The International Association of Fire Chiefs Foundation (IAFCF) has received a $10,000 grant from Emergent BioSolutions to provide 12 scholarships for qualified hazmat response professionals to attend the International Hazardous Materials Response Teams Conference, June 16-19 in Baltimore. The scholarships will provide a full conference registration and a $250 travel/housing stipend for each recipient. - PUB DATE: 2/16/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: International Association of Fire Chiefs
The Elgin firefighters' union filed a labor complaint against the city after three of its members were told to cut their hair, which they had been growing to protest their 25-month lack of contract.
International Association of Firefighters Local 439 President Vince Rychtanek said he, Vice President Edward Hanson and Shop Steward Joe Villella started letting their hair grow sometime after April 2015 to protest that firefighters have been working without a contract since January 2014. - PUB DATE: 2/16/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: daily herald
D.C. Fire Chief Gregory Dean has responded to the sudden and very public resignation of the city’s medical director, Dr. Jullette Saussy, by defending his department.
Saussy’s scathing resignation letter criticized the fire department for its toxic culture and slow response times, citing an incident that occurred last month when a man with stab wounds died after it took firefighters 18 minutes after the 911 call to arrive at the scene. - PUB DATE: 2/12/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: firerescue1
Jason Beard didn’t have to testify, he told a federal court jury Thursday, but the former Augusta fire marshal insisted. “I’d like for the jury to hear my side of the story, the truthful side,” he said.
The jury didn’t buy it. After deliberating close to three hours Thursday evening, the jury convicted Beard of six counts of extortion and one count of attempted extortion. - PUB DATE: 2/12/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: augusta chronicle
Members of the Joppa-Magnolia Volunteer Fire Company are particularly grief-stricken after learning one of their own, Harford County Sheriff's Office Deputy Patrick Dailey, was killed in the line of duty Wednesday. "It is with a heavy heart that the Joppa-Magnolia Volunteer Fire Company shares the loss of active life member Patrick 'Pat' B. - PUB DATE: 2/12/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: baltimore sun
Barrow’s volunteer fire department chief, a nephew of a state lawmaker, was fatally shot in an incident involving a North Slope Borough police officer early Wednesday, according to borough officials.
Vincent Nageak III, 36, of Barrow, nephew of state Rep. Ben Nageak, was identified by the borough as the dead man. - PUB DATE: 2/12/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: alaska dispatch news
The Philadelphia Fire Department will no longer use "brownouts" or forced staff rotations - two controversial policies implemented by former Mayor Michael Nutter, Mayor Kenney announced Thursday.
Kenney, whose father was a battalion chief, announced the change in conjunction with a report issued by City Controller Alan Butkovitz, which found both practices "jeopardized public safety" and cost the city $20 million in overtime. - PUB DATE: 2/12/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Philadelphia Inquirer
Almost three years after the deadliest day in the history of the Houston Fire Department, the families of four firefighters who battled a catastrophic hotel blaze have filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit over the department’s troubled digital radio system.
As flames engulfed the Southwest Inn hotel on a hot day in May 2013, firefighters battling the five-alarm blaze also had to fight problems with their new radios. - PUB DATE: 2/11/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KHOU-TV CBS 11 Houston
A 44-year-old EMT died Wednesday evening (Feb. 10) when an equipment failure at the West Jefferson Emergency Medical Services Headquarters caused an ambulance to fall on him, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office said.
JPSO officers were called at 5:32 p.m. and the victim was taken to West Jefferson Medical Center where he was pronounced dead. - PUB DATE: 2/11/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New Orleans Times-Picayune & Nola.com
Fillmore has been talking for a month about the suicide of Fire Chief Rigo Landeros, but it wasn't until Tuesday night's City Council meeting that people began to speak openly and publicly about the events leading up to Landeros' death.
Landeros, 51, shot himself on Jan. 7, while parked in his city car on a rural stretch of Goodenough Road. - PUB DATE: 2/11/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Ventura County Star
Mayor Kenney will announce on Thursday the end of two Fire Department policies he vowed to get rid of as mayor - rotating firefighters through stations and the temporary closure of firehouses. Both practices were implemented by then-Mayor Nutter as cost saving measures.
In 2010, Nutter instituted rolling "brownouts" to temporarily close firehouses and reassign their firefighters elsewhere. - PUB DATE: 2/11/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: philadelphia inquirer
VIDEO - A million fans lined the streets Tuesday to celebrate the Denver Broncos' Super Bowl 50 win over the Carolina Panthers. The parade, however, did draw some criticism from firefighters after players, spouses and children were seen riding on top of fire trucks.
The group of players traveled the parade route in a series of fire trucks. - PUB DATE: 2/11/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: firerescue1
She was brought in to help reform the EMS wing of the D.C. Fire Department. Seven months later, Dr. Jullette Saussy is done. Not with the reform but with the department after she says her attempts, as medical director and assistant fire chief, to make even basic changes to the troubled agency have been met with resistance from the top down. - PUB DATE: 2/10/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WUSA-TV 9 DC
Several of the FDNY’s busiest engine companies across all the boroughs are finally getting one more firefighter.
As part of a contract agreement between City Hall and the Uniformed Firefighters Association last summer, the department has added a fifth firefighter to five of the most swamped engine companies throughout the city — something the union has been clamoring for since 2011. - PUB DATE: 2/10/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: new york daily news
On Super Bowl Sunday morning, firefighter James J. Butler Jr. was in City Hall, pulling paperwork for a number of building inspections he hoped to start scheduling.
“I got a text from him around 9 a.m.,” Derby Fire Marshal Phil Hawks said.
“He responded (that) he was pulling some paperwork on the inspections . - PUB DATE: 2/10/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: connecticut post
A Boston fire chief was convicted today of five counts of procurement fraud and five counts of larceny over $250 for swindling the city, Attorney General Maura Healey said.
“This defendant abused his position as a public employee and stole tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars that should have gone back to the City of Boston,” Healey said in a statement. - PUB DATE: 2/10/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: boston herald
An attorney will ask a DeWitt County jury this week to find his client not guilty of stabbing a volunteer firefighter because he was insane at the time.
Kirk Ross Engle, 45, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to stabbing Brian Smolik in the stomach on Aug. 19.
Smolik responded on Aug. 19 to the 400 block of West Sixth Street in Yorktown where brush, a couch and a trash can were ablaze. - PUB DATE: 2/10/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: victoria advocate
In his first months as the new head of Detroit’s beleaguered Fire Department, Eric Jones is building bridges with union leaders, touting improved response times and a decline in arson fires. But aging infrastructure, worker safety and wages are among the issues that remain on his hefty to-do list.
Jones, 47, was appointed to the Detroit Fire Department’s top post in October. - PUB DATE: 2/9/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: detroit news
The city of Orlando is looking to change the way it does live fire training after firefighters said their health was put in danger from being exposed to asbestos.
A dozen firefighters were exposed to the hazardous substance inside an abandoned apartment complex, but Channel 9 learned more may have been put in harm’s way. - PUB DATE: 2/9/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WFTV-TV ABC 9 Orlando
As the community reacts to the fire at a Raytown apartment that claimed the life of a 5-year-old boy and hospitalized two other people, the details have emerged in the dramatic rescue mission that put firefighters in serious danger.
"The hose line burst. I don't know if it was cut or it burned or what, but they had to shelter in another part of the building where there wasn't fire," Raytown deputy fire chief Mike Hunley said. - PUB DATE: 2/9/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WDAF-TV FOX 4
