A rookie Los Angeles firefighter's attempt to connect with a man proved to be life-saving when the man safely surrendered after threatening to jump off a freeway overpass. Kenneth Fraser was driving home Tuesday night from training as a Los Angeles Fire Department firefighter when he noticed people crowded around a man on the 101 Freeway overpass in Hollywood.
- PUB DATE: 1/26/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KNBC-TV NBC 4 Los Angeles

The St. Louis Fire Department has launched an internal investigation into one of its employees after FOX25 Investigates uncovered inconsistencies in the first responder's story that he rushed to the scene of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. Investigative Reporter Eric Rasmussen traveled to St. Louis to get answers after paramedics in Boston and Missouri contacted FOX25 about Shawn Daniel, who was recently honored at a St.
- PUB DATE: 1/26/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WFXT-TV Fox 25 Boston

A former employee with the state's Fire Training Safety Bureau was arrested Tuesday after investigators determined that more than 2,000 fire safety certifications had been improperly issued between 2012 and 2016, according to a news release by the Iowa Department of Public Safety. John McPhee was charged with felonious misconduct in office, a Class D felony, and tampering with records, an aggravated misdemeanor.
- PUB DATE: 1/25/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Des Moines Register

Federal prosecutors filed a civil complaint Monday naming EMSA and its director, Stephen Williamson, in an alleged kickback scheme regarding a lucrative ambulance services provider contract. The complaint, filed in federal court in the eastern district of Texas, claims that a Texas hospital and ambulance provider, Paramedics Plus LLC, entered into a kickback scheme to obtain and retain a lucrative public ambulance services contract awarded by Williamson and the Emergency Medical Services Authority, a public trust that administers the ambulance service in the Tulsa and Oklahoma City metro areas.
- PUB DATE: 1/25/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Tulsa World

Murrieta Fire Department engineer Mike Macalinao and captains Sean DeGrave and Todd Bradstreet are certified swiftwater rescue technicians who each have trained for the risky missions for more than 10 years. They all have performed water rescues. But none, they said, matched the situation they encountered Sunday, Jan.
- PUB DATE: 1/25/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: San Bernardino County Sun

One person was killed during a crash involving a fire truck and a van on I-90 in Rocky River, which also ultimately resulted in the hit-skip death of a Cleveland police officer. The fire truck was on scene assisting in a single-vehicle accident when a white van crashed into the back of the truck. The driver of the van, 29-year-old Artem Vytiegov of San Francisco, was pronounced dead on scene.
- PUB DATE: 1/25/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Cleveland CBS 19

Federal workers scrambled on Tuesday to interpret how President Donald Trump’s hiring freeze of civilian employees might affect seasonal firefighters and other part-time employees. Trump’s order, issued Monday, stated “no vacant positions existing at noon on January 22, 2017, may be filled and no new positions may be created, except in limited circumstances.
- PUB DATE: 1/25/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Billings Gazette

Portsmouth will give police officers, firefighters and other emergency workers $1,000 apiece to keep working in the city. The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to give the one-time stipend next month to those employees, as well as paramedics and dispatchers. The proposal, submitted to the council by human resources director Elizabeth Gooden, says Portsmouth will spend about $860,000 on the incentive without adding to its operating budget.
- PUB DATE: 1/25/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Norfolk Virginian-Pilot/HamptonRoads.com

Three Hattiesburg firefighters huddled in Hattiesburg Fire Department Station 2's fire truck early Saturday morning, just minutes after they were warned of an approaching tornado. "We looked out the door and realized what was going on," firefighter Cody Keys said. "We got into the back of the (fire) truck, laid down and held on, let the storm pass.
- PUB DATE: 1/24/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Hattiesburg American

A New Castle County grand jury has indicted Beatriz Fana-Ruiz, the 27-year-old woman accused of setting a fire that led to the deaths of three Wilmington firefighters in the Canby Park neighborhood last September. In the 19-count indictment, Fana-Ruiz is charged with first-degree arson as well as six counts of murder.
- PUB DATE: 1/24/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Wilmington News Journal (Delaware Online)

