Pittsburg, PA
AAA hosts steering wheel lock giveaway
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Hyundai and Kia drivers know there have been problems over the past few years with car thefts.
On Saturday, AAA and three partners were in East Liberty to give out devices for Kia and Hyundai owners to help defend their cars.
It’s about providing a layer of protection for Hyundai and Kia owners. They armed those who showed up with steering wheel lock devices.
Ike Hamilton wouldn’t want his golden Hyundai gone.
“I want to protect my vehicle as well, so that’s why I’m here,” Hamilton said.
Yellow club-like locks are what AAA partnered with Pittsburgh and Allegheny County Police to give out.
“They’ve been around for years. They are an effective deterrent,” Jim Garrity of AAA East Central said.
They stop people from getting behind the wheel and stealing these cars. It’s something Pittsburgh Police Chief Larry Scirotto says has happened over 140 times since May of this year.
“It’s not organized crime,” Scirotto said. “They’re not stealing them for profit; they’re stealing them for fun.”
Scirotto said a lot of the culprits are young people. All parties involved in Saturday’s event said there are basic steps people can also take.
“Not leaving your keys in the car, not leaving your cars unlocked, is really important,” Scirotto said.
“It’s just one extra thing that these vehicle owners can do,” Garrity said.
And Ike Hamilton is going the extra mile.
“I’m spreading the word to everybody else who needs a club,” he said.
AAA says it has at least four more of these events planned over the next couple of months.
A list of planned future events is below:
White Oak: Oct. 21, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Washington: Oct. 21, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Wexford: Oct. 23, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
McMurray: Nov. 18, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Locations for these events were not provided to KDKA-TV at the time of this report.
Pittsburg, PA
Public safety officials warn against walking on Pittsburgh’s frozen rivers
As ice continues to build on Pittsburgh’s three rivers, people are taking the risk of walking across the ice despite warnings from public safety officials and scientists.
Around 6 p.m. on Saturday, a few individuals could be seen walking from the North Shore to Point State Park. Others took pictures with a navigation buoy. In both cases, officers and park rangers encouraged people to come to shore. The situation kept repeating like a game of icy Whac-A-Mole.
Around the same time, on the river by the Mr. Rogers statue, Jermaine and Ashton, two men in their early 20s who didn’t want to give their last names, sprinted across the ice, dropping on their stomachs to continue sliding.
“It’s an adrenaline rush,” one of them said. “We’re having fun.”
Also on the ice was a family, including two young children.
“We’re having a great time seeing the frozen river,” the father said. “If there was nobody here, I wouldn’t have dared to come this far, even.”
Despite acknowledging she was scared, the mother said they did it anyway.
While not necessarily illegal, National Weather Service Pittsburgh meteorologist Jason Frazier said walking on the ice amounts to taking a dangerous risk.
“It’s definitely something we discourage,” Frazier said. “What people don’t maybe realize is that while the ice appears like it’s nice and solid, maybe thick, the thickness can actually be very different in a lot of different places of the river.
Ice thickness ranged from six inches to one inch to spots without ice, Frazier said. Unlike a lake, he said, rivers have a moving current underneath, which leads to varying thicknesses.
“If you actually do find a crack that’s maybe because of snow cover, you could fall in and be transported away from the spot you fall in,” Frazier said.
Both groups KDKA-TV spoke with had the same line of thinking about why they were safe, saying they stayed close to the shore where the water was shallow. That was more the case for the family than it was for the two young men.
“We can still say that there are dangers even on those shoreline areas,” Frazier said.
Both are due to friction on the shorelines that disrupts ice formation and snow covering cracks in the ice, and if you fall in, even there, consider the water temperature is at or below freezing.
First responders are also at risk when people go on ice because they could get called in for a rescue, Frazier said.
Around 9:30 Saturday night, yet another person was walking in the middle of the Allegheny, roughly from the Fort Duquesne to the Clemente bridges.
Pittsburg, PA
Code Orange Air Quality Action Day declared for parts of Allegheny County on Saturday
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection declared a “Code Orange Air Quality Action Day” for parts of Allegheny County on Saturday, January 31.
According to the DEP, the reason for the declaration is fine particulate matter in the Liberty-Clariton area. That includes Clairton City, Glassport Borough, Liberty Borough, Lincoln Borough, and Port Vue Borough.
Due to a strong temperature inversion in the morning, the level of fine particulate matter in the air will be in the code orange range. The DEP said that while concentrations will decrease in the afternoon, levels will remain at the code orange level.
On a code orange day, young children, the elderly, and those who have respiratory problems are asked to limit outdoor activities. Residents are also asked to do their part to help reduce air pollution by reducing the use of fireplaces and wooden stoves, avoiding burning leaves, trash, and other materials, and avoiding the use of gas-powered lawn and gardening equipment.
For those living in the area, they can check the current conditions at this link.
The DEP explained that the fine particulate matter in the area can be emitted from sources such as construction sites, unpaved roads, fields, smokestacks, or fires.
Pittsburg, PA
Small fire extinguished at Jake’s Fireworks HQ in Pittsburg | Newstalk KZRG – KZRG-AM
No injuries were reported after a small fire at the Jake’s Fireworks corporate headquarters in Pittsburg, Kansas, Friday morning.
Officials say it happened around 10:30am when the company’s alarm system went off and was able to alert staff to evacutate.
“Local fire and police departments responded quickly and were able to contain and extinguish the fire within a short period of time,” said Chief Human Resources Officer Doug VanBecelaere. “The incident was isolated to the maintenance building located on the southeast corner of the warehouse property.”
They closed the facility early but plan to reopen for normal operations on Monday.
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