Is it hot in here or is it just the firefighters? The drive toward gender equality in the FDNY will now include its calendar — and the 12 beefcake hardbodies that make up its pages have finally met their match. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you are about to see the softer side of the FDNY. For the first time, the department will have both men and women in their annual Calendar of Heroes, the department announced Thursday.
- PUB DATE: 4/15/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: new york daily news

Lee County builders want to shut off Estero Fire Rescue District's sprinkler ordinance. The Lee Building Industry Association, Inc., and the Florida Home Builders Association filed a joint lawsuit in Lee County Circuit Court in an attempt to halt the fire district's recent sprinkler ordinance. The lawsuit also asks a judge to review whether the fire district followed state law when it created the ordinance, according to Chené Thompson, a private lawyer hired by the builders.
- PUB DATE: 4/14/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: naples daily news

A former division chief for the San Bernardino County Fire Protection District who alleged in a lawsuit he was fired due to his age has been awarded $704,000 by a jury. Following a monthlong trial in San Bernardino Superior Court, the seven-woman, five-man jury announced its verdict Monday, determining George Corley’s age was a “substantial motivating reason” for his termination, court records show.
- PUB DATE: 4/14/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Redlands Daily Facts

We regret to pass on the Line of Duty Death of Freeport (IL) FD Firefighter/EMT Michael D. Pontius (IAFF Local 441). Firefighter Pontius, 58, passed away 2 says ago, on Tuesday, April 12, 2016 from Line of Duty injuries sustained from exposure to toxic substance while operating at a house fire. It’s important to note that the fire that killed him was in 2001.
- PUB DATE: 4/14/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: firefighter close calls

The Las Cruces firefighter whose wife was pictured breastfeeding their infant son while wearing his uniform, and the union that represents city firefighters, defended the Las Cruces Fire Department on Wednesday, saying the agency is not against breastfeeding. The support for LCFD came a day after the controversy surrounding the photo made national news.
- PUB DATE: 4/14/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Las Cruces Sun-News

By now you’ve probably seen the video: A CHP helicopter hovers over Morro Rock while an emergency responder dangles and spins on a rope as he’s lowered down to a stranded, wetsuit-clad man frozen in a tiny crevice on the 600-foot-tall volcanic mound. The trapped man was Michael John Paul Banks, 27, of Fresno, who reached viral notoriety last week after his plan to scale the Rock to propose to his girlfriend via the FaceTime video app reached a snag when he got stuck coming down the east side of the cliff.
- PUB DATE: 4/14/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: the tribune

Corpus Christi is serious about the most recent contract offered to the local firefighters' union being the "last, best" option, and the City Council wants to make sure everyone — namely the union members who are set to vote on the offer — knows it. Still, union leaders are expected to encourage members to reject the offer, which was delivered last month, next week.
- PUB DATE: 4/14/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: caller times

Following a lengthy closed-door session Tuesday morning, Hopkins County Judge Robert Newsom said Kevin Yates has resigned his position as Hopkins County fire chief. The executive session was called to discuss Yate's position after county commissioners learned the fire chief was also working as fire chief in New Llano, La.
- PUB DATE: 4/13/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: myssnews.com

A 28-year Portland fire veteran will soon take over as chief of Clark County Fire & Rescue. John Nohr, chief of the emergency operations division for Portland Fire & Rescue, starts his new job on May 1, according to Clark County's interim chief, Ron Oliver. Nohr was one of five finalists for the job, which will pay him about $133,000 a year, Oliver said.
- PUB DATE: 4/13/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: the oregonian

At a press conference Tuesday, Mayor Kenney officially named his new fire commissioner, a Virginia transplant, and his pick for chief of prisons, a local veteran of the system and the first woman to hold the post. The pick for the fire department, Adam Thiel, elicited some displeasure from firefighter's union officials, who said they would have preferred an internal pick but were eager to work with Thiel, as well as the black firefighter's alliance, who said they wanted Acting Commissioner Derrick Sawyer to stay at the helm.
- PUB DATE: 4/13/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: philly.com

