During the third day of testimony during a critical hearing for two former Ghost Ship tenants facing criminal charges related to last year’s deadly fire, witnesses called the warehouse a “death trap” and one of the defendants “emotionally manipulative.” Alameda County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Horner will determine after the preliminary hearing if there’s enough evidence to send former warehouse tenants Derick Almena and Max Harris to trial.
- PUB DATE: 12/12/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: East Bay Times

A former Janesville Fire Department employee alleges the fire chief and other fire department employees lied to police that he "might be mentally unstable and dangerous," according to complaints filed with the Janesville Police and Fire Commission. The former employee, Donald "Jeff" Bowen, has filed three charges of malfeasance in public office against Fire Chief Randy Banker and one each against Lt.
- PUB DATE: 12/12/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) released the latest edition of its “U.S. Firefighter Injuries” report, which highlights data on injuries sustained by firefighters on duty in 2016. The statistics were collected from fire departments responding to NFPA’s annual U.S. Fire Experience survey.
- PUB DATE: 12/12/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: National Fire Protection Association

Authorities say an FBI agent and a state fire marshal were struck and killed while standing on the shoulder of I-270 in Montgomery County. At about 10 p.m. Friday, one of the officers was at the scene of a single-vehicle traffic crash on southbound I-270. Police say he requested assistance and used his car to block the damaged vehicle from oncoming traffic.
- PUB DATE: 12/11/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WJZ-TV CBS 13 Baltimore

Charles Patterson, a firefighter with the Bowie Rural Volunteer Fire Department since its inception in 2007, died on Thursday after experiencing a cardiac event on Dec. 1 while fighting a house fire. A graveside service for the 60-year-old is planned for 2 p.m. on Dec. 9 at Lindale Cemetery north of Bowie.
- PUB DATE: 12/11/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Times Record News

Kokomo’s fire union is taking the city to court in the latest development of what’s become a months-long battle over the two sides’ collective bargaining efforts. The Professional Firefighters of Kokomo Local 396, in a civil suit filed this week in Howard Superior Court 4, is requesting that Judge George Hopkins prohibit the city from terminating the existing fire contract at the end of this year and "until such time that the matter can be arbitrated.
- PUB DATE: 12/11/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: News and Tribune

The sun had set Tuesday when Tim Hurley and his strike crew from the U.S. Forest Service’s Kernville station first made it to the front lines of the Creek fire above Sylmar. Flames were shooting sideways as they tore through the dry brush, fueled by erratic Santa Ana winds. Hurley immediately got to work manning an engine with one goal: to keep the fire from jumping Oro Vista Avenue into the dense tract of homes below.
- PUB DATE: 12/11/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Los Angeles Daily News

A New York firefighter who was recently diagnosed with brain cancer will fulfill his lifelong wish to attend the Super Bowl, his fire department says. In a Facebook post Sunday, the Tarrytown Fire Department said the NFL made Bill Duggan’s dream come true with tickets to the big game. “A couple of weeks ago, he was given earth shattering news that he had terminal brain cancer and only had a brief time to live,” the post reads.
- PUB DATE: 12/11/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NBC New York

Tucson Fire Department Chief Jim Critchley announced his retirement Thursday after six years as head of the department. Critchley sent out a memo to Tucson Fire Department personnel Thursday saying he loved his job, but decided to retire and focus on his family, department spokesman Julian Herrera said.
- PUB DATE: 12/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Tucson Arizona Daily Star

A jury awarded a former firefighter $245,000 in damages Thursday, deciding she had proved two allegations in her federal lawsuit against the city of Tampa: That she was discriminated against because she was pregnant and the city retaliated against her when she complained. But on the third allegation, the seven-person jury did not find that the city discriminated against Tanja Vidovic because of her gender.
- PUB DATE: 12/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Tampa Bay Times and Tampa Bay.com

Firefighters across Southern California are battling six major wildfires with brutal Santa Ana winds expected to continue fanning the flames through Saturday. The newest blazes, the Lilac fire in San Diego County and the Liberty fire in Riverside County, are now being fueled by continued Santa Ana winds and low humidity, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
- PUB DATE: 12/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: ABC News

A Milwaukee Fire Department acting lieutenant repeatedly groped a co-worker and gave her low marks on her work evaluation after she complained, according to a criminal complaint charging him with a felony. Michael Peden, 35, was charged Thursday with second-degree sexual assault after his arrest last weekend.
- PUB DATE: 12/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

PHOTOS - A U.K.-based fire service has said it is “seriously unimpressed” with a 22-year-old man after five firefighters spent an hour freeing his head from a microwave oven he had “cemented” himself inside as part of a stunt he was filming for YouTube. The man, based in the English city of Wolverhampton, had mixed quick-dry spackling paste and poured it around his head, which was protected by plastic bag inside the microwave, which was intended to act as a mold, according to West Midlands Fire.
- PUB DATE: 12/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: TIME

Although three ladder trucks were present at the high-rise apartment building fire that killed two women Tuesday, the city fire chief says his decision not to deploy aerial ladder rescues for the building’s 150-some elderly residents was the right one. Chief Jay Delaney said the fact that the city’s aerial ladder truck was out of service played no part in the decision to have many of the residents of Lincoln Plaza shelter in place.
- PUB DATE: 12/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Citizens' Voice

Port Aransas Volunteer Fire Department received a fire truck today, donated by the Philomont Volunteer Fire Department from Virginia. The truck was driven from Virginia to Port Aransas by firefighters from Philomont Volunteer Fire Department. "When we saw the flooding and damage on the television we went to county fire chief and asked what we could do to help," said Philomont Volunteer Fire Department Chief Rick Pearsall.
- PUB DATE: 12/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KRIS-TV NBC 6 Corpus Christi

Watertown - A state Supreme Court judge on Wednesday reserved decision regarding an injunction to block the city from a new policy that prohibits firefighters from being called into work when their colleagues call in sick. Last month, the City Council decided in executive session to establish a new policy that will not allow firefighters to be brought into work when others call in sick, a move that City Manager Sharon A.
- PUB DATE: 12/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Watertown Daily News

Baltimore Police have arrested a 35-year-old Harford County man in connection to the Nov. 30 killing of a man in his Upper Fells Point home. Daniel Greene, of the 2100 block of Harkins Rd. in Norrisville, was taken into custody Tuesday and charged with first degree murder of Jon Hickey, 31, a Baltimore County volunteer firefighter and photographer who had been accepted into the next recruit class for the Baltimore Fire Department.
- PUB DATE: 12/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Baltimore Sun

NFPA reports annually on large-loss fires and explosions that occurred in the United States the year before. Those fires are defined as events that result in property damage of at least $10 million. There were 25 such fires in 2016, resulting in a total of over $1.4 billion in direct property losses.
- PUB DATE: 12/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: National Fire Protection Association

A Montgomery firefighter who collapsed at the scene of a house fire late Tuesday night was pronounced dead at a hospital, the state Fire Marshal's office has reported. "It's a sad day for Western Massachusetts," said Jennifer Mieth, spokeswoman for the state Fire Marshal's office. The blaze at 1524 Southampton Road was reported shortly after 11 p.
- PUB DATE: 12/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: MassLive.com

The Remsen Street fire burned so intensely on Thursday that it melted the tires, electric system and hydraulic lines of the Watervliet-Green Island aerial ladder truck at the fire scene, officials said Tuesday. “It was so hot that it melted the tires. It’s fire resistant not fire proof,” said Sean Ward, executive assistant to Green Island Mayor Ellen McNulty-Ryan.
- PUB DATE: 12/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Albany Times Union