Broward County’s firefighter-paramedics are used to wearing protective gear for battling blazes. Now they’ll be getting new protection — body armor vests and helmets — for when they’re assisting victims in incidents involving guns or other dangerous weapons.
It’s a sign of the times, officials say, with the proliferation of active shooter and mass casualty cases across the country, including deadly incidents at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in January and at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando last year. - PUB DATE: 9/19/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Sun Sentinel
A City of Houston Hurricane Harvey Preparation Plan, obtained by Channel 2 Investigates, shows the Houston Fire Department has shockingly little flood rescue equipment, and it appears to have contributed to millions of dollars in losses for the city in totaled fire trucks.
“The reason I think we sank six engine companies is (that) they’re not built for a high-water environment,” said Houston Fire Chief Sam Pena. - PUB DATE: 9/19/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KPRC-TV NBC 2 Houston
The National Fire Protection Association announced the launch of the NFPA Fire and Life Safety Policy Institute.
The Policy Institute will look at a range of issues and advise policymakers on how to improve safety for their citizens, according to NFPA.
“We have made tremendous progress in reducing loss from fire since NFPA’s inception, but we are painfully reminded every day that there is more to be done,” NFPA President Jim Pauley said. - PUB DATE: 9/19/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1
When Alexander Bingham graduated from the Houston firefighter training academy in 2016, one of his classmates was missing.
Steven Whitfield, a cadet in Bingham's class, had perished in a training accident in March 2016 and would not graduate alongside those who had become his brothers.
Bingham and his classmates still mourn Whitfield's death, but on Saturday, Bingham said, he felt uplifted by the celebration honoring Whitfield and 189 other firefighters during this year's Fallen Fire Fighter's Memorial ceremony in Memorial Park. - PUB DATE: 9/18/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Colorado Springs Gazette
The city of Trenton has approval to layoff 64 firefighters who are currently being funded by a federal grant that runs out at the end of October, according to a plan approved by the state.
The layoffs are set to occur Nov. 1, 2017, and affected firefighters would need to be officially notified no later than Saturday, Sept. - PUB DATE: 9/18/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NJ.com
Alarms were ringing inside a dormitory at UConn in the early morning of October 16, 2016, and as firefighter Dana Barrow began driving out of a firehouse garage, the right front tire of his Chevy Tahoe bumped into something, bringing the SUV to a sudden stop. One second passed.
And then Barrow, focused on a possible fire emergency, pressed the gas pedal, inching the 7,130-pound vehicle over the obstruction blocking his way. - PUB DATE: 9/18/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Hartford Courant
Santa Cruz firefighter Clayton Ogden died, at age 47, after a short bout with cancer this summer.
This week, Santa Cruz Fire Chief Jim Frawley posthumously awarded Ogden the Medal of Valor for his involvement in protecting a civilian during the fatal Feb. 26, 2013 shootout that left two Santa Cruz police officers dead. - PUB DATE: 9/18/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Santa Cruz Sentinel
A former Cleveland firefighter has filed a discrimination lawsuit claiming the department and city officials mishandled a complaint he filed following an altercation with two other firefighters last year.
Samuel Livingston, who was hired as a firefighter in 2000, is seeking an unspecified amount in damages accusing the department of reverse discrimination after an April 5, 2016 physical altercation with his coworkers June Colon and Larry Gray. - PUB DATE: 9/18/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Cleveland Plain Dealer & Cleveland.com
City Councilor Eric Spear will ask the City Council on Monday to authorize spending $39,000 for "consultants to come in and do an assessment of the Fire Department."
Spear noted "a similar assessment was done on the Police Department."
"In all these cases, we're trying to provide services but also control spending. - PUB DATE: 9/15/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse
Former Shreveport Fire Chief Craig Mulford, who lost his job after being accused of impeding a police investigation into the mistreatment of two mentally challenged men who were regular visitors at a fire station, has reached an agreement with the city where he was reinstated with back pay and then immediately resigned. - PUB DATE: 9/15/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KPXJ-TV & KTBS-TV
The Philadelphia Fire Department is mourning the loss of a firefighter who served the department for 23 years.
