When St. Petersburg Fire Rescue responded to a call about a self-inflicted gunshot suicide Tuesday evening, the emergency crew discovered the victim was one of their own.
"We're seeing a real spike in suicides," James Large, St. Petersburg Fire Rescue Chief, said.
More first responders died by suicide last year than in the line of duty. - PUB DATE: 12/20/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WFLA-TV NBC 8
Wayne County prosecutors kicked a warrant request back to the Detroit Police Department in the case of a fire union official accused of publicly sharing sensitive information about witnesses in a homicide case.
Police Chief James Craig confirmed earlier this month that detectives were investigating social media posts by Mike Nevin, president of the Detroit Fire Fighters Association. - PUB DATE: 12/20/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Detroit Free Press
At a time when firefighter associations nationwide are struggling to keep afloat, nearly $245 million sits untouched in a fund designed to help New Jersey firefighters — thanks to an “antiquated” law restricting its use, the state comptroller asserted Wednesday.
The money — collected through a tax and intended for the New Jersey State Firemen’s Association, as well as the state’s 538 local relief associations — has barely been touched in decades, and the state nonprofit’s monitoring of its use has been flawed, according to Comptroller Philip James Degnan. - PUB DATE: 12/20/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Philly.com
A released video shows a fire engine running away without a driver behind the wheel. While it may seem comical at first watch, when you watch it again and again, you will hopefully realize the seriousness of this incident.
While fireground safety is always a concern for every firefighter and incident commander, we really don’t think or consider the danger of a runaway engine – because it’s not supposed to be a part of our consideration. - PUB DATE: 12/20/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1
Officials are pushing for the reinstatement of FDNY Engine Company 261 to support the growing population of Long Island City.
Politicians, firefighter union leaders and local residents say it was a mistake to remove the firehouse from active use 15 years ago during Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s time, reports CBS2’s Dave Carlin. - PUB DATE: 12/20/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: CBS New York
The ex-con accused of beating a FDNY firefighter to death in a road-rage incident faced a line of angry Bravest on Tuesday as cops walked him out of a Brooklyn police station.
Joseph Desmond, 29, a reputed Latin Kings gang member, kept his head down as he exited the 62nd Precinct stationhouse in Bath Beach and filed past the silent firefighters. - PUB DATE: 12/19/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Daily News
A former Marine diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after combat service in Afghanistan filed a discrimination lawsuit against the city last week after being rejected for a job as a city firefighter.
Brett D’Alessandro claimed in his lawsuit that he finished third on a civil service test for one of the Paterson Fire Department jobs in 2017 and was then sent to the Institute for Forensic Psychology, which is based in Oakland, for an evaluation. - PUB DATE: 12/19/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: North Jersey.com (Bergen County Record & Herald News)
Investigators on Tuesday arrested a 28-year-old woman suspected of posing as a firefighter’s wife and collecting more than $2,000 in donations for firefighters battling the Holy fire that she then kept for herself, authorities said.
Ashley Bemis, of San Juan Capistrano, posted photos on multiple social media pages of herself and her “fictitious firefighter husband” asking for donations, said the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. - PUB DATE: 12/19/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
A state district judge on Tuesday dissolved a temporary restraining order blocking implementation of the voter-approved charter amendment granting pay parity to Houston firefighters and denied further attempts by the city and police union to delay the measure.
State District Judge Randy Wilson, ruling in favor of the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association, decided that voters were informed of the amendment’s price tag — more than $100 million a year — before the election and approved it anyway. - PUB DATE: 12/19/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Houston Chronicle
An Orange County doctor has been arrested on suspicion of illegally selling powerful narcotics to a man who is suspected in a DUI crash that killed a Costa Mesa fire captain, as well as selling drugs to five people who went on to fatally overdose, local officials with the Justice Department announced Tuesday. - PUB DATE: 12/19/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KTLA News 5
A firefighter who was run over by a pickup truck during last month's deadly Southern California wildfire was sleeping in an unmarked area but received prompt care for his minor injuries, a new state fire report said.
