The city of Kenner announced Wednesday (Sept. 6) that Fire Chief John Hellmers has been placed on administrative leave while he is under investigation.
Kenner Chief Administrative Officer Deborah Foshee's press release did not say what sparked the investigation. But the city will not comment any further on the matter until the completion of the probe. - PUB DATE: 9/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New Orleans Times-Picayune & Nola.com
A hundred Spokane and Spokane Valley firefighters today (Wednesday) received new tools that will allow them to save lives while they’re not on duty. They’re participating in a national pilot project designed to help save the lives of people who suffer cardiac arrest in their homes or other private places. - PUB DATE: 9/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Spokane Public Radio
A wet winter and spring in the Western U.S. brought predictions that the 2017 wildfire season would be mild. It was anything but. It ended up one of the worst in U.S. history in land burned.
The smoke, the flames, the aching lungs, the evacuations. They're summertime facts of life in the U.S. West, where every wildfire season competes with memories of previous destruction. - PUB DATE: 9/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: U.S. News & World Report
Hundreds of Florida’s emergency responders are returning home to prepare for Hurricane Irma just days after they headed to Texas to help with the Hurricane Harvey relief. ome firefighters and paramedics face the task of jumping from one disaster to preparing for potentially another as their home state readies for a possible hit. - PUB DATE: 9/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel & SouthFlorida.com
A Charleston firefighter resigned his post after he said he felt slighted by the chief's response to a July rescue.
Cameron Day, 32, rescued a woman from a historic home at 48 Smith St. the afternoon of July 14, as flames and smoke consumed the building. Former tenants of the building said the woman had run back into the house after learning her cat, Banjo, was left behind. - PUB DATE: 9/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Charleston Post and Courier
A woman who was hiking over the weekend in the Columbia River Gorge said Tuesday that she happened across a teenager who threw "a smoke bomb" into Eagle Creek Canyon, igniting the now 10,000-acre Eagle Creek fire.
Liz FitzGerald, 48, of Portland said she's fairly certain that she heard the teenager's friends -- including a boy who was video-recording with his cellphone and some girls in the group -- giggle as the firework dropped down a cliff and into the trees below. - PUB DATE: 9/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Portland Oregonian, Hillsboro Argus, Oregon Live.com
City Council tonight approved an agreement that will expand the Rockford Fire Department’s mobile integrated health program, could reduce congestion in area emergency rooms and decrease the number non-emergency ambulance rides.
Chief Derek Bergsten said under the program, Rockford firefighter paramedics will provide what is sometimes called “paramedicine. - PUB DATE: 9/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Rockford Register Star
A Raytown Fire Department station was burglarized on Labor Day while firefighters were raising money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
Police were dispatched to the station at 6020 Raytown Trafficway about 2:30 p.m. A Fire Department employee discovered that his wallet and other items were taken from his bedroom at the station while he had been participating in the fundraiser. - PUB DATE: 9/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Kansas City Star
PHOTO - A Tinder date ended worse than anyone could have expected when firefighters had to rescue a woman from in between two window panes.
According to his GoFundMe campaign, Tinder user Liam Smith and his date went to his house after dinner to watch a documentary. Smith said his date used the restroom, and came back with a panicked look on her face. - PUB DATE: 9/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1
The Salisbury firefighter hit by a fire vehicle Sunday is out of surgery and doing well, according to a Salisbury Fire Department Facebook post.
A crew of Maryland State Police troopers flew the injured firefighter to the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore after the Sunday afternoon incident. - PUB DATE: 9/5/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Delmarva Now
Flames came down around Dave Ferrera’s La Tuna Canyon home Saturday as he scrambled around his property to douse the small fires igniting everywhere.
Fueled by triple-digit heat, wind and dry brush, the flames could not be stopped and he called out for help. The firefighters who had been there earlier in the day hadn’t gotten to the flames above in time, he said, so the blaze just chewed its way down the canyon and wrapped around his home, the one that sat on 10 acres at the end of La Tuna Canyon Road. - PUB DATE: 9/5/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Los Angeles Daily News
A desperate Queens mom climbed halfway out of her window, then steeled herself to do the unthinkable — and the unavoidable — drop her baby from the third floor of a burning building, officials said.
Just then, mother and child were saved.
When firefighters arrived at the Rockaway Beach fire on Beach 91st St. - PUB DATE: 9/5/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Daily News
For the sixth year, the IAFC received a grant from Motorola Solutions Foundation to fund another year of the Fire Service Executive Development Institute (FSEDI). FSEDI is a program developed by the IAFC to provide new and aspiring chiefs with the tools they need for successful and productive tenures. - PUB DATE: 9/5/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: International Association of Fire Chiefs
VIDEO - The top floor of a Worcester three-family home was destroyed by a fire on Labor Day. Firefighters responded to a call around 4 p.m. for active flames at a building on Farwell Street.
Officials said heavy smoke poured from the top floor of the building, with winds adding intensity to the fire and causing it to spread. - PUB DATE: 9/5/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WCVB-TV ABC 5 Boston
Firefighters had to swim to a fire hydrant while rescuing a family from a burning home.
In a Washington Post video, a crew from the Houston Fire Department responded to a fully-involved house fire in a flooded neighborhood. The house was surrounded by three feet of water, according Senior Fire Captain Jay Dillon. - PUB DATE: 9/1/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1
There is new fallout from the fierce debate over Cleveland Browns players kneeling during the national anthem.
Cleveland safety forces have backed out of a plan to hold a large flag on the field for the opening game.
A dozen Browns players created a firestorm during a recent preseason game by not standing during the anthem. - PUB DATE: 9/1/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WJW-TV MyFox Cleveland
The Pismo Beach man who was killed Thursday morning in a collision on Highway 41 in Kings County was a Santa Maria-based U.S. Forest Service battalion chief.
Gary Helming, 47, sustained fatal injuries in the collision, which occurred south of Highway 33, according to the Kings County Coroner’s Office and the California Highway Patrol. - PUB DATE: 9/1/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: San Luis Obispo County Tribune
A frantic mother rang the doorbell of the Orlando Fire Department’s Station One about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday. Her 26-day-old son was cradled in her arms, lifeless and blue after he’d stopped breathing moments before, OFD Lt. Tim Capps said.
A firefighter took the baby from his mother, rushing him through the fire department’s largest station at 78 West Central Blvd. - PUB DATE: 9/1/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Orlando Sentinel
Firefighters had to swim to a fire hydrant while rescuing a family from a burning home.
In a Washington Post video, a crew from the Houston Fire Department responded to a fully-involved house fire in a flooded neighborhood. The house was surrounded by three feet of water, according Senior Fire Captain Jay Dillon. - PUB DATE: 9/1/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1
Poor preparation by park crews and a massive failure of imagination allowed the November wildfire that began in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to grow, pick up speed and sweep through Gatlinburg and surrounding parts of Sevier County, leaving death and destruction in its wake, according to a federal review released Thursday. - PUB DATE: 9/1/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Knoxville News Sentinel
