6 departments fight storage facility fire

6 departments fight
storage facility fire

HOWLAND — Fifty firefighters from six fire departments fought a three-alarm blaze early Sunday at the Storage Zone commercial storage facility at 3055 North River Road, N.E. Howland firefighters were joined by their colleagues from Cortland and from Bazetta, Champion, Vienna and Warren townships in battling the 4:54 a.m. blaze. The first firefighters on the scene found two storage buildings ablaze, and the cause is under investigation. No damage estimate was available Sunday.

Rock-slide project

PITTSBURGH — The state is beginning an $8.5 million Route 28 road project aimed at stopping persistent rock slides in the area. The project is to start in March. It is the first major project on that strip of road since it was built in the early 1970s. The project will include blasting away sections of eroding rock face, filling voids to prevent erosion, widening the catch basin at the foot of the hill and building a 1,600 foot protective fence.

SRU gets grant for vets

PITTSBURGH — Slippery Rock University will use a $25,000 grant to introduce activities aimed at attracting wounded war veterans to the school. The latest grant from the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation will be used to launch wheelchair basketball and rugby programs.

Officials hope such activities will attract veterans wounded in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Veterans of older wars are already enrolled at Slippery Rock. The Reeve Foundation has awarded the university more than $108 million in grants in the past five years.

Scanning plates

CINCINNATI — Police in Cincinnati are using cameras mounted on a cruiser to scan the license plates of other vehicles. The cameras send data to a computer database that checks for unpaid parking tickets and other traffic violations.

The system was installed on one police car last September and has since scanned more than 300,000 license plates, leading to 8,600 matches for violations. Police will begin installing the computerized system on seven additional vehicles March 1. It costs about $26,000 per cruiser.

Vindicator staff and wire reports