Ed Hutchinson became Greensburg's fire chief when Harry Truman was president and retired 53 years later, and through those decades he was a community leader whose impact stretched far beyond the city's fire halls. “He was not only a fire chief, but a great community servant. I am stunned today,” Greensburg Mayor Robert Bell said Sunday of Hutchinson's death Sunday morning at age 96 at Excela Westmoreland Hospital in Greensburg.
- PUB DATE: 4/16/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

The controversial program that pays veteran Los Angeles police officers and firefighters nearly double for the last five years of their careers received a flood of new enrollees in February, records show. The rush to join the Deferred Retirement Option Plan, or DROP program, coincided with a Times investigation in February that found the program, which was created in 2002 to keep veteran officers and firefighters on the job, allows participants to file workers' compensation claims and then take extended injury leaves at nearly twice their usual pay.
- PUB DATE: 4/16/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Los Angeles Times

The FDNY’s “zero tolerance” for drug abuse has gone up in smoke. Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro has quietly abandoned the department’s once-trumpeted policy calling for the firing of anyone caught using illegal or prohibited substances, The Post has learned. In the last month, 26 firefighters who had tested positive on urine tests since 2016 were returned to full duty, insiders revealed.
- PUB DATE: 4/16/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Post

Two Arlington firefighters and a Arlington Water Utilities crew member were injured while responding to a gas leak that occurred Sunday afternoon in central Arlington. All three were transported to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. The extent of their injuries is not known. According to Arlington Fire Department spokesman Mike Joiner, Arlington Water Utilities crews were repairing a water line leak at the intersection of Ditto Avenue and Dugan Street.
- PUB DATE: 4/16/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Fort Worth Star-Teleram

Whenever a fire breaks out in a home within the northern portion of this village, the affected residents can be assured a rescue crew is on the way. Being that the north end of Meyers Lake falls within Plain Township has led to concern among township officials because nearly 200 village property owners are not paying a fire-protection property tax.
- PUB DATE: 4/16/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Canton Repository

As first responders rushed to the Parkland high school where Nikolas Cruz killed 17 people and wounded 15 more, one thing quickly became clear: People were dying. "This is going to be a big event," a Coral Springs-Parkland Fire Department commander said in newly released audio recordings from the Feb.
- PUB DATE: 4/13/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Miami Herald

A barrel containing radioactive sludge ruptured at an Idaho nuclear facility, federal officials said Thursday, resulting in no injuries and no risk to the public but possibly slowing progress in shipping waste out of the state. The U.S. Department of Energy said the 55-gallon (208-liter) barrel ruptured late Wednesday at the 890-square-mile (2,305-square-kilometer) site that includes the Idaho National Laboratory, one of the nation's top federal nuclear research labs.
- PUB DATE: 4/13/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KBCI-TV 2 Boise

Chris Conner knows the struggles of cancer-stricken firefighters who are often overwhelmed with high medical bills. “I know for a fact that a primary need is for financial help,” Conner said. “There is a misconception that [firefighters] have great insurance these days, and we don’t. We all have high deductibles.
- PUB DATE: 4/13/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Fort Worth Star-Teleram

Whitehall Township commissioners were alarmed Monday to learn that several veteran firefighters have left the Whitehall Township Fire Department over disputes with how the new chief is running things. Don Dreisbach, a volunteer who left after serving for 37 years, told commissioners that Chief David Nelson’s treatment of members and training requirements were driving away longtime volunteers like himself.
- PUB DATE: 4/13/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Allentown Morning Call

On March 25, 2016, Berthoud Fire Protection District Fire Investigator Josh Macdonald was performing inspections when a call came in about a house fire with an occupant trapped. Once on scene, Macdonald hopped out of the engine and started taking pictures to find a potential origin and to get a clear picture of how the fire was behaving.
- PUB DATE: 4/13/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1

