The Fire Department employees who racked up the most overtime last year weren’t putting out fires, according to an analysis of payroll records.
The records showed that not one of the FDNY’s top 25 OT earners was a firefighter or officer.
Thirteen were fire marshals, seven were marine engineers who repair fireboats, and the rest were mechanics and other blue-collar civilian workers. - PUB DATE: 3/30/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: new york post
San Francisco fire trucks are about to get spiffed up for a big birthday party, because that’s what you do when you turn a nice round number like 150.
The Fire Department unveiled its new logo Tuesday, a sparkly, golden shield with images of San Francisco landmarks and a legendary phoenix surrounded by flames that any of San Francisco’s 1,500 firefighters are duty-bound to extinguish. - PUB DATE: 3/30/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: SFgate
A former Novato firefighter who was terminated after failing a drug test is fighting back in Marin Superior Court, claiming the fire department violated his labor rights.
Kirk Lewis, 36, filed for a court injunction to be reinstated while the litigation is pending, but Judge Roy Chernus denied the request last week. - PUB DATE: 3/30/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Marin Independent Journal
Two Utah firefighters asked a federal appeals court to revive their lawsuit against state authorities who the men claim falsely accused them of prescription drug fraud after a warrantless search of a state prescription drug database.
Criminal charges were later dismissed, but lawyers for the two firefighters argue that giving police unfettered access to records of all prescription drugs dispensed to patients is unconstitutional. - PUB DATE: 3/29/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KSL-TV NBC 5
The Charlotte City Council met in closed session Monday night to discuss the leak of a confidential memo about a firefighter and whether Fire Chief Jon Hannan had any responsibility.
The March 4 memo was from City Manager Ron Carlee to firefighter Marty Puckett, the vice president of the Charlotte Firefighters Association Local 660, which has feuded with Hannan over how the department has been managed. - PUB DATE: 3/29/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Charlotte Observer
The first paid female firefighter in Snohomish County retired Monday after 33 years of service.
Janet Jaeger also served as the first paid female lieutenant and first battalion chief for Snohomish County Fire District 7.
"I just wanted to be a firefighter, more than anything," Jaeger said Monday, looking back at her career. - PUB DATE: 3/29/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KCPQ-TV FOX 13
After the Raynham Fire Department spent most of Easter morning battling a stubborn residential blaze in Raynham, Fire Chief James Januse exhaled deeply as he sank into his desk chair back at the station at 11 a.m.
It wasn’t the seven hours on scene that brought about Januse’s sigh, but the thought of yet another firefighter being injured — and how his depleted department will have to continue to overcome a staff shortage. - PUB DATE: 3/29/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: taunton gazette
As smoke and flames shot from the windows of the Federal View Apartments late Sunday night, bewildered residents gathered outside only to hear the piercing screams of a woman on the third floor. "Grab my baby!" she yelled through the sounds of shattering glass and rushing air. "Grab my baby!" Out from the top floors — one by one — people jumped for safety through a thick, black haze. - PUB DATE: 3/29/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: denver post
San Francisco Fire Department’s Deputy Chief of Operations, Mark Gonzales, said a “rogue wave” hit the rescue boat and caused it to capsize, despite calm conditions on the water.
The San Francisco Fire Department rescue boat was on a training mission Saturday morning, when it flipped over, said officials. - PUB DATE: 3/28/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: ktvu San Francisco
The state has cited Stafford’s Fire and Rescue Department for four violations after a February incident in which volunteer firefighters transported an 18-month-old girl having a seizure to the hospital in a fire engine.
The two firefighters at the center of the controversy are still working at the Falmouth Fire Station. - PUB DATE: 3/28/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Charlottesville Daily Progress
“The only thing I was thinking was, ‘holy hell I gotta get out,'” Lieutenant Nicholas Hudek with Penn Hills VFD Station 221 said.
Hudek was one of three firefighters injured while fighting flames at a vacant restaurant in Penn Hills Saturday. He injured his hand while trying to find a way into the building. - PUB DATE: 3/28/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KDKA-TV CBS 2 Pittsburgh
When the local union of the Naples Fire-Rescue Department said last October its members had lost confidence in their chief, Steve McInerny, the group's action highlighted evidence of his troubled tenure.
City Council members had expressed concerns about McInerny for years. There were public spats during annual budget talks when the council rejected McInerny's expensive requests for new equipment, and McInerny was accused of over-reporting fire incidents to justify new spending. - PUB DATE: 3/28/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: naples daily news
Ohio has become the fifth state to require photoelectric smoke alarms in new homes.
In the state’s first official acknowledgement that traditional ionization alarms are insufficient, new building codes require both ionization and photoelectric alarms on all floors of homes.
The rule applies to new homes. - PUB DATE: 3/28/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: the columbus dispatch
Nicholas Scoppetta, who served in top city government posts spanning six decades and four mayors, has died.
Scoppetta, 83, served as the city’s fire commissioner just months after the Sept. 11 terror attacks under then-Mayor Mike Bloomberg.
He had the formidable task of rebuilding an agency that lost 343 firefighters. - PUB DATE: 3/25/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: new york post
A jury on Thursday convicted a man accused of stabbing two San Diego firefighters of two counts of attempted voluntary manslaughter, but acquitted him of the more serious attempted murder charges.
The jury also found Ryan Allen Jones guilty of assault with a deadly weapon and another count of battery related to an assault of MTS officers. - PUB DATE: 3/25/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: nbc san diego
PHOTO - A photo of a Phoenix-area firefighter carrying an American flag over his shoulder while walking from a huge recycling plant fire went viral on Wednesday.
The photo, originally posted by Adrienne Berman, shows Tempe Fire Department Capt. Nick Ells walking away from a fire near 36th Street and University Drive with the flag. - PUB DATE: 3/25/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: ktar
A battalion chief has become short-tempered and erratic in his decision making. A company officer is rumored to be going through a bad divorce and drinking heavily when off duty. A firefighter who was involved in a particularly bad medical call has been calling in sick a lot since then.
As a fire chief, should you say or do anything in response to these circumstances? Should anyone? And if someone does take action, exactly what should that person do?
Firefighters sometimes hesitate to get involved when a colleague might be having problems related to behavioral health, because they don't want to intrude. - PUB DATE: 3/25/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: firerescue1
Mayor Tony George has decided to scrap a 4½-year-old ambulance mutual aid agreement with three neighboring towns and instead return to using for-profit Trans-Med Ambulance as the primary backup unit for the entire city, multiple people familiar with the plan said Thursday.
Fire Chief Jay Delaney would only say in an email that George gave him a directive “to change the dispatch procedures when city ambulances are already committed to calls. - PUB DATE: 3/25/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Wilkes-Barre Citizens' Voice
Lexington got its first female fire chief Thursday with the appointment of Kristin Chilton, a 23-year veteran of the department.
Chilton, 48, was an assistant chief until Mayor Jim Gray selected her for the top job. She was one of 32 applicants for the position.
“This is an important day for our city,” Gray said. - PUB DATE: 3/25/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: lexington herald-leader
A representative from the Governor’s Communications Office has said Governor Matt Bevin will sign the firefighter cancer bill into law.
On Monday the House passed Senate Bill 195, a proposal that will give families of firefighters who die from certain types of cancer, $80,000 as an in-the-line-of-duty death benefit. - PUB DATE: 3/24/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WTVQ-TV Lexington
