rescue workers had found a message painted on a small drill used to perforate around 700 meters down into the mine confirming they were alive in the small gold and copper mine near the northern city of Copiapo.

Rescue workers said a small-bore drill had reached nearly 700 meters underground and had perforated a tunnel near to where the miners are believed to have sought refuge.

Mining Minister Laurence Golborne said rescue workers would lower a camera and microphones in a bid to locate and contact the miners

Colombian Plane Crash: 'Miracle' Accident?

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/colombian-plane-crashes-131-board-claims-life/story?id=11410601

The crash landing of a Boeing 737 in the Caribbean is being called a "miracle" by the region's governor. The jetliner broke into three parts on the runway, but remarkably all but one person survived the crash of an aircraft known for its improved design and relatively clean safety record.

The Boeing 737-700, carrying 127 passengers, crashed while landing at Colombia's San Andres island during a thunderstorm, killing one person on board. Local police say the lone fatality was a 73-year-old woman who reportedly died of a heart attack moments after the crash.

The Colombian Air Force was investigating reports Aires flight 8250 from Bogota to San Andres was struck by lightning before crashing at the San Andres airport. Of the 121 passengers and 6 crew members on board, 66 were injured and 34 were hospitalized. The Colombian Civil Aviation Authority reports 5 Americans were among the passengers. The National Transportation Safety Board says it will send investigators to Colombia to assist with the investigation.

"It was a miracle and we have to give thanks to God," that only one person died, said Gov. Pedro Gallardo.

Officials said 119 people were treated or checked at local clinics and five of them were seriously injured.

"It was going down pretty fast when it hit the ground," said William Voss of the Flight Safety Foundation in an interview with ABC News. "it's very hard to break an aircraft into pieces like that."

Survivors of the crash in Colombia said everything seemed normal as the pilot announced they were landing. But suddenly, the aircraft hit short of the runway and slid on its belly as the fuselage broke apart. One Colombian official credited the pilot with keeping the plane from crashing into the airport terminal.

The state government said in an e-mail that passengers aboard the plane that left Bogota about midnight included eight U.S. citizens and four Brazilians. Later, airline representative Erika Zarate said only five U.S. citizens were aboard, as well as two Germans, two Costa Ricans and two French citizens. They were not identified.

Passenger Ricardo Ramirez, a vacationing civil engineer, told Caracol Radio that all had seemed normal, even though the plane was flying through a storm, with flashes of lightning, as it neared the airport.

"The plane was going perfectly, we practically going to land, everything was under control," he said. The accident "appeared out of nowhere."

The plane slid forward on its belly as the fuselage fractured and bits of landing gear and at least one engine were ripped off.

"When we fell, we wound up on the pavement still in the seats, said Ramirez, who struggled to free himself and his wife from their safety belts.

"We tried to get out of the plane because the plane was starting to shoot flames," he said. "In a few minutes, a police patrol arrived and helped us."

Caracol Radio quoted Transport Minister German Cardona as saying the accident was caused by weather and not by technical failure. The plane, he said, had undergone standard maintenance checks eight days ago.

For those who cheat death, life is the light at end of tunnel

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-08-16/features/ct-talk-brotman-cheatdeath-0816-20100816_1_preservers-death-life

There is an invisible club out there, a web of people who have undergone the same transformative experience.

We escaped death.

Some of us survived a crash or accident; others, criminal violence. Me, I was in a freak hiking mishap. But one way or another, we nearly died — but didn't.

On Aug. 6, two young women who survived a Lake Michigan sailboat tragedy joined our numbers. They were rescued after spending nearly five hours in the cold water. One of the two young men with them drowned; the other is still missing.

As the young women go on with the lives they so nearly lost, they will make their own paths through shock, grief and the task of making sense, and possibly meaning, out of what happened.

They will join those who already have.

Laura Maychruk, of River Forest, was stabbed in the back 10 times by a man who attacked her on a street in Washington, D.C. Maychruk, then 27 and working as a researcher for the Tribune, was so close to death when she got to the hospital that emergency room doctors rushed into the parking lot and cut open her chest while she was conscious to insert tubes in her collapsed lungs.

But she survived. And then she upended everything.

She returned to Chicago, quit her Tribune job here, opened the Buzz Café in Oak Park and turned it into a center of the village's community life. She rethought her intention not to have children; she and her husband now have four.

"It changed so many things in my life," said Maychruk, now 40. "The decisions I made from then moving forward were totally based on different things.

"It is so valuable that you can really grip how wonderful your life is and how important every minute is. I'm so thankful."

So is Bill Lipsit, of Niagara Falls, Ontario. In 2001, he and his father and a friend survived after their scuba dive boat sank off the Gulf Coast of Florida. They spent 46 terrifying hours floating with a few life preservers and bumpers in shark-infested, stormy waters before they were spotted by a search plane.

Between praying and tilting his head back to drink rainwater, Lipsit re-evaluated his life. Up to then, it had been a somewhat wild one; he had spent his time after work drinking with buddies instead of with his family.

