Firefighters jumped into action when an industrial facility went up in flames in Southwest Philadelphia on Monday night. They performed a high-risk move, shutting off a valve within feet of the flames.
It happened around 6:45 p.m. at the Point Breeze Terminal located along the 6300 block of Passyunk Avenue. - PUB DATE: 12/17/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WPVI-TV ABC 6 Philadelphia
The Dallas Fire Fighters Association is hoping to recruit Houston firefighters days after Sylvester Turner was elected to his second four-year term as mayor.
Houston's Proposition B, the voter-approved pay parity plan for Houston firefighters, has caused turmoil between HFD and the city of Houston. - PUB DATE: 12/17/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KTRK-TV ABC 13 News Houston
Alexandria acting fire chief Corey A. Smedley will step up to the role for good, becoming the first black permanent fire chief in the Virginia city’s history.
On the heels of what Alexandria City Manager Mark B. Jinks described as a nationally competitive recruitment effort, the city announced on Monday it opted to promote Smedley from his current role as acting fire chief — a position which he has held since the retirement of chief Robert C. - PUB DATE: 12/17/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WTOP News
Scranton Fire Chief Patrick DeSarno gave notice Monday he will resign from his position effective Jan. 3, Mayor Wayne Evans said.
DeSarno accepted a job offer in another field, the mayor said. The decision was not unexpected, Evans said.
“I appreciate his doing this and of course I wish him well in the future and thank him for his service,” the mayor said. - PUB DATE: 12/17/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse
Mark Hatch said it started four years ago with a simple idea scrawled onto a Post-it note: Make a wall of fame plaque honoring the paramedics of the Burbank Fire Department.
The battalion chief’s idea became a reality on Thursday when the agency formally unveiled its Paramedic Wall of Fame to a crowd of about 50 former and current members of the department’s emergency medical services division, along with their family members. - PUB DATE: 12/17/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Los Angeles Times - Metered Site
Bodega Bay’s financially struggling firefighting agency could have a new name, more firefighters and more paramedics under a plan that would expand the growing Sonoma County Fire District next year — but only if the Board of Supervisors ponies up as much as $2.5 million a year to make it happen.
The 66-year-old coast agency and the 100-year-old Russian River Fire Protection District both want to join Sonoma County Fire, the latest in a series of moves meant to consolidate and modernize the county’s far-flung and somewhat antiquated fire services network. - PUB DATE: 12/16/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Press Democrat - Metered Site
VIDEO: First responders rescued a man trapped in an upside down submerged vehicle in Liberty Bay Saturday morning.
The Poulsbo Fire and Police departments responded to the scene of the rollover accident off Fjord Drive around 8:40 a.m. The vehicle went off the roadway into Liberty Bay south of the Poulsbo Yacht Club, according to Poulsbo Fire Department spokesperson Jody Matson. - PUB DATE: 12/16/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KING 5 News
A Quincy-based addiction treatment company is looking to open a facility in Canton that would include a specialized wing for first responders.
ARK Behavioral Health has proposed converting the shuttered Kindred-Tower Hill nursing home, nestled at the end of Getchell Way near Randolph, into a substance-use treatment facility that could help up to 160 people at a time through the first steps of recovery. - PUB DATE: 12/16/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Patriot Ledger
According to the National Volunteer Fire Council, 65% of all firefighters in the United States in 2016 were volunteers.
But the number of people joining volunteer fire departments is on the decline, and not just in Daviess County.
"The volunteer service on the fire side is really suffering," said Randy Lawson, executive director for the Kentucky Firefighter's Association. - PUB DATE: 12/16/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Messenger-Inquirer
There’s something about the scene that unfolds when the tones sound and fire trucks race out of the City of Newburgh fire headquarters on Grand Street, said acting Chief Terry Ahlers.
