It was a wild scene last Friday night: two fire trucks that crashed into each other on their way to a fire in the District. Eight firefighters onboard the trucks received non-life-threatening injuries. The accident at the corner of 15th and K streets took place as crews rushed to the scene of an apartment fire on nearby L Street.
- PUB DATE: 9/4/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WJLA-TV ABC 7 Washington

Weeks after Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said the city was not pursuing liens against the survivors of firefighters killed in the 2013 Southwest Inn fire, the families’ attorney says the city has refused to waive claims to $1.4 million it paid in benefits to the families. Mayoral spokesman Alan Bernstein disputed that, reiterating Turner’s assertion that the city was not pursuing claims on the money, and said it had offered to waive its right to the money — provided all the money goes to the families of the fallen firefighters, not their lawyer.
- PUB DATE: 8/31/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Houston Chronicle

Firefighter Bryce Gutierrez of the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) is the winner of the 2017 Firehouse Michael O. McNamee Award of Valor. Firehouse Editor-in-Chief Tim Sendelbach and Worcester, MA, District Chief (ret.) Mike McNamee will present the award to Gutierrez during the Oct. 18 opening ceremonies of Firehouse Expo in Nashville, TN.
- PUB DATE: 8/31/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse

Four respected FDNY officers may get caught in the fallout from the brutal bare-knuckled Bronx brawl earlier this summer that got eight firefighters suspended. All four officers attended a Medal Day celebration at Billy's Bar near Yankee Stadium on June 6. They were captured on surveillance videotape outside the establishment, where a racial slur sparked a boozy beat down among the Bravest.
- PUB DATE: 8/31/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Daily News

Former Guyton Interim Public Safety Director Stacy Strickland is now facing a criminal investigation. This comes after a separate investigation revealed he helped create a highly inappropriate fake Facebook profile about one of his firefighters. We got our hands on the report Wednesday, in which there are scanned copies of the profile before it was deleted.
- PUB DATE: 8/31/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WTOC-TV CBS 11 Savannah

After a successful 35 years in a career he has loved, Deputy Fire Chief David Salot has decided to hang up his helmet and follow a new dream. He will be retiring from the department on Oct. 1 and pursuing a new career track — with NASCAR. Over the past few weeks, Salot has been juggling working for the fire department with a part-time job with NASCAR as a competition technology technician.
- PUB DATE: 8/31/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Progress-Index

The Key Largo Volunteer Fire Department is essentially broke, according to a statement made by Fire Chief Don Bock at a recent meeting, during which he described the nonprofit service provider as having “no assets.” The meeting began with the department’s board approving a balance of $29,954 ending in June — an amount that would barely cover the out-of-pocket cash that Bock says he has fronted the fire department.
- PUB DATE: 8/30/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Key West Citizen

The City of Wichita has agreed to pay nearly $155,000 to six fire department investigators who complained they weren’t getting paid overtime wages soon enough, ending a lawsuit alleging violations of federal labor law. The settlement represents “100 cents on the dollar” for nearly $140,000 in claims brought by Branden Arnold, Chris Dugan, Donny Eckerman, Joseph Evans, Mark Reibenspies and David Thissen plus $15,000 for their attorney’s fees and other prosecution costs, according to a motion for settlement approved by a federal judge earlier this month.
- PUB DATE: 8/30/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Wichita Eagle & Kansas.com

A San Antonio firefighter was handed a 10-day suspension this summer after video of him giving an unauthorized ride in a department fire engine ended up on social media, according to discipline records obtained by the KSAT 12 Defenders. Firefighter Jason Persyn was handed the suspension in July after violating San Antonio Fire Department rules related to conduct and behavior, negative public image, improper or negligent handling, safe operation of vehicles, permission for use of city property and proper use of department vehicles, according to the paperwork.
- PUB DATE: 8/30/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KSAT-TV ABC 12 San Antonio

More than 2,500 public safety agencies across the country have joined FirstNet. This is nearly double the number of agencies since the last update in July. FirstNet is the nationwide public safety communications platform dedicated to America's first responders. Being built with AT&T*, in public-private partnership with the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority), FirstNet is bringing public safety a much-needed technology upgrade to help them connect to the critical information they need.
- PUB DATE: 8/30/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: MarketWatch.com

