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National Fire News

Indiana city approves six-figure lawsuit settlement with police, fire departments

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

Southern California wildfire began with call of burning bush, but response was low priority

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

Rhode Island deputy fire chief returns to work amid assault case

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

Man arrested for placing pipe bomb behind Minnesota fire station

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

Las Vegas area police and firefighters learned from past tragedies, using different tactic to save lives

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

Unmasked: Firefighters and Cancer

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

Did firefighters mishandle Canyon Fire 2? California county supervisor wants an investigation

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

Crazed driver tries to steal FDNY fire truck after plowing into cars

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

Minnesota fire chief says he’ll step down, will stay on at department

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

Jury orders payout to black Missouri firefighter for denying him promotion because of race

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

Veteran firefighter named new chief of Oakland Fire Department

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

New York town's councilwoman says she is being bullied by fire department

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

South Carolina firefighter pulls 2-year-old from sinking car

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

California community makes controversial move to reject firefighting resources

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

Louisiana fire department requests $375K for armored vehicle

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

California firefighters, officers rushed to help as fires destroyed their homes

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

New York firefighter dies after responding to motor vehicle accident

The Loch Sheldrake Fire Department was mourning the death of one of its firefighters on Wednesday. Ron Hinkle, 71, died after responding to a call Tuesday afternoon. According to Sullivan County Fire Coordinator John Hauschild, Hinkle was among a group of firefighters who responded to a motor vehicle accident around 2 p.
- PUB DATE: 10/19/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Middletown Times Herald-Record

Pennsylvania fire company closes after sexual abuse scandal

Lights were out at the West Willow Fire Company on Wednesday. The volunteer fire company on West Willow Road in Pequea Township is closed, effective Tuesday night. “They came out and covered our roof one night,” Charles McGill said. McGill, who lives right next to the fire company, said he was sad to hear the news of the closure.
- PUB DATE: 10/19/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WHTM-TV ABC 27 Harrisburg

On their day off from California wildfire duty, Seattle-area firefighters work at farm for abused kids

After a 24-hour shift on the fire lines and bit of shut-eye, a strike team of 22 Washington State firefighters was told to take a break. They didn’t go winetasting. The firefighters from greater Seattle went to work Tuesday feeding evacuated animals, cleaning stalls, moving hay and spreading wood chips at Forget Me Not Farm, a therapeutic refuge for abused and neglected children off Highway 12 between Santa Rosa and Sebastopol.
- PUB DATE: 10/19/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Press Democrat

Detroit deputy fire chief suspended for driving department SUV to bar

A Detroit deputy chief has been disciplined after video surfaced of his city-issued SUV parked in the parking lot of a bar. The Detroit Fire Department said it was Deputy Chief Robert Shinske who is seen on video parking the DFD-marked SUV outside a Dearborn bar and walking inside. Shinske has been suspended without pay for five days, sources told Local 4.
- PUB DATE: 10/19/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WDIV-TV NBC 4 Detroit

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