A 77-year-old man set a fire to lure firefighters to his Southern California retirement home so he could shoot them, authorities said. The attack killed one firefighter and wounded another.
Thomas Kim was arrested Monday on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and arson but investigators were still trying to determine a motive for the attack in the southern Los Angeles suburb, Police Chief Robert Luna said. - PUB DATE: 6/26/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: CBS News
Citing concerns about firefighter safety, the Seattle Fire Department has doubled the number of people who will respond to calls at homeless shelters in Pioneer Square.
Capt. Shata Stephenson said in a statement that the department has gone from having two or four firefighters respond to “certain locations within Pioneer Square” to “at least six. - PUB DATE: 6/26/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KOMO-TV ABC 4 and Radio 1000
A custodian had to be rescued Monday afternoon after she was pinned under a bank of lockers while cleaning at Medway Middle School.
“These lockers are probably about seven years old and at this point, we’re completely unsure of what went on,” said Medway Town Administrator Michael Boynton. Boynton says he doesn’t know why the lockers gave way because they’re supposed to be bolted to the wall. - PUB DATE: 6/26/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: CBS Boston
Vallejo Fire Chief Jack McArthur has been released from his position with the department, City Hall confirmed Monday.
The move comes after City Manager Greg Nyhoff completed an “assessment of the city organization,” said City Hall spokeswoman Joanna Altman in a statement released to the Times-Herald. - PUB DATE: 6/26/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Vallejo Times-Herald
PHOTO - Firefighters near Rochester, N.Y., weren't going to let a pizza customer go unsatisfied after the delivery driver got into a car crash. Engine 642 of the Henrietta Fire District, in West Henrietta, responded to the wreck Saturday afternoon, in which a pizza delivery employee was injured. "Once the patient was cared for and loaded into the ambulance the crew decided to finish the delivery so the pizza wouldn't go to waste," the department wrote on Facebook. - PUB DATE: 6/26/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Fox News
A 45-year-old fire captain has died and another firefighter is in stable condition after both were shot and wounded when a gunman opened fire at a Long Beach senior housing facility early Monday.
Fire officials said the firefighter who died was Long Beach Fire Department Capt. Dave Rosa from Fire Station 10. - PUB DATE: 6/25/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KABC-TV ABC 7 Los Angeles
A firefighter/EMT with the Paint Creek Joint EMS/Fire District lost his life Sunday after an accident at the district’s station near Rainsboro.
Early Monday morning, Paint Creek released the name of the victim, firefighter/EMT Joe Patterson.
“It is with deepest sympathies that we have been informed that our brother has been called home and answered his final alarm and did not survive the injuries inflicted by the accident,” said public information office Branden Jackman in an earlier press release. - PUB DATE: 6/25/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Times-Gazette
A 40-year FDNY veteran who oversaw rescue and recovery efforts at the World Trade Center site after 9/11 has succumbed to cancer linked to his efforts at ground zero.
Chief of Fire Prevention Ronald R. Spadafora has passed away at the age of 63, Commissioner Daniel Nigro said.
Spadafora is the 178th member of the department to die of illness related to the September 11 attacks, according to Nigro. - PUB DATE: 6/25/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NBC 4 New York
The IAFC today thanked Congress for final passage of the Firefighter Cancer Registry Act (H.R. 931), groundbreaking legislation which will create an anonymous, voluntary registry for firefighters at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“Modern medicine does not fully understand why firefighters experience cancer at rates much higher rate than the general public,” said Chief Thomas Jenkins, IAFC President & Chairman of the Board. - PUB DATE: 6/25/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: International Association of Fire Chiefs
After nearly four years and more than $1 million spent trying to escape the burden of an expensive contract with the local fire union, the Texas Supreme Court dealt the city a final blow Friday, refusing to consider its case challenging a clause that keeps the contract in place for a decade. Disappointed and defeated, city officials said they wanted to immediately begin contract negotiations with the San Antonio Professional Fire Fighters Association, calling on union boss Chris Steele to start up talks. - PUB DATE: 6/25/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: San Antonio Express-News
In light of a debate between the Orange County Fire Authority and Sheriff’s Department over which should be the lead agency on search-and-rescue calls, a grand jury report released Friday called on the county to create a permanent “air operations safety council.” The report also called on the two agencies to work together, with the sheriff’s department being the lead response agency to wilderness or remote off-road search-and-rescue calls, and the OCFA taking the lead on urban search-and-rescue calls. - PUB DATE: 6/25/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: MyNewsLA.com
The city of Muskegon has received and is reviewing a controversial proposal to contract fire service from Muskegon Heights, officials said recently.
