In the wake of a fatal shooting in South Seattle, the chief of the fire department won't let his firefighters and medics enter homeless encampments unless they have police to back them up.
"Last night, after the shooting, I issued a directive to the Seattle Fire Department that we are not going in these areas unless we have Seattle Police Department there to support us, for a fire call or a medical calls, because we know what's in there," said Seattle Fire Chief Harold Scoggins. - PUB DATE: 1/28/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: mynorthwest.com
Almost all Texas fertilizer plants like the one that exploded nearly three years ago in West - killing 15 people and injuring hundreds - are within a quarter-mile of a residence and little has been done to protect the public, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board says in a report to be released Thursday. While the precise cause of the blast will probably never be known, the CSB's 265-page final report describes in painstaking detail a host of failures by the West Fertilizer Company, the government, fire officials, insurance companies and others that allowed tens of thousands of pounds of ammonium nitrate to detonate. - PUB DATE: 1/28/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Houston Chronicle
A plan to outsource the city Fire Department and add a parcel tax of $148 per year took a big step forward Wednesday with the unanimous approval of the agency in charge of overseeing that process.
The Local Agency Formation Commission, or LAFCO, voted to move forward with San Bernardino’s proposal to annex the 137-year old San Bernardino Fire Department into Fire Protection District Service Zone FP5-5, giving responsibility for fire and emergency medical response to the county fire department. - PUB DATE: 1/28/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: San Bernardino sun
When it came time to build his administration last fall, Mayor Kenney didn't hesitate to turn to some familiar faces.
Richard Ross was appointed the city's police commissioner. Mike DeBerardinis was tapped to be managing director. Debbie Mahler, Kenney's longtime aide in City Council, was named deputy mayor for intergovernmental affairs. - PUB DATE: 1/27/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Philadelphia Daily News
A garbage truck exploded after catching fire on a street in Hamilton Tuesday and blasted a hole in the front of a nearby house, though no injuries were immediately reported.
A total of four houses were damaged in the 2 p.m. explosion.
One the truck's four natural gas tanks exploded in the fire and rocketed into the front of Doris Pattley's home on Fitzrandolph Street, just off Lalor Street, officials said. - PUB DATE: 1/27/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Trenton Times
New Orleans' fire chief said a massive six-alarm fire that broke out on Canal Street early Wednesday morning (Jan. 27) has spread to a second building and that the four-story structure initially found burning is in danger of collapsing onto the pavement below.
"Collapse is always an issue, as it is in this situation here," New Orleans Fire Department Superintendent Tim McConnell said on the scene at 1018 Canal Street, between South Rampart Street and Roosevelt Way. - PUB DATE: 1/27/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New Orleans Times-Picayune & Nola.com
A firefighter who was badly injured in the same Blue Hills Avenue fire in which his colleague Kevin Bell was killed has returned to duty, the fire department said Tuesday. Jason Martinez, a member of the tactical unit, was back on full duty Tuesday for the first time since the deadly fire on Oct. 7, 2014. - PUB DATE: 1/27/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: hartford courant
For the first time in about 50 years, a Johnson brother won't be part of the Fort Gratiot Fire Department.
Assistant Chief Carl "Buck" Johnson, 74, is retiring at the end of the week. His younger brother, Larry Johnson, 71, retired in June after 40 years with the department.
The brothers worked together 40 years on the department, and they still josh with each other. - PUB DATE: 1/27/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Port Huron Times Herald
An off-duty Williamsburg fire lieutenant, a retired Newport News firefighter, a York-Poquoson sheriff's deputy and neighbors are being called heroes after they saved a woman from a burning trailer in York County on Monday. York County firefighters were dispatched to the fire at the Harwood Mills trailer park just after 1 p. - PUB DATE: 1/26/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Williamsburg Virginia Gazette & Williamsburg Magazine
A Kansas City woman pleaded not guilty Monday in connection to the October 2015 fire that killed two firefighters and injured two others.
