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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
A local man was to appear in court Thursday after West Haven police say he tried to steal a fire truck that was responding to a medical call.
Wayne Gagne, 63, was also in possession of a knife with an eight-inch blade during the Wednesday night incident, police spokesman Sgt. David Tammaro said Thursday in a press release. - PUB DATE: 1/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New Haven Register
Mayor Jim Matherly confirmed former Fairbanks Fire Chief Warren Cummings died Tuesday night after a hard fought battle with breast cancer.
Cummings became a firefighter in 1972 and worked his way up through the ranks until he was named fire chief in 2000. He retired in October 2015.
“The fire service in Alaska has lost a great leader,” said a post on the City of Fairbanks Fire Department Facebook page. - PUB DATE: 1/5/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Fairbanks News-Miner
After a nearly decade-long legislative fight, Ohio firefighters won their battle to help their colleagues who are battling cancer.
Ohio Governor John Kasich was surrounded by firefighters as he signed the Palumbo Act at the state capitol early Wednesday afternoon.
The law, renamed after Mike Palumbo, a Beachwood fire captain currently battling brain cancer, presumes firefighters diagnosed with certain types of cancer developed the disease as the result of numerous exposures to toxic chemicals at fire scenes. - PUB DATE: 1/5/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WEWS-TV IBS 5 Cleveland
Boulder Rural Fire Rescue's chief and deputy chief have been placed on administrative leave following a $1.2 million accounting mishap, although officials won't say whether the disciplinary action is related to the shortfall.
Both Chief Bruce Mygatt and Deputy Chief Jeff Webb are on leave from the department, Boulder Rural Fire Board President Kurt Gattman confirmed Wednesday. - PUB DATE: 1/5/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Boulder Daily Camera
The expiration this month of a $5 million grant that funded 15 firefighter positions at the Chico Fire Department will result in several layoffs by the end of this week, Fire Chief Bill Hack said Wednesday.
Come Saturday, five firefighters will have been laid off, reducing the amount of front-line firefighters at the Fire Department from 65 to 60, Hack said. - PUB DATE: 1/5/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Chico Enterprise-Record
A firefighter's 8-year-old daughter was killed by a falling tree Tuesday night while she was sleeping in her bedroom in Otis, Lincoln County fire officials said.
Zaylee Schlecht, the daughter of North Lincoln Fire and Rescue District firefighter Ryan Schlecht, was in her bedroom with her younger sister when strong winds toppled a tree onto her home about 11:15 p. - PUB DATE: 1/5/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Oregonian
A fire broke out early Wednesday inside a Concord Fire Department station as firefighters were sleeping inside the building. The flames started inside Station 2 in West Concord just before 1 a.m.
Chief Mark Cotreau said three firefighters who were sleeping on the second floor were awakened by smoke detectors and saw a haze of smoke. - PUB DATE: 1/4/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WCVB-TV ABC 5 Boston
Marion Rural Fire Department mourns the loss of one of their own.
Monday night, Amy and Freddie Dimmery, both volunteer firefighters with the Marion Rural Fire Department, were t-boned on Highway 76.
Amy, didn’t make it and her husband suffered serious injuries.
Chief of the Marion Rural Fire Department, Billy Wallace, was on the scene along Highway 76 Monday night and like the rest of the department, he is taking the loss to heart. - PUB DATE: 1/4/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WMBF-TV NBC Myrtle Beach
City Commissioner Susan Chapman is under fire this week for sounding a siren about ambulances using Orange Avenue.
In an email last Friday with the subject line "Ambulance scofflaws," Chapman chided two specific ambulances driving to and from Sarasota Memorial Hospital for repeatedly using Orange Avenue to bypass the Lift Station 87 construction that has shut down a portion of Osprey Avenue. - PUB DATE: 1/4/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Herald Tribune.com
A new wildfire-fighting plan to protect a wide swath of sagebrush country in the Western U.S. that supports cattle ranching and is home to an imperiled bird will likely continue after the Obama administration ends, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said Tuesday.
Jewell spoke after receiving her last update at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise where managers oversee the nation's firefighting resources. - PUB DATE: 1/4/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Idaho Statesman
VIDEO - While a Kansas City firefighter was on duty, two men kicked in his front door and stole his belongings. It happened Saturday morning as two men broke in to the home while a camera was rolling. Police are still searching for those two, who they believe have been targeting other homes in the area. - PUB DATE: 1/4/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WREG.com
