Firefighter Ralph A. Brown II from the Cobb County (GA) Fire and Emergency Services is the recipient of the 2018 Ray Downey Courage and Valor Award. Ralph A. Brown II has been a member of the fire service since 2005 and serves with Cobb County’s Technical Rescue Team, Squad 4 on C-Shift. He joined the technical rescue team in 2011.
- PUB DATE: 3/15/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Fire Engineering

Some friends forget to call Pittston Mayor Mike Lombardo on his birthday, but they always remember to reach out every March 15. Tragedy struck the Pittston area that day in 1993 when his brother John, 25, a Pittston firefighter, and Leonard Insalaco, 20, a West Pittston fireman, died in a ferocious blaze on North Main Street in the city.
- PUB DATE: 3/15/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Wilkes-Barre Citizens' Voice

A local firefighter who served in the U.S. Navy and had his home destroyed during Hurricane Sandy was sexually harassed and discriminated against for being a black Muslim, a new lawsuit filed against the FDNY alleges. Raheem Hassan, 30, of Staten Island, the fire eater arrested for allegedly threatening to "kill" his colleagues at a Brooklyn firehouse, endured being called a "n-----" and was asked to apologize for the Sept.
- PUB DATE: 3/15/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Staten Island Advance

The IAFC is accepting nominations for IAFC Fire Chief of the Year now through May 20. This high honor recognizes one career and one volunteer fire chief for their leadership, innovation, professional development, integrity, public service and contributions as a whole to the fire service. Nominations will be accepted through the online nomination form from any division, section or member of the IAFC.
- PUB DATE: 3/15/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: International Association of Fire Chiefs

The former fire chief of Old Orchard Beach was ordered to spend one year behind bars for setting a fire that burned more than 40 acres. Ricky Plummer admitted starting the fire, but we may never know why. In a letter to the court, he said he could not explain his actions. For more than 40 years, Plummer served the fire service, many of them as chief of communities in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Florida.
- PUB DATE: 3/15/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WLBZ-TV NBC 2 Bangor

The Fairfax County fire department has problems with leadership, communication and the status of paramedics, but it does not face widespread issues with the treatment of women in its ranks, according to a report released Tuesday. The review by county officials comes just weeks after fire chief Richard R.
- PUB DATE: 3/14/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Washington Post

Three Suffolk County volunteer firefighters are facing arson charges in connection to nearly a half-dozen recent fires in New York, authorities say. Authorities said Central Islip firefighters Austin Lehman, 19, Stephen Hernandez, 25, and Shawn Key, 27, also put out the blazes they started at five abandoned houses in Central Islip and Hauppauge between October and January.
- PUB DATE: 3/14/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NBC New York

San Antonio officials made another attempt to negotiate a contract regarding health care and wages with the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association Tuesday, but the union declined to appear. The union’s contract ran out in 2014, and its stalemate with the city has lasted for more than 1,200 days.
- PUB DATE: 3/14/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Texas Public Radio

Borough council members publicly voiced support for fire department personnel who are overseeing day-to-day operations, but pledged to weed out a “few rotten apples” as police continue investigating some $54,000 in fireman’s relief association expenses. While speaking to a small group of firefighters who attended a council meeting Tuesday, Council President Lou Pacelli publicly recognized the department for its dedication to the community and assured them that council will maintain a good working relationship with the department.
- PUB DATE: 3/14/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Standard-Speaker

Voters in the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District chose to reduce the soon-to-be elected board from nine members down to five in a recent mail-in ballot. Although the results are still unofficial, 91 percent of votes had been counted on Tuesday afternoon and over 90 percent of those votes were in favor of reducing the number of directors on the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District’s Board of Directors.
- PUB DATE: 3/14/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: East Bay Times

The Cobb County Fire Department lost one of their own on Monday after she experienced a medical incident. Firefighter Stacey Leigh Boulware, 44, collapsed on Monday at Station 5 in Vinings after returning from back-to-back incidents that included "a full arrest and vehicle accident," according to the department.
- PUB DATE: 3/13/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WXIA-TV NBC 11 Atlanta

The Zachary firefighter and reserve police officer who was killed Monday night in a hit-and-run will be remembered as a dedicated public servant, said Zachary Fire Chief Danny Kimble. Deputy Fire Chief Christopher Lawton, 41, was killed Monday night when he was run over by a U-haul truck in the parking lot of the Baker Walmart, officials on the scene said.
- PUB DATE: 3/13/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Advocate

Houston firefighters on Monday asked a judge to force the city secretary to validate signatures on an equal pay referendum petition that has been backlogged in City Hall for eight months. The referendum would require firefighters to receive the same pay as police officers of corresponding rank. It was first submitted to the city in July but wasn't validated before the November election.
- PUB DATE: 3/13/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Houston Chronicle

If you go back and listen to the recording of the Broward County radio dispatch system, you can hear the frustration the voices of police. "I can't transmit for some reason," says one officer. Other first responders echo the complaint. "Just so you know, we're having trouble transmitting," says another person, and more than once, you hear a general plea for users to limit their communications to "10-33 calls" — radio code for an emergency.
- PUB DATE: 3/13/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NPR

Starting their 31st year performing at Fort Myers Beach, the Greater Cincinnati Firefighters finds themselves shaking and shimmying in a different atmosphere where the "#metoo" movement and a focus on sexual harassment bumps and grinds up against a playful, sexually-themed revue of mostly burly and buff men.
- PUB DATE: 3/13/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: News-Press

Five people died after a tour helicopter carrying six people crashed into the East River Sunday evening, FDNY and NYPD officials said. Though helicopter crashes in the East and Hudson Rivers are not necessarily uncommon, this becomes one of the deadliest in the city's history, and one of the worst civilian aviation fatalities of any kind in the United States over the last few years.
- PUB DATE: 3/12/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NBC New York

Four years ago, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti vowed to revamp the way the city hires firefighters by introducing more women into a department that has been overwhelmingly male. Yet despite increasingly aggressive recruitment efforts, the Fire Department has seen only modest gains. Last month, 3.1% of its firefighters were women, according to employment data prepared by the Fire DepartmentThe sluggish rate of progress threatens Fire Chief Ralph M.
- PUB DATE: 3/12/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Los Angeles Times

Three children were found dead inside a home in Michigan after a house fire early Saturday morning, police said. A 4-year-old girl, an 8-year-old boy and a 9-year-old boy were home without any adults at the time of the fire in Eastpointe in suburban Detroit, said Eric Keiser, Eastpointe’s acting director of public safety.
- PUB DATE: 3/12/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: USA Today

Attorneys are set to appear in court Thursday to argue whether a court should reargue a lawsuit filed by Utica fire Chief Russell Brooks against the city. It will mark the latest chapter in the saga between the city and Brooks, who says he has sought acknowledgment from Utica officials that he is eligible for workers compensation benefits based on his chronic lymphocytic leukemia diagnosis.
- PUB DATE: 3/12/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Observer-Dispatch

PHOTOS - A driver was killed and two others, including a pregnant woman, were taken to a hospital after a D.C. Fire and EMS truck collided with a car in Northeast on Friday afternoon. The fire department said that the truck was responding to an emergency call at about 12:15 p.m. when it struck a car at 12th Street and Rhode Island Avenue Northeast.
- PUB DATE: 3/12/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WTOP-AM 1500 Washington