A jury awarded $3.35 million Wednesday to a former Circleville firefighter who sued the city, alleging years of harassment and discrimination, including unwanted sexual advances, denied promotions and bodily fluids on her belongings.
Amie Morningstar, 38, of Circleville, the first full-time female firefighter on that community’s force, filed suit in late 2015 and was fired in early 2016, said her attorney, Brian K. - PUB DATE: 8/23/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Columbus Dispatch
Two Key West firefighters were fired Monday in connection with a police narcotics investigation centered on the city’s fire department.
The firings, announced Tuesday, followed an Aug. 10 sweep of all three Key West fire stations by Key West police and Homeland Security, who were tipped off by the KWPD special investigations units that fire personnel were engaging in “narcotic activity,” according to an arrest report. - PUB DATE: 8/23/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FL Keys News
California cities and counties have too few cops and too many wildfires to get a handle on their soaring overtime budgets.
That’s how they explain the $3.7 billion they spent collectively on overtime last year, a 60 percent increase from the $2.3 billion they shelled out for overtime in 2012.
The dynamic means police and firefighters have no shortage of opportunities to pad their paychecks with overtime hours, but for some, the extra work is taking a toll on their bodies and families. - PUB DATE: 8/23/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Modesto Bee
Verizon Wireless' throttling of a fire department that uses its data services has been submitted as evidence in a lawsuit that seeks to reinstate federal net neutrality rules.
"County Fire has experienced throttling by its ISP, Verizon," Santa Clara County Fire Chief Anthony Bowden wrote in a declaration. - PUB DATE: 8/22/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: ars Technica
Mike Beadle, Palm Coast’s longtime fire chief, will be retiring in September and his second-in-command, Gerard “Jerry” Forte, will take the reins of the department, city officials announced Tuesday.
City Manager Jim Landon formally appointed Forte, currently the deputy fire chief, to take over in Beadle’s stead during Tuesday’s City Council meeting. - PUB DATE: 8/22/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Daytona Beach News-Journal
The panel that oversees the Los Angeles Fire Department voted Tuesday to give the agency’s internal watchdog “unfettered access” to the disciplinary files of its firefighters, nine years after voters created the post to assess the agency’s handling of misconduct complaints.
The Board of Fire Commissioners unanimously changed its policy to give the watchdog, known as the Office of the Independent Assessor, the power to obtain unredacted interview transcripts, evidence and other records generated over the course of a discipline case. - PUB DATE: 8/22/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
PHOTO - A kindergartner rode to his first day of school in style fulfilling the wishes of his late father.
Last week, Cooper Brooks, 5, arrived in a fire truck alongside dad Christopher Brooks' colleagues from the Sullivan County Volunteer Fire Department.
Christopher Brooks, a father of three and volunteer firefighter, died May 7 from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident. - PUB DATE: 8/22/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: ABC News
As the Puyallup Police Department embarks on its move to South Hill, Central Pierce Fire & Rescue is putting shovels in the ground for their state-of-the-art station on the same lot.
CPFR is building a new Station 72 on two acres of what’s known as the Lumbermen’s property at 703 39th SE. It will stand alongside the new Puyallup Justice Center. - PUB DATE: 8/22/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The News Tribune
Fire retardant dropped from an airplane into an area that should have been cleared of firefighters may have had something to do with last week’s death of a battalion chief at Northern California’s Mendocino Complex fire.
Matthew Burchett, 42, was struck and killed by falling tree debris Aug. 13 near Lake Pillsbury (Lake County) in a spot where, simultaneously, thousands of gallons of the chemical slurry used to quash flames was released, state fire officials said in a preliminary report Monday. - PUB DATE: 8/21/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle
The Toledo Fire and Rescue Department used nearly 96 percent of its overtime budget — $2.27 million in overtime costs — six months into the year, but city finance officials said they’re not too worried about the department’s overall financial health for 2018.
The department budgeted $2.37 million for overtime costs in 2018 and as of June 30 had spent $2. - PUB DATE: 8/21/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Toledo Blade
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (U.S. Department of Commerce) Monday issued the following press release: Today, FirstNet Board Chair Sue Swenson and Vice Chair Jeffrey Johnson notified Assistant Secretary of Commerce David Redl of their resignation from the FirstNet board. - PUB DATE: 8/21/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: International Association of Fire Chiefs
Four years after New Carlisle Assistant Fire Chief Jamie Middlebrook was killed while fighting a fire, a federal agency has released a report on the incident and announced several recommendations as a result of its investigation.
The report was created by the Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program within the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). - PUB DATE: 8/21/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: ABC 57 WBND-TV South Bend News
Channel 2 Investigates has learned a rotating group of Houston firefighters equipped with a tent, waited with a broken HFD fire truck for about 11 hours.
The rotating crews were on-duty but unavailable to respond to emergency calls during the overnight event in Kingwood. "Nobody gave them direction as to checking on them, where do they go, there was no water, no restrooms out there, and no one gave them direction," Patrick Lancton, president of the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association, said. - PUB DATE: 8/21/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KPRC-TV NBC 2 Houston
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner on Sunday vetoed legislation to expand benefit rights for paramedics and emergency medical technicians by defining them as firefighters in municipal collective bargaining agreements.
Rauner’s veto of the two measures, which were passed with overwhelming, veto-proof bipartisan majorities, was in line with his previous pronouncements that Springfield shouldn’t dictate “unfunded state mandates on local governments. - PUB DATE: 8/20/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Chicago Tribune
Some black city firefighters, in a departmental dispute over facial hair, will not turn the other cheek.
Four African-American FDNY members afflicted by a painful skin condition are bristling over their reassignments to light duty — because the ailment prevents them from getting a clean shave, the Daily News has learned. - PUB DATE: 8/20/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Daily News
A firefighter is recovering at Harborview Medical Center after getting severe burns on his body while fighting wildfires in the state.
Brett Read is many things. He is a husband. He is a father. He’s also a firefighter. He had risked his life to protect others for seven years. Recently, that risk of losing his life was closer than he’s ever experienced. - PUB DATE: 8/20/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KCPQ-TV FOX 13
Orange flames were engulfing both sides of the multi-family home -- from the ground to the roof.
And smoke was billowing into the air from the windows and the second-floor balcony, where four residents stood.
The scene Friday morning on Kenwood Street was dire. Residents had no place to go -- their home was being taken over by flames and they couldn’t get to the front door. - PUB DATE: 8/20/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Brockton Enterprise
A savage brawl between two warring groups of FDNY firefighters at a Bronx firehouse has sparked multiple investigations and shocked even hardened department brass, The Post has learned.
More than a dozen members pummeled three rivals with punches and kicks to the head during the melee, sources said. - PUB DATE: 8/20/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Post
The sights and sounds that began a simulated active-shooter training scenario Thursday on the Alvernia University campus were likely similar to any real mass shooting in any institutional setting.
A scream and shout. People running in a panic from a building, followed by the sounds of sirens.
Reading police were looking to conduct active-shooter training in conjunction with city firefighters on one of the educational campuses, Police Chief Andres Dominguez Jr. - PUB DATE: 8/17/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Reading Eagle
Had the closest Wilmington fire truck able to carry water been in service the night a Canby Park rowhome went up in flames, more than 1,700 gallons of water would have doused the house before the first floor collapsed, trapping three firefighters, according to a federal lawsuit filed Thursday.
The blaze killed three firefighters, a result that this lawsuit — filed on behalf of families of the dead and three others seriously injured — blames on a years-old cost-saving policy, called rolling bypasses, it says is proven to be unsuccessful at reducing overtime costs and keeping firefighters safe. - PUB DATE: 8/17/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Wilmington News Journal (Delaware Online)
