Reducing the amount of paid time off for Muskegon firefighters and cutting back retiree benefits will be the city's top priorities at the bargaining table now that nearly $700,000 in cuts have been approved. High overtime costs, prompted by the level of vacation and sick time, and skyrocketing pension and retiree health costs are the primary problems facing the department's budget, according to City Manager Frank Peterson.
- PUB DATE: 6/29/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: MLive

Two months before 36 people died in the Ghost Ship fire, an Oakland Fire Department employee entered the warehouse and observed exposed electrical wiring, recommending tenants fix the hazard, according to an amended lawsuit filed Wednesday by attorneys representing victim families. The 179-page amended lawsuit adds the city of Oakland, Alameda County and state of California to a growing list of defendents, and alleges the agencies failed in their duties to shut down the crowded fire trap and its illegal parties.
- PUB DATE: 6/29/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: East Bay Times

The state’s public-safety unions have scored a potential win in their end-of-session push for a law that will make it easier for police officers and firefighters to get disability pensions that pay them two-thirds pay, tax-free for life. The Rhode Island House of Representatives on a 53-to-8 vote approved legislation to equate an “illness sustained while in the performance of duty” with an on-the-job injury so more firefighters can qualify for benefits they have, in some past cases, been denied.
- PUB DATE: 6/28/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Providence Journal

The City of Charleston, SC, approved plans to replace the current Fire Station 11 and build adjacent to the Charleston 9 memorial site. Residents wanted the station to be the neighborhood’s “shining light and a beacon of the community.” As the West Ashley area of Charleston grows, the city determined that the current Station 11 needed to be relocated to improve service delivery and found that the property adjacent to the memorial site—about a mile from the existing station, would help fill a service gap.
- PUB DATE: 6/28/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse

The city’s fire chief announced Tuesday that he is closing one fire house and reducing staffing at another beginning this Saturday over concerns about fiscal year 2018 funding in the municipal budget. Fire Chief Dan Goonan said he is closing Station 9 at 575 Calef Road in Ward 9, effective Saturday, July 1.
- PUB DATE: 6/28/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Union Leader

A Providence firefighter has been fired for saying an African-American woman should “stop eating fried chicken” when he responded to a medical call earlier this year. Andre Ferro, a firefighter who has previously faced disciplinary action for violating the department’s sexual harassment policy, was terminated for making racially-insensitive comments by the city’s Fire Department Trial Board Tuesday, according to Public Safety Commissioner Steven Pare.
- PUB DATE: 6/28/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WPRI-TV Providence 12

Former Assistant Fire Chief Jonathan Swarey says he resigned after what he called a heated meeting Monday morning between Whiteville city and fire officials. The decision prompted more than a dozen volunteer firefighters to follow in his footsteps. “I finally got to the point [Monday] and this weekend that, you know, I’m here to fight fires, here to do EMS work,” Swarey said.
- PUB DATE: 6/28/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WBBJ-TV ABC 7

As she was at lunch earlier this month in an Oklahoma City hospital cafeteria, Bobbie Gilbreath began to turn blue. A kernel of corn had become lodged in her throat, said her son, Greg Gilbreath, 60, who was with his parents on June 2 at Oklahoma Heart Hospital South. After only a few seconds, Bobbie Gilbreath, 80, began slipping out of consciousness.
- PUB DATE: 6/28/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NewsOK.com

Firefighters in Newark who were rushing to a fire and were on the way to help others were in need of some rescuing of their own. The fire truck collided with a GMC Acadia and a Camry as it was traveling westbound on Orange Street near Clifton Ave. The truck completely flipped around, crushing the other two cars.
- PUB DATE: 6/27/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WABC-TV 7online.com

The Anderson firefighters union is seeking answers to why the department is short on manpower, which is requiring mandatory overtime. Cody Leever, president of Anderson Firefighters Local 1262, said Monday at the Anderson Board of Public Safety meeting that the Anderson Fire Department is budgeted for 112 firefighters, but is currently working with 106 firefighters.
- PUB DATE: 6/27/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Herald Bulletin

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire is requesting permission to join a federal lawsuit filed by a Farmington firefighter who argues he was unlawfully fired because of what he posted on Facebook. Alexander Morin, of Ten Rod Road in Farmington, sued the town last year, challenging his July 21, 2015, termination as a per-diem firefighter by the town.
- PUB DATE: 6/27/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Fosters.com

Common Voices, an advocates’ coalition determined to create a fire safe America, announces the launch of its newly redesigned website, www.FireAdvocates.org. It provides resources and information to assist fire departments and fire safety advocates with their fire prevention messages and fire safety lobbying efforts.
- PUB DATE: 6/27/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireAdvocates.org

British Prime Minister Theresa May said Tuesday there must be a "major national investigation" into the use of potentially flammable cladding fitted to high-rise towers across the country, as police formally identified a five-year-old boy as one of youngest victims of London's Grenfell Tower fire tragedy.
- PUB DATE: 6/27/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: CBC News

A Nara Visa volunteer firefighter died on Thursday after suffering burns trying to extinguish a fire that was more than seven miles long and three miles wide. John Cammack, 74, of Nara Visa, was severely burned after falling from a fire engine during a "burn over" Wednesday night, said Nara Visa Fire Chief Gary Girard.
- PUB DATE: 6/26/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Eastern New Mexico News

St. Louis firefighters had to rescue one of their own after he fell through a roof into flames in an attic Sunday morning. The fire captain sustained first and second-degree burns on his face and hands. He was recovering at a hospital Sunday, according to Capt. Garon Mosby, spokesman for the St. Louis Fire Department.
- PUB DATE: 6/26/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

A group of Arizona House lawmakers is launching an effort aimed at cutting the soaring costs to communities of police and fire pensions, with its leader warning that cities could end up declaring bankruptcy if legislators fail to act. The new committee announced by House Speaker J.D. Mesnard comes just over a year after 70 percent of voters approved changes to the state's public safety pension plan designed to return it to solvency in 20 years.
- PUB DATE: 6/26/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: U.S. News & Report

The city’s search for a full-time fire chief took a step backward this week. Because of a clerical error, the Civil Service Commission will conduct a second set of interviews with seven candidates for the position instead of moving forward with the three finalists selected earlier this month. According to the city attorney’s office, Columbus Human Resources Director Mike Oglevie sent a memo containing 13 of the 17 interview questions to six of the seven candidates prior to the June 6 interviews with the Civil Service Commission, leaving one candidate off the list of recipients.
- PUB DATE: 6/26/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Columbus Telegram

The city, county and a local fire district recently sued several major pharmaceutical companies and a medical distribution firm, charging them with damaging the local economy by promoting the use of opioid painkillers they knew to be dangerous and extremely addictive. The 52-page complaint was filed in Superior Court late last month by two private law firms on behalf of Stockton, San Joaquin County and the Montezuma Fire Protection District, which serves unincorporated portions of southeast Stockton.
- PUB DATE: 6/26/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Recordnet.com

Tuesday night the majority of the Wills Point volunteer department walked off in solidarity with Chief Ed Leipply. Leipply's family says he is touched by the loyalty, but adds the decision to walk off was up to each of the volunteers. Hee never commanded or asked them to do so. Dylan Hatten says he's always wanted to serve his community.
- PUB DATE: 6/23/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KHOU-TV CBS 11 Houston

Jeff Gillespie can't pinpoint exactly when blood stopped flowing to his brain. The veteran Poudre Fire Authority firefighter doesn't know exactly how long he stopped breathing, either. It's impossible to say precisely how long his world went black that November afternoon when he was essentially hanged during a training accident.
- PUB DATE: 6/23/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Coloradoan