South Kitsap Fire & Rescue Lt. Terry Geiselman, 46, was with a team from Washington state that had arrived to help battle the Woolsey Fire that ripped through communities west of Los Angeles from Ventura County southward to Malibu. - PUB DATE: 12/18/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: San Luis Obispo County Tribune
Two Columbus firefighter-paramedics were suspended without pay for taking photographs of medical patients without their permission and sending them to others.
The Department of Public Safety announced the suspensions Monday afternoon.
Firefighter-paramedic Mike McConnell, an eight-year veteran of the division, admitted to taking photographs and video in 2016 of a patient. - PUB DATE: 12/18/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Columbus Dispatch
When Christine Uhlhorn was in kindergarten and was asked to draw a picture of what she wanted to do when she grew up, she drew a firetruck.
“My family has over 250 years in the fire service,” said Uhlhorn, 50. “I never questioned it. There was nothing else I ever wanted to do.” Uhlhorn, a third generation firefighter, was named Monday by County Executive Calvin Ball as the new fire chief of Howard County’s Department Fire and Rescue Services. - PUB DATE: 12/18/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Baltimore Sun
The Board of Supervisors in Patrick County declined to pull funding from the JEB Stuart volunteer rescue squad, but it did pass a motion stating the county condemns acts of hate and white supremacy.
This comes after the entire country now knows a part-time paid emergency medical technician in the county frequently co-hosts a podcast, the Daily Shoah, that routinely makes racist jokes and pro-white comments. - PUB DATE: 12/18/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WSLS-TV
Ron Herrera could have stopped fighting fires years ago. But what exactly, he wonders, would he do with himself then? Honored Monday for wrapping his 45th year with Albuquerque Fire Rescue, the 66-year-old lieutenant has now logged the equivalent of more than two full careers with the department. He once worked alongside the fathers – and, in at least one case, the grandfather – of some of his current peers. - PUB DATE: 12/18/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Albuquerque Journal
The investigation of a Harlem building blaze that killed a firefighter and disrupted production of a movie starring Edward Norton was rigged so Norton’s production company -- which was using the building for filming – would escape blame, an FDNY fire marshal claims.
Fire Marshal Scott Specht, the lead investigator in the fire, accuses Chief Fire Marshal Thomas Kane, his deputy J. - PUB DATE: 12/17/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Daily News
A former fire chief has filed a federal lawsuit against the Center Township Fire Department for more than 330 hours of overtime.
Ernie Campbell alleges in his suit that he was fired over a time-off request and did not receive his compensatory time or pay for more than eight weeks since he began working for the department in 1989. - PUB DATE: 12/17/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Lebanon Reporter
The Burlington Rescue Squad will hire temporary workers to help fill time slots for emergency medical technicians.
In an agreement between the nonprofit squad and the city, the city will handle the hiring of the temporary workers but their salary will be paid for by the volunteer squad. The squad, a private entity run under the auspices of the Burlington Rotary Club, also serves the Town of Burlington. - PUB DATE: 12/17/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Racine Journal Times
Retired Worcester firefighter John Griffin recalled how much it meant nearly two decades ago when other city employees stepped in to relieve the city’s fire personnel while they mourned their six colleagues killed in the Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse Co. fire.
Saturday, Mr. Griffin and some of his fellow retirees from the department will pay that favor forward to the city’s current firefighters when they grieve for Christopher J. - PUB DATE: 12/17/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Worcester Telegram & Gazette
VIDEO: Orlando firefighters are being credited with helping to save a woman and her car after they got stuck on railroad tracks in downtown as a freight train approached.
The rescue was captured on cellphone video by Nolan Thompson on Wednesday night.
According to Orlando fire officials, people started banging on the doors to Fire Station 1 at approximately 11:20 p. - PUB DATE: 12/17/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WKMG-TV CBS 6 Click Orlando
