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National Fire News

Delaware mayor keeps ex-fire chief on to collect pension

Former Fire Chief Anthony Goode has been demoted, but not fired, the city announced Tuesday, a move that will allow him to work the additional months required to collect an early pension. Goode will become a senior firefighter when he returns from vacation this spring, according to Mayor Mike Purzycki's office.
- PUB DATE: 1/11/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Wilmington News Journal (Delaware Online)

South Carolina firefighters Talk About Massive Blaze, Rescue

A massive condo fire, a man trapped inside, and firefighters climbing a 35 foot ladder and battling through flames to reach him. All as a bystander recorded amazing video of the rescue. It’s video thousands of people saw on Facebook, of a large fire inside a Sea Cloisters condo. But what it’s like to be inside that fire, fighting it and trying to save the elderly man inside.
- PUB DATE: 1/11/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WSAV-TV

How firefighters can win the 'Citizen Jerk' battle

This past summer, a bicyclist slapped a firefighter who tried to stop her from passing a fire truck that was backing up. The woman was arrested and charged with aggravated battery on a peace officer. This incident reminded me of something that happened to me and my crew near the end of my fire department career.
- PUB DATE: 1/11/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1

Stung by online posts, Maryland department leaders limit broadcasts

Harford County fire and emergency medical services leaders, stung by critical and negative social media posts, have limited how much incident information is broadcast via an app, which all of the county's roughly 1,100 fire and EMS volunteers and workers can use to follow emergency calls. The anonymous administrator of the Harford Fire Facts page on Facebook made a series of posts between Dec.
- PUB DATE: 1/11/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Carroll County Times

New York City’s Fire Deaths Reach Lowest Point in Over 100 Years

Forty-eight people died from fires in New York City last year, the fewest at any point in more than a century, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Monday. The decline — with the total far below the peak of 310 people in 1970 — was attributed by officials to a combination of initiatives undertaken by the Fire Department, including improved response times, fire inspections, a program to hand out smoke alarms and expanded fire education programs.
- PUB DATE: 1/10/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Times

Minneapolis to settle discrimination lawsuit brought by former fire cadet

A City Council committee decided Monday that Minneapolis will pay $175,000 to a former firefighter cadet who sued the city for discrimination. Dominique Sabas, of St. Paul, was a probationary firefighter cadet in 2013, but in the final week of training the Fire Department dismissed her, arguing that she had failed to disclose a previous medical condition.
- PUB DATE: 1/10/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune

Ohio department using $1K bonuses to attract firefighter candidates

Washington Twp. is offering a $1,000 signing bonus to new firefighter recruits, in an effort to help fill approximately 30 part-time positions. Deputy fire Chief Scott Kujawa said the need to fill the positions in the department comes out of necessity with there being a shortage of available firefighters in the region.
- PUB DATE: 1/10/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Dayton Daily News

New York town manager, chief clash over fire union

City Manager Sharon A. Addison has given Fire Chief Dale C. Herman an ultimatum about his involvement in a bitter contract fight between the city and the firefighters’ union. In a heated telephone call on Friday, Ms. Addison threatened his job if he didn’t become more of a team player in the city’s ongoing contract battle with the Watertown Professional Fire Fighters Association Local 191.
- PUB DATE: 1/10/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Watertown Daily Times

Former firefighter targets Michigan fire captain in scathing flier

A former Birmingham firefighter mailed a flier to 1,000 homes this week that’s critical of a captain on the city’s fire department. In a series of emails, Mike McIntyre admits he’s responsible for sending out the flier. McIntyre became a Birmingham firefighter in June 2015 and served with the department until several weeks ago, when he accepted a resignation settlement.
- PUB DATE: 1/10/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Detroit Free Press

Houston firefighter stabbed in the eye while trying to rescue man

A firefighter with the Houston Fire Department could lose one of his eyes after he was stabbed by a man he was trying to rescue on Friday. Capt. Kenneth Willingham was responding to a fire at a business on Highway 6 when he found a man unresponsive inside. A Houston Police officer forced entry with a sledgehammer and when Willingham tried to pull the man out, the man stabbed him in the eye with a pocket knife.
- PUB DATE: 1/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KHOU-TV CBS 11 Houston

