An executive committee representing nearly 8,700 current and former Dallas police officers and firefighters has agreed to a $173.3 million settlement in their decades-old class-action lawsuits against City Hall over years of back-pay claims.
The figure is an agreed-upon price that comes with caveats because it's not yet a done deal. - PUB DATE: 5/30/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Dallas Morning News
Jeremi Roesler takes over as Julian fire chief Friday, succeeding five-year Chief Rick Marinelli and inheriting a firestorm. A battalion chief with Cal Fire’s Hemet-area Battalion 5, Roesler will be dealing with lawsuits, complaints of Brown Act violations, expected protests at the Julian fire station on state Route 79 and an angry citizenry that has petitioned twice to keep its last-in-the-county volunteer force. - PUB DATE: 5/30/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Times of San Diego
A former 23-year veteran employee of the Kansas City Fire Department is suing the department for racial discrimination.
In a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday, Travis Yeargans, who is black, says he's not the only one who has been discriminated against. The lawsuit claims KCFD has a "pattern and practice of not promoting African-Americans to any position above firetruck driver due to race. - PUB DATE: 5/30/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KCUR Public Radio
Although well-trained in the strategic and tactical aspects of firefighting, firefighters often receive too little training when it comes to handling the mental stress that accompanies the job.
Firefighters make great personal sacrifices during emergency situations, but don’t always take the risks seriously. - PUB DATE: 5/30/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1
As demand for emergency fire and medical services grows, town leaders and the chiefs of the two fire departments have drafted a plan to boost collaboration and blur territorial lines.
Released Tuesday, the strategic plan for the town Fire/Rescue/EMS and Eighth Utilities District departments is meant "to identify ways to work together to provide the highest level of service and the quickest and most effective response to the entire community," department leaders said in a prepared statement. - PUB DATE: 5/30/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Hartford Courant ·
A Chicago Fire Department diver died and two others were injured Monday night while searching for a 28-year-old man who fell off a boat on the Chicago River on the Lower West Side.
Firefighters responded at 7:49 p.m. in the 2600 block of South Ashland after others on the boat called 911 to report the fall, according to the Chicago Fire Department. - PUB DATE: 5/29/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Chicago Sun-Times
Longtime rescue volunteer and current North Beach Volunteer Fire Department rescue captain Patricia Ann “Pat” Osburn died Saturday morning in the line of duty, the department reports.
Osburn experienced a medical emergency while performing her duties as an emergency medical technician and was found unresponsive upon arrival at CalvertHealth Medical Center. - PUB DATE: 5/29/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Southern Maryland Newspapers
After a 2016 investigation revealed gender bias and cultural problems within the Vancouver Fire Department, Chief Joe Molina had this to say:
“We have to get better.”
Now, 17 months later, the chief points to improvements made in the wake of the report:
Stations were changed in ways the chief says better accommodates men and women working together. - PUB DATE: 5/29/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Vancouver Columbian
VIDEO/PHOTO - A sweet moment captured on camera between a Wells firefighter and the dog he rescued from a roof is getting national attention.
A dog somehow managed to get onto the roof of his home through an upstairs window, prompting numerous calls to Wells police on Sunday. Police said “an awesome citizen” stood by the dog until firefighters arrived at the scene. - PUB DATE: 5/29/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Portland Press Herald
No one in Michigan can say how often fire safety inspections happen at some of the riskiest buildings used by the public, where firefighters have battled at least 1,245 blazes in the last 18 months.
The state fire marshal has never performed annual inspections of churches, theaters, restaurants and other "places of public assemblage," as required by a 1978 law enacted in response to a massive fire at a Kentucky ballroom that killed 168 people. - PUB DATE: 5/29/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Battle Creek Enquirer
The New Orleans Fire Department ran afoul of the state constitution when it promoted dozens of firefighters to the rank of captain even though they ranked lower than many other eligible candidates on a promotion exam, the city's Civil Service Commission said in a 33-page ruling issued Thursday.
But the ruling won’t help those who were passed over to climb the ranks, and it won’t strip the 41 who were promoted of their posts. - PUB DATE: 5/25/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Advocate
The Rodeo-Hercules Fire District recently voted to remove the chair from his position after alleged harassment and threats, including a threat to “crucify” the interim fire chief.
The Rodeo-Hercules Fire District board voted on May 9 to remove Ernest Wheeler as chair of the board after an internal investigation, among other things, found that Wheeler had threatened to “crucify” acting Fire Chief Bryan Craig over a disagreement on the use of district funds. - PUB DATE: 5/25/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: East Bay Times
Mobile officials gathered Thursday morning in the Crichton area to cut the ribbon on the "mother of all fire stations in the area," as one of them described it.
That was Councilman Fred Richardson, who had obvious reason to be delighted that the city's newest public safety facility was in his District 1. - PUB DATE: 5/25/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: AL.com
Sounding the alarm on cancer risks faced by firefighters, the Massachusetts Senate on Tuesday voted to set aside $420,000 to help municipalities buy equipment to remove deadly carcinogens from firefighters’ gear.
Under a budget amendment (1018) offered by Sen. Paul Feeney and adopted unanimously, the money would seed a new trust fund to support the bulk purchase of extractors -- essentially, Feeney said, large washing machines that can remove carcinogens that permeate clothing even after firefighters leave a scene. - PUB DATE: 5/25/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Wicked Local Wayland
The loved ones of two fallen York City firefighters are suing the engineering firm they say is responsible for surveying the Weaver Piano & Organ building the day of the fatal collapse.
Attorneys for Casey Flanscha, widow of Ivan Flanscha, and Allison Hoffman, fiancee of Zachary Anthony, filed a wrongful death suit against Carney Engineering Group and its president, Josh Carney, on Thursday, May 24. - PUB DATE: 5/25/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: York Dispatch
A new professional standards program at Cal Fire is giving the department a mechanism to hand down discipline in a consistent manner across the state for the first time in its history.
It’s racking up pay reductions, suspensions and dismissals at a rate that rivals scandal-plagued 2014 – the year when an instructor at its fire academy murdered his mistress and brought intense scrutiny on the department. - PUB DATE: 5/24/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Sacramento Bee
In its first federal sexual harassment complaint of the Me Too movement, the ACLU has filed charges against the Fairfax County and the fire department.
The charges are being filed on behalf of two of the highest-ranking women in the Fairfax County Fire Department. The national civil rights organization is accusing Fairfax County leadership of retaliation over sexual harassment complaints. - PUB DATE: 5/24/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WUSA-TV 9 DC
A two-year-old is alive after a near drowning at an Upstate swimming pool. And it's thanks in large part to an area fire chief, who was the first to arrive on the scene.
The emergency unfolded at the Hartwell Villas pool Tuesday around 5 p.m. But luckily, that was the same time a hero happened to be nearby and heard the call for help. - PUB DATE: 5/24/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WCSC-TV Charleston Live 5 News
A months-long probe into abuse of sick leave within the fire department concluded this week with the resignation of a deputy chief and the release of an internal review.
The city paid $93,816 in unearned or unauthorized sick time, benefits and incentives over the past five years, according to the review. - PUB DATE: 5/24/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Tampa Tribune and TBO.com (Tampa Bay Online)
Two firefighters were buried in rubble during a fire in Rogers Park Wednesday.
Officials said roof work was in progress at an apartment building on the 6100 block of North Hoyne Avenue, which set off the fire.
Several firefighters were climbing the stairs to access the fire when the stairs collapsed, causing three of the firefighters to fall. - PUB DATE: 5/24/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WLS-TV ABC 7 Chicago
