Kimberly Gregory held up an urn containing the ashes of her 20-year-old daughter Michela as she faced the men held responsible for the notorious Ghost Ship warehouse fire that killed 36 people one and a half years ago. “This is all we have left of her,” Gregory said as a somber Derick Almena and Max Harris listened inside the courtroom at their sentencing hearing Thursday.
- PUB DATE: 8/10/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Mercury News

The death toll in what was already the most lethal year for firefighters in California since 2008 increased to five Thursday, when a heavy equipment mechanic was killed after falling asleep at the wheel on his way to the fire lines near Redding, a family member told The Chronicle. Andrew Brake, 40, of Chico died in a single-car crash on his way to work on the Carr Fire, which had already claimed the lives of two firefighters and five other people, including a woman and her two great-grandchildren, and a PG&E lineman, who died trying to restore power to the area.
- PUB DATE: 8/10/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: SF Gate

The International Association of Fire Chiefs’ (IAFC) Volunteer and Combination Officers Section (VCOS) and the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) have partnered to develop and release the Lavender Ribbon Report: Best Practices for Preventing Firefighter Cancer. This report provides 11 actions that can be taken to mitigate the risk of cancer for firefighters.
- PUB DATE: 8/10/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: International Association of Fire Chiefs

A logging truck driver is recovering after being run over by his own fully loaded truck near Lake Kapowsin in Pierce County on April 16. West used a special set of skills to save his own life, even though he ended up losing a leg. "I basically felt or heard the bones in my leg break," Troy said. As he stood tightening the load of his logging truck deep in the woods, it started to skid, knocking him under the back wheels.
- PUB DATE: 8/10/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KOMO-TV ABC 4 and Radio 1000

Teamwork between first responder departments in Effingham County and the use of technology helped find a runaway juvenile on Sunday. Police Chief Jeff Fuesting said city and county police officers searched for the youth after first checking several locations where the 12-year-old boy typically was known to be.
- PUB DATE: 8/10/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Effingham Daily News

A DeKalb County firefighter was found dead at a Stone Mountain fire station during a shift change Wednesday morning, an official confirmed to the AJC. Barry Everett, 42, a nine-year veteran of the department, was discovered about 8 a.m. at Fire Station 25 on Rockbridge Road. He was assigned to the station’s B shift, fire Capt.
- PUB DATE: 8/9/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WSB-TV ABC 2 Atlanta

In the early morning hours of September 6, 2017, a two-alarm fire erupted blocks away from Clackamas, Oregon, Fire District #1. As flames engulfed a two-story dwelling, Heavy Rescue 305 (HR305) was first to respond. Reaching the top floor, they broke a window and deployed a personal bail-out system to lower a woman to safety as the fire flashed inside.
- PUB DATE: 8/9/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: International Association of Fire Chiefs

State-imposed guidelines on staffing levels and scheduling are causing fire company shutdowns and creating a potential threat to public safety, according to department officials. Chief Scott Evans filed a certified affidavit in Atlantic County Superior Court that details his concerns that the state-mandated changes to the firefighter schedule, as well as department-wide reductions in staff, salaries, benefits and compensation time, are “unsafe and unreasonable” and “will not permit ACFD to efficiently provide fire protection services to the City of Atlantic City.
- PUB DATE: 8/9/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Press of Atlantic City

Joseph Trama has resigned less than four months into his role as fire chief amid accusations that he stole money from the Irvington Fire Company. The company's board said in a statement last week that Trama had withdrawn or transferred money from company bank accounts in multiple unauthorized moves in July.
- PUB DATE: 8/9/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NY Journal News (Lohud.com)

Houston voters in November will choose whether to grant firefighters pay “parity” with police of corresponding rank and seniority. After weeks of wrangling over the issue — including angry debates, rare legislative maneuvers and allegations of electioneering — the city council voted unanimously Wednesday to place the proposal before voters Nov.
- PUB DATE: 8/9/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Houston Chronicle

