Firefighters had to swim to a fire hydrant while rescuing a family from a burning home. In a Washington Post video, a crew from the Houston Fire Department responded to a fully-involved house fire in a flooded neighborhood. The house was surrounded by three feet of water, according Senior Fire Captain Jay Dillon.
- PUB DATE: 9/1/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1

Poor preparation by park crews and a massive failure of imagination allowed the November wildfire that began in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to grow, pick up speed and sweep through Gatlinburg and surrounding parts of Sevier County, leaving death and destruction in its wake, according to a federal review released Thursday.
- PUB DATE: 9/1/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Knoxville News Sentinel

Cuts in the Fire Department budget have resulted in layoffs for the town's 18 per-diem firefighters who will lose their jobs at the end of September. Town Manager Vic Hodgkins in an Aug. 30 letter to each per-diem firefighter, wrote that the layoffs were the result of voters' decision at the June 17 town meeting to cut the Fire Department budget by $145,629.
- PUB DATE: 9/1/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Sun Journal

Ten Harris County deputies were exposed to a 'non-toxic irritant' after a release of pressure from multiple small containers holding chemicals at the Arkema plant in Crosby. The incident was first reported by emergency officials as two explosions. Law enforcement later began referring to the situation as containers popping, spewing black smoke, and being on fire.
- PUB DATE: 8/31/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KHOU-TV CBS 11 Houston

A Baltimore Fire captain was suspended and transferred from his post on Wednesday after giving a television interview about his engine being directed away from the scene of a house fire on Friday, a department spokesman said. Capt. John Parker, of Engine 31, which is housed in the 3100 block of Greenmount Avenue in Waverly, was transferred to Engine 6 in Oldtown, according to an internal Fire Department document obtained by The Baltimore Sun.
- PUB DATE: 8/31/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Baltimore Sun

A recent, but long overdue, external audit has discovered $6.2 million in a county bank account that the financially strapped East Contra Costa Fire District should have received as savings from staff reductions and fire station closures over the past three years. The revelation, coming after years of station closures, deep budget cuts and failed ballot measures to raise revenue, drew a strong response from state Assemblyman Jim Frazier, D-Oakley, who had been seeking to pass a bill in the Legislature to help the district stay afloat.
- PUB DATE: 8/31/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: East Bay Times

This is an immediate request for unused fire/rescue/EMS department or company t-shirts of any and all sizes to be distributed to Texas Firefighters (and their families) who have suffered property losses. The shirts will provide them with something new to wear after losing so much, and it also allows them to wear the logo of those departments, locals, associations and fire companies that were able to help.
- PUB DATE: 8/31/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FirefighterCloseCalls.com

There was never a doubt in Patti Valero's mind that she could overcome the loss of her leg and get back on the job. After all, the retiring Hillsborough County firefighter had grown accustomed to facing adversity throughout not only her career but her personal life as well. "I never cried," Valero said in a recent interview with Firehouse.
- PUB DATE: 8/31/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse

More than 20 people - including a veteran Houston police officer - have died or are feared dead in the Houston area in flooding triggered by Tropical Storm Harvey, according to local officials. Among those is a family of six reported missing after their van was overtaken by floodwaters in east Houston Sunday afternoon near Greens Bayou.
- PUB DATE: 8/30/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Houston Chronicle

The chiefs of Wicomico County’s volunteer fire companies said they cannot support a fire service agreement between the county and the city of Salisbury, citing disputes over funding and territory for the new Station 13. The Wicomico County Fire Chiefs Association voted unanimously to reject the contract that was signed in April by Mayor Jake Day and County Executive Bob Culver, according to a letter from Joe Morris, the group’s president.
- PUB DATE: 8/30/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Delmarva Now

The Chief of the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department (SDFD) called out the department's union leader for making false claims regarding disaster assistance in Texas. "It’s absolutely inappropriate to politicize and personalize this disaster when Texans are suffering and this disaster isn’t over yet," SDFD Chief Brian Fennessy said in a statement.
- PUB DATE: 8/30/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KNSD-TV NBC San Diego

PHOTO - Fire Lt. Peter Francis was filling out a police report stating he had lost his prized firefighter’s helmet Tuesday when one of his fire brothers told him he was needed back at the fire station. Francis was convinced the helmet, which he bought almost 30 years ago and lost at a call scene the week before, was gone forever.
- PUB DATE: 8/30/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Seacoast Online

Police are looking for a gunman after a Charleston ambulance was hit by gunfire Tuesday morning. Charleston Police say medics responded to a call around 2:50 a.m. for a man with leg pain near Central Avenue and Vine Street. Police say after the ambulance arrived, shots rang out and that the person in need of medical attention ran and took cover.
- PUB DATE: 8/30/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WSAZ-TV NBC 3

Baltimore fire officials revised a new dispatching policy Monday amid an investigation into why an engine on the scene of a house fire on Friday was turned away. The city began looking into the matter after audio of firefighters being ordered to leave the scene circulated on the internet. According to audio of fire department communications posted on YouTube under the name Mack Flickerson, Engine 31 from Waverly responded to a house fire at 7:17 p.
- PUB DATE: 8/29/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Baltimore Sun

PHOTO - Seguin firefighters responding to a call during Hurricane Harvey found themselves needing a little help. After responding to a call on Timber Elm in the Elm Grove area, a tree fell due to the high winds onto the cab of the fire engine, disabling the truck. While no injuries were reported, Seguin Fire Chief Dale Skinner said it served as a stark reminder of what can happen in high wind situations.
- PUB DATE: 8/29/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Seguin Gazette

A New Orleans firefighter killed Saturday (Aug. 26) after authorities say he was the unintended target of a shooting outside a Memphis-area nightclub had accomplished everything he was supposed to by age 37, his cousin said. "He found somebody, they fell in love, they had kids," said Hope Howard, 46, of her younger cousin, Gregory Howard.
- PUB DATE: 8/29/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New Orleans Times-Picayune & Nola.com

City officials have submitted a plan to the state to layoff Trenton firefighters if federal grant money is not awarded to the city, officials confirmed Monday. Details of the plan were not immediately known Monday evening, but a city official confirmed that a layoff plan was sent to the state Civil Service Commission last week.
- PUB DATE: 8/29/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NJ.com

When Brian Schaeffer was chosen to be the new Spokane Fire Chief, he set out to diversify the department in a way that extends beyond numbers. Schaeffer's role follows a family tradition. He joined the Spokane Fire Department 12 years ago and his dad worked as a firefighter in Illinois. He is now three months in as the new Spokane Fire Chief and is leading his department into brand new territory.
- PUB DATE: 8/29/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KREM-TV CBS 2

A couple of days ago, San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood got a “Godspeed” text from Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña. He also got a similar text from Corpus Christi Fire Chief Robert Rocha, Hood said during an afternoon briefing on Harvey. But, oh, how the tables have turned. “They are going through those challenges (now) and I had to reciprocate with texts and phone calls to them because of what they are going through,” Hood said.
- PUB DATE: 8/28/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Corpus Christi Caller-Times

A veteran FDNY captain threw water on the notion that the job of New York’s Bravest is dangerous, insisting in a pitch to potential minority recruits that firefighters “do not run into burning buildings.” Capt. Paul Washington, who launched a landmark racial-discrimination lawsuit against the city, is now getting heat for his “ridiculous” and “insulting” comments last March to a group of young people at Borough of Manhattan Community College.
- PUB DATE: 8/28/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Post