At the request of Mayor London Breed, the San Francisco Fire Commission is reopening its selection process for a new chief, after the firefighters union raised concerns that the number of in-house candidates with long firefighting experience was insufficient. According to Fire Commission President Ken Cleveland, the Human Resources Department forwarded 36 candidates to the commission, along with their answers to eight pages of questions on everything from management and budget issues to emergency medical and high rise fire procedures.
- PUB DATE: 1/7/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle

An FDNY firefighter is dead after falling nearly 60 feet off the Mill Basin Bridge in Brooklyn Sunday night. Fire officials say Steven Pollard, 30, of Ladder Company 170 was responding to a two-car accident with injuries around 10 p.m. on the bridge along the Belt Parkway. NY1 is told he slipped through a gap in the bridge and fell 52 feet into a construction site below, as he crossed from the eastbound to the westbound lanes.
- PUB DATE: 1/7/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Spectrum News NY1

One Eastern Iowa firefighter was killed and another was seriously injured when an explosion rocked an ADM plant. Eric Hosette, 33, died Saturday in the incident at the Archer Daniels Midland plant in Clinton. Adam Cain, 23, was in critical but stable condition Saturday night at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City, officials said.
- PUB DATE: 1/7/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Gazette

Savannah’s city manager says the local fire union isn’t telling the whole story in recent social media posts about the cuts to the department. Tweets from the local fire union blast the city for taking a fire engine out of service, saying another reduction could be coming any day now. The tweets have been frequent and consistent in their message.
- PUB DATE: 1/7/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WTOC 11

Doctors told Steve Dillman the throat cancer he was diagnosed with in 2008 came from smoking. He knew it didn't. "I thought it had to be job-related because I've never smoked a day in my life. I don't chew. I don't drink excessively ... and that's the three main criterias," he says. But Dillman did spend 38 years as an Indianapolis firefighter — and that included running into burning buildings.
- PUB DATE: 1/7/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NPR

At the request of Mayor London Breed, the San Francisco Fire Commission is reopening its selection process for a new chief, after the firefighters union raised concerns that number of in-house candidates with long firefighting experience was insufficient. According to Fire Commission President Ken Cleveland, the Human Resources Department forwarded 36 candidates to the commission, along with their answers to eight pages of questions on everything from management and budget issues to emergency medical and high rise fire procedures.
- PUB DATE: 1/7/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle

For the second time in less than a week, the Spokane Valley Fire Department has announced the death of a former fire captain, and again, work-related exposure to toxins is suspected as the cause. On Friday, the department announced that former Capt. Tim Cruger, 67, died of cancer caused from exposure to smoke while on the job.
- PUB DATE: 1/4/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Spokesman Review

Despite vehement opposition from the mayor and some Colorado Springs City Council members, the local firefighters union has collected enough signatures to place a collective bargaining question on the city’s April ballot. All that’s left is a vote next week by the council, a formality because the Professional Firefighters Association, IAFF Local 5, collected about 16,000 signatures that were validated late last month, City Clerk Sarah Johnson said.
- PUB DATE: 1/4/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Colorado Springs Gazette

Mayor Catherine Pugh has promised the Fire Department an extra $1.2 million fire truck in her 2020 fiscal year budget, the department said Thursday, after the firefighters union warned that two out-of-service trucks in Northwest Baltimore could affect response times. IAFF Local 734 President Richard “Dickie” Altieri said the city is seeing a “ripple effect” from repeatedly “pushing problems back another year.
- PUB DATE: 1/4/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Baltimore Sun

Two of Cambridge’s minority firefighters said they have never experienced racism or sexism in the department, but did have some ideas of how to increase diversity. Dave House, an African-American fire captain, said he would like to see more outreach to young people on social platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook.
- PUB DATE: 1/4/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Wicked Local Cambridge

Portland Fire Chief Mike Myers submitted his resignation Thursday, the day after his new boss, Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, was sworn into office. Myers’ resignation comes amid his push to reimagine Portland Fire & Rescue from top to bottom, efforts that earned him respect and praise in City Hall. He left for a personal reason, to join his wife who has moved to the Oregon coast, he and Hardesty said.
- PUB DATE: 1/4/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Portland Oregonian, Hillsboro Argus, Oregon Live.com

Jan Rader, the first female fire chief in West Virginia, is making a big impact on Huntington's fight against the opioid epidemic. In her Ted Talk released Wednesday, Rader said Huntington's overdose deaths are down 50 percent. "This epidemic is far from over, but each and every one of us has a part to play in this epidemic.
- PUB DATE: 1/3/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: CBS News This Morning

A new law taking effect in 2019, will help first responders dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder get coverage through workers’ compensation. Brian Cristofono landed his dream job as a firefighter in Maplewood and eventually moved to a St. Paul department. It was the job he always knew was in his blood.
- PUB DATE: 1/3/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Fox 9 News

VIDEO: In an emergency, we depend on the swift actions of firefighters. But what happens if the firefighters turn on each other? An incident in Prince George's County between two fire departments led to two people on leave.
- PUB DATE: 1/3/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: ABC 7 News

Cranston’s deputy fire chief asked last week to seal a case documenting a disorderly conduct charge linked to his dispute with a fellow firefighter in September 2017. Deputy Chief Paul Valletta Jr., 60, on Dec. 11 entered a not-guilty filing to one count of disorderly conduct, meaning the case will be expunged from the court record if he obeys the law for a year.
- PUB DATE: 1/3/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Providence Journal

Just before noon Monday, the Fire Department received an emergency call about "an odor of gas coming from the basement" of a Broadway business. No fire was found, but the call was just one of hundreds of gas-related complaints last year in the city. Fire Chief Brian Moriarty expects such calls will continue in the new year in the wake of the Sept.
- PUB DATE: 1/3/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Eagle Tribune

A volunteer firefighter with the Lake Mills Fire Department is dead after stopping to help a driver on the Beltline near Monona Drive on New Year's Eve. The Dane County Medical Examiner’s Office said preliminary results of an autopsy confirm that 46-year-old Christopher P. Truman of Lake Mills died from injuries sustained in the crash.
- PUB DATE: 1/2/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WMTV NBC Madison

Detroit fire officials are investigating a suspicious fire at the department's former training center and whether sensitive records were left behind at the site. The fire started about 2 p.m. Thursday at the Fire Department's abandoned training academy at Warren and Lawton on Detroit's west side. The fire originated on the second floor of the six-story building, said Deputy Fire Commissioner Dave Fornell.
- PUB DATE: 1/2/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Detroit News

The owners of The Sub and and an adjoining business, which were destroyed in a 2015 fire, are suing the city of San Luis Obispo for more than $5 million, claiming that firefighters’ methods used to combat the blaze were “tantamount to arson.” The lawsuit, filed Monday in San Luis Obispo Superior Court, alleges the Fire Department purposefully burned down the structure rather than put firefighters in harm’s way, and that city administration turns a blind eye to the department’s alleged “unwritten policies” of letting buildings burn.
- PUB DATE: 1/2/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: San Luis Obispo County Tribune

On New Year's Eve in St. Louis hundreds of shots were fired into the sky to celebrate the new year, and according to Issac Newton, they all landed somewhere. One of them ended up in a St. Louis firehouse, narrowly missing a firefighter. "It just so happen that the bullet came through the window adjacent to where he was standing and missed him," said St.
- PUB DATE: 1/2/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KSDK-TV NBC 5 St. Louis