According to officials, 60-year-old Lt. Kenneth Greene Sr. died Thursday at Einstein Hospital after being transported to the hospital September 3 while on-duty at Engine 37.
Lt. Greene, a veteran of the United States Army, had served the Department for 23 years on several engine and ladder companies. - PUB DATE: 9/15/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WTXF-TV MyFox 29 Philadelphia
In rural Montana, where you and your neighbors are your own first responders come fire, flood or heart attack, being dropped as a customer by Verizon Wireless could have serious impacts, readers told us.
Kim Barlogio lives southeast of Hammond in the remote southeastern corner of Montana. She was among the Montanans who recently received a letter from Verizon informing her she would no longer be a customer after "using a significant amount of data while roaming off the Verizon Wireless network. - PUB DATE: 9/15/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Great Falls Tribune
“I will be talking to the city, and we’ll be dealing with this place.”
That is the grim threat made by Oakland police Officer Hector Chavez in March 2015 as he stood in the open doorway of the Ghost Ship warehouse, talking to a party promoter and looking over the inside of the cluttered firetrap for 20 minutes. - PUB DATE: 9/15/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Santa Cruz Sentinel
The Forest Service has spent more than $2 billion battling forest fires around the country — a record as wildfires blacken the American West in one of the nation's worst fire seasons.
Wildfires have ravaged the West this summer with 64 large fires burning across 10 states as of Thursday, including 21 fires in Montana and 18 in Oregon. - PUB DATE: 9/15/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: ABC News
With Tropical Storm Harvey lashing at his city and no official word from headquarters, Houston Fire Capt. Scott Wilkey took matters into his own hands and drove the 35 miles from his home to the Houston fire station he commands.
It was Saturday, Aug. 26, and meteorologists were warning of catastrophic flooding in the city. - PUB DATE: 9/14/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: USA Today
Mesa firefighter Jesse Simpson, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, knew he had to do something, anything, to help “George,” a fellow veteran who had lost everything.
In May, Simpson’s crew found George sitting on a toilet in a rundown west Mesa apartment that had been heavily damaged when a maintenance crew accidentally struck a water pipe, causing a flood. - PUB DATE: 9/14/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: East Valley Tribune
A brand-new Lexington Fire Department headquarters may cost the town about $19.3 million, according to project architect Jeffery McElravy of Tecton Arcitects.
McElravy presented his schematic design for the new facility to Selectmen on Sept. 11.
The new facility will go in the same location as the current fire headquarters on Bedford Street. - PUB DATE: 9/14/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Wicked Local Lexington
A government-ordered inquiry into the London tower fire that killed at least 80 people opened Thursday with a minute of silence for the victims — and with its leader acknowledging that survivors feel a "great sense of anger and betrayal."
Retired judge Martin Moore-Bick said he hoped his investigation would "provide a small measure of solace" by discovering how such a disaster could occur in 21st-century London, and preventing it happening again. - PUB DATE: 9/14/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: ABC News
A slap in the face is how many Raleigh firefighters and police view new changes to a city policy. It involves all city employees and centers on vacation time, sick leave, holiday pay and promotions.
The changes were made as part of the consent agenda that passed at the last City Council meeting.
“If I have to work on a Saturday, I already have to take two days off to have that weekend off. - PUB DATE: 9/14/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WNCN-TV NBC 17
The US House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill Tuesday that would require the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop a registry of firefighters who develop cancer in an effort to study the risks they face on the job.
The Firefighter Cancer Registry Act, introduced by Rep. Chris Collins, R-NY, would provide $2 million in federal funds from 2018 to 2022 for the CDC to gather and study data, including the status of a firefighter who developed cancer (volunteer or career, for example), the number of years spent on the job and the number and types of incidents they responded to. - PUB DATE: 9/13/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse
