A former fire chief contends that two firefighters were key conspirators in ousting him as chief and should be added as defendants in his lawsuit against the Eighth Utilities District.
Paul Litrico claims in court filings that he did not know the two men were involved in plotting against him four years ago until district board member John Topping revealed their names during a deposition this year. - PUB DATE: 8/24/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Hartford Courant
A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit Larry D. Christmas Jr. filed after the city rejected him as a firefighter because he refused to cut off his dreadlocks.
U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr. dismissed the case at the city’s request because he found the Pascagoula man failed to back up his claim that the city enforced an official policy that led to employment discrimination based on racial or religious beliefs. - PUB DATE: 8/24/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Sun Herald
The Oswego Common Council voted unanimously tonight to approve the 2017 budget that will eliminate 16 full-time firefighter positions and raise taxes by 1.97 percent.
A public hearing, which was held before the vote, drew a standing-room-only crowd to City Hall. People packed the chambers and the hallway, but only four people spoke against the budget. - PUB DATE: 8/24/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Syracuse.com
Highway 9 is an ordinary Arkansas country road. It has turn after turn but Sunday morning a Choctaw firefighter took a turn for the worse on the state highway.
"My heart just sunk," says Choctaw Fire Chief Lamar Harvey.
Harvey says his volunteer firefighter was headed to a house fire when he lost control, rolled over multiple times and crashed into a creek. - PUB DATE: 8/24/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: nwahomepage,com
The Syracuse firefighters union says the city is refusing benefits to a firefighter who had a heart attack after battling a blaze.
Firefighter Bill Adsitt was denied a disability claim regarding a quadruple bypass surgery he had earlier this year. A doctor hired by the city determined the bypass an "elective procedure. - PUB DATE: 8/23/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Syracuse.com
Canton Safety Director Andrea Perry told City Council on Monday that the city will rehire 10 firefighters by Sept. 3.
The city laid off the firefighters April 29 as part of an effort to reduce a $5.1 million budget deficit, attributed to decreasing income tax revenue and state budget cuts. A Federal Emergency Management Agency Staffing for Adequate Fire & Emergency Response (SAFER) grant awarded earlier this month will bring Fire Department staffing from 134 to 144. - PUB DATE: 8/23/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: CantonRep.com
When Fairfax County firefighter Nicole Mittendorff hanged herself in April, a fellow firefighter likened the suicide to a “fire bell in the night” demanding an urgent response.
It is not known why the 31-year-old took her life, but Mittendorff’s death stirred anger about lewd and harassing comments that had been made about her in a popular online forum. - PUB DATE: 8/23/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Washington Post
Four minutes.
That could mean the difference between life and death.
When Kennewick city officials were considering spending $4.7 million to build and equip a fifth fire station, they talked a lot about getting more quickly to fires and medical emergencies.
The last fire station in Kennewick was built 20 years ago. - PUB DATE: 8/23/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Tri-City Herald
Oak Lawn is hailing a recent Illinois Appellate Court decision in its longstanding litigation over staffing with the village's firefighters union as a significant victory for taxpayers.
On Aug. 12, the appellate court upheld a 2015 Illinois Labor Relations Board's ruling that found Oak Lawn not liable for $3. - PUB DATE: 8/23/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Chicago Tribune
The fire union is objecting to a new emergency plan by the city that includes replacing a fire vehicle with a paramedic unit at one of the city’s 10 fire houses.
Union President Frank Ricci said the department’s current deployment plan is working well and he believes changing it could affect response times to fires and emergency and other medical calls. - PUB DATE: 8/22/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New Haven Register
Last summer, the Stouts Creek fire burned for more than a month, scorching more than 26,000 acres. Now the men blamed for starting it are expected to reimburse the government the estimated $37 million it cost to put it out.
The wildfire sparked July 30, 2015, forced evacuations and destroyed timber, said Kyle Reed, a fire prevention specialist at the Douglas County Fire Association. - PUB DATE: 8/22/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Oregonlive.com
A former finalist in the search for a new fire chief in Twin Falls has been named as a defendant in a wrongful termination lawsuit filed against a local fire district.
Former training Capt. Brent Blamires of Kimberly filed suit in July against Rock Creek Rural Fire District and Chief Jason Keller for violating Idaho’s Whistleblower Act and for wrongful termination. - PUB DATE: 8/22/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Magicvalley.com
Cumberland Fire Chief Donnie Dunn knows the local heroin problem isn't going away.
“It's a problem and it's going to be here," the chief said. “I don't see any solutions. It's unfortunate." Overdoses involving heroin have become routine calls for the Cumberland Fire Department.
“The calls could be anywhere. - PUB DATE: 8/22/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Cumberland Times-News
After fighting a wildfire in Eastern Washington, Williams Jones of Battle Ground realized that his black Lab, Hunter, had run away from the dog sitter, was picked up by an animal shelter and adopted by another family.
Although the family was reluctant to return the dog to Jones last week, they had a change of heart over the weekend, according to the Humane Society for Southwest Washington. - PUB DATE: 8/22/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Columbian.com
A firefighter who drowned in Lake Norman while trying to retrieve the body of a lost swimmer died from a gas embolism after running out of air and surfacing too rapidly, according to a report released Thursday by the Iredell County medical examiner.
Bradley Long, 28, of the Sherrills Ford-Terrell Fire and Rescue fire department, died on June 6 after gas bubbles likely blocked an artery during a hurried, emergency ascent, according to the report. - PUB DATE: 8/19/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Charlotte Observer
FirstNet Chairwoman Sue Swenson, Vice Chairman Jeff Johnson and board member Teri Tekai have been reappointed to serve additional three-year terms on the board of FirstNet, according to an announcement today from U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker. Like Swenson, Johnson and Takei, FirstNet board member Barry Boniface’s current term will expire, but Boniface “decided not to see reappointment to the FirstNet board due to the demands of his business,” according to a U. - PUB DATE: 8/19/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Urgent Communications
A firefighter was injured Thursday while battling a blaze that consumed a house near Gilbertsville and drew firefighters from 10 companies in Montgomery and Berks counties, a fire chief said.
The firefighter, whose name wasn't released, was taken by ambulance to Pottstown Memorial Medical Center after he suffered a head injury when he was hit by a section of fire hose, Chief Rick Smith of Gilbertsville Fire & Rescue Company said. - PUB DATE: 8/19/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse
Days after a decision to have American flags removed from Arlington Fire District's three trucks ignited national scrutiny, a new flag again adorns an engine.
But though a compromise was reached, the controversy hasn't ended for some in opposition to the district's decision.
Arlington district officials reached an agreement Thursday "to install a flag on an engine and continue to work together to develop a standard and protocol. - PUB DATE: 8/19/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Poughkeepsie Journal
I recently got a phone call from someone who was tasked with evaluating the disciplinary process for a large fire department. This person had previously worked primarily with law enforcement, where policies, procedures, formal structures and extensive published literature exist related to the topic of discipline. - PUB DATE: 8/19/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1
Oswego Mayor Billy Barlow has signed an executive order to end the Oswego Fire Department's overtime practice that he says pads senior firefighters' salaries and violates the collective bargaining agreement between the city and the firefighter's union.
The order, which was issued last Wednesday, Aug. - PUB DATE: 8/18/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Syracuse Post-Standard & Syracuse.com
