Analysis by a team from Drexel University found that firefighters may shun safety gear due to the pressure of living up to their risk-taker image. Jennifer Taylor, PhD, associate professor in Drexel’s Dornsife School of Public Health, and her team used data from 123 firefighters interviews across the country to determine why they often refrain from using personal protective equipment (PPE) in dangerous situations.
- PUB DATE: 9/2/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Drexel University

It's been almost four years since first responders to a fire in Webster, outside Rochester were ambushed as they arrived to help. Four firefighters were shot and two of them killed. Since then, we've seen attacks on other first responders including police officers in cities all over the country. Now, one fire department in Central New York is taking new action by wearing bullet proof vests capable of stopping a high powered rifle.
- PUB DATE: 9/2/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WSTM-TV NBC3-CNY Central

The board of the Greater Eagle Fire Protection District terminated its jailed Chief Kurt Vogel on Thursday. Vogel was arrested last month on charges he stole more than $120,000 from his former fire department in Sterling. Vogel, who was hired by the Eagle district in April, was placed on unpaid leave following his Aug.
- PUB DATE: 9/2/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Denver Post

The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency announced that the 2016 Assistance to Firefighters Grant application period will open Tuesday, Oct. 11. Since 2001, AFG has funded firefighter and other first-responder equipment, protective gear, emergency vehicles, training and other resources needed to protect the public and emergency personnel from fire and related hazards.
- PUB DATE: 9/2/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1

A big rig slammed into a firetruck bringing traffic on Interstate 95 to a screeching halt for hours early Thursday and leaving five Philadelphia firefighters hurt. The tractor-trailer crossed lanes and slammed into the stopped firetruck in the southbound left-hand shoulder around 3 a.m. under the Chestnut Street overpass/Penn's Landing Tunnel in Old City.
- PUB DATE: 9/1/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WCAU-TV NBC 10 Philadelphia

Two of the six San Antonio Fire Department cadets dismissed from the academy earlier this month broke their silence Tuesday, in a lengthy sit-down interview with the KENS 5 I-Team. "It's like your whole world is taken away from you," said one of the cadets, during the interview at the headquarters of the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association.
- PUB DATE: 9/1/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KENS5.com San Antonio

The Metropolitan “Metro” Fire Chiefs Association, a Section of the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), named Ernest Mitchell, Jr. an Honorary Member of the Metro. Chief Mitchell, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) U.S. Fire Administrator for the U.
- PUB DATE: 9/1/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: National Fire Protection Association

Members of the Greater New Haven Clergy Association said they are “appalled” by the fire union’s use of “fearful tactics” in its efforts to stop a new city emergency plan. In a press release, the clergy said there is a lack of professionalism displayed by the executive leadership of the fire union, International Association of Firefighters, Local 825, specifically naming its president, Frank Ricci.
- PUB DATE: 9/1/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New Haven Register

Philadelphia firefighter Gabriel Lee, who died during a night shift in North Philadelphia in July, succumbed to heart disease, the Medical Examiner's Office said Wednesday. Lee, 42, a 17-year veteran of the department, died July 23 after being found unresponsive in the basement of the Ladder 12 firehouse, 1325 W.
- PUB DATE: 9/1/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Philly.com

The critical care unit at Beverly Hospital isn't exactly where Frank Twiss wants to start his retirement. "Not what I expected," Twiss said. "Not at all." But at least the Middleton fire chief will have a retirement. The 54-year-old suffered cardiac arrest Monday at the fire station. Nine members of his department saved his life.
- PUB DATE: 8/31/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WCVB-TV ABC 5 Boston

The remains of five adults were found after a fire burned a Temecula-area residential care facility for developmentally disabled adults, authorities said Tuesday. The Riverside County sheriff’s homicide unit and Cal Fire’s arson unit are investigating the Monday morning fire. While the cause hasn’t been determined, sheriff’s officials have called the fire “suspicious” and the house a crime scene.
- PUB DATE: 8/31/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Press Enterprise

A volunteer firefighter admitted on Monday to stealing more than $60,000 from the department over six years while serving as its treasurer. Chester Jameson, 52, of Old Bridge, pleaded guilty to third-degree theft by deception before Monmouth County Superior Court Judge David Bauman, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni announced in a news release.
- PUB DATE: 8/31/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Newark Star-Ledger/NJ.com

There is new information about the person infected with the Zika virus from Pinellas County. 10Investigates has discovered it could have been contracted in Hillsborough County because the Pinellas resident works as a firefighter in Tampa. There is a lot we don't know, because the Florida Department of Health is keeping the information very close to the vest and that could be because there is a huge concern what the disease could do to the state tourism industry.
- PUB DATE: 8/31/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WTSP-TV 10 News

The city’s downtown fire station is expected to be modified within 90 days to make room for the ladder truck purchased earlier this month, a move prompting media reports and questions at the last city council meeting. The city expects to spend about $130,000 on design and installation of a new bay door for the $867,742 Pierce Enforcer, a demonstrator purchased with cash on hand, rather than through financing, due to the need to replace it as quickly as possible.
- PUB DATE: 8/31/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: My Dayton Daily News

A Lawrence firefighter suing the city says he voiced his disapproval over what he deemed to be police brutality, and then left the scene under arrest and with a broken arm. The lawsuit, which accuses the Lawrence Police Department of using both excessive and negligent force, could cost the city nearly a quarter of a million dollars.
- PUB DATE: 8/31/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Lawrence Journal-World

The driver of a Michigan firetruck that crashed Saturday on Interstate 35W in Blaine, killing two firefighters, said he was sleep-deprived and that he nodded off before the rig went out of control. He also admitted using marijuana and cocaine in the days and hours before the wreck, according to charges filed Monday.
- PUB DATE: 8/30/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Minneapolis Star-Tribune

The Liberty Township fire chief who had been fighting to keep his job will be returning to work next month, but not as chief. Tim Jensen, suspended in March for alleged management lapses, including tardiness and failing to follow orders, reached an agreement with township trustees late last week allowing him to return to work on Sept.
- PUB DATE: 8/30/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Columbus Dispatch

Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer gave an ominous warning to a rural fire chief trying to recover fire trucks stolen from his department. Chief Jeremy Boyer needed the trucks in early 2013 for the recently formed Monument Rural Fire District, protecting a sparsely populated area in northern Grant County.
- PUB DATE: 8/30/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Portland Oregonian, Hillsboro Argus, Oregon Live.com

Sitting in his Gonzales residence Monday morning (Aug. 29), St. John the Baptist Parish firefighter William "Mack" Beal was surrounded by photographs of his loved ones as he recalled Sunday's Interstate 10 bus crash that injured him and killed two others, including St. John Fire District Chief Spencer Chauvin.
- PUB DATE: 8/30/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New Orleans Times-Picayune & Nola.com

Cognitive impairment, long considered a leading risk factor for Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, has been detected in a significant proportion of people who served as first responders during the 9/11 World Trade Center disaster, Stony Brook University researchers have found. For years, the lion’s share of public attention has been riveted on the cancers and respiratory conditions that have afflicted first responders, but mental-health disorders have been building all along, researchers reported Monday in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment and Disease Monitoring.
- PUB DATE: 8/30/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1