Firefighters utilizing the new Medford Fire-Rescue training facility at 2208 Table Rock Road will never get too familiar with the building’s interior, even if they use it hundreds of times. That’s because training officials can modify the 3,000-square-foot, three-story building with movable walls and completely transform the environment, making for a variety of residential dwellings.
- PUB DATE: 8/15/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Mail Tribune - Metered Site

Columbia-Richland County fire trucks are now fully staffed after the firefighters union claimed that short staffing was putting firefighters and some neighborhoods in danger. Fire Chief Aubrey Jenkins confirmed the trucks now are fully staffed, and he hasn’t yet needed to cut in other areas. “We’re going to leave it like this and then reevaluate,” he said.
- PUB DATE: 8/15/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The State

VIDEO: A C-130 nicknamed Zeus will be in San Diego County throughout the month of August, training Ramona-based pilots who normally fly CalFire's workhorse S-2 tankers. The pilots are training to fly the much bigger aircraft that will eventually join Cal Fire's fleet. The first thing you notice about the C-130 is that it's huge.
- PUB DATE: 8/15/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KNSD-TV NBC 7 San Diego

There’s a bipartisan push in Congress to change the work schedules for Federal Firefighters. Local Representatives Elaine Luria, Robert Wittman, Donald McEachin, and Bobby Scott signed a letter led by Representative Mary Gay Scanlon in support of federal firehouses adopting an alternative work schedule.
- PUB DATE: 8/15/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WVEC-TV ABC 13 Hampton

The FDNY confirmed Tuesday that one of its lieutenants died early Saturday morning of a heart attack after a 24-hour tour. "He was the heart of the firehouse, he always had a good word to say.""I was shocked. Brian was obviously in good shape, he was a strong guy," Thomas McHugh of Squad Company 41 said at a news conference.
- PUB DATE: 8/14/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Spectrum News NY1

The Toledo Fire & Rescue Department wants to enlist the help of a local minority-owned creative firm to increase diversity in its ranks, but some city councilmen aren’t sure they want to award the contract without first going to bid. Fire officials on Tuesday proposed contracting with Vince Rocha Productions LLC’s vCreative to produce a recruitment campaign for the department.
- PUB DATE: 8/14/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Toledo Blade

Despite pressure from a contingent of firefighters, the Aspen Fire Protection District Board declined Tuesday to begin formally looking into hiring paid firefighters. “If you ask for a hard decision now, the answer will be no to paid staffing,” board President Karl Adam said. “I am not willing to engage the public when I’m not sure where we’re going with this.
- PUB DATE: 8/14/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Aspen Times

The Houston Fire Department is trying to find a better way to allocate resources. They gave graduate students from Rice University data on emergency calls and asked them to identify trends. The students did an extensive analysis of 911 calls over the past several years and presented their findings Tuesday to Houston City Council.
- PUB DATE: 8/14/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KHOU-TV CBS 11 Houston

They’re exhausted. We told you Monday night about the shortage at the federal fire department tasked with keeping Naval Station Great Lakes safe, and how that shortage is affecting surrounding communities. On Tuesday, CBS 2’s Tara Molina took concerns to our elected officials. She learned that members of Congress are also asking the Navy why the shortage, and the issues it is creating, are not being addressed.
- PUB DATE: 8/14/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WBBM-TV CBS 2 Chicago

Wildfire smoke from the Williams Flats fire, burning on the Colville Indian Reservation, triggered a thunderstorm Thursday, and for one of the only times ever, scientists were able to fly through its clouds, photograph the phenomenon from a jet and take measurements from inside. The phenomenon, called a pyrocumulonimbus or PyroCb, “is essentially a thunderstorm that is created or driven by a wildfire,” said David Peterson, a meteorologist with the Naval Research Laboratory, giddy after Thursday’s flight.
- PUB DATE: 8/13/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Daily World

An abandoned house on West 13th Street was the site of a fire department demonstration Saturday morning. Envisioning a cool summer night about 10 p.m., the demonstration stated that crews were called to a working structure fire at Reid Avenue and 13th Street. Firefighters were met on the scene by a young man who said his baby was asleep upstairs when the fire broke out in the kitchen at the back of the house.
- PUB DATE: 8/13/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Chronicle Telegram

ISO, a Verisk (Nasdaq:VRSK) business and leading provider of advanced tools and analytics for the property/casualty insurance industry, and Intterra, a leading provider of software for fire departments across the United States, are partnering with the Western Fire Chiefs Association (WFCA) to explore new ways of analyzing and understanding wildfire risk.
- PUB DATE: 8/13/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: InsuranceNewsNet

VIDEO: Three of the five youngsters killed in a Sunday-morning fire at a Pennsylvania day care center were the children of a volunteer firefighter who was responding to another call several blocks away. The firefighter, Luther Jones, was with the Lawrence Park Volunteer Fire Department handling other calls while the neighboring Erie Fire Department battled the deadly flames at the Harris Family Day Care.
- PUB DATE: 8/13/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Fox News

Firefighters protect our forests and wildlands from destruction. They put their lives at risk to stop blazes before they threaten our communities. Apparel- and gear-maker Filson is celebrating their stories, and we share a few of them here in the series ‘Protectors of the Forest.’ Smokejumpers are specially trained wildland firefighters — and their training is grueling.
- PUB DATE: 8/13/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: GearJunkie

Smokey Bear, the recognizable mascot of wildfire prevention in the United States, turns 75 today. The U.S. Forest Service started the campaign in 1944 and used it to educate the American public on the dangers of forest fires. A live mascot, appropriately named Smokey, was added to the campaign in 1950.
- PUB DATE: 8/9/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: USA Today

An armed man reportedly wearing body armor and pushing a shopping cart at a Walmart store in Missouri on Thursday led a store manager to pull the fire alarm and sent customers fleeing -- but an armed off-duty firefighter was able to detain the man until police officers arrived, Springfield police said.
- PUB DATE: 8/9/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Fox News

The thought of flight and the consuming power of fire has fascinated mankind for centuries. Who hasn’t looked up wondering what it would be like to soar among the clouds? Who hasn’t sat mesmerized, staring into a campfire? The translucent red flames reaching toward the sky somehow hold us captive. For a select few, fire and flight go hand in hand.
- PUB DATE: 8/9/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KCET

It's a day meant to be remembered forever in scrapbooks: the first day of kindergarten, when parents walk their child to class for the first time. But for one Phoenix family, it was a bittersweet first day of kindergarten, as one parent was missing. Phoenix firefighter Brian Beck, Jr., tragically lost his battle with occupational cancer in May of this year.
- PUB DATE: 8/9/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: AZFamily.com

The Bureau of Land Management Idaho Falls District has transferred surplus wildland fire engines and equipment to 34 fire programs— including two Rangeland Fire Protection Associations —across eastern Idaho. The transfers are part of BLM’s effort to respond to rural wildland fires by giving excess equipment and supplies to local fire departments and RFPAs.
- PUB DATE: 8/9/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Idaho State Journal

Prince George’s County Fire Chief (PGFD) Benjamin Barksdale announced his retirement on July 30 from the department effective Oct. 31, when current Chief Deputy Tiffany Green will take over as interim chief. Green’s new appointment will not become official until the county council confirms it, but her promotion marks the county’s first African American female chief and the continuation of an increasing trend in female fire chiefs in the state.
- PUB DATE: 8/8/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Prince George's Sentinel