But there in the water, "literally all I could think of was my wife and my kids," said Lipsit, 46, manager of a trucking company. "It's amazing how quick it can open your eyes when you're staring at death. You look at your life and realize how stupid you were."

Monday, August 16, 2010

People send in their Miracles......

If you think you got a miracle, then send it. We are adults and do not need to make judgement. I will post after editing.

Story 1 - the jacket
This happened today. Is it a miracle? There is no survivor or near death. You can decide.
Our unit at work won a unit award in the the winter. We ended up picking a rain jacket with the embroidered with our organization's logo in March. We got one shipment and the XL and XLL sizes were on backorder. There were a total of seven jackets order, sizes M, M, L, XL, XL, XLL, XLL.
James was the person ordering them and he and I were checking sizes to the original order. We had gotten three mediums vs. two. We thought someone would get the wrong size so we going to call the company about it. We got the shipping invoice and it showed the seven sizes with two mediums that were shipped.
We recounted again. Then James picked up there were eight jackets vs. seven. We had the right sizes with an extra medium.
Nancy came showing us her XL. She had lost 51 lbs since March. It was verry baggy. We explained that we only had this spare Medium. She tried it on. It was loose and looked great! She went from an XL to Medium for the first time since she was a teenager. The glow and smile were something to see. A custom miracle jacket in the order.

Story 2
11:49amJack

sorry105 emails:P:P

11:49amLeigh

sorry about what?

11:49amJack

i missed you

11:49amLeigh

I miss you. I could use a hug

11:50amJack

I bet. Me too. Can I make a confession?

11:50amLeigh

what a hell of a month. make a confession? sure

11:50amJack

yes it has been. well I confess that i believe in signs. sorta like the miracle blogs. so don't think i am crazy. maybe i am

11:51amLeigh

no, you not crazy.

11:52amJack

what was the sign that we were solid to be exclusive? it came to me today. I knew. maybe we talked. but i forgot. cause it is a miracle. take a guess.

11:54amLeigh

I am thinking it was because we never knew it could be that good.

11:55amJack

what was the miracle? so clear. in hindsight

11:55amLeigh

timing was one

11:55amJack

timing in?

11:55amLeigh

our lives

11:56amJack

the statistical miracle was?

11:56amLeigh

yes, what was the chances

11:57amJack

what event separate others from you?

11:57amLeigh

besides 8 & 5...I work

11:58amJack

see. even you. like me. like millions. not see the miracles. like the miracle blog. let me back up.

11:58amLeigh

k

11:59amJack

i was supposed to go w L tonight to the concert. what event would change that? or could?

Evie has wedding. she out thu-fri. fest tix bought in July. Thu was big presentation. Fri i cant take off cause she at wedding. so i cant go. on friday

12:02pmLeigh

right

12:02pmJack

to see the bands that i wanted to really see. i accepted it

12:02pmLeigh

yes

12:02pmJack

what happened mon?

12:02pmLeigh

death of M

12:03pmJack

old Jewish saying. man plans, god laughs.

12:03pmLeigh

oh yes

12:03pmJack

i rem it. on mon. all these plans go away. i find Friday, i not needed. watch dog. and i get to go. see the bands. millions say just a coincidence. but the miracle blog shows diff. i didn't or ever want to see her die. but it happens

12:05pmLeigh

yes

12:05pmJack

then jury. judge said trial in crim sex assault minor only be 1-2 days so not excuse me at beginning of jury trial for wed conflict. long questions by defense. to my shock they accept moi. then prosecutor in 10 min into questions. "could you weigh equally the testimony of a police officer vs a defendant". i said I prolly have a leaning to the police because I worked with them for years vs an unknown defendant. the judge stops the prosecutor. first time ever seen that. say i have worked a long time in my comp. said i have set beliefs.

12:08pmLeigh

yes

12:08pmJack

and thanks me and dismisses me. certain not a miracle. you see. sept is like this connecting dots. then back to the concert w L. it starts at 9pm

12:09pmLeigh

ok

12:09pmJack

she wants to go eat before. no prob. i get her tix. since not sold out and cheap. then this. let me find the link. no email. nada. L finds it.

12:12pmLeigh

hang on...

12:12pmJack

i like have heart attack

12:12pmLeigh

let me open it first

12:13pmLeigh

oh wow...ok...so L. sends this...k

Charlatans U.K. Drummer Hospitalized After Collapse

Charlatans U.K. drummer Jon Brookes is hospitalized after collapsing on stage at a show Wednesday (Sept. 15) night in Philadelphia. Brookes keeled over part way through the band's set at Jackny Brenda's and briefly stopped breathing, reports NME . A doctor in the audience resuscitated him, and paramedics responded, taking the drummer to a hospital. The band hasn't revealed what caused Brookes' collapse, but indicated that doctors expect him to make a full recovery.

Jack

so amazing. third time this month. another sign. or miracle.

12:14pmLeigh

go on...

