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With the high cost of land these days, condo and office developers are building up. But does your city have the high-rise firefighting trucks it needs to protect those taller buildings? Florida Today found, a few weeks ago, that the answer on Florida's Space Coast is "No."

A Florida Today computer-assisted analysis of property records, ladder-truck locations and insurance-industry standards shows that more than one-fourth of the 378 buildings four stories or taller are beyond the recommended range of a ladder truck.

Industry standards say ladder trucks are needed to perform rescues and fight fires in buildings four stories or taller.

Older tourist cities with many high-rise hotels and condos -- namely Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral -- appear well-protected.

But more residential neighborhoods in the South Beaches that have experienced a recent condominium boom lie outside the safety radius established by the fire protection industry, or are in cities with ladder trucks that don't reach the higher floors.

"Honestly, it's scary," said Melbourne Beach resident Tanya Apt, who also owns a condo at the six-story Tidewater condominium in Aquarina. "If there's a fire, we need help quickly."

To give you an example of how you might go after the story, here is how the paper cited specific examples of problems:

Interviews and records, however, indicate [Brevard] county and its cities are approving tower projects without evaluating whether their fire departments can protect them:

• The three new eight-story Ocean Dunes towers in Aquarina are 30 minutes or 16 miles from the nearest ladder truck, in Melbourne.
• The three 98-foot towers in Satellite Beach are only minutes away from the nearest ladder truck, in Indialantic, but it only reaches five stories when fully extended.
• Merritt Island's newest tower, the 11-story Island Pointe condo, is more than five minutes away and across the Indian River from the nearest ladder truck, a 75-footer in downtown Cocoa.
• Melbourne's recently approved 120-foot downtown towers are only blocks away from the nearest ladder truck, but its reach is only 70 feet. The city isn't scheduled to buy a 100-foot ladder until 2009.

"It sounds very reckless that permits are being given out, but nobody is thinking about it," said David Dasgupta, spokesman for Insurance Services [Office], [a] national [organization] that rates communities' firefighting readiness.

Here is a link to ISO's "Public Protection Classification" program.

"Gas Mouth" and Locking Gas Caps

My old friend and longtime Al's Morning Meeting reader Orpheus Allison, from Shanghai, China, tells me that, as gas prices soar there, too, there are increasing reports of "gas mouth." That is what happens when somebody tries to siphon gasoline out of a tank by sucking on a tube. He reminds me to ask you if you have heard of an increase in gas-tank thefts since this latest price spike began.

I have seen a few stories about siphoning thefts. Here is one from San Jose.

It looks as though locking gas cap sales began picking up a few months ago, when gas prices started to leap upwards. And it seems as though the trend continues, according to a Pep Boys news release earlier this month. Here are some stories:

• Residents Concerned About Reports of Gas Siphoning WLNS (Lansing, Mich.) -- May 6, 2006
• Sales of locking gas caps brisk Seattle Post-Intelligencer -- May 9, 2006
• Hybrids, locking gas caps in vogue Times-Herald (Vallejo, Calif.) -- May 5, 2006
  

Cost of Wiring Money Dropping

A new study by the Inter-American Development Bank and the Annie E. Casey Foundation says competition has forced the cost of wiring money way down. It is no small thing, the report suggests, since Latin American and Caribbean emigrants wired about $53.6 billion home to relatives last year. Nearly three-quarters of that amount, the study said, came from the United States.

The Washington Post summarizes:

The fees charged to send money from the United States to Latin America have dropped from about 15 percent before 2000 to 5.6 percent last year, meaning the cost of sending $200 went from about $30 to $11. The report covered only licensed money-transfer companies. 

Good Pets Gone Bad

The Tampa (Fla.) Tribune discovered that cats in the Tampa Bay area generated more complaints to local animal-control departments than dogs. Here is more from the paper's report:

Records from [Hillsborough County's Department of] Animal Services show that 1,219 animals caused 1,382 bites and scratches reported during the past 12 months, 221 involving children ages 1 to 12. At least 400 bites have been reported since Jan. 1.

The worst offender is the domestic shorthair cat, the culprit in 341 incidents.

The second-worst is the pit bull, a classification that includes the American Staffordshire and Staffordshire bull terrier. These were involved in a total of 309 incidents.

Wildlife such as raccoons, bats, rats, squirrels, a ferret and a hawk bit or scratched in 51 cases.

Most people are bitten by a cat while tending to one they think is a stray, said Dennis McCullough, the agency's investigations supervisor. They feed the animal and try to pick it up or pet it, and it lashes out. Cat scratches can transmit rabies because the animals lick their paws and interact with wildlife.

Most dog bites, however, occur closer to home, usually by the family pet or a familiar dog, he said.

States Adopting Hospital Infection-Disclosure Laws

The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention say about 250 people die each day from infections they pick up in the hospital. The CDC estimates that two million Americans suffer from infections they acquire in the hospital every year -- and 90,000 of those patients die.

Now, states have begun requiring hospitals to publicly disclose how many of their patients develop infections during treatment. 

The Consumer's Union (publisher of Consumer Reports) points out:

Prior to this year, hospital infection reporting requirements were adopted by six states: Illinois, Pennsylvania, Florida, Missouri, Virginia, and New York. The Maryland General Assembly passed reporting bills in April of this year and a Vermont health agency is implementing a state committee's recommendations for hospital infection reporting and is expected to issue its first report in June.