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National Fire News

State appellate court hears New York firefighters’ 'minimum manning' case

The city’s firefighters’ union might know before the end of the year whether an arbitrator will decide if a “minimum manning” clause can continue in its labor contract. On Wednesday, the Appellate Division, Fourth Department, in Rochester, heard oral arguments from attorneys for the city and the Watertown Professional Fire Fighters Association Local 191.
- PUB DATE: 10/18/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Watertown Daily Times

Texas medics now doing blood transfusions in ambulances, saving lives with whole blood

San Antonio is the first large metropolitan city in the nation to begin carrying whole blood inside ambulances and response trucks. Patients suffering traumatic injuries and losing blood fast now have a much better chance of surviving. And local medics believe it's the biggest trauma response game changer in decades.
- PUB DATE: 10/18/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KSAT-TV ABC 12 San Antonio

Dallas Fire-Rescue's chief named sole finalist for gig at Texas A&M

After a little more than two years on the job, Dallas Fire-Rescue Chief David Coatney appears to be headed for the exit. Coatney on Tuesday was named the sole finalist to become director of the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service, also known as TEEX. State law requires the university and Coatney — who officials say energized the Dallas department and made major strides in promoting safety measures — wait 21 days before making the deal official.
- PUB DATE: 10/17/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Dallas Morning News

Virginia firefighter lost leg in crash that killed colleague during Tropical Storm Michael

While Virginia firefighters are mourning the loss of one of their own in a fatal crash, the injuries of another are just now coming to light. Lt. Brad Clark died Thursday while responding to an emergency call as the remains of Tropical Storm Michael swept over Central Virginia. The 43-year-old firefighter was killed when a tractor-trailer struck the fire truck Clark and three colleagues were standing outside of on the shoulder of I-295.
- PUB DATE: 10/17/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WTKR Channel 3 News

Stretched thin, Minnesota volunteer fire crews sound the alarm

When Greg Malmquist became a firefighter in Lake Elmo more than three decades ago, many volunteer fire department rosters listed just a handful of surnames. Sons served alongside fathers and brothers and uncles, and most often stayed in the department for decades. “Times have changed,” said Malmquist, now the fire chief in Lake Elmo and the only full-time member of the department.
- PUB DATE: 10/17/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune

Colorado firefighter leaving Mexican hospital with the help of Congressman

Army veteran and Lafayette firefighter Lt. Jason Oliver took off for Cancun last week to celebrate his anniversary with his wife Maigan. Just three days into their weeklong tropical vacation, however, Jason Oliver was confined to a Mexican hospital bed rather than a poolside cabana. Trained as paramedic firefighter, Oliver said he began to notice some troubling neurological symptoms Friday and was taken by ambulance to the local hospital for a checkup.
- PUB DATE: 10/17/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Times-Call

Fate of California volunteer fire department comes down to 24 signatures

Whether the Julian Cuyamaca Fire Protection District will dissolve and be taken over by the county comes down to a couple dozen signatures. On Tuesday morning, 615 signatures of registered voters who live in the district were submitted during a rare “protest hearing” at a meeting of the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO).
- PUB DATE: 10/17/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: San Diego Union-Tribune

Pittsburgh Council postpones vote on mandatory fire sprinklers in high-rises

Pittsburgh’s fire sprinkler bill is on hold again after more than a dozen residents complained Tuesday to City Council that costs and the inconvenience of retrofitting older buildings would be “astronomical.” “We can buy our own fire truck with a ladder that can reach as high as our top floor for what it would cost us to do this,” said Ted Goldberg, an owner in the Park Mansion co-op building in Oakland.
- PUB DATE: 10/17/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Atlanta agrees to $1.2M settlement with former fire chief

The city of Atlanta has settled a lawsuit with a former fire chief over his firing for a book containing passages which some saw as anti-gay. The Atlanta City Council approved a settlement agreeing to pay fired Atlanta fire chief Kelvin Cochran $1.2 million. In 2013, Cochran wrote a book about his Christian faith titled "Who Told You That You Were Naked?" for a men's Bible study and gave it to around a dozen subordinates he said had either requested copies or shared his beliefs.
- PUB DATE: 10/16/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WAGA-TV Atlanta MyFox 5 News

Cal Fire cadets fired for drinking will get their jobs back

Most of the California state firefighters who were fired last year because they drank alcohol during a training academy will return to work in 2018, according to Cal Fire and their union. Cal Fire in April announced that 17 firefighters would be dismissed from state service because they violated a code of conduct during their seven-week academy by drinking alcohol after hours.
- PUB DATE: 10/16/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Sacramento Bee

