A Forgotten Christmas Time Refinery Fire near Heidelberg Pa.? where 2 fireman died en route to the fire

You often here about fires and Explosions around the Tri-state area in the early 1900s as the area was expanding but even being a Volunteer Firefighter  interested in history of fire service in the area not even I knew of a horrible tragedy caused on  a dark Foggy night on December 25th 1928  exactly 90 Years to the day  a Fire would break at at  the Carnegie Refining Company on its 20 acre site in Heidelberg Pa .
An all hands call was put out and firefighters from surrounding community's responded including
Stowe Twp. VFD all the way from over near Mckeesrocks with 10 firefighters on a Truck in the days before firefighter safety when you hung on for dear life there where no enclosed cabs and seat belts.
Trucks where much smaller back then and was probably overloaded.
As members of Stowe Twp. VFD Hose Company number 2# and Hose Company #4    riding on a 1924 American Lafrance Pumper when it missed a curve on Wind Gap Road  and plunged over a hill side.

https://www.fireengineering.com/articles/print/volume-82/issue-5/features/three-men-killed-when-pumper-crashes-down-road-embankment.html

http://www.gendisasters.com/pennsylvania/11062/heidelberg-pa-refining-company-fire-dec-1928

instantly killing 2 Firefighters Adolph Sonnet 30 and Joseph DePetro 45  and a 3rd  Carl Moyer who succumbed to his wounds days later as well as 8 firefighters severely hurt.
All back in a day without modern trauma centers and 24 hr full time staffed emergency rooms .
A miracle in it self any survived .

But this was not first fire on this site the Etna chemical company  was once on this site and suffered a catastrophic explosion during WWI 

I can find no mention of this explosion under the Etna name  but there was a catastrophic explosion killed 200 at Aetna Chemical Company  Oakdale which is  near Heidelberg in 1917 and again in 1918

http://www.gendisasters.com/pennsylvania/17026/oakdale-pa-aetna-chemical-plant-explosion-may-1918

Seems Oakdale and Heidelberg name where interchanged in various articles of the day.

A Weird Anomally and possible Big Foot Sighting along Pa. Toll 66 and Im not only one who has noticed it.

I use Toll 66 which runs from Delmont to Pa Turnpike in New Stanton Frequently when working in Fayette County Pa or WV.  One strange anomaly I have had happen is when going south bound from Delmont to Greensburg I have actually had compasses  I have had in my 2  trucks reverse and instead of pointing south they point north .But it does not always do it. I have caulked it up to some anomaly or the strong High Tension power wires and Microwave towers in that particular stretch .

Other people I know have observed it as well.

But this past Wednesday Evening11/28/2018 around 9PM  myself a friend who helps me on occasion and motorist driving beside me while driving northbound in the stretch between Greensburg and Delmont one of the most bizarre things I have ever seen while driving  in my 43 years behind the wheel occurred .

It was an extremely Dark night and was having wave after wave of rain and drizzle as we drove home
I was just coming up on the Natural gas Compressor Plant  along the road when behind one of the waves there appeared to be something in the road myself and driver beside me slammed on the brakes ,waking my dozing helper.

There in front of us for all of about 10 to15 seconds appeared some kind of all gray object about the size and shape of a Big Foot  but it was like it was a silhouette at first I thought some one playing games and just as fast it broke up and disappeared.
My helper blurts out WTF is that and  older driver in SUV beside me had stopped rolled down his window and asked if we where OK and what the hell just happened . I said I had no idea  wondered if it was a prank or something and he rolled up his window and proceeded on.

I initially contacted Fred Saluga  A well know Big Foot investigator from the Weirton  West Virginia  area who has many years of experience in the field  and discussed it with him and will be filing a report with him .Hopefully Fred and I will be able to check out the site some day .

Fred with casts of suspected Big Foot Prints

http://thesupercon.com/index.php/2018/05/08/fred-saluga/

  Fred is also interested in talking to individuals who have had encounters be they in  WV.  PA. or OH. You can contact Fred Saluaga at :    paranormal1949@aol.com or 1-304-564-7165

 I also remembered and called 
and talked to Stan Gordon the famous UFO Researcher

http://www.stangordon.info/wp/

As I remember him talking about Big foot encounters he has been getting reports on when he was speaking at the Hill View Para-con
and told him what had happen and he tells me he has been getting all kind of reports like this on local state roads especially on rainy drizzling night .  in Delmont all way up to Derry Twp.  and along the Chestnut Ridge .Some type of mass or creature standing in or beside road and then it disappears.

OK so if its happening else where is it some one plying with a 3d type projector  like you saw on Star wars or is it something else?

Some speculate that a portal is opening and closing and that is what we are seeing and many argue is that Big foot if that is in fact what we saw is interdementional .

an Engineer I know thinks could have been a lighting anomaly of our combined headlights and he mist  

While Stan Gordon and I both discussed that these Big Foot sightings all seem to happen around sources of energy High tension  Power Lines , Radio Transmission Towers, and coal Mining   etc at the Hill View Para-con

So what is going on? who knows but it sure scared the hell out of us and happened too fast to get a picture on a digital camera.

Granted it was long day and you get drowsy on way back  and might imagine something but when your helper sees it as well as another driver that rules that out as well.

As technology advances maybe we will finally get answers and if you do have a weird sighting please contact Stan Gordon and let him know.

 Editors Note:
My Apology to Fred Saluga this post was prematurely posted when I hit wrong key and did not realize it had published on google blog with out being fully edited and put in Fred's information
Been having high blood sugar issues which is causing my chemo Brain that much more confusion. which is why you may see some misspells etc.  But at least still here and functioning and hoping to post many more interesting articles. .

A 60s Era Christmas Display in Fox Chapel which brought cars from 3 states

When I was a kid in 60's every Christmas Season we would all pile into the family van and go see the homes decorated for Christmas one of our favorite place was Virginia Manor  in Mt Lebanon Scott Twp area.
But everyone's favorite was in a long U shaped driveway of a family in Ohara Twp. on Squaw Run Rd and hunt rd off of  Fox Chapel Road   
They set it up each year as a way to collect money for Pittsburgh's Children's Hospital. It would take them 6 months
to get it ready and they had a full size manger,a full Santa and his sleigh and other Christmas  items.
The electric bill for the month was something like $1000.00 per month and thats in 60s dollars which was a major sum .

Cars would line up at dark and take there turn and go around thru the long U shaped driveway. The display was even featured in the Pittsburgh Press and Post Gazette unfortunately I have not been able to locate the article .Their was even a small spot done on KDKA news about it.

But then in early 70s the family stopped doing the display and the U shaped  driveway and large ranch home  was torn out and  and it is another piece of history lost to time . You would have to be in your 50's to even remember it sadly.
  a fire and Ambulance station now sits on the property.

Hopefully some day I will find the article or some pictures and if I do I will update the article.

Why is the Paranormal , Bigfoot and UFO Community Fracturing ?

As a Paranormal Researcher and Writer I often am in communication with other who enjoy the field of research as we share what we have learned  ,but I am also seeing a rather disturbing pattern of disruption to it .

Seems there are those who are doing great damage to it.

Take the Paranormal group which broke into the old GAR Lady's Home in Swissvale Pa. which was recently torn down.

They damaged the property in their quest to prove it was haunted. and in turn got all other groups banned .

This bad behavior by rouge groups and individuals  has ended up causing owners of haunted property's to ban all individuals and groups from investigating and in some cases owners have torn down the property .

Then there have been major online  fights and insults hurled by one investigator to another over weather evidence is fake or not . It has lead to members being banned from attending meetings and outings .

There have been big fractures within the Big Foot and UFO community's as of late when a member starts insulting and questioning everything another member presents and it needs to stop.

Paranormal, Big Foot and Ufology is all suppose to be a collaboration of thoughts and theory's to advance the field , not break it apart but this is the way it seems to be going past couple years .

There are those individuals who are making themselves out to be absolute paranormal experts  setting up touring company's for paranormal sites and only they can tell if a photo a guest has taken is real evidence or not.  Which is total BS. They have even gone as far as to rip off client lists and hijack websites to divert potential tourists to their sites which  I recently heard about from one of  several paranormal attraction owners I know , who noticed a drop in revenue and found out after hiring a Private Investigator when things where not adding up.

It hurts the legitimate ghost hunter tours who really care and teach about the paranormal to their guests , and have invested a lot of time and money into it.

I have been investigating the paranormal for over 40 years and by no means consider myself an expert in any way .I know what I have seen and encountered and I know that 95% of the time I can explain its not paranormal but a condition with in the structure causing it. Its that 5% I can not explain away where it is then the real investigation begins to try and understand what is going on.
because we have an unknown. Thats where my fellow paranormal investigators  come into play with their vast knowledge and experience as we try to discern the unknown.

I have been working on several paranormal theory's myself where it involves AM radio being a facilitator of EVP  and Haunting s since I work as a Contract Broadcast Engineer and have been sharing evidence I have been finding with fellow investigators which has been well received.

It is just a matter of time and I feel it will happen within my lifetime we are going to have answers
to many paranormal issues especially Big Foot with all the technology and cameras available which where not available before. its going to make a lot of so called experts look like fools. When it does.
and I really feel sorry for the ridicule they are going to receive .

The Worst massacre in US of those of the Jewish Faith Right here in Pittsburgh Pa. was no surprise or shock to me I expected it. Let me tell you why.

 Let me tell you about why I am not surprised why that gunman walked in to New Life Temple and tragically and coldly  took 11 lives .
If you spend any time around the Jewish or African American Communities around Pittsburgh You will here the term Pittsburgh Mississippi . No not a town in the state of  Mississippi.
 They are referring to The City of Pittsburgh  and how they feel living here like its a city in the deep south . I know exactly how they feel.
 Even Thou I have not one drop of Jewish Blood  in my body I do have a last name with a Jewish spelling this came about because when my Grandfather Markowitz came from the Ukraine he could sign his name and was automatically thought to be Jewish not the son of a peasant farmer by immigration officials on Ellis Island . Most peasants could only make there mark on papers and not sign full name.
 Having the last name Markowitz I have felt the full effect of Antisemitism in this city even being called a kike on the job and denied employment in the trades or felt or heard on the job..

Something I have never experienced or felt outside of the Pittsburgh region or many states I regularly travel.

It has been so bad at times I had to take the Penn Hills #224 Volunteer Fire Dept before the Pa. Human Relaxations Commission. because of those Anti Semites who where in the dept. who tried to hurt me knowing I had a bad leg and they put a smashed pop can in my fire boots and even small nails.

You just need to ride around Penn hills and Plum Boro and you will find over a dozen homes flying confederate flags .

Travel up US 22 to Blairsville on the weekend to Jonnet Flea market and inside and some times outside you will find vendors selling KKK emblems and stickers and other memorabilia I have even seen Buddy Black and George Foster known KKK leaders walking around the market at times.

Did you know W Pa. has  one of the highest concentrations of hate groups and membership in the country ? Look it up.

I was recently at a customers business who has a large ware house on Neville Island and who has several African Americans who work and drive for them I have became friendly with them over time and when I walk in they say high we shake hands ask how things are going etc. and a Driver from an outside vendor walked up to me and asked me why I was being friendly with that N word .

He was told to get in his truck and leave Im over 6ft 200 pounds so he did not give me an argument  I wont tolerate it and neither will my customers .

When I got gas this summer at a gas station in Penn Hills a white man walked up to me after seeing a young African American girl  cut off another driver and he goes to me did you see that? I said yes he then goes into a explicit speech about her being to dumb to be a slave they would have just killed here down south.  I said her being inconsiderate has nothing to do with her race and I did not appreciate his words. He turned and left before I leveled  him.

I once did work for a real estate company in Oakland section of Pittsburgh and when I heard antisemitic statements coming out of the owners mouth  about Cheap Jews at. Then one day he asked me where I lived I said Penn Hills he said he moved and wondered how I could let my wife shop at the giant Eagles with all those blacks and was I worried about it. I told him no im not a bigot and never took another job off him.

Its a shame all the nasty bigotry I hear and see almost weekly in this are something I never see once I am out of Western P.a.

So was I surprised when New Life Temple was shot up? not at all knowing the amount of White Trash and human POS pieces of shit that live around me. in this area.

What breeds it I do not know because you are not born a racist ,but I do know we also have a high amount of those with mental Health issues in this are which causes the paranoia . Maybe it something in the water and ground after all the years of pollution spoiling it. But its more peoples own failings and wanting to blame somebody for something because they are a failure.

They knew how many Horses and donkeys they lost but not how many Coal Miners. The Tragic Story of the Worst Industrial Accident and loss of life in the US in the little town of Monongah Wv.

I visit the small quiet and unique town of Monongah West Virginia  several times a year as I take care of one of the oldest AM Radio broadcasting sites in the state WMMN 920 AM " The Ticket" owned by LHTC  Laurel Highlands Total Communications of WV. built in 1927

Riding thru the old coal mining town you would never suspect it was  once the scene of extreme carnage and grief or that it  played its part in the worst industrial accident in the united states in 1907,
that is till you drive by the town hall and there you find the  3 monuments to the tragedy

  The town is quiet today with some boarded up old business in the main section of town and a few old business that still operate along US 19  But this was not the case on
6th of December 1907 in what would be the deadliest year ever for loss of coal miners lives.
 

Officially 361 miners lost their lives that day in shaft 4 and 6 of the monongah mine but  the toll was much higher as many as 461 graves where dug for the miners many children and relatives who went into the mines that day to help the person hired by the mine so there was no record of them being there
 4 miner escaped the mine but later died of injury's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9Kdnn1HOU4

https://arlweb.msha.gov/DISASTER/MONONGAH/MONON1.asp

 

It was aprox. 10:20 am on a cold winter morning when the explosion in the Fairmont Coal company's Monongah 6&8 Shafts erupted shaking the entire town and lifting it nearly a foot  windows where broken as far as Fairmont 10 miles away  almost the entire upper part of the town was destroyed  from all the shaking.  There was total chaos all the local mining officials where missing or killed  luckily it was the feast of St. Nicholas and many of the miners being of Italian Heritage had taken the day off and went running to the mine some tried to rescue the trapped miners and quickly fell dead to the deadly gases.  The streets where soon  filled with coffins as help quickly arrived by train , trolley and wagon from nearby mining towns .  Fairmont Mining would not pay for head stones for the miners and where less than cooperative in helping the surviving families.

https://owlcation.com/humanities/Monongah-Mine-Disaster

This was just one of many horrific story's to come out of this tragedy you will read when   you do a google search of the disaster including the fact when they went back in to once again mine they would find body parts and just rebury them in the mine. The mining Company did not give one dam about the immigrants. 

However it did lead to better enforced safety rules in mines and this lead to fewer deaths each year. 

Mining today is by far safer than it ever has been and tragedy's like Farmington  still happen when rules are ignored and not enforced. 

:As a side note. Did you know that Pepperoni Rolls where invented by the coal miners of WV as a way to carry a nutritious lunch which held up in the mines instead of taking in a loaf of bread and sausage.