Washington firefighter’s overdose death raises questions about how he got hired

Ramsey Mueller dreamed of saving others, but he couldn’t save himself. A year ago, he took the first steps toward his lifelong dream of becoming a Tacoma firefighter. Seven months later, he died in his Tacoma home of a heroin overdose at the age of 27, a day after resigning from the department, two days after coming late to a morning shift, slurring his words and nearly hitting another vehicle while briefly taking the wheel of a firetruck.
- PUB DATE: 1/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The News Tribune

Virginia volunteer firefighter among Florida airport shooting victims

The victims of the deadly shooting rampage at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport came from all walks of life. No official list of the victims has been released, but loved ones have started to talk about them to media outlets. Virginia resident Terry Andres was identified Saturday by a volunteer fire department as a victim in the Fort Lauderdale airport shooting.
- PUB DATE: 1/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: USA Today

New York firefighters tired of sharing breathing apparatus

When Lackawanna hired Jason Szpara and eight others to be firefighters in 2014, the cash-strapped city issued them old used breathing masks that had been turned in by retirees. The safety equipment was tattered, Szpara recalled. Now, on occasion, when there's a large fire in Lackawanna, there aren't enough self contained breathing apparatus – the masks and related equipment – to equip every firefighter, Lackawanna Fire Chief Ralph Galanti admitted.
- PUB DATE: 1/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Buffalo News

Second arrest made in death of Ohio firefighter

A second arrest has been made in the arson fire that killed a Hamilton firefighter. William “Billy” Tucker, 46, was arrested Friday in Richmond, Ky., on an indictment from Butler County for aggravated arson and murder for allegedly starting the fire that killed firefighter Patrick Wolterman in December 2015.
- PUB DATE: 1/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Hamilton Journal-News

California firefighters file lawsuit claiming overtime pay violations

Fifteen former or current Marinwood firefighters are suing the Marinwood Community Services District, claiming it shorted them on overtime pay. The lawsuit alleges the district violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by miscalculating the regular pay rate upon which overtime is based. The firefighters said the district should have included not just hourly pay in its calculation of the regular pay rate, but also other compensation such as special assignment pay, holiday pay, college incentive pay and reimbursement for benefit costs.
- PUB DATE: 1/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Marin Independent Journal

Virginia Fire Chief battling stage four cancer shares critical message

A Richmond Fire Chief battling stage four cancer is using journey, and the journey of his new scooter, to spread a critical message to firefighters across the country. Creasy said his chemotherapy treatments have severely limited his mobility since his cancer diagnosis in 2014. Richmond firefighter Roger Myers knows the realities of cancer intimately, so he devised a plan to help Chief Creasy.
- PUB DATE: 1/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WTVR-TV CBS 6

Dallas Police and Fire pension members may have to pay back funds

Bernie Madoff. It's a name now often bandied about when talking about the failing Dallas Police and Fire Pension fund. "The reality of it is that it was a Bernie Madoff type scheme," says Lee Kleinman, a city council member and former pension board trustee. The city has agreed to put in an additional billion dollars over 30 years, but they're proposing a series of bitter pills to make up the rest of the nearly $4 billion shortfall.
- PUB DATE: 1/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WFAA-TV ABC 8 Dallas - Fort Worth

New York Cops Appear to Pose for Selfie as Family's Home Goes Up in Flames

VIDEO - Two police officers were captured on video appearing to pose for a selfie in front of a home as it went up in flames on Long Island Thursday afternoon. The fire destroyed the house in Uniondale, though no one was hurt. Moments after the officers posed for their apparent photo op, one of them appeared to approach another man taking selfies as if to ask him to leave the scene.
- PUB DATE: 1/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NBC New York

New NFPA Video Underscores Long-Lasting Realities of Home Fires

In cooperation with the Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors, NFPA has produced a new video underscoring the painful aftermath of home fires. Burn care specialists from the William Randolph Hearst Burn Center, one of the premier burn care hospitals in the U.S., detail the frequency of home fire injuries and painstaking recovery of burn survivors.
- PUB DATE: 1/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Fire Engineering

North Carolina firefighter dies after battle with brain cancer

A Thursday death has rocked the local firefighter community. Jason Abalos, a 35-year-old husband, father and firefighter, died after years of battling a brain tumor. “This is going to have a deep impact on the department,” said Deputy Chief Spencer Lee with Jacksonville Fire and Emergency Services. Lee knew Abalos from his years working at JFES.
- PUB DATE: 1/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Daily News, Jacksonville

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