The two Everett police detectives didn’t know the flag was missing until a stranger rang the doorbell at Fire Station 1 on Rucker Avenue. The man handed over a plastic bag to firefighters, along with a tale that led the detectives on the investigation of a lifetime. Nearly two years later — on Aug. 4 — a curator from the National September 11 Memorial Museum made a quiet visit to the Everett police station.
- PUB DATE: 9/8/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: HeraldNet.com

A GPS tracker placed a California arson suspect's vehicle at the scene of a destructive wildfire north of San Francisco last month about a minute before it started, according to an investigation of the suspect in the blaze that destroyed 189 homes. Investigators first placed a tracker on Damin Pashilk's vehicle in August 2015 after a series of small arson fires over the previous weeks that Pashilk is also accused of starting.
- PUB DATE: 9/8/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Daily Press

Not familiar with FirstNet? Chances are you're not alone. One of the most important priorities for public safety that emerged in the aftermath of 9/11 was creating an ensuring, robust and interoperable communications for our nation's first responders. In 2012, Congress finally enacted legislation setting aside wireless spectrum and establishing FirstNet to oversee the building and operation of an interoperable broadband network dedicated to public safety.
- PUB DATE: 9/8/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firechief.com

Romona Walters has always wanted to be a teacher. Kids in preschool, maybe. It's a career that fits her interest in public service, she says. But about a year ago, another possibility opened up. Now, the 20-year-old has a new goal as she continues her classes at Capital Community College: to become the first female fire chief in Hartford.
- PUB DATE: 9/7/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Courant Community

Frederick Conyers Jr. had a choice: he could run and hide from his past or he could face it head on. On Tuesday, he sat, flanked by the mayor and the fire chief and surrounded by microphones and cameras from a half-dozen local reporters, detailing his criminal history, incarceration and rise to redemption.
- PUB DATE: 9/7/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: iBerkshires.com

Changes to Frederick County’s fire and rescue response goals could help county fire stations get more support — and maybe more personnel. The Frederick County Council heard testimony Tuesday on a bill to change target response times throughout the county. Right now, county code has a blanket approach to measuring fire station responses, the time it takes units to leave a station after a dispatched call.
- PUB DATE: 9/7/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Frederick News-Post

Pittsburgh's firefighters now know they averted a disaster with their quick action to put out the fire on the Liberty Bridge on Friday. They knew the heat from the flames was intense, but going in, they didn't know the full threat that the severe fire damage to a metal beam under the Liberty Bridge was creating.
- PUB DATE: 9/7/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: wtae.com

There aren’t many sounds in Southern California more frightening than a wildfire. And we’ve been hearing them way too often, in a fire season that doesn’t seem like a season at all any more, but a year-round event. There are so many that we have to give them names to distinguish them -- the Sand fire, the Chimney fire, the Fish fire.
- PUB DATE: 9/7/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Los Angeles Times

Romona Walters has always wanted to be a teacher. Kids in preschool, maybe. It's a career that fits her interest in public service, she says. But about a year ago, another possibility opened up. Now, the 20-year-old has a new goal as she continues her classes at Capital Community College: to become the first female fire chief in Hartford.
- PUB DATE: 9/7/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Courant Community

Stan Simi still responds to fires when they get big enough, and despite being 89 years old, he sees no reason to stop any time in the immediate future. “The way it is now, it is pretty easy for me,” said Simi, who has been chief of the River Delta Fire Protection District since 2009. “I have people doing everything that needs to be done .
- PUB DATE: 9/6/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Daily Republic

A Chelsea firefighter who “exemplified the fire service to the nth degree” lost the fight of his life on Saturday to aggressive esophageal cancer, the city’s director of Emergency Management and 911 Communications said yesterday. Peter Franz Kannler, a father of two from Townsend whose heroic struggle with the disease was profiled by the Boston Herald in February, was 37 years old.
- PUB DATE: 9/6/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Boston Herald

A hero FDNY firefighter dismissed after testing positive for cocaine has won his job back — after arguing that Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro gave a similar break to his predecessor’s son. Glen Merkitch, 47, who has won bravery awards for his rescues, failed a random test in 2011, violating the FDNY’s “zero tolerance” policy.
- PUB DATE: 9/6/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Post

A man was taken into custody Sunday evening after he assaulted a police officer and firefighter in west Wichita. Wichita Police Sgt. Nikki Woodrow reports a 25-year-old man drove erratically into the joint Wichita Police and Fire Department station in the 600 block of N. Elder about 6:45 p.m. Sunday night.
- PUB DATE: 9/6/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KSN-TV News 3

A Lubbock firefighter has filed a lawsuit to reverse the ruling of a city commission that governs promotions among fire and police personnel that denied him advancement in the department. According to Charles Turner II’s lawsuit, which was filed Friday in the 237th District Court, the Lubbock Civil Service Commission violated its policy during a promotion application process in June.
- PUB DATE: 9/6/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

A Columbus firefighter was taken to the hospital after being hit by a vehicle while participating in a “Fill the Boot” event. According to the Columbus Division of Fire, the firefighter suffered a broken leg after being hit by a vehicle at High Street and North Broadway while standing in the road participating in the “Fill the Boot” campaign.
- PUB DATE: 9/2/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WCMH-TV NBC 4 Columbus

Firefighters are pushing back against the possible closure of one of Petersburg’s four fire stations, calling it a threat to public safety that eventually will cost lives. “The impact of staffing reduction and a proposed station closure would reduce the department of the firefighting force by approximately 25 percent,” said Andrew Pantelis, district vice president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, during a news conference Thursday in Petersburg.
- PUB DATE: 9/2/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Richmond Times-Dispatch

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