Washington firefighter's invention will close bedroom doors in house fires

VIDEO - It was his daughter’s nighttime habits that turned Joel Sellinger from a firefighter into an inventor. "She'd fall asleep. I'd go shut her door. I'd wake up in the morning, and her door would be open because she had gone to the bathroom or gotten a drink of water," he said. Keeping bedroom doors closed in your home when you go to sleep is critical in keeping your family safe.
- PUB DATE: 10/16/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KING-TV NBC 5 Seattle

Rhode Island firefighters’ sick pay under scrutiny

The city has suspended an improper practice at the Fire Department involving calculations of unused sick time and payment for that time to firefighters, according to Mayor Joseph J. Solomon. “Activities that may have occurred in the past, when brought to the attention of our fire chief and myself, were suspended way back in July,” Solomon said.
- PUB DATE: 10/16/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Providence Journal

Firefighters Sue California Gas Company Over Massive Leak

Firefighters who worked in and around the site of a massive natural gas leak sued the Southern California Gas Co. on Monday, saying the utility knowingly let them be exposed to dangerous levels of toxic chemicals. A blowout in a well at the underground Aliso Canyon storage field about 40 miles (64 kilometers) north of Los Angeles was discovered on Oct.
- PUB DATE: 10/16/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KNBC-TV NBC 4 Los Angeles

FDNY Commissioner: Injured Firefighter ‘A Very Lucky Individual’ After Surviving 30-Foot Fall Off Ladder

A firefighter survived a frightening fall off a ladder on Sunday night. The incident happened on Mayflower Avenue in the Pelham Bay section of the Bronx at around 9 p.m. The firefighter, who was rushed to Jacobi Hospital, was said to have suffered back and neck injuries after falling off a ladder that was propped next to a third-floor window, CBS2’s Natalie Duddridge reported.
- PUB DATE: 10/15/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: CBS New York

Illinois fire chief’s wife races to get fire truck as their home burns

A firefighting family is dealing with the loss of their own home after a fire on Friday night. The Oraville home of Vergennes Fire Chief Chad Sherman is a total loss, firefighters say. His wife, Trish, and oldest son, Hunter, are also volunteers with the Vergennes Department. “We all practice fire safety and prevention, it’s our number one job,” said Travis Skinner, an area firefighter who knows the family.
- PUB DATE: 10/15/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Belleville News-Democrat

California Sheriff’s Deputy in Hot Pursuit Crashes Into Home, Setting It Ablaze

VIDEO - Both directions of Highway 1 near Bodega Bay in unincorporated Sonoma County have reopened after a solo-vehicle crash involving a Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office patrol vehicle and a house fire, the California Highway Patrol said. The crash occurred shortly after 5 a.m. in the 600 block of Highway 1 near Smith Brothers Road, authorities said.
- PUB DATE: 10/15/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KPIX-TV CBS 5 San Francisco

First female firefighters at Texas department recall testing process

The Midlothian Fire Department was first in 1906. It then took 110 years for the department to hire its first female firefighter. Then a couple of months later, the department hired a second. And, now, that number stands at three. With this week being the public observance of Fire Prevention Week, it’s important to remember the civil servants who are among the first to respond to a call.
- PUB DATE: 10/15/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Midlothian Mirror

Detroit firefighters 'bracing' for more arson as Angels Night ends

Firefighters in Detroit are reportedly “bracing” for another series of Devils Nights this Halloween after the city decided to end its annual volunteer-led anti-arson campaign, called Angels Night, according to a fire official. The decision to end Angels Night and replace it with a more celebratory community event, dubbed ‘Halloween in the D,’ was announced by the city late last year.
- PUB DATE: 10/15/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Detroit Free Press

Virginia firefighter killed, 3 injured after tractor-trailer rear-ends fire truck on Interstate

State police identified the Hanover firefighter killed Thursday night as Lt. Brad Clark. Clark was killed and three others firefighters were injured after their firetruck was rear-ended on I-295 in Hanover County Thursday night. "The trooper's preliminary investigation reveals that Hanover Fire Engine and EMS was on scene providing assistance with a two-vehicle crash with all of its emergency equipment activated, when a tractor-trailer traveling southbound struck the engine in the rear," Hill said.
- PUB DATE: 10/12/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WTVR-TV CBS 6

Federal agency faults Texas department's tactics in fire that killed one of its own

A San Antonio firefighter died while battling a blaze in the Spartan Gym last year after the Fire Department failed to safely search the building, keep track of fellow rescuers and adequately ventilate the smoke-filled structure, a federal report released Thursday states. The review by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, an agency that seeks to improve workplace safety, concluded that some of the San Antonio Fire Department’s tactics actually made conditions worse inside the gym where firefighter Scott Deem, 31, died after he became lost.
- PUB DATE: 10/12/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: San Antonio Express News

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