Growing up in rural West Virginia, Benjamin M. Barksdale remembers hearing the siren blow from the neighboring fire station and asking his mother about the commotion. Barksdale’s mother explained to him, then a boy of about 6, that the siren signaled volunteer firefighters would soon launch out of the station to help people in the community.
- PUB DATE: 6/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Washington Post

A Bronx grand jury handed up manslaughter indictments against two men whose marijuana grow house exploded, killing a firefighter who responded to a report of leaking gas. Michael Fahy, 44, battalion chief of the 19th division, was killed by falling debris as he and his crew evacuated a house at W. 234th St.
- PUB DATE: 6/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Daily News

The first responders on the front line in the battle against the national opioid epidemic got a new guideline Tuesday from the Drug Enforcement Agency on how handle the incredibly deadly drug fentanyl. It's called “Fentanyl: A Brief Guide for First Responders.” And Acting DEA chief Chuck Rosenberg said it should be required reading.
- PUB DATE: 6/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NBC News

The National Fire Protection Association has released its annual report on firefighter fatalities in the United States, and a leading cause of on-duty deaths in the fire service remains cardiac issues despite those deaths hitting an all-time low in 2016. Last year's total of 69 on-duty deaths marked the fifth time in six years that the number was below 70, according to the NFPA's 2016 Report.
- PUB DATE: 6/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse

Matt McFarland, a local firefighter with Humboldt Bay Fire, has filed a grievance through his union after being asked by his boss, Humboldt Bay Fire Chief Bill Gillespie, to stop wearing a “Black Lives Matter” lapel pin on his uniform. McFarland argues that the pin represents an important message about inclusive justice and that it conforms to his department’s uniform policy, which allows lapel pins provided they are “fire service related and in good taste.
- PUB DATE: 6/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Lost Coast Outpost

Ghost Ship master tenant Derick Almena and his second-in-command, Max Harris, were arrested Monday and charged with 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter in conjunction with the Dec. 2 Ghost Ship fire that killed three dozen people. Alameda County prosecutors found the pair hoarded flammable materials from floor to ceiling in the warehouse, created an illegal party space, and even blocked one of only two exits from the second floor the night of the fatal fire.
- PUB DATE: 6/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: East Bay Times

The city of Fayetteville will seek an outside review of its recruitment practices at the Fire Department, which lags behind many other cities at hiring minorities. City Manager Doug Hewett announced Monday night he has asked the Raleigh office of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to review the department’s hiring practices, after several Fayetteville City Council members have grown concerned that only about 3 percent of firefighters are black or another minority.
- PUB DATE: 6/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Fayetteville Observer

Anne Arundel County Executive Laura Neuman said Wednesday she'll hire 100 firefighters now that the fire union has won an arbitration case dealing with firefighters' schedules. Neuman said she'll ask the County Council for $3 million to pay for the new firefighters and add fire training academy classes.
- PUB DATE: 6/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Baltimore Sun

The City Council on Tuesday night is expected to approve taking two former Fort Worth firefighters to court in an attempt to recover more than $92,400 they were overpaid when they left their jobs. The payments were compensation for unused vacation, holiday and sick leave that workers were provided when they retired or left their jobs.
- PUB DATE: 6/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Star-Telegram

Firefighters are at an elevated risk of getting the deadly skin cancer, melanoma. In fact they are three times more likely to get it than the general population. That’s according to a recent study. But now cutting-edge technology has just arrived in Tucson to help protect our first responders. “The first time you hear somebody say you have cancer – it’s definitely a shocking thing,” Northwest Fire Deputy Chief, Ryder Hartley said.
- PUB DATE: 6/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Tucsonnews.com

A 29-year-old Los Angeles Fire Department firefighter died Monday, two days after he fell from an aerial ladder during a training exercise in downtown, officials said. "The LAFD is heartbroken to announce the loss of one of our members, Firefighter Kelly Wong," a two-year veteran of the department, according to a news release.
- PUB DATE: 6/5/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: abclocal.go

A firefighter was critically injured Saturday morning when he fell from an aerial ladder during a training exercise in downtown, the Los Angeles Fire Department said. The incident occurred about 9:43 a.m. in the 300 block of Main Street, said Amy Bastman, a spokeswoman for the department. The injured firefighter was treated by his colleagues at the scene and transported to a nearby trauma center, Bastman said.
- PUB DATE: 6/5/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: abclocal.go

Investigators in Fort Worth and Grapevine are still trying to determine what caused overnight fires at a warehouse and a vacant restaurant. Firefighters responding to a warehouse fire in Fort Worth were pulled out of harms way before the structure’s roof collapsed, according to a Fort Worth fire official.
- PUB DATE: 6/5/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Star-Telegram

In the history of the Ulah Fire Department, there has only been one fire chief: Jerry Dickinson. Now, after almost 50 years at the helm, health problems have made it clear to Dickinson that it is time for this dedicated firefighter to retire. “I’ve worked all my life,” Dickinson said. “My uncle owned a salvage yard — a junk yard — in Ulah and I started working there when I was 12 years old.
- PUB DATE: 6/5/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Courier-Tribune

Nearly half of all Americans have not developed a home fire escape plan. Of those that have, one-quarter have never practiced it. These and other findings from a recent survey conducted by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) prompted the official theme for this year’s Fire Prevention Week campaign, October 8-14, 2017: “Every Second Counts: Plan Two Ways Out™” “The results from our most recent survey show we still have a lot of work to do in educating the public about home fires, escape planning and practice.
- PUB DATE: 6/5/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse

When word came about a month ago that Stephen Johnson, former chief of training for the Detroit Fire Department, was dying of kidney cancer, his family and friends quickly planned a June 25 tribute party complete with live music. But earlier this week, his condition worsened and they knew they needed to move quickly.
- PUB DATE: 6/5/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Detroit Free Press

Jupiter police said two EMT paramedics were killed in a rollover crash involving a car early Thursday morning at Indiantown Road near Military Trail in Jupiter. The EMTs were employed by American Medical Response and identified as caregivers, Lahiri Garcia, 51, and critical care paramedic and supervisor, Paul Besaw, 36.
- PUB DATE: 6/2/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WPTV-TV NBC 5 West Palm Beach

It was their first big call — and they saved two little lives. Two rookie firefighters, one of them fighting the first blaze of his career, saved a mom and two small boys trapped in a burning Brooklyn basement apartment early Thursday, officials said. Firefighters from Ladder Co. 149 rushed to the blaze on 64th St.
- PUB DATE: 6/2/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Daily News

As fire swept through a Hartford home in the early evening of Oct. 7, 2014, five firefighters inside the second-floor living room heard a commander's desperate radio call to "bail out." "All units out of the building now." Engine 16 Lt. John Moree would later tell investigators he searched for, but couldn't find, his partner, firefighter Kevin Bell, who was manning a hose inside the room.
- PUB DATE: 6/2/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Hartford Courant

Former State Fire Marshal Tonya Hoover was named superintendent of the U.S. Fire Administration’s National Fire Academy (NFA) in May. As superintendent, Hoover will provides leadership for the NFA, which focuses on enhancing the ability of fire and emergency services and allied professionals to deal more effectively with fire and related emergencies.
- PUB DATE: 6/2/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse