The Detroit Firefighters Union is blasting Detroit police, questioning why it took police more than 20 minutes to respond to the scene of a murder.
It happened Saturday at a home on Epworth Street on the city's west side. The first calls for help came in at 1:40 a.m. but police didn't get there until repeated calls for help were sent out. - PUB DATE: 11/29/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WDIV-TV NBC 4 Detroit
Three Dallas Fire-Rescue firefighters trapped in a burning condo while battling a massive fire Tuesday morning were treated for minor injuries after being rescued by an intervention team, fire officials say. The firefighters were among more than 100 called to battle a large four-alarm fire at about 9:30 a. - PUB DATE: 11/28/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KXAS-TV NBC 5 Dallas - Fort Worth
When the Woolsey fire swept into the exclusive neighborhood of Bell Canyon, resident Yen Hsieh grabbed her late music teacher’s 200-year-old cello, some belongings and her son’s betta fish Sparky and fled, not sure whether her home would be destroyed. Hsieh said it’s not clear which of the firefighters — private or publicly funded — were responsible for saving her home, but she’s grateful. - PUB DATE: 11/28/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: San Diego Union-Tribune
For decades, Scott Phillips-Gartner served as a member of Norfolk Fire-Rescue, first as a 911 operator and later as an assistant fire marshal and bomb squad technician.
But then in October 2014 he married his longtime boyfriend, leading his bosses to find out he was gay.
Phillips-Gartner, 55, says the department ultimately stripped him of his rank and directed him to start working out of a temporary facility miles away from his usual office “with little to no job duties. - PUB DATE: 11/28/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Norfolk Virginian-Pilot/HamptonRoads.com
Mayor Sylvester Turner will ask Houston city council Wednesday to hire a law firm to advise the city on possible litigation related to the firefighter pay parity measure, setting in motion a potential court challenge to the item approved by voters earlier this month.
While the firefighters union has urged the city to return to the negotiating table, Turner has questioned whether the city could preempt the ballot measure approved by voters, suggesting a judge should settle the question first. - PUB DATE: 11/28/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Houston Chronicle
A Logansport fire that killed six people, including four children, is being investigated as a possible criminal case, according to the Cass County sheriff.
The call for the fire came out around 1:50 a.m. in the 4300 block of Pottawatomie Road on the east side of the city.
Cass County Fire Lt. Steve Crispen says the sheriff’s department arrived on the scene first. - PUB DATE: 11/28/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WXIN-TV Fox 59 Indianapolis
Retirement was looking good for Alicia Welch. After more than 26 years in the Los Angeles Fire Department, she moved to Golden and was skiing, mountain biking, and was learning to play golf. Then she saw that the Golden Fire Department needed a new fire chief. Those golf clubs would have to be used on weekends. - PUB DATE: 11/27/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KUSA-TV NBC 9 Denver
St. Paul firefighter Joaquin Rosales and several of his colleagues rushed to a pile of rubble on the city’s East Side Friday morning when an unusually large explosion destroyed a home and damaged several buildings.
They were searching amid piles of debris and exposed nails when Rosales heard moaning and groaning. - PUB DATE: 11/27/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune
Serving as the top cop or fire chief in a big city comes with a lot of expectations — waves of mayhem to prevent, thousands of employees to oversee and all of the politics that come with being one of the most recognizable figures on the street.
In return, most police and fire chiefs also can expect to be well compensated, even if they aren’t working in one of the nation’s largest cities. - PUB DATE: 11/27/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: BizJournals.com
VIDEO - The U.S. Forest Service has released video showing an off-duty Border Patrol agent's gender-reveal party explosion that caused a massive wildfire last year in Arizona.
The video shows the words "Boy and "Girl" written across a target that's surrounded by tall grass in Green Valley. When the target is hit, a flash of blue powder appears before the explosion sparked the Sawmill Fire, which burned more than 45,000 acres of state and federal land. - PUB DATE: 11/27/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Fox 10 Phoenix
City officials have withdrawn a lawsuit against a firefighter accused of working a side job while receiving disability payments.
Fire Lt. Peter Joyce was accused by city officials of receiving more than $43,000 in disability pay from taxpayers while working, which is not allowed under the city's contract with firefighters. - PUB DATE: 11/27/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NY Journal News (Lohud.com)
In an “historic” move that could trigger a transformation in how small suburban municipalities deliver emergency services, Calumet Park has outsourced its fire department to a private contractor in an effort to cut costs, village attorney Burt Odelson said.
The board voted unanimously Nov. 8 to approve a separation agreement with its firefighters union and to enter into a five-year contract with Kurtz Ambulance Service to provide fire suppression and ambulance services to the village, he said. - PUB DATE: 11/26/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Chicago Tribune
Family members of the deceased man Bellingham Fire Department employees practiced performing endotracheal intubations on in late July have filed three separate claims for damages seeking more than $15.5 million from the city of Bellingham, according to records from the Bellingham City Attorney’s office. - PUB DATE: 11/26/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Bellingham Herald
Gavin McMenama was having a bad day at his job just before Christmas when he checked his mail and discovered a thick package from the Lexington Fire Department.
This wasn’t the type of package he was accustomed to seeing. After receiving rejection paperwork 13 times from the fire department, he was all too familiar with that sort of letter. - PUB DATE: 11/26/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Lexington Herald-Leader (Kentucky.com)
Firefighters from the Los Angeles city fire department had just returned to their station after responding to the mass shooting at the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks, Calif. when they saw smoke filling the sky.
Roughly 12 hours after responding to one horrific incident, they were on their way to another. - PUB DATE: 11/26/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: OPB.org
The city could more wisely spend the $1.1 billion it costs to provide emergency medical services, a budget watchdog group says, in part by reducing the role fire engines play in responding to 911 calls — and then considering whether it really needs all of its engine companies.
In a new report, the Citizens Budget Commission recommends ultimately reducing the number of engine companies, which for years has been a political nonstarter. - PUB DATE: 11/26/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Daily News
Long Beach City Council voted Tuesday, Nov. 20 to rename a Fire Department training center after David Rosa, the captain who was killed on duty earlier this year.
The facility, at 2249 Argonne Avenue in the Stearns Park neighborhood, will now be called the “Captain David Rosa Regional Training Center. - PUB DATE: 11/21/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Long Beach Press-Telegram
A former town fire lieutenant charged last week with two counts of computer trespassing deleted hundreds of thousands of files from the department’s computer system, according to Fire Chief Kevin Robinson.
Robert Warner, who was fired from the Fire Department in July, was charged last week by the Attorney General’s office after an investigation by the East Greenwich police. - PUB DATE: 11/21/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Providence Journal
Long before he opened fire at a Near South Side hospital, Juan Lopez had a documented history of abusive behavior that he sometimes backed up with a gun.
While a trainee at the Chicago Fire Department Academy nearly five years ago, Lopez faced dismissal after being accused of “aggressive and improper conduct” toward women, according to the department. - PUB DATE: 11/21/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Chicago Tribune
The U.S Department of Justice has ended its oversight of Austin Fire Department’s hiring processes after allowing a legal settlement regarding racial discrimination to expire.
Federal officials could have continued their oversight of the Fire Department’s hiring of new firefighters for four years, according to a memo sent from interim Fire Chief Tom Dodds to the Austin City Council on Tuesday, but the Justice Department did not find “good cause” to extend the settlement, also known as a consent decree. - PUB DATE: 11/21/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Austin American-Statesman