During Thu Hong Nguyen’s arraignment on Monday, her attorney waived the reading of the charges and Nguyen pleaded not guilty to arson and two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of second-degree assault for the firefighters who were hurt, and causing catastrophe, which is a Class A felony. - PUB DATE: 1/26/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WDAF-TV Fox 4 Kansas City News
The chief said Monday that a six-figure deficit appeared in the Fire Department budget recently because the acting city auditor miscalculated the number of firefighters' salaries that had to be funded in relation to when a grant expired.
The budget was supposed to fund 72 firefighter salaries with the help of a federal SAFER (Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response) grant but a routine analysis showed that with expiration of the grant, only 67 were funded, Fire Chief John A. - PUB DATE: 1/26/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Springfield Union-News & Sunday Republican
The fire chief who played a pornographic video during a training session in Spaniard's Bay has been removed from the position by the board that oversees a regional fire department in eastern Newfoundland.
CBC News had confirmed that Jeremy Hall was replaced as chief of the regional Bay de Grave fire department, following a series of meetings over the weekend by the 10-member board of directors. - PUB DATE: 1/26/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: cbc news
Damages from two destructive Northern California wildfires that killed six and sent thousands fleeing their homes topped $1 billion in insured losses, according to a preliminary estimate by the state’s insurance department.
The two fires started days apart in September, burning more than 200 square miles of remote, mountainous territory north and northeast of San Francisco. - PUB DATE: 1/26/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: modesto bee
As gray smoke rose from the burning condo building on U Street, D.C. Fire Chief Gregory M. Dean circled the block, talking with battalion chiefs and paramedics standing ready to treat anyone who was injured.
He didn’t assume command. Instead, Dean kept his eye trained on the grunt work of firefighters, hauling hoses and training water on hot spots. - PUB DATE: 1/25/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: the washington post
Pulaski County Sheriff authorities have arrested Mark Pruitt, 47, for manslaughter in the shooting death of Jason Adams. Adams was a volunteer with the East Pulaski County Volunteer Fire Department and responded to a 911 medical emergency call at Pruitt's residence.
Authorities have not released the details of what transpired inside the home that led to the shooting. - PUB DATE: 1/25/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KARK-TV NBC 4 Little Rock
Research out of Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health determined that emergency medical technicians and paramedics are 14 times more likely to be violently injured on the job than the firefighters they work alongside.
By comparing statistics gathered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency-funded Firefighter Injury Research and Safety Trends (FIRST) project and speaking with a group of paramedics who had been injured by patients, the Drexel researchers found that assault-related injuries are often not reported, not acknowledged by administration and therefore they are internalized by the workers as a “part of the job. - PUB DATE: 1/25/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Drexel University
Augusta firefighters are due even more back pay after city officials acknowledged Friday a software glitch shorted them a portion of overtime pay for 11 months last year. Fire Chief Chris James told personnel in a Friday letter, obtained by The Augusta Chronicle, that a software module correcting a previous miscalculation of overtime pay “did not carry over and perform as designed” when the city upgraded payroll software last February. - PUB DATE: 1/25/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: augusta chronicle
The Independent Volunteer Fire Company and five of its members have filed a lawsuit, alleging town officials violated their civil rights and state law in handling allegations against them.
The suit against the town, filed in Atlantic County Superior Court, alleges that Station 2 firefighters were denied due process and that town officials broke the law in suspending them. - PUB DATE: 1/25/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: press of atlantic city
The family of a Fresno paramedic who was killed in the Skylife air ambulance helicopter crash in Kern County has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Rogers Helicopters, claiming it was negligent in the maintenance and operation of the Bell 407 aircraft that crashed in a field nine miles east of McFarland last month. - PUB DATE: 1/25/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: fresno bee
A firefighter was killed while responding to a patient with a seizure Friday morning in Pulaski County, a spokesman with the sheriff's office said.
The East Pulaski firefighter, whose name was not immediately released, responded to a report on Dortch Loop Road outside North Little Rock around 5 a.m. - PUB DATE: 1/22/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NWAOnline - Northwest Arkansas News
