At around 1:30 a.m. Saturday, Mikaela Milano's video enabled, motion activated doorbell caught the unluckiest of visitors; smoke and flames, billowing from a raging fire just behind her apartment in Maplewood, New Jersey. Firefighters were struggling to contain the blaze as it tore through – at a shockingly fast rate – a still under construction AvalonBay apartment complex.
- PUB DATE: 2/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: PIX11.com

You've probably heard of fire departments hosting bingo nights to raise money, but what about naughty bingo? One volunteer fire department in Schuylkill County says it's had to get creative with fundraising events. The Hometown Volunteer Fire Company is preparing to host its second adults-only naughty bingo night.
- PUB DATE: 2/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WNEP-TV Newswatch 16

The NFPA 1971/1985 Task Group on Eye and Face Protection released a survey to help develop minimum standards for fire and EMS eye and face protection. Firefighters currently use partial face-shields, bourkes and goggles. However, many remove all form of face and eye protection from their helmet, and often times protection is damaged or dirtied.
- PUB DATE: 2/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1

When a check for nearly $83,000 arrived in the mail last month from the estate of a woman thankful for the help Sebastopol firefighters gave her over many years, Fire Chief Bill Braga was elated by the largest windfall his agency had ever received. “It’s five, six years’ worth of flipping pancakes,” Braga said.
- PUB DATE: 2/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Santa Rosa Press Democrat

A push to force Lincoln and Omaha to make significant changes to their pension plans for new police and fire employees met firm opposition from union leaders and some city officials during a legislative hearing Tuesday. But the proposal's backers called it essential to ensuring the state's two largest cities meet their obligations to cops and firefighters going forward.
- PUB DATE: 2/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Lincoln Journal Star

After watching his good friend and fellow firefighter die of colon cancer, Chris Conner vowed to help other firefighters find ways to detect the disease in its early stages. Conner, who is president of the Bedford Professional Firefighters Association, worked with Fire Chief Sean Fay and the City Council, and now Bedford is the first in the country to contract with an Indiana-based company, MorNuCo, which provides the ONCOblot test.
- PUB DATE: 2/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Fort Worth Star-Telegram

The U.S. Forest Service can hire firefighters this year after winning an exemption from President Trump’s civilian governmental employee hiring freeze. On Friday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s acting deputy secretary Michael Young announced exemptions to “ensure a safe food supply, fire-safe communities, safe and secure public lands and rapid emergency response to natural and human-caused disasters,” according to a USDA press release.
- PUB DATE: 2/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Missoulian

As a boy, Brandon J. Thibeau was so determined to be helpful, his grandmother had to cut her broom’s handle in half. That way, he could still pitch in sweeping up around the house, his mother said. It was an early glimpse of the young man her son would become. Never one to draw attention to himself, he was always looking out for others – even until his last days, she said.
- PUB DATE: 2/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Portland Press Herald

Prosecutors plan to file 12 counts of capital murder with special circumstance allegations today against three people arrested in connection with a 1993 fire at a Westlake apartment building that killed seven children and three adults, including two pregnant women, according to District Attorney Jackie Lacey.
- PUB DATE: 2/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Los Angeles Daily News

A Bronx first responder is not content to spend his vacations relaxing — instead, he patrols the Mexican border with a heavily armed vigilante group. “Our main goal is to stop narcotics trafficking,” said FDNY emergency medical technician Andy Poliakoff, whose time off is spent in the desolate Sonoran Desert hunting for Mexican drug runners.
- PUB DATE: 2/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Post

In the 15 minutes after firefighters and a nurse knocked at Thelma Lee’s Maryland townhouse, they checked her blood pressure, told her what foods would keep her blood sugar from skyrocketing and set up an appointment — and a ride — to visit her primary-care physician. They also changed the battery in her chirping fire alarm and put a scale in her bathroom so she could monitor her weight.
- PUB DATE: 2/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Washington Post

FDNY brass read the riot act to firefighters at the Midtown firehouse where an African-American rookie claimed he was hazed by naked smoke-eaters — calling the reported incident “a sexual assault” and a “cover up,” bombshell audiotapes obtained by The Post reveal. The officers warned the members of Ladder 35/Engine 40 — nicknamed “The Cavemen” — that “if this gets out to the media, there are guys gonna lose their jobs.
- PUB DATE: 2/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Post

Struggling under the weight of pension and health care obligations, Michigan lawmakers appear ready to take another whack at public employee benefits — a move that reflects renewed determination to shift workers to 401(k)-style retirement systems, even if it happens in baby steps. Other states have made more modest changes, but the latest push shows that conservatives want to approve big reforms 20 years after Michigan became the first state to close pensions to future state workers.
- PUB DATE: 2/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WWJ-TV CBS Detroit

The Columbia County Sheriff's Office is reviewing the handling of a Jan. 15 incident in which a phone recording shows a deputy refers to an assault victim as "a speed bump" and the Clatskanie Fire Department as "dodos." Beyond the unidentified deputy's "sarcastic, unfeeling comment," the incident also is being reviewed for its broader implications for the handling of public safety in Clatskanie, said Columbia County Sheriff Jeffrey M.
- PUB DATE: 2/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Portland Oregonian, Hillsboro Argus, Oregon Live.com

The faces of four real-life Bravest will be smiling from the facades of every firehouse in the city on Monday — part of a new recruitment tactic put in place by the Fire Department. For the first time ever, banners will be draped across firehouses in an effort to encourage potential new recruits to sign up for the firefighter entrance exam this spring.
- PUB DATE: 2/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Daily News

The Fire Department will have to go an extra two months understaffed after the city abruptly - and without offering an explicit explanation - took the unusual step of scrapping a new list of screened and tested recruits. The entire process now has to be repeated. The delay in holding a training academy means the department, which is short three firefighters and coping with long-term illnesses and injuries, risks running up costs, according to Chief Oscar Elmasian.
- PUB DATE: 2/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse.com

Fans flooding into Houston for Super Bowl LI could land in hotels and motels that have not been fully inspected, a local critic of the Houston Fire Marshal's office said Thursday. Randall Kallinen, a civil rights attorney who has represented fire inspectors, said the department scaled back inspections about a year ago in favor of self-inspection forms that could be filled out by the facilities.
- PUB DATE: 2/3/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Houston Chronicle

The Kleberg County Volunteer Fire Department's Fire Chief was flown to a San Antonio burn center Wednesday afternoon. According to the Department, Patrick Guzman, who is also a bus driver with Ricardo ISD, was doing maintenance on a school bus in the bus yard when the radiator ruptured. We're told Guzman suffered second degree burns on his arms and chest.
- PUB DATE: 2/3/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KZTV-TV CBS Action 10 News

Sacramento firefighters worked more than a quarter-million overtime hours in 2015, with some firefighters working thousands of extra hours, according to a new city audit released Thursday. The Sacramento Fire Department spent more than $13 million on overtime pay in 2015, in addition to more than $44 million in regular pay, based on the report by City Auditor Jorge Oseguera.
- PUB DATE: 2/3/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Sacramento Bee

VIDEO - "Rare circumstances and operational errors" caused an explosion during a training exercise in October that injured two of the town's firefighters, investigators have concluded. While the report does not explicitly fault any state or local fire personnel for the explosion, it does indicate operators of a fire simulator did not use the equipment properly and did not follow one safety protocol.
- PUB DATE: 2/3/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: MassLive.com