He watched Thursday afternoon as the firemen did their dance, jumping out of their everyday shoes, slipping on turnout gear and hopping in two trucks. - PUB DATE: 12/16/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Record Online - Metered Site
Kevin Leago, the trailblazing Houston firefighter with cancer who fought City Hall to provide workers compensation benefits for his illness — and won — died Thursday. He was 40.
Leago’s victory in court over city lawyers who argued his illness was unrelated to on-the-job carcinogen exposure set a precedent for dozens of current and retired Houston firefighters stricken with cancer, Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association President Marty Lancton said. - PUB DATE: 12/13/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Houston Chronicle
VIDEO: A new public service announcement from the Honolulu Fire Department that began airing recently features a wake up call on the dangers of house fires.
The PSA shows a boy, his father and pet dog asleep while actually succumbing to the impacts of smoke ? without even knowing it.
“This boy is dying. - PUB DATE: 12/13/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Hawaii News Now
Every firefighter knows a call can come at any time.
But the Rev. Dave Driesch and the Rev. Tim McGill serve a God as well as their community — meaning their pagers go off while they’re praying or leading a service. Driesch, a veteran firefighter and Catholic priest who is prior of Daylesford Abbey, is helping newbie firefighter and Southern Baptist minister McGill, pastor of Paoli Community Church, balance both worlds. - PUB DATE: 12/13/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Philadelphia Inquirer - Metered Site
The union representing Chicago firefighters wants a Cook County judge to halt the promotion of more than a dozen department members to battalion chief.
The Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2 filed a motion for an injunction in Cook County Circuit Court on Tuesday that seeks to stop the promotions — set to take effect Dec. - PUB DATE: 12/13/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Chicago Sun Times
Unable to find a candidate willing to take on the role as their new fire chief, the city of Falcon Heights voted Wednesday to have Roseville’s fire department assume the chief’s responsibilities for one year.
The unanimous vote by Falcon Heights’ City Council comes several weeks after Roseville’s council agreed to the $40,000 contract, in which they would take responsibility for all administrative and command services, as well as a department-wide audit. - PUB DATE: 12/13/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Twin Cities Pioneer Press
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms on Wednesday announced that the city would provide firefighters an average raise of nearly 20 percent.
The raises will go into effect this January.Fire Chief Randall B. Slaughter called the raises historic.
“This pay raise represents the single largest pay enhancement to firefighters in this city in my 29 year career,” Slaughter said. - PUB DATE: 12/12/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Atlanta Journal Constitution
Phoenix Fire Department Chief Kara Kalkbrenner announced in a message to the department Wednesday that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer.
Kalkbrenner, who was sworn in as the first woman to lead the department in December 2014, said in the message she will undergo a double mastectomy and reconstruction surgery this Friday. - PUB DATE: 12/12/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: AZ Central
Never far from the busy engines of Los Angeles’s Fire Station 9 on Skid Row is a man known by everyone in the area as 'Mango.'
Even though he can often be found wearing an LAFD cap and jacket designating him as the “Fire Traffic Officer,” he is not an official member of L.A. City Fire. But when the calls fire off at Station 9, Mango springs into action, just like the crews. - PUB DATE: 12/12/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Spectrum News
Chattanooga Fire Department Capt. Skyler Phillips fought back tears Tuesday as he told City Council members the story of a nearly blind woman with broken glasses who used to regularly call 911 seeking help after tripping and falling.
This fall, the department launched a new program, CFD Connect, that seeks to connect frequent non-emergency 911 callers with social services that proactively address their problems before they turn to calling for emergency help. - PUB DATE: 12/12/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Chattanooga Times Free Press
Local first responders are talking about ongoing issues they face when responding to 911 calls. Fire and EMS providers now rely on GPS systems that sometimes take them far from where they need to go.
Fire Chief Jerry Hanson says it’s an issue for East Prospect Fire Company about once a month.
“There was a fire last month on Otter Street, which is literally two miles from here, but the way it came up on mapping, it wanted me to go to Columbia,” Hanson said. - PUB DATE: 12/12/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WHTM-TV ABC 27 News
