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National Fire News

When a fire chief needs to go to all-hands, in-person communication

In response to hazing scandals resulting in lawsuits, FDNY Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro recently announced that he would meet in person with every fire officer on the New York City Fire Department, over 900 of them. Groups of officers would attend meetings at the Randall’s Island training facility.
- PUB DATE: 5/10/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1

Virginia paramedic's mom wants firefighter 'culture' changed after reading letter

A Fairfax County supervisor says she’s “fit to be tied” over comments condoning bullying allegedly made by fire department captain. WUSA9 broke the story of a letter written by a parent of a fire recruit, one year after the suicide of Fairfax County paramedic Nicole Mittendorff, who was bullied online by people who appeared to be firefighters.
- PUB DATE: 5/10/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WUSA-TV 9 DC

Firefighter Pension Bill Sets Stage for Texas Showdown

The Texas House easily passed Houston's pension reform bill Monday, but not without making several changes friendly to firefighters, setting the stage for a reconciliation showdown between the upper and lower chambers. The House accepted four amendments to the bill the Senate passed last week before voting 112-28 to preliminarily approve Houston's reform measures.
- PUB DATE: 5/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse

Chicago Fire Department Chief Suffers Massive Heart Attack, Dies

A Chicago Fire Department chief suffered a massive heart attack and died Sunday afternoon. Chief Michael V. Murphy, 56, was taking part in an aquatic event at Mount Carmel High School on the South Side with his 16-year-old son when he suffered a massive heart attack, according to a statement from the Chicago Fire Department.
- PUB DATE: 5/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WLS-TV ABC 7 Chicago

Maryland firefighters go on trial for fire scene brawl

Two volunteer firefighters are set to go on trial Monday for the 2015 assault of a career firefighter outside a burning home near Hyattsville, Maryland. Jeffrey Miller and Christopher Kelly — both members of West Lanham Hills Volunteer Company 28 — were indicted on a charge of fighting with a career firefighter unit over who should go inside a house that was ablaze Dec.
- PUB DATE: 5/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WTOP-AM 1500 Washington

New York town council members criticize fire department’s overtime, sick time

Annoyed with how much sick time firefighters use, the City Council on Monday night informally agreed to reduce the amount of overtime in the proposed 2017-18 budget from $631,000 to $570,000. Mayor Joseph M. Butler Jr. recommended cutting the fire department’s overtime by $61,000 after a lengthy discussion about sick time.
- PUB DATE: 5/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Watertown Daily Times

Update: Former South Dakota fire chief arrested on child porn charges

After a week of silence and speculation, former Sioux Falls Fire Chief Jim Sideras was arrested Monday, charged with possessing child pornography. State police and county deputies removed CDs, hard drives and computers from the fire chief's home last Tuesday, hours before his employment with the city was abruptly terminated.
- PUB DATE: 5/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Argus Leader

Man claims to steal Memphis Fire Department engine, streams on Facebook

VIDEO - A Facebook Live tour of a Memphis fire truck is now under investigation. Two men saw the truck, hopped in, and streamed the whole thing on Facebook. Memphis Fire said the fire engine was never stolen, not even moved from the spot where it was parked on Monday afternoon near Lamar Avenue and Prescott.
- PUB DATE: 5/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WMC-TV Action News5 Memphis

Air battle being waged between sheriff, fire helicopters over emergency calls in California county

Emergency radio recordings show that helicopter pilots with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and the Orange County Fire Authority bickered, and that sheriff pilots ignored a direct order to “stand down,” during a pair of rescues in Laguna Beach and Orange on Saturday, April 29, revealing an escalating battle between the two agencies over helicopter-related emergencies and who responds to them.
- PUB DATE: 5/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Orange County Register

More diverse applicants file for FDNY's firefighter exam than white men for first time

For the first time in the FDNY’s 150-year history, more women and black, Latino and Asian applicants have filed for the upcoming firefighter exam than white men. The latest numbers mark a significant change for the department — which has been the city’s least diverse agency for decades, despite also being one of its largest with 10,000 members.
- PUB DATE: 5/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Daily News

Florida firefighter told 23 years ago, ‘work hard, you’ll be chief’… now she is

Diana Matty joined West Palm Beach Fire Rescue fresh out of high school, in October 1994. She was 18. Work hard and someday you’ll be chief, they told her. “I took that to heart. I’ve been a hard worker all of my career,” Matty said. They made good on their promise Tuesday at 5 p.m. — on an interim basis, anyway — when City Administrator Jeff Green called to tell Asst.
- PUB DATE: 5/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Palm Beach Post

Inside look at Ghost Ship party that witnesses say Oakland firefighters attended

Two years before 36 partygoers died in the Ghost Ship warehouse inferno, Oakland firefighters toured the cluttered firetrap, even dancing in the same second-story performance space where the victims would huddle in their final moments, according to witnesses and documents. The visits started Sept. 26, 2014, a Friday, when firefighters extinguished a couch fire outside the warehouse artists’ collective on 31st Avenue before touring the eclectic interior, people who saw them inside the building said.
- PUB DATE: 5/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: East Bay Times

5 Hurt When Light Rail Train Crashes Into Fire Truck in New Jersey

PHOTO/VIDEO - Five people were injured when a Hudson-Bergen Light Rail train crashed into a fire truck and derailed in Jersey City on Friday evening, fire officials said. Four firefighters and the train's operator suffered minor injuries in the collision near Washington Boulevard and Sixth Street, officials said.
- PUB DATE: 5/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NBC New York

'Can't say how proud I am' says Massachusetts fire chief about firefighter rescues at Jan. 1 blaze, but not all praised

Fire Chief John A. Pond said Thursday that six firefighters deserve commendations for work that included rescuing seven people from a burning building on Jan. 1 while others have been ordered to undergo ladder truck retraining. Two men and a woman died and 49 tenants were displaced in a blaze at 106 North East St.
- PUB DATE: 5/5/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Republican

U.S. plan to improve firefighter shelters falters

Crews who battle wildfires will have to wait at least another year before getting better fire shelters than those that failed to save 19 firefighters trapped by flames in Arizona four years ago, officials told The Associated Press on Thursday. The deaths pushed the U.S. Forest Service to speed up work to get an upgraded shelter in place this year, but the effort has been delayed a year after prototypes could not outperform the shelter developed in 2002.
- PUB DATE: 5/5/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: ABC News

VIDEO: Michael Strahan, Jesse Palmer fight fire with FDNY at training facility

"Good Morning America" anchors Michael Strahan and Jesse Palmer marked International Firefighters' Day today by shadowing Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) firefighters as they fought a simulated fire at the FDNY training facility on Randall's Island in New York. The facility, nicknamed "The Rock," features a mock restaurant that can be lit on fire.
- PUB DATE: 5/5/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: ABC News

South Dakota firefighters warned against contact with ex-chief after abrupt termination

The interim Sioux Falls fire chief sent a department-wide email Tuesday night ordering firefighters to bar former Chief Jim Sideras from any fire stations or the fire headquarters building. The warning from Interim Chief Brad Goodroad came hours after news broke that authorities had served a search warrant at Sideras' Sioux Falls home on Tuesday.
- PUB DATE: 5/5/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Argus Leader

Omaha cops object to firefighters public safety ad that says mayor's policies are 'stretching Omaha's police too thin'

Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert’s opponents are again criticizing her record on public safety, drawing a rebuke Wednesday from the city’s police and fire chiefs. The commercial in question, paid for by Firefighters for Better Government, says Stothert’s policies are “stretching Omaha’s police too thin.” It also criticizes Stothert for police patrols near her home.
- PUB DATE: 5/5/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Omaha World-Herald

CalFire Faces More Battalion Chief Exam Problems

California’s firefighting agency plans to discipline two employees blamed for forcing the state to redo a battalion chief examination for nearly 500 employees, the department’s director said Thursday. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection notified 488 applicants that they will have to retake the promotion exam this summer because the initial test “had significant irregularities.
- PUB DATE: 5/5/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KOVR-TV CBS Sacramento

Woman admits guilt in arson blaze that led to Kentucky firefighter’s death

An Adair County woman has admitted deliberately setting a blaze that led to the death of a firefighter. Brandi Pritchard, 41, of Columbia pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court in Bowling Green to one charge of arson and one charge of mail fraud, according to her plea agreement. Pritchard admitted taking part with her husband, Steve Allen “Boo” Pritchard, in a plan to set fire to the house they rented in order to collect insurance payments.
- PUB DATE: 5/4/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Lexington Herald-Leader

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