Property owners may see a break in insurance premiums because Augusta Fire Department has achieved an Insurance Services Office rating of 1-1X, the highest possible, Fire Chief Chris James announced Tuesday. “Augusta becomes one of only 18 communities across Georgia to achieve this top rating,” James said.
- PUB DATE: 8/16/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Augusta Chronicle

Firefighter union leaders on Monday accused Anne Arundel County of creating "dangerous situations" for firefighters and county residents because of staffing shortages in the fire department. In a press conference outside the Arundel Center in Annapolis, International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1563 president Joe Addivinola said firefighters arriving on the scene of blazes in Shady Side on Thursday and Deale on Saturday had to rely on help from bystanders to start fighting the fires before backup crews showed up.
- PUB DATE: 8/16/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Capital Gazette - Metered Site

This week marks 10 years since the devastating fire in Lower Manhattan that killed two of New York's Bravest. A decade ago, a fire sparked by a worker's cigarette turned the condemned former Deutsche Bank building into an inferno of toxic smoke and flames that killed two firefighters and injured more than 100.
- PUB DATE: 8/16/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: wabc-tv

The two men who took down the boy who allegedly vandalized the Boston Holocaust memorial on Monday evening were an off-duty Boston firefighter and a US Drug Enforcement Administration agent, said the Boston Fire Department. According to the department’s spokesperson, Steve MacDonald, the pair was eating at the Union Oyster House when they heard the ordeal going on outside.
- PUB DATE: 8/16/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: CBS Boston

A woman walking with her three young children in Central Park Tuesday morning was struck and pinned by a large tree. All four were taken to the hospital after the woman was freed around 10:10 a.m., the FDNY said. The family was treated at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center for non-life-threatening injuries, the NYPD said.
- PUB DATE: 8/16/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Newsday

The city fire department Monday denied a petition to posthumously promote a Bronx EMT who was killed in the line of duty in March. An FDNY spokesperson said Yadira Arroyo was not on a civil service promotional list at the time she died, and no other "legal or administrative process" exists for her posthumous promotion.
- PUB DATE: 8/15/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NY1.com

Firefighters responding to the Lufthansa hangar at the Auburn-Lewiston Municipal Airport on Monday morning walked into a wall of foam over their heads after a malfunction in the fire suppression system filled the building with foam and briefly trapped four people inside. "Apparently, they were working on the system when there was an error," Fire Chief Geoff Low said.
- PUB DATE: 8/15/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Sun Journal

A DC firefighter who was allegedly assaulted while responding to a call has been accused of being intoxicated while on the job, according to officials. DC Fire and EMS officials said the firefighter was responding to a call Sunday afternoon for a 3-year-old girl who suffered an injury after falling from her bed in the 200 block of 37th Street, SE.
- PUB DATE: 8/15/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Foxdc.com

Medical first responders in Northville Township have dramatically improved their ability to revive victims of cardiac arrest and help them return to normal lives. In the past 12 months, Northville Township Fire Department paramedics have restored pulses to 19 of 28 patients who were in full cardiac arrest — that is, who had no pulse and were not breathing.
- PUB DATE: 8/15/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: hometownlife.com

A picture taken of a Philadelphia firefighter is causing controversy. Tonight, while some are calling the photo insensitive and racist the firefighter himself is apologizing for what he calls a very bad joke. "I am very disappointed in myself and I'm very sorry." John Deluisi says he was drunk when he snapped a photo and tagged an African American co-worker at the Philadelphia Fire Department.
- PUB DATE: 8/15/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: fox29.com

Robert Palmieri serves as the city of Utica’s mayor and its public safety commissioner. But in light of the situation involving Utica fire Chief Russell Brooks being placed on leave, some have questioned if Palmieri can adequately handle both positions. The public safety commissioner oversees the police and fire departments and interacts with each department’s leadership.
- PUB DATE: 8/14/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Observer-Dispatch

Quick action by neighbors and firefighters -- and a little luck -- saved three infants trapped inside a burning apartment on Friday that police say was set on fire by their father after a domestic dispute with the children’s 19-year-old mother. Using hammers, chairs and whatever they could grab to smash through hurricane windows, neighbors entered a burning second-floor unit at the Stonybrook Apartments.
- PUB DATE: 8/14/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: PalmBeachPost.com

The most dramatic images of firefighters often depict them emerging from a building engulfed in flames, a person draped across their arms, or making their way down a ladder high in the air, a child held tightly to their chest. Rescues from burning buildings happen, but are rare. In fact, firefighters with the Stanislaus Consolidated Fire Protection District more commonly conduct water rescues, having averaged nearly three per week this spring and summer.
- PUB DATE: 8/14/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Modesto Bee

Eight Firestorm firefighters were injured Friday morning after the crew truck they were riding in rolled over while traveling on Highway 299E near McKenney Road, west of Cedarville. According to Firestorm, all eight members who were injured were passengers. CHP reported that all eight were taken to the hospital.
- PUB DATE: 8/14/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: krcr.com

Almost all of the 2,000 Portuguese firefighters at a weeklong wildfire that killed 64 people this summer had something in common apart from the acute danger they faced: they were doing it for no pay and with equipment bought with public donations. More than 90 percent of Portugal’s around 30,000 firefighters are volunteers.
- PUB DATE: 8/14/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Washington Post

A 16-year-old girl faces two counts of vehicular homicide and vehicular manslaughter in a crash into an Akron fire truck that killed two teenage girls. The July 14 crash killed, Briyana Hayes, 15, and Lashae Johnson, 16, both of Tallmadge. The driver is also charged with vehicular assault, operating a vehicle on a temporary permit without a licensed driver, operating a vehicle with more than one juvenile passenger and other traffic charges, Akron police Lt.
- PUB DATE: 8/11/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Cleveland Plain Dealer & Cleveland.com

Another firefighter has lost his life to a 9/11-related cancer. Retired Firefighter Michael Duffy, a 20-year veteran of the department who spent time at Ground Zero after the terror attacks, died on Aug. 8, officials said Thursday. Duffy joined the FDNY in 1982 and spent his entire career at Engine 310 and Ladder 174 on Snyder Ave.
- PUB DATE: 8/11/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Daily News

The way Cezary Milewicz sees it, his lot in life hinged on two chance occurences: a pre-paid postage stamp and the decision to take an evening stroll. The first came in his native Poland. Born in Korsze, a town of 4,724 in the country's northeast corner, Milewicz first set foot in a firehouse when he was 5.
- PUB DATE: 8/11/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Hartford Courant

The Aptos/La Selva Fire Protection District Board of Directors at its meeting Thursday denied Chief Jon Jones’ request to extend his contract by two years and appointed Division Chief Todd Skrabak as interim chief until the next board meeting. Jones’ three years of leadership ends after heavy criticism by his station’s firefighters’ and chief officers’ unions.
- PUB DATE: 8/11/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Santa Cruz Sentinel

The son of a Kansas City firefighter killed in an explosion is breaking his silence. James Kilventon is publicly questioning the convictions of five people held responsible in the fatal arson which killed a total of six firefighters back in 1988. “I just want to get to the bottom of it. I mean I want closure.
- PUB DATE: 8/11/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KMOV-TV CBS 4 St. Louis