A volunteer firefighter suffered facial burns when a propane tank explosion engulfed him in flames last week. Limestone police Chief Stacey Mahan posted the dramatic video of the explosion, which was captured on his body camera, Sunday on social media. Firefighters went to a property on Main Street on Thursday afternoon, where a fire had broken out in a wooded area near propane tank Firefighter Scott Patten was trying to keep the blaze under control when one of the tanks exploded, sending flames shooting toward him.
- PUB DATE: 6/13/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Bangor Daily News

A woman has settled a lawsuit with the City of Palo Alto for $250,000 in a lawsuit she filed in December 2015 after receiving significant injuries caused by a motorcycle crash with a city fire truck, according to court documents supplied by the city City Attorney's office. The city does not admit any wrongdoing, according to the settlement.
- PUB DATE: 6/13/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Palo Alto Weekly

A contract between Medina and Medina Township to dissolve the township's fire department is expected to be approved this week, leaving township firefighters and residents confused. Township officials cite cost savings but firefighters say there has been little information and the merger is not necessary.
- PUB DATE: 6/13/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Cleveland Plain Dealer & Cleveland.com

Clarkston City Councilor Belinda Campbell was visibly upset Monday when city officials were not allowed to talk openly with the Clarkston Fire Department about the future. The Public Safety Committee and several firefighters had finally gathered around the same table, but several minutes prior to the special meeting, city attorney Todd Richardson advised the council to say absolutely nothing.
- PUB DATE: 6/13/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse

State overseers have informed the city’s Fire Department it will start its new 56-hour workweek schedule Sunday. Bill DiLorenzo, president of International Association of Fire Fighters Local 198, said the union was notified of the change late Friday afternoon. The department had worked 42 hours in a week.
- PUB DATE: 6/12/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Press of Atlantic CIty

A firefighter died after collapsing at a blaze in south suburban Harvey on Saturday afternoon. Around 1:30 p.m., the Harvey Fire Department responded to a report of multiple mobile homes on fire near W. 150th St. and Rockwell Ave., according to Harvey police spokesman Sean Howard. The Harvey Fire Department then called for backup from the neighboring Dolton Fire Department, Howard said.
- PUB DATE: 6/12/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NBCChicago.com

Miami-Dade’s requirement that David Beckham hire only county police and paramedics for his planned Miami soccer stadium drew more heat on Friday — including an indirect swipe from the county’s own fire chief. David Downey, head of Miami-Dade Fire and Rescue, signed a letter from a countywide chiefs association opposing any efforts by the county to “dictate” how rescue services are delivered within municipal jurisdictions.
- PUB DATE: 6/12/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Miami Herald

The Avon Volunteer Fire Department helped a bride and groom make it to their wedding reception on Saturday after their trolley’s engine caught fire. Shortly after Maria Leonardi and Justin Stone exchanged vows at the West Avon Congregational Church, the wedding party’s trolley bus caught on fire. The fire was extinguished by the bus driver who used an extinguisher from the bus.
- PUB DATE: 6/12/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: wtnh.com

Pasco County Fire Rescue is temporarily closing Fire Station 39 due to a bat colony taking up residence in the building. The fire chief tells ABC Action News, bats have been living on their property for years, but recently have become brazen and now pose a serious health risk to firefighters. According to the chief, they've spotted bats flying in living quarters, including bunk rooms, bathrooms and the weight room.
- PUB DATE: 6/12/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: ABC Action News

The U.S. Fire Administration confirmed that the April death of North Courtland Volunteer Fire Department Fire Chief Eddie Harris was a line-of-duty death. Harris, 47, reported that he was feeling ill while he took part in live fire training on April 20, according to a release from the USFA. In April, Mayor Riely Evans told the Decatur Daily that Harris suffered an apparent heart attack and was transported to Helen Keller Hospital where he died April 21.
- PUB DATE: 6/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse.com

Perspectives on the state of the Meadville Central Fire Department are opposed along predictable party lines as Meadville enters the sixth month since City Council voted to cut departmental staffing levels. City Manager Andy Walker acknowledged the opposing views as he explained the city’s position on the changes.
- PUB DATE: 6/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Meadville Tribune

It served for decades, a firefighting powerhouse that lent equipment to local towns and training to area departments. But then times for the Meadowood County Area Fire Department changed, and fortunes slipped. On Wednesday, a small group of general members and board members voted to bring the 64-year-old department to an end, a long-anticipated move following years of financial losses.
- PUB DATE: 6/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Keene Sentinel

An off-duty firefighter happened to be driving through a Sandy neighborhood Tuesday when several shots were fired. Salt Lake City Fire Captain Tony Allred recounted the moments he sprang into action. He was driving his 8-year-old daughter to gymnastics when traffic got backed up on Alta Canyon Drive.
- PUB DATE: 6/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Fox13.com

Fidget spinners have become a must-have toy for many central Indiana children, but they may be more dangerous than parents realize. Some of the parts are very small and could pose a choking hazard if they pop off, as a Decatur Township firefighter discovered this week. The firefighter shared his story on the department’s Facebook page Thursday.
- PUB DATE: 6/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Fox59.com

Neil Svetanics, former chief of the St. Louis Fire Department and the Lemay Fire Protection District, died Wednesday (June 7, 2017) after a brief lung illness. He was 77 and lived in St. Louis Hills. Mr. Svetanics joined the St. Louis Fire Department in 1962 and moved up in ranks, serving as chief from 1986 to 1999.
- PUB DATE: 6/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: St. Louis Post Dispatch

Warren firefighters, digging with their bare hands and metal shovels, rescued a Howell man trapped in a collapsed trench on Tuesday, Warren Mayor Jim Fouts said. The 37-year-old man was rushed to Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, where he was in serious condition, the mayor wrote on his Facebook page Tuesday.
- PUB DATE: 6/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Detroit Free Press

The risk firefighters face for developing job-related cancers was well known in the fire service long before elected officials and the national news media started taking more notice in recent years and cast a brighter light on the issue. There are 37 states that have passed cancer presumption laws for firefighters, which provide workers' compensation benefits for those with certain types of cancers directly attributed to the job.
- PUB DATE: 6/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse.com

The Tulsa Fire Department is removing blue stripes from fire trucks. The chief thinks the stripes may send the wrong message to some people. "It hit me in my heart that this was the right thing to do for the City of Tulsa and for the citizens," Chief Ray Driskell said. TFD added the stripe after the Dallas police shooting as a symbol of solidarity with law enforcement, but Driskell said he's following his heart and taking the stripes off.
- PUB DATE: 6/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: newson6.com

Fire Chief Dale C. Herman and Deputy Chief Russell J. Randall were the only members of the city’s management team not to receive 2 percent salary increases in the newly adopted budget. The two top fire departments officials have been criticized for not taking the city’s side in a nearly three-year contract dispute with the firefighters’ union.
- PUB DATE: 6/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Watertown Daily News

An Anchorage firefighter remains in critical condition at a local hospital Tuesday after being injured during training Monday afternoon, according to an Anchorage Fire Department official. Ben Schultz, 29, a firefighter and paramedic, has been with the fire department for six years. Schultz was injured at 4:15 p.
- PUB DATE: 6/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Alaska Dispatch News