Firefighters can do more to protect themselves from getting occupational-related cancer, the Boston Fire Department preaches in a new video aimed at raising awareness and curbing deaths. “We made this a priority,” Fire Commissioner Joseph Finn said in an interview with the Globe, “because of skyrocketing cancer rates within the department and the need for us to take some proactive steps to try to mitigate some of these cancers.
- PUB DATE: 4/13/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: boston globe

A former Camden firefighter was convicted Tuesday of stealing more than $80,000 in state disability pension payments at the same time he earned his black belt in jiu-jitsu and competed in a mixed martial arts tournament, state authorities said. A Camden County jury on Tuesday found Shane Streater, 41, of Camden, guilty of second-degree theft by deception, which carries a sentence of five to 10 years in state prison and up to $150,000 in fines, according to the state Attorney General's Office.
- PUB DATE: 4/13/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Newark Star-Ledger/NJ.com

Accident reconstructionists have released the results of an investigation into the cause of an April 3 accident involving a fire truck. Mississippi Highway Patrol Cpl. Eric Henry said in a release Monday that the Lake Harbor fire truck involved in an accident that killed a 10-year-old boy and sent the other four members of his family to the hospital, most in critical condition, did not yield the right of way to the Ford Escape in which the family was traveling.
- PUB DATE: 4/12/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: the clarion-ledger

The Ingram Volunteer Fire Company was basically fired by a 6-1 vote of borough council tonight, prompting angry citizens and Ingram firefighters to ask who would now respond if a fire broke out. The city of Pittsburgh’s paid professional firefighters would be answering calls, Ingram Council President Sam Nucci said.
- PUB DATE: 4/12/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Fresno Fire Chief Kerri Donis isn’t happy with a recent news release from Holly Carter, one of four candidates for the District 6 Fresno City Council seat. Carter highlighted the Fresno Fire Department in the release – and not in a positive way. The release late last month was headlined: “The Condition of Our Fresno Fire Department Creates a Public Safety Threat!” In the release, Carter says that, among other things, the department’s budget has been cut “an astonishing” 25 percent since 2009, daily staffing “is down nearly 20 percent,” and calls for service “have increased 20 percent since 2011.
- PUB DATE: 4/12/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: fresno bee

PHOTO - Cats aren’t the only pets that get stuck in trees. Just ask the firefighters who rescued a Great Dane from a high bough in rural Louisville, Nebraska, late Saturday night. “You’re not going to believe this,” one Plattsmouth firefighter said to another after receiving the call for help about 10:10 p.
- PUB DATE: 4/12/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Omaha World-Herald

Everyone seemed to agree, it's pretty lowdown stealing gear from the fire department. Even so, it wasn't anger that motivated Mike Dalby to donate $1,500 to replace it, but gratitude. Dalby has been a firefighter in Lubbock for about nine years and one night he was watching the local news. Like many others, he learned that someone had stolen a Snyder volunteer firefighter's protective clothing from the back of his truck while the man was fighting a grass fire.
- PUB DATE: 4/12/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: the eagle

VIDEO - Six firefighters have been injured in a massive fire that consumed three commercial buildings on the Jersey Shore Friday evening, causing one of them to collapse, authorities say. The blaze broke out at a building on West Front Street in downtown Keyport about 3:30 p.m., and quickly spread to two nearby buildings, according to authorities.
- PUB DATE: 4/11/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: nbc new york

Fort Worth officials are looking to recoup more than $250,000 from former employees who were overpaid because of problems with a new payroll computer system the city switched to about five years ago and human error. Officials say the news was a “shock” to the employees, and some now face a financial jam.
- PUB DATE: 4/11/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Fort Worth star-telegram

Wayne Allen Huntsman pleaded guilty Friday to setting the devastating King Fire in 2014 that torched nearly 100,000 acres in El Dorado County, a plea that came about in part because the suspect videotaped himself near the ignition point. Huntsman, who has been housed in the El Dorado County jail since his arrest several days after the fire began Sept.
- PUB DATE: 4/11/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: sacramento bee