With so many concerns on the minds of our nation's firefighters -- training, tactics and protocols; not to mention putting their lives on the line -- it's understandable if something as simple as being cautious with an email is overlooked during a stressful day.
One small slip, however, and an entire fire department can fall victim to a hacking attack which can cripple internal communications and data storage or compromise sensitive information for both department members and everyday citizens. - PUB DATE: 10/25/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse
More people in Champaign County could survive cardiac arrest with the help of a free smartphone app designed to mobilize the public to start treatment in the first critical minutes.
The PulsePoint Respond app was launched Monday in Champaign County by Presence Regional EMS and METCAD, the local emergency dispatch agency. - PUB DATE: 10/25/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The News-Gazette
A former firefighter recruit is suing San Diego for discrimination, harassment and retaliation because she was fired last year after speaking up about lewd comments and penis drawings in the Fire Academy locker room. Nicole Pappas, 31, claims male members of her 2015 recruiting class criticized her weight, commented on her butt and forced her to look at penis drawings by taping them on the wall, emailing them and posting them on social media. - PUB DATE: 10/25/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: San Diego Union-Tribune
Last night's NBC News segment featured an in-depth look at firefighter occupational cancer.
The segment featured an interview with a Boston firefighter who is battling blood cancer and Fire Commissioner Joseph Finn, who called cancer rates in the fire service an "epidemic." According to the segment, three active or just-retired firefighters are diagnosed with cancer each month. - PUB DATE: 10/24/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1
The end of a nearly yearlong dispute between Mayor Lloyd Winnecke's office and the police and fire departments was reached Monday with a six-figure settlement.
City Council approved using $300,000 of income tax revenue to end the lawsuit between the unions and city over the changes to the 2017 health insurance plan the city offered employees. - PUB DATE: 10/24/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Evansville Courier & Press
The motorist who first reported the Canyon Fire 2 said Monday, Oct. 23 that he described the Oct. 9 incident as a fire, not as smoke.
The distinction matters because Orange County Fire Authority officials confirmed Monday that the dispatcher’s first response was to send a single fire engine with lights and sirens off, a deployment known as a low-priority “smoke check. - PUB DATE: 10/24/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Orange County Register
Cranston’s deputy fire chief is back on the job even as he faces criminal charges tied to an alleged fight with a lieutenant.
Cranston spokesman Mark Schieldrop confirmed to Eyewitness News that Deputy Chief Paul Valletta has been taken off administrative leave, more than a month after the city placed him on paid leave following his arrest. - PUB DATE: 10/24/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WPRI-TV Providence 12
A man who allegedly placed a pipe bomb in the woods behind a fire station in Ramsey, Minn. on Monday afternoon is being held in the Anoka County jail, police said.
Officers found the bomb behind the station on the 5600 block of NW. Alpine Drive after a witness called police to report a man placing the device in an area between Station No. - PUB DATE: 10/24/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Minneapolis Star Tribune
With shooting victims on the site of the Route 91 Harvest Festival and taking shelter in nearby hotels, police officers clustered around firefighters, protecting the paramedics as they worked to stabilize and move the wounded to safety.
The agencies had practiced together for years on these rescue task forces, preparing for the possibility of a mass-casualty event like the Oct. - PUB DATE: 10/23/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Las Vegas Sun
No one warned Mark Rine that while he was saving others, he was killing himself.
The bad habits that would ensure the firefighter’s death sentence started with his very first fire in 2007.
Rine was supposed to help set up the ladder, but he ignored his orders, grabbed the hose and charged into the burning two-story brick house. - PUB DATE: 10/23/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Gatehouse Projects - Columbus Dispatch
Internal reports that the Orange County Fire Authority bungled its initial response to the Canyon Fire 2 are prompting Orange County Supervisor Shawn Nelson to ask colleagues for an independent investigation of the fire that burned 9,200 acres and destroyed or damaged nearly 60 homes around Anaheim Hills. - PUB DATE: 10/23/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Orange County Register
VIDEO - New video shows the moment a crazed driver tried to steal a fire truck after plowing his box truck into several cars near Times Square Sunday. Video of the scuffle shows the truck driver, who can be seen wearing a green T-shirt, frantically climbing in the driver’s-side door of a fire engine on 10th Avenue and 43rd Street. - PUB DATE: 10/23/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Post
Tim Butler, who has been St. Paul’s fire chief for a decade, announced Saturday he will step down from the department’s helm.
Butler asked the mayor that he be allowed to continue working at the fire department by returning to a lesser role he used to have. Butler has faced controversy, particularly in recent weeks. - PUB DATE: 10/23/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Pioneer Press
An African-American firefighter with the Kansas City Fire Department has been awarded $356,694 in compensatory damages following a race discrimination suit against the city.
Tarshish Jones, a firetruck driver, claimed the department uses discriminatory practices in determining who is promoted.
When the suit was filed in 2015, Jones had been employed by the department for 17 years and had been eligible for captain for 12 of those years. - PUB DATE: 10/23/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Kansas City Star
Longtime Oakland firefighter Darin White was named fire chief Thursday, the city’s second choice after a Los Angeles candidate turned down the job over a contract dispute.
White, who has spent 20 of his 30-year career in Oakland, will lead a beleaguered department recovering from the Ghost Ship blaze, the deadliest structure fire in modern California history that uncovered failures to properly inspect commercial and multi-unit residential buildings. - PUB DATE: 10/20/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: East Bay Times
City Councilwoman Teresa R. Macaluso is accusing members of the city’s fire department of embarking on a smear campaign to defeat her in next month’s election,
She’s also accusing the firefighters of bullying her during this fall’s City Council campaign because she’s been a vocal opponent of the fire department during the city’s three-year contract battle with the firefighters’ union. - PUB DATE: 10/20/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Watertown Daily Times
Carson Couch doesn’t consider himself a hero, although to many he probably is.
It was October 2nd when the Belmont firefighter made a rescue that was unlike any other in his career.
Couch, off-duty at the time, was driving down Piedmont Golf Course Road with his brother when he saw a frantic man on the side of the road. - PUB DATE: 10/20/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WSPA-TV CBS 7
The fire district in San Diego's sweetest tourist destination is rejecting a request to join the County Fire Authority, which some say is a potentially life-threatening decision.
Despite repeated recommendations from high-ranking county officials, the tiny apple pie-loving community of Julian has decided to rely on its all-volunteer firefighting crew to respond to any and all emergency medical calls and structure fires within the town. - PUB DATE: 10/20/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KGTV-TV ABC 10 San Diego
Bossier City Fire Chief Brad Zagone hopes there’s never a time where his department would have to respond to an active shooter situation in Bossier City.
But in light of the Las Vegas mass shooting on Oct. 1 that resulted in the deaths of 59 people, as well as other similar events, Zagone believes his department needs a specialized vehicle to respond if such a tragedy were to ever occur here. - PUB DATE: 10/20/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Shreveport Times
Assistant Santa Rosa Fire Marshal Paul Lowenthal was in what sounded like a hailstorm of embers and ash that battered his truck as he tried to find a way through the fire burning above the city.
He’d been dispatched to St. Helena the night of Oct. 8 to help manage a Napa County wildfire that started near Tubbs Lane just north of Calistoga. - PUB DATE: 10/19/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Press Democrat
