A proliferation of lightweight engineered wood in flooring and ceiling structures in residential developments in the Boston area poses more risks and challenges for fire departments, according to fire experts and fire officials.
Two large apartment buildings that have burned in the last month — one in Dorchester in June and the other in Waltham on Sunday — used the material in their structures. - PUB DATE: 7/25/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NECN
The Bethel Twp. Fire Department wants to put an emergency five-year, 2-mill levy on the November ballot, the first time it’s asked for new tax money since 2002.
Bethel Twp. trustees are expected to vote tonight on putting the issue on the ballot. If approved by voters, it would generate about $398,000 a year. - PUB DATE: 7/25/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Springfield News-Sun
On March 24, less than 72 hours before a blaze killed four people at a San Pablo Avenue halfway house, a fire inspector ordered immediate service and certification of the building’s fire sprinkler system, among 11 severe fire hazards he documented.
But that sprinkler system was not fixed in time. It failed to operate because of damaged components, allowing the early morning inferno to grow unchecked and eventually destroy the entire four-story building, firefighters determined in their post-fire report obtained exclusively by this news organization. - PUB DATE: 7/25/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Mercury News
Brooklyn Park’s fire chief is stepping down from a position he has held since 2008, driven out by what some city leaders have described as a “culture of hostility.”
In a memo sent Thursday to city staffers, City Manager Jay Stroebel cited the “unique dynamic” between Fire Chief Ken Prillaman and some City Council members, and said it would benefit the city’s “overall culture” to accept Prillaman’s resignation at Monday’s council meeting. - PUB DATE: 7/24/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Minneapolis Star Tribune
It could be days before a 10-alarm inferno that ravaged an apartment complex under construction off Elm Street in Waltham early this morning is sufficiently extinguished for investigators to begin combing through the destruction, fire officials said.
All 264 units in five residential buildings on the banks of the Charles River, which were slated to begin accepting tenants later this year, were lost, Waltham Fire Chief Paul Ciccone said. - PUB DATE: 7/24/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Boston Herald
The International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) and the IAFC Volunteer and Combination Officers Section (VCOS) today released a Yellow Ribbon Report exploring emotional and behavioral health issues in the fire and emergency service. “Under the Helmet – Performing an Internal Size-up: A Proactive Approach to Ensuring Mental Wellness” brings awareness about the fire and emergency services’ emotional and behavioral health problem and emphasizes the importance of changing the culture. - PUB DATE: 7/24/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: International Association of Fire Chiefs
A former New York firefighter said stupidity, not racism, spurred him to set a fire that destroyed a black colleague's apartment.
Matthew Jurado was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison for the blaze at Kenneth Walker's home last August. Jurado pleaded guilty in May to arson.
"What happened was a moment of stupidity and not thinking," Jurado said Friday. - PUB DATE: 7/24/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Syracuse Post-Standard & Syracuse.com
When Moon Yun Pellerin's parents bought a 27th-floor apartment in a high-rise overlooking Waikiki about 15 years ago, they didn't realize the wave-shaped building had no fire sprinklers.
"We didn't even consider it," Pellerin said.
But a week after a massive fire broke out one floor below her apartment, killing three neighbors, Pellerin and her family "definitely want sprinklers" installed - even if it means spending thousands of dollars. - PUB DATE: 7/24/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KHNL/KGMB-TV Hawaii News Now
A firefighter battling the Detwiler blaze in Mariposa County was airlifted to a Fresno hospital after a firetruck crashed Friday morning.
The truck reportedly rolled down an embankment and crashed through a gate into a field next to Mt. Bullion Cutoff Road.
The firefighter, an unidentified male, was taken to Community Regional Medical Center. - PUB DATE: 7/24/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Fresno Bee
Recently retired Rochester Fire Chief Norm Sanborn says he can’t stay silent about his shock and displeasure that a longtime colleague wasn’t chosen to replace him.
