School districts in Omaha will have to pay for ambulances at high school football games next year because of a policy change by the Omaha Fire Department. On Jan. 1, the department will end its free standby ambulance service at varsity games and other events, Fire Chief Bernie Kanger said Tuesday. The chief said he’s looking for ways to make his department more efficient and has to put 911 calls ahead of the standby service. - PUB DATE: 9/24/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: omaha world-herald
A criminologist recently suggested St. Louis City should consider using firefighters to fight violent crime during their downtime.
University of St. Louis-Missouri criminologist Rick Rosenfeld, who is also an informal advisor to St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson, brought up the idea during a St. Louis Safety meeting Tuesday. - PUB DATE: 9/23/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KMOV-TV CBS 4 St. Louis
Drunken rants were spewing from scanners Friday night over radio channels usually used to alert first responders to emergencies in Westmoreland County.
The thief who stole Greensburg Fire Chief Ed Hutchinson's portable emergency radio from the department SUV parked in his drive apparently was having a good old time. - PUB DATE: 9/23/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Citing what he called the “toxic political environment” in the bankrupt Central Coventry Fire District, the district’s acting chief said Tuesday he was resigning, effective Sept. 30.
Shawn Murray, a former fire chief in New Hampshire and ex-director of the Massachusetts Fire Academy, said last week’s decision by the state to abandon its efforts to implement a financial reorganization of the bankrupt fire district, a plan he called “a roadmap to the future sustainability” of the district, was the reason for his resignation. - PUB DATE: 9/23/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: providence journal
PHOTO/VIDEO - The Tuesday reunion of veteran firefighter Lt. Victor Milukas and 2-year-old Justin Pierre lacked the drama of their first encounter — not that anyone complained.
The FDNY odd couple shared hugs, handshakes and gifts Tuesday as they said hello nearly a month after the heroic Milukas plucked the youngster from a raging Brooklyn fire. - PUB DATE: 9/23/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: new york daily news
Delaware state police are investigating a note left outside an ambulance dispatching facility in Camden that threatened police officers, firefighters and EMTs.
The note, discovered last Friday, advises agencies to “give all your employees bullet prof (sic) vest. We’re after all EMS, fire and police. - PUB DATE: 9/23/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Wilmington News Journal (Delaware Online)
After traveling almost 2,000 miles to Colorado, a group of Fort Lauderdale firefighters didn't expect to deal with any emergencies. Then they heard screaming. Running to see what the commotion was about, they found a young woman had been bitten by a rattlesnake while walking her dog in Pulpit Rock Park, on the north end of Colorado Springs. - PUB DATE: 9/22/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: sun sentinel
The Brainerd City Council Monday night approved a resolution restructuring the Brainerd Fire Department from a mix of full-time and paid on-call firefighters to a fully paid on-call department. A group consisting of Fire Chief Tim Holmes, city officials and representatives from the Minnesota Professional Firefighters, the firefighters union, have been working on restructuring discussions for about three months. - PUB DATE: 9/22/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: brainerd dispatch
The live-fire training facility tucked into the northwest corner of Billings Logan International Airport isn’t only noteworthy because of what it’s made of, but also because of how much it cost to construct — $85,000.
Built from 12 recycled food industry shipping containers, the new facility can be set on fire time and again and remain standing, ready for the next training session. - PUB DATE: 9/22/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: billings gazette
A former Autaugaville Volunteer Fire Department chief committed suicide two days before he was to be sentenced on ethics violations.
Ernest Stoudemire was found dead Sunday, said Sheriff Joe Sedinger. The death has been ruled a suicide, the sheriff said. He declined to release specifics, given the nature of the case. - PUB DATE: 9/22/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: montgomery advertiser
One morning the newspaper headlines read that research discovered that eggs are the perfect food for perfect health. The next day they read that scientists have found that eating eggs for breakfast is like holding a loaded gun to your head.
It is so confusing that it makes you just want to eat a donut, doesn't it?
This scientific double talk isn't confined to breakfast foods. - PUB DATE: 9/22/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: firerescue1
A Burnet Fire Department ambulance rear-ended a semi Friday evening.
The Burnet Fire Department has identified the paramedic driving the ambulance was firefighter and EMT Daniel Hampton. Hampton died as a result as his injuries.
Hampton was a two year veteran of the Burnet Fire Department and is survived by his spouse and four children. - PUB DATE: 9/21/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KXAN-TV NBC 36 Austin
The 2015 IAFF firefighter memorial was held Saturday, Sept. 19 at Memorial Park. Thousands of people were there to pay tribute to firefighters across America and Canada. A newly renovated memorial was unveiled with the names of those who paid the ultimate price.
“This event here means everything to the firefighters,” President of Colorado Springs Professional Firefighters IAFF Local 5, Justin Koch said. - PUB DATE: 9/21/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FOX21News.com
White smoke from a fire is billowing out the windows of a two-story home, and somewhere inside are three victims.
Rigs from San Francisco Fire Station 7 squeal onto the scene. The firefighters pry open the metal front door. A child is rescued from under the living room couch, and two adults are saved from an upstairs bedroom. - PUB DATE: 9/21/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: firerescue1
A nationwide push allowing schools to buy portable barricade devices they can set up if an active shooter enters their building has school security and fire experts questioning whether they're really safe.
Those opposed to the devices say they're complicated to install under stress and could lead to dangerous unintended consequences — including blocking authorities from an attacker inside a classroom. - PUB DATE: 9/21/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: u.s. news & world report
California fire officials said a wildfire north of San Francisco destroyed another 162 homes, raising the number of homes destroyed to 1,050 and making it the fourth worst wildfire in the state's history.
The tally announced on Sunday brought the total number of homes destroyed in two wildfires burning in Northern California to nearly 1,600, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said. - PUB DATE: 9/21/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: sacramento bee
Just days before a series of deadly, record-setting wildfires began exploding across Washington, the acting chief pilot for the state’s wildfire-attack helicopters wrote a letter to his superiors. Unfilled pilot positions were grounding some helicopters, John Adolphson wrote to senior staff at the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR). - PUB DATE: 9/18/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Seattle Times
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) today announced the official launch of its 2015 U.S. Needs Assessment survey, the fourth distributed since 2001. The survey works to capture the level of resources and staffing among U.S. fire departments, and to identify where fire departments are meeting the needs of their communities and where there are gaps in the service they provide. - PUB DATE: 9/18/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: National Fire Protection Association
When Platte Fire Chief Rick Gustad arrived on the scene of a fire that killed six people Thursday in Platte, the one-and-a-half-story house was almost completely destroyed. "It's not a real common occurrence to have a fully engulfed structure fire on arrival," Gustad said. "The house was pretty well destroyed when we arrived on the scene. - PUB DATE: 9/18/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: INFORUM-Fargo
Mayor Kasim Reed is vowing to fire any city employee who had a role in an embarrassing photo scandal in which an Atlanta fire station was used as a backdrop for escort advertisements.
“We’re going to fully investigate it, get to the bottom of it, and fire the people involved,” Reed said on Thursday. - PUB DATE: 9/18/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
