VIDEO - A fire-breather caught fire during a pep-rally performance at a Florida high school, horrifying students and school staff in the audience on Thursday and leaving himself and nearly 20 others injured. The incident occurred at Atlantic Community High in Delray Beach, where the performer and seven students hospitalized, the Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.
- PUB DATE: 3/18/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: ktla 5

Oxnard's $60,000 settlement payment to its former fire chief last year did not comply with state law, a review by the Ventura County District Attorney's office found, though the error appeared unintentional. The DA's office looked into the issue after getting a citizen complaint when the settlement was made public by The Star in November, records show.
- PUB DATE: 3/18/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Ventura County Star

A Lee County firefighter was arrested because he is accused of driving a fire truck while drunk and getting into an accident while responding to a fire. He is identified by the Lee County Sheriff's Department as 34-year-old Phillip W. Gasaway, a member of the Unity Fellowship Volunteer Fire Department.
- PUB DATE: 3/18/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WTVA-TV Channel 9

Two members of the Canterbury Fire Department have quit, and others could be on their way out after last Friday’s town meeting Captains Donald Maurer and Scott Ruesswick have left their positions at the volunteer department within the last week, citing Canterbury residents’ decision to approve the purchase of a $340,000 fire engine recommended by Canterbury selectmen, despite the fire department’s plan to purchase a $490,000 engine.
- PUB DATE: 3/18/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: concord monitor - metered site

VIDEO - In Prince George's County, the firefighters union president and the fire chief are sounding an alarm because someone has been damaging the safety equipment belonging to the career medics and firefighters at the Glassmanor-Oxon Hill Firehouse. "Our turnout gear is our lifeline," firefighters union president Andrew Pantelis says.
- PUB DATE: 3/18/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WJLA-TV ABC 7 Washington

Minneapolis city officials are launching a paid emergency medical services training program in an effort to diversify its fire department and open a path into the medical field for people of color. The city's fire department is 71 percent white and 88 percent male. "We want to reduce barriers," said city spokeswoman Erica Prosser.
- PUB DATE: 3/17/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Star Tribune

Staff at Travis County’s air rescue outfit will likely have to come to grips with the possibility that they will never know exactly what caused one of their colleagues to fall to her death during a patient rescue nearly a year ago, their leader said Wednesday. With no evidence of any equipment failure, the federal agency tasked with investigating the death of STAR Flight rescuer Kristin McLain, 46, determined that she was likely not properly attached to the helicopter’s hoist when she fell about 100 feet during a rescue in the Barton Creek Greenbelt.
- PUB DATE: 3/17/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: statesman

According to BusinessInsurance.com, the US Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) is contemplating new regulations aimed specifically at firefighters. Published last week, the article lists several areas that OSHA is looking at, including mandatory medical examinations to help address the cardiac risk and banning sliding poles due to injuries.
- PUB DATE: 3/17/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: firelawblog.com

Tucson Fire Chief Jim Critchley is proposing to cut $4.7 million from the department budget — which includes possible job demotions — in a belt-tightening measure to help the city’s budget woes. The proposal was released in a memo from the chief to all employees. Some of the changes may begin before July.
- PUB DATE: 3/17/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Tucson Arizona Daily Star

A pickup truck slammed into a South Jersey home early Thursday morning, igniting a fire that destroyed the house of a firefighter. A driver lost control around 4:30 a.m. after colliding with another car and crashed his white pickup truck into a home along normally busy N Hook Road near Dunlap Avenue in Pennsville, said Pennsville Police Chief AJ Cummings.
- PUB DATE: 3/17/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: nbc philadelphia

A lawsuit challenging the city of Topeka’s contract with an interim fire chief will move forward, but a temporary injunction seeking to block the contract won’t. Shawnee County District Court Judge Rebecca Crotty allowed the case to proceed, as long as state Rep. John Alcala, a former Topeka city councilman, can prove the city’s contract with Goodyear, Ariz.
- PUB DATE: 3/16/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Topeka Capital-Journal

The dispatch call was vague: a 20-year-old woman was sick and needed help. An oversized rig carrying a team of Anaheim firefighters rolled up to the modest apartment on the city’s west side, followed moments later by an ambulance driven by Victoria Morrison. Morrison, a nurse practitioner, rushed to the woman’s bedside to take her vitals and ask a few questions to determine whether she needed to be taken to an emergency room, or could be treated in the comfort of her own home.
- PUB DATE: 3/16/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: orange county register

A judge has temporarily halted the de-certification of the Red Springs Volunteer Fire Department at the request of the town. The halt, issued Friday, came as a result of a petition sent to Wayne Goodwin, commissioner of Insurance and state fire marshal, by town attorney Neil Yarborough in February in an attempt to resolve the issue outside of court.
- PUB DATE: 3/16/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: red springs citizen

When firefighter Stephen Babcock found out he had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in October, his costs to fight the illness should have been covered. State lawmakers had passed a bill that was supposed to protect firefighters who fell ill with 10 types of cancer that likely stem from on-the-job exposure to carcinogens.
- PUB DATE: 3/16/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: usa today

Owensboro Fire Chief Steve Mitchell told members of the city-county 911 board Tuesday that firefighters need a better way to communicate with dispatch when firefighters are confronted by a disturbed person during an emergency run. Mitchell told 911 board members that when firefighters face disturbed or intoxicated people on some runs, they ask dispatch to send city police officers to assist.
- PUB DATE: 3/16/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: firehouse

Ingram council took the first step toward dropping the volunteer fire company that has served the borough for more than 100 years. Council voted 5-1 Monday night to legally advertise an intergovernmental agreement between the borough and the city of Pittsburgh for fire protection services. By law, the legal ad must run in a newspaper for 30 days before the borough council can formally vote on a contract.
- PUB DATE: 3/15/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Pittsburgh post-gazette

Neil Kayser knows the damage a wildfire can cause livestock operations. Kayser, a fourth-generation rancher from the Goldendale area, lost several head of cattle in last year’s Cougar Creek fire near Mount Adams. He’s also bypassed roadblocks to save his livestock from advancing fires. “A cow, to us, is like a factory,” Kayser said in a phone interview last week.
- PUB DATE: 3/15/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: yakima herald

A man stabbed two San Diego firefighters who were tending to an intoxicated man at an East Village trolley station last year, a prosecutor said Monday, but a defense attorney said his client was trying to help the drunk man and stabbed the firefighters in self-defense after being pushed over a bench by a fire captain.
- PUB DATE: 3/15/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KSWB-TV Fox 5 San Diego

VIDEO - Eight firefighters were injured when the front of a burning townhome collapsed onto them. Firefighters were called to the 3-alarm fire on Churubusco Lane about 1 a.m. Monday. When they arrived, they found the townhome completely engulfed in flames. Video from the scene shows firefighters battling the fire from the front of the home when they front wall collapsed on top of them.
- PUB DATE: 3/15/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: nbc washington

The town of Georgia's fire department is now seven members short. One firefighter quit and six others were asked to turn in their equipment Friday afternoon. The firefighter flap started at a meeting last October when members of the department were asked to sign a new confidentiality agreement. "We, in October, were told we had to sign a policy that we could only speak about certain things in the fire service that we find out about in the fire service if we have permission from our chief," said Chris Gonyeau, former firefighter.
- PUB DATE: 3/15/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WCAX-TV CBS 3