12:15pmJack

so i respond. omg. that it. we talk. then our miracle come to me. which was. Las Vegas. so clear

12:16pmLeigh

OMG

YES

12:16pmJack

i am still stunned. all this morn. it is like Moses at the burning bush

12:17pmLeigh
wow. now clear

12:19pmJack

and i could add grain work done just before all hell breaks out in sector. or the crane research which went viral 2 days after email friends. so i needed to get this to you. and there you are chat. cause texting would been hard. and email not efficient.

12:20pmLeigh

yes. you are right

12:21pmJack

so man plans, god laughs. or helps.

Leigh

yep...it really is. it is a miracle. how you put this all together is amazing in itself.

12:22pmJack

then the M death. conversation w father D. i said i never meet a person for 20+ years that embodied all the things the Bible said Christ was like. he agreed. her death gave J and C freedom. to announce single. and she got a nice guy. although 3 ex navy, prior enlisted among C and you

12:24pmLeigh

ha

12:26pmJack

just another coincident. never a miracle. yet statistically 1 in million

12:26pmLeigh

yes. how long did this take you to figure out?

12:29pmJack

all this month. it is like how many miracles do you need to see. or are you like the rest. man plans, god laughs. and i just wonder what others are shown

12:30pmLeigh

and don't pay attention to

12:31pmJack

cause society always ridicules these as coincidences. miracle blog shows differently. so nothing better evidence to see several in one month. right in front

12:34pmLeigh

wow...I am still thinking about all this

12:35pmJack

big wow.can you send the chat?

12:35pmLeigh

yes. I am saving it

12:35pmJack

I want to see if they post it in the miracle blog

12:35pmLeigh

no problem

12:35pmJack

it not have to make sense to others. just us

12:35pmLeigh

true. i was holding my breath for a while there

12:36pmJack

i know. freedom

12:36pmLeigh

when you had a confession to make...I thought omg...not this... not now!

12:36pmJack

i am exclusive w Leigh. because I love you. and I see the signs. and we are so compatible. so any person will know this right up front. then we can talk.

12:38pmLeigh

yes...that makes sense... and yes...we have so much happen in tandem...so many things similar...it was a 1 in a billion chance we meet in the time of our lives that we did

12:39pmJack

yes it is. it be easy to see an event here or there and we pass like two ships in the night. never see or know we exist. one last thing.

Janny is my counterpart. she confessed a secret. cause people telling her crazy. last Wednesday. no one believe her.

12:42pmLeigh

hmmm

12:42pmJack

she saw something on Israel. she not Jewish. really fascinated her. hubby said ok. was dreaming of going maybe. then church group announce a special trip for 8 days the next day to Israel.

12:43pmLeigh

wow

12:43pmJack

then Monday she picked up mag w page turned to article on Israel.

12:43pmLeigh

that is a sign

12:44pmJack

she books the ticket. gets kinda made fun of. like why ya going. walking in street. paper falls in front of her. she picks it up. about Israel. all in one week. so i said i believe in signs. and you have to do it

12:45pmLeigh

many make fun of going there? that sad. many people would have ignored the signs and not even pick up paper, etc.

12:46pmJack

like told her they kill Americans. not safe

12:46pmLeigh

well, depends on where you go I guess

12:46pmJack

despite her saying this tour guide did 28 trip for churches

12:46pmLeigh

in group safer

12:47pmJack

ya

12:47pmLeigh

that alone

good sign

12:47pmJack

yet 35,000 die in cars here. risk is present everyday. ya got to have faith

12:47pmLeigh

yes

12:48pmJack

so hard sleeping last night. connecting dots. then no concert. was the final dot. among many dots, coincidences, or miracles.

12:49pmLeigh

maybe not last dot...we never know

12:49pmJack

true. more dots in a month. people look for signs for ever. many never see it. not sure why. there is a certain madness about seeing what others aren't. sorta like Copernicus who said the earth was not the center of the universe. they killed for heresy.

12:51pmLeigh

many people not believe

12:51pmJack

maybe the ghost-buster said it best. I used not believe in ghosts. but these last few weeks, I seen stuff that would turn your hair white. and that what i say

12:53pmLeigh

we saw evidence of ghost no one else believe so we don't tell...no one would believe all these dots.

Jack

i know. so we ask to present case on the miracle blog. get people to see events. and maybe. maybe it sinks in.

12:55pmLeigh

people need to look and not just "see". they need to listen and not just "hear"

Jack

i agree, reading the blog made me believe. and now the dots are popping up all over. i cant explain the wicked. but i can see the good. maybe that is all people need.

12:58pmLeigh

"true believer" book

12:59pmJack

omg. another

12:59pmLeigh

yes

12:59pmJack

true believers. so easy an concept. another dot. among several. i ask mod to change title. send email.

1:03pmLeigh

it is the planets aligning

1:03pmJack

hehe ya. so any chance you can email this?

1:04pmLeigh

wow...what a chat!

1:04pmJack

because talking i would have forgotten much of it. like usual.

i love you

1:05pmLeigh

I love you too...very much

1:05pmJack

smooch, bye!

1:05pmLeigh

xxxo later