plus 3, Toyota's 2010 Camry Added to Recall List - CBS News

Toyota's 2010 Camry Added to Recall List - CBS News
Iced, hidden hydrants impede firefighting efforts near Hermanie - PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Automobiles : BOATS & WATERCRAFTS - Frederick News-Post
Toyota apologizes, tries to regain trust - Courier-Post

Toyota's 2010 Camry Added to Recall List - CBS News

Posted: 09 Feb 2010 11:23 PM PST

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Iced, hidden hydrants impede firefighting efforts near Hermanie - PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Posted: 09 Feb 2010 11:38 PM PST

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Frozen hydrants hindered firefighters early Tuesday as a fast-moving blaze destroyed a Sewickley Township auto repair shop.

Geiger's Auto Sales and Service on Sunshine Road near Herminie caught fire just after 4 a.m., emergency officials said. The building was a total loss.

"It went pretty quick," said Frank Fiyme, who lives across the street and watched the fire spread from a back corner of the building. "They were throwing down the hoses, but it moved fast. It was fully engaged in 20 minutes."

While there is a fire hydrant about 50 feet away from the building, Herminie fire Chief Eric Kline said that once firefighters had dug through snow to reach it, they found the water had frozen. Another nearby hydrant also was frozen, forcing them to rely on one about 2,000 feet away, along with tanker trucks that shuttled water from up to a mile away.

"With this type of weather, that's what you have to deal with," Kline said. "Once we established water, it took about 25 minutes (to put out the fire). By that point, it was pretty well off."

Firefighters covered the smoldering remnants of the fire with foam, Kline said, but a crew had to return in the late morning to extinguish a few remaining hot spots after passersby noticed flames.

By afternoon, smoke could still be seen rising through twisted steel girders. The smell of burnt tires hung in the air, and inside the ruins a charred minivan was buckled over a lift.

Owner Johnny Geiger said a customer's vehicle and two collectible cars were destroyed along with the structure. The business, which Geiger had operated since 1991, was insured.

Kline said the cause of the fire was under investigation.

With another snow storm on the way, Kline worried that firefighters would continue to face difficult conditions.

"I urge the residents of Sewickley Township, if at all possible, if they have a hydrant near their house to at least dig it out," he said.

Murrysville fire Chief Al Dover seconded Kline's request. A fire Monday afternoon destroyed a home under construction in the municipality, and Dover said firefighters discovered that one of two hydrants near the site was buried in snow.

"Even just getting to the hydrants that are covered by two to three feet of snow, somebody could have any type of injury," he said. "We're asking people, if you know you have a hydrant, go out and dig it out."

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Automobiles : BOATS & WATERCRAFTS - Frederick News-Post

Posted: 09 Feb 2010 11:02 PM PST

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Toyota apologizes, tries to regain trust - Courier-Post

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 12:06 AM PST

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WASHINGTON — In public, Toyota is running apologetic TV ads and vowing to win back customers' trust. Behind the scenes, the besieged carmaker is trying to learn all it can about congressional investigations, maybe even steer them if it can.

It's part of an all-out drive by the world's biggest auto manufacturer to redeem its once unassailable brand -- hit anew on Tuesday as Toyota's global recall ballooned to 8.5 million cars and trucks. The day's safety recall of 440,000 of its flagship Prius and other hybrids, plus a Tokyo news conference where the company's president read a statement pledging to "regain the confidence of our customers," underscored a determination to keep buyers' faith from sinking to unrecoverable depths.

In Washington, facing congressional inquiries and government investigations, Toyota through its lawyers and lobbyists is working full-speed to salvage its reputation. The confidential strategy -- Toyota will say little publicly about its efforts -- includes efforts to sway upcoming hearings on Capitol Hill and is based on experiences by companies that have survived similar consumer and political crises -- and those that haven't.

Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich, said Toyota representatives visited his offices seeking to learn all they could.

"They're probing us. "What are you going to ask us, where are you going with this whole thing?' " said Stupak, who is chairman of a House subcommittee looking into Toyota's problems.

Toyota, which reported spending more than $4 million on lobbying last year, declined to discuss details of its plans. The company has "beefed up our team" by hiring additional lobbyists, lawyers and public relations experts to "work with regulators and lawmakers collaboratively towards a successful recall effort, ensuring proper, diligent compliance," spokeswoman Cindy Knight said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

Rough headlines for Toyota continued Tuesday. In other developments:

State Farm, the largest U.S. auto insurer, said it had informed federal regulators late in 2007 about growing reports of unexpected acceleration in Toyotas. That disclosure raised new questions about whether the government missed clues about problems. Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Stupak wrote insurance executives seeking information on any warnings they may have provided the government about unintended acceleration in Toyotas.

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