VIDEO - Two Franktown firefighters responding to a house fire in Sedalia rolled in their water truck Tuesday evening and were airlifted to area hospitals in critical condition, a spokesperson for South Metro Fire and Franktown Fire told 9NEWS. Early Wednesday morning, Franktown Fire tweeted the condition of the two firefighters had improved.
- PUB DATE: 8/8/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KUSA-TV NBC 9 Denver

Rex Strickland couldn’t be further from home. Coming from a county in Virginia whose eastern edge rubs against the nation’s capital, the Spokane Fire Department’s newest deputy fire chief is used to the rain. Lots of rain. And the people. Even more of them. That means he’s also acclimated to a bit more action than he’ll get in the other Washington’s second biggest city.
- PUB DATE: 8/8/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Spokesman-Review

An African American firefighter filed a lawsuit against the city on Monday, alleging he repeatedly faced discrimination and retaliation while working at a fire station in South Los Angeles. Emanuel Brown, a 10-year employee, said the mistreatment began Easter Sunday in 2017, when he found feces in a compartment where he stored his jacket and breathing apparatus.
- PUB DATE: 8/8/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Los Angeles Times

Chief Billy Goldfeder – “Billy G” as he is affectionately referred to by his innumerable fans in the fire service – has always been focused on firefighter survival. He attributes his interest to the 1970s, when firefighter line-of-duty deaths where all too common. “It really impacted me,” he says, because though, “we didn't know better back then,” it was accepted as part of the job.
- PUB DATE: 8/8/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1

The Reno Fire Department performed a new sensor technology test on Saturday, Aug.4 at the University of Nevada, Reno Innevation Center that can potentially help find people faster in an emergency. SimpleSense developed sensors to assist firefighters in what’s called the primary search. The primary search is the best chance for firefighters to find anyone trapped inside a burning building, and involves quickly searching as much of the building as possible to locate anyone still inside, according to Reno Fire.
- PUB DATE: 8/8/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KRNV NBC Reno

The International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) and Pierce Manufacturing Inc., an Oshkosh Corporation (NYSE: OSK) company today announced the winners of the 2018 IAFC Fire Chief of the Year awards. Volunteer Fire Chief, Herbert Leusch, of the Glen Echo Fire Department in Bethesda, Maryland, and career Fire Chief, Joanne Hayes-White, of the San Francisco Fire Department are this year’s honorees.
- PUB DATE: 8/7/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: International Association of Fire Chiefs

Melissa Morgado began 2018 trying to solve an arithmetic problem: How many nights did she and her firefighter husband spend apart because of work in the previous year? He was gone for the hot summer months, of course, and again for most of October, and then 19 more days in December when deadly fires broke out on the Central Coast.
- PUB DATE: 8/7/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: GovTech.com

The Independence Rural Fire Department in Kansas confirms that one of their firefighters was killed in a plane crash Saturday (Aug. 4) outside Ponca City, Oklahoma. Sycamore Firefighter Nicholas Warner, along with two of his sons, his dad Bill, and friend Tim Valentine all died in the aircraft accident, according to a Facebook post.
- PUB DATE: 8/7/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KFSM-TV CBS 5 Fort Smith

In 2017, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) awarded the Western Fire Chiefs Association (WFCA) a grant to accelerate the creation of the Fire Data Lab (FDL). The FDL is a data warehouse that provides analytic tools to participating Public Safety Organizations (PSOs) in exchange for access to their performance data.
- PUB DATE: 8/7/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Fire Data Lab

The man accused of fatally shooting a Long Beach fire captain six weeks ago after setting off a predawn explosion in a high-rise apartment building died in custody over the weekend, authorities said Monday. Thomas Man Kim, 77, died at 3:21 a.m. Sunday in the hospital ward of County-USC Medical Center, where he had been held since he was arrested June 25, said Deputy Wally Bracks of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
- PUB DATE: 8/7/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Long Beach Press-Telegram