A firefighter who was standing on a telescoping ladder when it collapsed onto a three-story building in Boston suffered no serious injuries. Boston Fire Commissioner Joseph Finn said the firefighter was suspended about two feet above the building Wednesday night when the ladder buckled. He was able to safely climb out of the ladder's bucket onto the roof.
- PUB DATE: 4/12/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WCVB-TV ABC 5 Boston

Suicides left more officers and firefighters dead last year than all line-of-duty deaths combined — a jarring statistic that continues to plague first responders but garners little attention. A new study by the Ruderman Family Foundation, a philanthropic organization that works for the rights of people with disabilities, looked at depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and other issues affecting first responders and the rates of suicide in departments nationwide.
- PUB DATE: 4/12/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: USA Today

The San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association submitted three petitions to potentially change the city charter. On Wednesday morning, the fire union held a press conference on the back steps of city hall before submitting the signatures. The first petition is to reduce City Manager Sheryl Sculley's salary and only allow a city manager to serve a maximum of eight years.
- PUB DATE: 4/12/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KENS5.com San Antonio

The widows of two York firefighters who died from injuries they suffered in a building collapse have initiated legal action against C.S. Davidson Inc., which the city contracts with for engineering services. Casey Flanscha and Allison Hoffman, who are also the administrators of the estates of York City Fire/Rescue Services firefighters Ivan Flanscha and Zachary Anthony, respectively, each filed court documents on Tuesday in the York County Court of Common Pleas.
- PUB DATE: 4/12/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: York Daily Record

Federal investigators have concluded the Georgia Department of Transportation is partly to blame for the fire that destroyed part of I-85 in Atlanta and crippled the region’s traffic for weeks. Wednesday, the National Transportation Safety Board released a report that found the department’s decision to stockpile construction materials under I-85 contributed to the inferno that destroyed a section of the highway in Buckhead.
- PUB DATE: 4/12/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Harvey police and fire department employees were hit with major layoffs Tuesday, one day after an adverse court ruling spurred city officials to convene an emergency meeting with workers. Officials did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday but the lawyer who represents both Harvey’s police and fire unions said 18 rank-and-file firefighters and 13 patrolmen are believed to have been let go.
- PUB DATE: 4/11/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Chicago Tribune

Capt. Jeanette Woldseth thought of herself as just a firefighter. She didn’t want to be remembered as a female firefighter, even though she was the first in the state. She also didn’t want the attention or focus on her, even when cancer consumed her body. Yet, it’s clear part of Capt. Woldseth’s legacy is that she paved the way for other women to not only join the firefighting ranks, but to succeed in the male-dominated profession.
- PUB DATE: 4/11/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Seattle Times

A former treasurer for the Gladstone, Missouri firefighters union pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to embezzling more than $26,000 from the union. Charles Duddy, 58, of Platte City, Missouri, waived his right to a grand jury and pleaded guilty to information that charges him with the embezzlement and theft of union funds.
- PUB DATE: 4/11/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KSHB-TV NBC 41 Kansas City

Most fire departments are still doing regular performance reviews, and a few of them may still be happy with the process. However, many departments are clearly not. Some fire departments have even gone so far as to eliminate the performance review process altogether. What’s wrong with the way many fire departments do performance evaluations? And how can the process be improved as to be truly meaningful and valuable for those who use it? When I became a firefighter, decades ago, the performance review process worked like this: Every six months or so, someone in a position of authority would fill out a form which rated individual department members on different characteristics on a scale of one to 10.
- PUB DATE: 4/11/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1

Councilman Cody J. Horbacz would like to see city firefighters go out and complete commercial building inspections during their downtime when they’re not fighting fires. He found out on Tuesday night that’s not possible because of a 1993 agreement with the Watertown Professional Fire Fighters Association Local 191 that specifies two firefighters must complete those duties out of the city’s Code Enforcement office.
- PUB DATE: 4/11/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Watertown Daily Times