VIDEO - On Tuesday, the crew of Engine Company 33 - A Division responded to a medical call at a retirement community. When they arrived, they spotted a woman bouncing a ping pong ball alone. They asked the staff about the woman and were told she is 101-years young and always looking for a worthy ping pong opponent to play with.
- PUB DATE: 8/30/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: XETV-TV San Diego 6

Willow Street Fire Company Chief Michael Reese, who spent four decades as a volunteer firefighter and emergency medical technician, died this week unexpectedly. “Chief Reese’s life was dedicated to helping others,” fire company president Bob Kiesel wrote in a statement announcing Reese’s passing. Reese, 53, passed away suddenly at his home in Willow Street on Thursday after he responded to a vehicle accident earlier that morning, Kiesel wrote.
- PUB DATE: 8/29/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Lancaster Online

Wichita residents could see a substantial shift in the way first responders handle thousands of medical calls to 911 each year. Early next year, the Wichita Fire Department will test sending emergency medical technicians on “what some have called band aids and aspirin” medical calls, Mayor Jeff Longwell said at a recent City Council meeting.
- PUB DATE: 8/29/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Wichita Eagle & Kansas.com

The job of a firefighter isn’t what it used to be. Take Charlottesville, Va., for example, where in just the past 18 months the fire departments in the city and surrounding Albemarle County have searched the wreckage of a plane crash in a hard-to-reach wooded area, performed water rescues after spring floods, responded to the derailment of a passenger train carrying Republican members of Congress and, most memorably, provided medical assistance during white supremacist rallies in Charlottesville, including one incident that left three people dead last summer.
- PUB DATE: 8/29/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Governing.com

According to a majority panel of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania, a group of Pittsburgh firefighters did not prove that a different design for a fire truck siren they say permanently damaged their hearing would have been safer. On Aug. 20 in a 2-1 decision, Superior Court judges Mary Jane Bowes and Paula Francisco Ott upheld a granting of summary judgment to Federal Signal Corporation and dismissing the case brought by firefighters Ronald M.
- PUB DATE: 8/29/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Pennsylvania Record

A longtime township fire chief in Pickaway County who was fired this month has sued to get his job back. Porter “Chip” Welch had been chief of the Scioto Township Fire Department in the northern part of the county since 2005. Township trustees met on Aug. 16 and fired him. Trustee Ralph Wolfe told The Dispatch that no one from the township could comment.
- PUB DATE: 8/29/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Columbus Dispatch

For the seventh year, the IAFC received a grant from the Motorola Solutions Foundation to fund another year of the Fire Service Executive Development Institute (FSEDI). FSEDI is a program developed by the IAFC to provide new and aspiring chiefs with the tools they need to have a successful and productive tenure.
- PUB DATE: 8/29/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: International Association of Fire Chiefs

Communications were snarled and police, fire and medical responders were overwhelmed by 911 calls, false reports and the number of victims during the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, according to a report released Monday by U.S. and local authorities. The report by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Clark County Fire Department and Las Vegas police provided an overview of first responders' actions on Oct.
- PUB DATE: 8/28/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Las Vegas Sun

Dallas firefighters complained Monday about a delay in police emergency response over the weekend that left firefighters to deal on their own with a knife wielding suspect. “It was one of those runs where you think it’s going to be the last run you ever make,” said Dallas Firefighters Union President Jim McDade.
- PUB DATE: 8/28/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KXAS-TV NBC 5 Dallas - Fort Worth

Gary municipal officials are admitting that just over $8.1 million in city funds from an account specifically intended to cover expenses for Emergency Medical Services needs were actually spent on other things. City officials have been reviewing since spring the city’s 224 Fund – intended for the Fire Department’s use in maintaining ambulances and paramedics -- when it was discovered that the actual amount of money officials thought was in the fund did not match up with bank records.
- PUB DATE: 8/28/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Chicago Tribune