The Novato fire district reached a settlement of nearly $200,000 with a firefighter it terminated for failing a drug test and other alleged violations.
Kirk Lewis received $150,000 from the district’s insurer under the settlement. The district itself paid another $49,000 to Lewis’ lawyers.
The district admitted no wrongdoing but agreed to regard Lewis’ exit as a resignation rather than a termination. - PUB DATE: 1/5/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Marin Independent Journal
KCK Mayor Mark Holland said Thursday he was threatened on social media by a member of the KCK Fire Department and reported the threat to local and state law enforcement authorities.
In a statement, Holland, mayor of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kan., said he contacted the Kansas City, Kan. - PUB DATE: 1/5/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Kansas City Star
The FDNY is getting its “fifth man” back.
The department has decided to bring back a fifth firefighter to the 10 engine companies that lost them last month.
The additional firefighters had been pulled from these houses and sent to different stations in early December to combat a soaring absentee rate, officials said. - PUB DATE: 1/4/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Daily News
The state is investigating the Spokane Fire Department after contaminants reportedly were found in firefighters’ air tanks.
The discovery, which occurred in mid-November after firefighters noticed a foul smell coming from air canisters during a breathing test, prompted fire department leaders to shut down all three of the department’s air compressors. - PUB DATE: 1/4/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Spokesman-Review
A Baltimore circuit judge has ruled that city officials broke their contract with many police officers, firefighters and retirees in 2010 by cutting a key pension provision that has cost retirees millions in pension benefits.
Judge Julie R. Rubin ruled Tuesday that former Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's overhaul of pension benefits "unlawfully withdrew" a variable pension benefit that paid out more money to retirees when the stock market improved. - PUB DATE: 1/4/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Baltimore Sun
An Austin Fire Department arson investigator has been charged with four crimes — sexual assault, another felony and two misdemeanors — and was booked Wednesday into the Travis County Jail, according to court records.
Lt. Marcus Reed is accused of using his position as a law enforcement officer to lure a woman into his city-owned truck in March and assaulting her. - PUB DATE: 1/4/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: American-Statesman
Bonnie Blystone made a call to the Ocean City-Wright Fire Department on the afternoon of Dec. 20.
When the dispatcher answered, Blystone said it wasn’t a 911 call. It was a “personal dilemma,” she said.
(It was) a floundering American flag atop at 25-foot flagpole located on my parent’s property next to their home,” she said in an email. - PUB DATE: 1/4/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Northwest Florida Daily News
State regulators have released previously withheld details in reports filed by Pacific Gas & Electric Co. revealing the exact location of damaged transmission equipment found near the ignition points of the wildfires that ravaged Sonoma and Napa counties in October.
The documents — including the precise address and specific types of damaged equipment — provide new information about the proximity of PG&E equipment to the origins of the deadly Oct. - PUB DATE: 1/4/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Santa Rosa Press Democrat
A Wamego firefighter has died after suffering serious injuries from a fall.
According to the Wamego Fire Department, John Randle and the Wamego Fire Department responded to a structure fire at 4:50 a.m. on Monday. After the fire was put out, he was severely hurt from a fall while “returning a fire apparatus to service. - PUB DATE: 1/3/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KSNT-TV Topeka
Bluefield, Virginia is mourning the loss of its fire chief.
Fire Chief Jim Hardy passed away the evening of Sun, Dec. 31st, 2017. Officials in the city of Bluefield said Hardy died of natural causes. Hardy was an active members of the fire department for over 65 years.
Mayor of Bluefield, Virginia, Don Harris said Hardy dedicated his life to the fire service and his legacy will live on. - PUB DATE: 1/3/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WVNS TV
A 16-year-old Akron girl hadn’t seen her aunt since she collided with a firetruck last July, killing her cousin and another close friend.
She faced her aunt during her sentencing in Summit County Juvenile Court Tuesday, and tearfully apologized for the death of her cousin, 16-year-old LaShae Johnson. - PUB DATE: 1/3/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Akron Beacon Journal
Fire Chief Frederick E. Jackson and firefighter Will Lipczynski went to save a stranded ice fisherman Tuesday afternoon on Chaumont Bay when they ended up having to be rescued themselves.
The two firefighters were stuck in an airboat for more than two hours in the bay’s frigid waters during whiteout conditions and had to be helped back to shore by members of the Clayton Fire Department. - PUB DATE: 1/3/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Watertown Daily Times
A white Columbia Fire Department captain who was fired from his $53,722-a-year job for making threatening remarks on social media about a Black Lives Matter protest has filed a lawsuit against the city alleging racial discrimination.
The remarks by James “Jimmy” Morris were made in two posts on the veteran firefighter’s personal Facebook in 2016. - PUB DATE: 1/3/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The State
State fire commissioner Tim Solobay stepped down Sunday with the resurfacing of a sexual harassment claim filed six years ago by Rachel Moore, who worked as an aide to Solobay when he was still a state senator.
At the time, he denied Moore’s claim that he slapped her on her rear end in his Harrisburg office, but on Sunday, he tendered his resignation to Governor Wolf. - PUB DATE: 1/2/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: CBS Pittsburgh
A man allegedly tried to stab a firefighter who was trying to save him from an early morning house fire in Citrus Heights, police said Sunday.
Police were already at the scene when firefighters responded to the fire on Glenn Avenue at 1 a.m, said Sgt. Wesley Herman of the Citrus Heights Police Department. - PUB DATE: 1/2/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Sacramento Bee
A Cranston fire lieutenant is the suing the city and the firefighters’ union after the deputy chief allegedly punched and slammed him while on duty in September, because the lieutenant had refused to participate in a “Fill the Boot” fundraising campaign.
Scott Bergantino filed suit in U.S. District Court, alleging that Deputy Chief Paul Valletta Jr. - PUB DATE: 1/2/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Providence Journal
A lawsuit filed last week in federal court contends the city of Wichita does not pay its fire department investigators fairly for their work.
At issue in the complaint is how many hours the investigators have to work before they begin receiving overtime.
Currently, Wichita Fire Department investigators and firefighters get paid time and a half if they work more than 204 hours in a pay period, which is 27 days long, according to the lawsuit. - PUB DATE: 1/2/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Witchita Eagle
State fire commissioner Tim Solobay stepped down Sunday with the resurfacing of a sexual harassment claim filed six years ago by Rachel Moore, who worked as an aide to Solobay when he was still a state senator.
At the time, he denied Moore’s claim that he slapped her on her rear end in his Harrisburg office, but on Sunday, he tendered his resignation to Governor Wolf. - PUB DATE: 1/2/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: CBS Pittsburgh
In a blow to the Kokomo firefighters’ union, a Howard County judge late last week denied a sweeping request that was at the center of a recent complaint filed against city officials.
The decision, denying the union's request for arbitration and injunctive relief, is the latest development in what has become a publicly contentious clash over the two sides’ collective bargaining efforts toward a new contract - a process that began in June and has included at least eight private meetings. - PUB DATE: 1/2/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: kokomotribune.com
Mothers and their children frantically scrambled down fire escapes to survive the inferno that consumed their Bronx homes.
They dashed out into the frigid night in whatever they were wearing, without jackets, without shoes, just holding on to their lives.
They were the lucky ones.
A raging fire quickly swept through the five-story building on Prospect Ave. - PUB DATE: 12/29/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Daily News