Sonoma County, with more than 40 firefighting agencies and chronically underfunded fire service, may consolidate some districts while it seeks new ways to help other districts share resources. Changes include a new North Coast fire district while proposals include a single fire chief overseeing two south county districts; another chief-sharing plan involving Glen Ellen and Sonoma Valley; consolidation of north county fire agencies and ongoing discussions for change amongst agencies along the Russian River Valley and Sonoma coast.
- PUB DATE: 1/24/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Press Democrat

A man pled guilty after he fatally shot a Prince George's County firefighter, and wounded a volunteer firefighter and his own brother, according to fire officials. In April 2016, Darrell Lumpkin shot the three men. John "Skillet" Ulmschneider, 37, and volunteer firefighter Kevin Swain, 19, walked into his home in Temple Hills, Maryland in response to a medical welfare check.
- PUB DATE: 1/24/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WJLA-TV ABC 7 Washington

Dubai’s cops and paramedics may have been grabbing all the attention with their rather swish motors in recent years, but now it’s the turn of the city’s firefighters to try out the cool stuff. Not a place to do things by halves, Dubai has equipped some of its firefighters with water-powered jetpacks to help tackle blazes quickly and effectively from pretty much any angle they like.
- PUB DATE: 1/24/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Digital Trends

An Intermountain Life Flight paramedic was killed and a nurse seriously injured in a head-on automobile crash Sunday morning near Strawberry Reservoir. The victim was identified as Tyson L. Mason, 29, of Plain City, a firefighter/paramedic for the Salt Lake City Fire Department who also worked part time for Life Flight.
- PUB DATE: 1/23/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Salt Lake Tribune

Years of contentious meetings between Oakland Fire Chief Teresa Deloach Reed and an Oakland hills’ fire prevention committee boiled over Thursday night when the chief, in a 10-minute rant, threatened to sue a homeowner and claimed the organization was biased against her and used her as a scapegoat for problems in the hills.
- PUB DATE: 1/23/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: East Bay Times

They were naked, he was afraid. A black FDNY rookie expecting a warm welcome at his new firehouse was instead sexually hazed and humiliated by a band of naked firefighters, according to a shocking federal discrimination lawsuit. It was the beginning of a series of horrific incidents meant to make the rookie’s life so miserable he would quit, the suit alleges.
- PUB DATE: 1/23/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Post

Benny Fulkerson seizes every opportunity to spread the gospel of fire safety. The city council recognized Fulkerson, a third-generation firefighter, as the 2016 South Oklahoma City Kiwanis Club Firefighter of the Year earlier this month at city hall. As spokesman for a department that values prevention, where "the best fire is the one that never happens," he is expanding the department's social media following with action videos, cautionary tales, and even poetry.
- PUB DATE: 1/23/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Oklahoman

Six Chicago Police officers have been suspended for giving the third-highest ranking member of the Chicago Fire Department favored treatment after the fire deputy crashed his city-owned SUV near Lake Shore Drive in Lincoln Park. Police Supt. Eddie Johnson suspended all six officers for “improper processing and reporting procedures” in connection with the April 20, 2016 crash involving former Deputy Fire Commissioner John McNicholas.
- PUB DATE: 1/23/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Chicago Sun-Times

A former Arizona hotshot superintendent is suing the federal government to obtain aircraft radio transmissions that may help explain the deaths of 19 firefighters in the Yarnell Hill Fire of 2013. Fred Schoeffler alleges in his federal court complaint that the Department of Agriculture has denied a public-records request for recordings and transcripts of U.
- PUB DATE: 1/20/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Arizona Republic, AZCentral.com & KPNX-TV NBC 12 Phoenix

The executive director of the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System blasted city officials for unveiling an alternative plan that would cast off the failing retirement fund — and thousands of retirees and active workers — and create a new plan. Kelly Gottschalk said in an email to pension trustees Wednesday that she was shocked by the city's latest move.
- PUB DATE: 1/20/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Dallas Morning News