But a vote on the deal, which calls for the city of Muskegon to dismantle its fire department and contract fire service from Muskegon Heights, is still more than a few months away, said Muskegon City Manager Frank Peterson. - PUB DATE: 6/22/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Mlive
The city and the firefighters’ union tentatively agreed to a new contract Thursday, one day after the union threatened to picket outside Mayor Paul Heroux’s house.
The pickets have been called off and a cookout the mayor had planned will be held as scheduled Saturday afternoon.
Heroux said the threat of picketing had nothing to do with him agreeing to a new contract, but union President Jacob Springs said he thought it moved the process along. - PUB DATE: 6/22/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Attleboro Sun Chronicle
With a ticking clock growing ever louder in the background, the Orange County Fire Authority rejected several demands made by Irvine that would keep the city in the fold as a voting member of the regional emergency coalition.
“Basically, Irvine was told to pound sand,” said County Supervisor Todd Spitzer, who sits on the Fire Authority board of directors. - PUB DATE: 6/22/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse
The man hailed as a hero for halting a gunman's wild rampage outside the Tumwater Walmart store came forward Wednesday and said he fired his weapon only after it became clear that the gunman might injure or kill more innocent victims if he weren't stopped.
David George, who is an emergency medical technician with the Oakville Fire Department and a pastor at the Oakville Assembly of God, described his harrowing experience at a Wednesday news conference in his hometown. - PUB DATE: 6/22/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KOMO-TV ABC 4 and Radio 1000
Steve Krentel, whose leadership at a Covington-area fire district has been under assault since last fall, will retire as of Sept. 1, he told the St. Tammany Fire Protection District 12 board of commissioners in a letter Thursday.
Krentel, whose wife was killed nearly a year ago, said in a phone interview that he had always planned to retire as soon as he was eligible to do so. - PUB DATE: 6/22/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Advocate
An arbitrator agreed a veteran Toledo firefighter was erroneously demoted from captain to a line firefighter after the administration said the captain used “poor judgment” at a fatal fire scene.
The arbitrator, Mark Glazer, ruled this week that Capt. Kim Hood be reinstated as captain with seniority. - PUB DATE: 6/21/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Toledo Blade
On July 1, Rhoda Mae Kerr will pin five brass bugles on the collar of her Fort Lauderdale Fire and Rescue uniform—the number symbolizes her rank, and five is the highest. On that day Kerr will also make history as the department’s first female fire chief in its 106-year history.
Kerr comes from a lineage of firefighters. - PUB DATE: 6/21/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Fort Lauderdale Daily
Utica Mayor Robert Palmieri’s office released another statement Wednesday in response to reports on the conduct of former temporary fire Chief John Kelly, who resigned from his position last week amid allegations of professional misconduct.
Kelly — appointed interim chief last July in place of Russell Brooks, who remains on administrative leave — stepped down to become a deputy chief after an investigation into text messages sent between Kelly and 23-year-old Carmen Ambrose, the son of Deputy Chief Mark Ambrose, that make references to watching pornography and other lewd acts that occurred on fire department property. - PUB DATE: 6/21/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Utica Observer-Dispatch
A fiery uproar in the town of Morris could have left residents without a volunteer Fire Department.
A statement from the department was released Tuesday announcing that its members had voted to “cease providing fire, rescue, and EMS services,” as of June 30.
The statement noted that the decision was not made lightly, but came after the department felt it could not come to a “reasonable working relationship with the town administrators. - PUB DATE: 6/21/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Connecticut Post