The city announced this week that Bedford Deputy Fire Chief Mark Klose will succeed Sanborn as the head of the Rochester Fire Department. - PUB DATE: 7/21/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Fosters.com
Fresh from a two-day break in his first season as a wildland firefighter, Trenton Johnson was about to begin his first initial attack on a fire when disaster struck.
The 19-year-old Missoula man had just finished a two-week deployment mopping up a fire in Utah for Grayback Forestry Inc., an Oregon-based business with a firefighting contract to the U. - PUB DATE: 7/21/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KPVI-TV NBC 6
A 40-year member of the Jamesport Fire Department was temporarily suspended and could face departmental charges for his role in a fight that broke out at a fire scene July 3. Tom Brady, 65, a former chair of the Jamesport Fire District board of commissioners, says he wasn’t the aggressor in the fight, which was caught on video by a Riverhead Town employee. - PUB DATE: 7/21/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Suffolk Times
Firefighting is an evolving career and adapting is essential when someone's life depends on it.
Construction has changed. Buildings are now more efficient and eco-friendly. That is great for many community members, but most people don't realize it puts firefighters in much more danger. "If you look at the traditional woods, mill wood, lumber, things they used to build houses with, and then they would fill in the gaps with plaster, with lath materials to make it insulated. - PUB DATE: 7/21/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KSAT-TV ABC 12 San Antonio
PHOTO - A young man and boy suffered serious burns Thursday when the sedan in which they were traveling on Landmarks Boulevard left the road, hit a light pole base and burst into flames.
The unidentified victims are being treated in St. Louis; their conditions were not available late Thursday.
The Alton Police Department’s Traffic Division continues investigating the crash. - PUB DATE: 7/21/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Alton Telegraph
In a society that is flooded with email, text messaging and tweets, forming strong relationships with grant makers can be the difference between funding your initiative or cutting it due to your continuously decreasing budget. Relationship currency can be the most vital strength for a grant proposal. - PUB DATE: 7/21/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1
A firefighter has died while fighting a fire in the Lolo National Forest.
According to a press release sent from Grayback Forestry, a 19-year-old and a Missoula resident was killed in the line while fighting a fire on the Seely Lake Ranger District.
The Grayback Forestry employee was part of a 20-person attack crew. - PUB DATE: 7/20/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KULR-TV NBC 8
In promotional brochures, a U.S. company boasted of the "stunning visual effect" its shimmering aluminum panels created in an NFL stadium, an Alaskan high school and a luxury hotel along Baltimore's Inner Harbor that "soars 33 stories into the air."
Those same panels — Reynobond composite material with a polyethylene core — also were used in the Grenfell Tower apartment building in London. - PUB DATE: 7/20/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WBAL-AM 1090 Baltimore
The village of Carpentersville is mourning the unexpected death Tuesday of Fire Battalion Chief Todd Middendorf. "He was basically one of the cornerstones of the department," Fire Chief John-Paul Schilling said. "He was well-loved within the entire region."
Middendorf, 46, was a resident of Carpentersville and member of the local fire department for 23 years, starting as a part-timer in 1994 and moving to full time in 1997, Schilling said. - PUB DATE: 7/20/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Chicago Tribune
VIDEO - Miami-Dade firefighters were saved by one of their trucks during an emergency call on the Palmetto Expressway. Overnight, fire crews were called to assist in a hit and run accident in the southbound lanes of the highway between Okeechobee Road and NW 74th Street.
Arriving crews used a fire engine to block off two lanes of traffic while they helped the injured driver. - PUB DATE: 7/20/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: CBS Miami
Firefighters sprayed Narcan up the nose of a 6-year-old boy this week, reviving the unconscious child from a suspected opioid poisoning — a traumatic event that, according to authorities, could be the youngest overdose victim ever in the Granite State’s biggest city.
“The fact is that it’s a kid that could be our own kids’ age,” said Christopher Hickey, who oversees the Manchester Fire Department’s emergency medical services. - PUB DATE: 7/20/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Boston Herald
