Fire Chief Larry Reilly will retire this June after four decades with the Norwalk Fire Department. “It’s been 42 years and I turned 65 in March so I think it’s a good time go,” Reilly said. “I’ve enjoyed the 42 years working with people in the department and working for the people in Norwalk but it’s time to move on.
- PUB DATE: 4/19/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Hour

The Texas Senate has endorsed allowing paramedics and other first-responders, including volunteer firefighters, to carry concealed handguns in restricted areas. The bill by Sen. Don Huffines of Dallas met little resistance in the Republican-controlled Senate on Tuesday. A similar measure is pending in the House.
- PUB DATE: 4/19/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WFAA-TV ABC 8 Dallas - Fort Worth

Philadelphia firefighter Joyce Craig’s “personal alert” device was at least 12 -- maybe even 17 -- years old. Her breathing device included a “breathing hose” that also was 12 years old. Both pieces of equipment, vital to a firefighter inside a structure fire, failed Craig in the moments before fellow firefighters pulled her from an early morning blaze in December 2014.
- PUB DATE: 4/19/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WCAU-TV NBC 10 Philadelphia

An early morning house fire in Logansport on Monday led to the discovery of a drug growing operation, according to officials. The fire broke out around 7 a.m. near the intersection of 14th and High streets. Four people were inside the house at the time. They all got out OK, but two firefighters were injured.
- PUB DATE: 4/19/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WISHTV.com Channel 8

Today a Detroit teenager got a chance to meet the firefighter who saved his life. Detroit Fire Fighter Lt. Theresa Halsell wasn’t at the house fire that burned the teen’s home, but she was the guest speaker who taught his class at Woodward Academy how to survive a house fire. Her lesson played out in real life for Thomas Locke when he woke up to a fire inside his Grandmother's home.
- PUB DATE: 4/19/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WXYZ-TV ABC Detroit

Firefighter Joyce Craig made five “Mayday” distress transmissions as she became trapped in the dining room of a burning West Oak Lane home on Dec. 9, 2014. “Engine 73 can’t breathe, I can’t breathe,” Craig, 37, said in her final transmission. Nine minutes later, Craig – the first female Philadelphia firefighter to die in the line of duty – was found by her comrades with her left hand still near the nozzle of her fire hose, according to a report released Monday by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
- PUB DATE: 4/18/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Philly.com

After Elkhart Mayor Mike Gordon wrote a letter to the public explaining why the city council decided to sever ties with its fire department, Elkhart Volunteer Fire Chief Randy McCoy responded. McCoy disagrees with Gordon, who said the city was spending a tremendous amount of money paying for the volunteer fire department's insurance and utilities, and the history of oversight and accountability demands placed on city officials, as well as the city’s staff, were costly and time consuming.
- PUB DATE: 4/18/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Palestine Herald

A construction worker frantically woke residents of a two-story home in Cambridge, alerting the three people upstairs to escape as flames swept through the second floor, grateful renters said this morning. Dozens of firefighters responded to the multi-alarm blaze. Ladder trucks poured water into the second floor, shattering windows.
- PUB DATE: 4/18/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Boston Herald

Modesto has paid $80,000 to settle allegations that one of its firefighters tripped and fell on a third-grader and broke her arm during a Fire Department safety event called the Clown Program, in which firefighters dress up as clowns to teach schoolchildren such basics as when to call 911 and how to get out of a burning house.
- PUB DATE: 4/18/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Modesto Bee

A state appellate court on Monday ruled that a borough volunteer firefighter can not receive workers' compensation for a serious head injury suffered in a parking lot altercation with another firefighter. Jamie Benimadho suffered a skull fracture, hemorrhages and traumatic brain injury when his head hit the pavement in a fall during an incident that began with horseplay between two other volunteer firefighters.
- PUB DATE: 4/18/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NJ.com

Wyoming Fire District Chief James “Jim” Benken and retired Milford Fire Chief John E. Cooper, Sr. died Friday. Benken passed away suddenly, the City of Wyoming Fire & EMS posted Friday. “(He) is being mourned by all who knew him,” they said, and they expressed condolences to family and friends. Cooper, 68, died at his Milford home Friday.
- PUB DATE: 4/17/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WCPO-TV ABC 9 Cincinnati

Santa Rosa firefighters are suing the city in federal court, claiming they’ve been systematically cheated out of overtime for years. The city’s 118 unionized firefighters say the city is improperly calculating their overtime pay, and they now want to recoup their losses for the past three years, plus interest, costs and attorney’s fees.
- PUB DATE: 4/17/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Press Democrat

This Bravest is the oldest. Probationary firefighter Hazim Tawfiq has joined the FDNY at age 44 after a long battle over his rap sheet. Tawfiq failed an FDNY entry exam in 1999, then joined a federal lawsuit that successfully accused the FDNY of racial discrimination. He won a cash settlement and a second chance to be hired, but the city rejected him because of his criminal record.
- PUB DATE: 4/17/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Post

An emotional day in Prince George’s county, as a man who shot two firefighters, killing one, faces a judge for sentencing on gun charges. The welfare check turned shooting devastated the department, and one year later, they are still feeling the impact. Darrell Lumpkin’s four-year sentence was handed down just on Friday evening, and so many firefighters showed up at the courthouse to support Lumpkin’s victims, the proceedings had to be moved to a bigger courtroom.
- PUB DATE: 4/17/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WJZ-TV CBS 13 Baltimore

Reports stated first responders were hit by a vehicle at the scene of a crash. The incident happened in Hendersonville at New Shackle Island Road and Drakes Creek Road Saturday evening. According to an official with Sumner County EMS, emergency crews were on the scene of a wreck involving a car and a motorcycle.
- PUB DATE: 4/17/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NewsChannel5.com

Emergency medical responders are being attacked in Baltimore more frequently than in the past and should be equipped with protective vests, Rick Hoffman, president of the local firefighters' and EMS workers union, said Wednesday. "Obviously everyone knows we are in a very dangerous city now, and the way our EMS system works, [city residents] dial 911 and we're there in normally minutes, which means we beat the police there a lot," Hoffman said.
- PUB DATE: 4/14/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Baltimore Sun

At least seven Columbus Division of Fire recruits used an online study aid that their classmate created that closely mirrored the questions on one of the division’s tests for emergency medical technicians. The Fire Division is concluding an investigation into whether recruits violated policy in using the website and app Quizlet to prepare for exams.
- PUB DATE: 4/14/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Columbus Dispatch

Firefighters from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport who responded to the I-85 fire last month recounted the experience during drills at the airport’s fire training center Thursday. Airport Rescue Fire Fighting striker units 7 and 8 responded to the March 30 fire that caused a section of the highway to collapse.
- PUB DATE: 4/14/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Atlanta Journal Constitution

The jail sentence handed down Wednesday to the township fire chief’s son is the latest black eye for a department riddled with controversy the past decade. With the township still reeling from a theft scandal that sent the former chief to prison, the current chief’s son, Richard Hart Jr., 19, is now behind bars for an arson that destroyed a home.
- PUB DATE: 4/14/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Wilkes-Barre Citizens' Voice

A volunteer firefighter who was shot four times while trying to help a man says he still relives the shooting that killed his partner a year later. "I remember a flash. I didn't hear it and then it was like slow-mo and then...you just kept hearing the bangs," Morningside Volunteer Firefighter Kevin Swain told News4.
- PUB DATE: 4/14/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NBC Washington