Augusta Fire Marshal Jason Beard has been indicted on extortion charges. According to the federal indictment returned by a grand jury Thursday, Beard is accused of extorting money from nightclub owners and managers with threats of economic harm.
The indictment, which contains six counts of extortion and one count of attempted extortion, accuses Beard of making threats to enforce overcrowding regulations and ignoring such violations if owners did pay, which allowed the clubs to operate in an overcrowded and dangerous manner. - PUB DATE: 10/12/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: augusta chronicle
On March 7, twin babies and a 3-year-old boy died after a fire erupted in their home in Truxtun.
The community, near the intersection of Portsmouth Boulevard and Deep Creek Boulevard, does not have a fire station.
Without a station in Truxtun, according to a recent report from fire officials to City Manager Lydia Pettis Patton, the department cannot meet "minimum response times for fire and emergency medical calls" there. - PUB DATE: 10/12/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: hampton roads
A Los Angeles firefighter was injured Saturday after falling through a roof of a paint supply business while battling a fire in Sylmar, authorities said.
The firefighter fell between 10 and 20 feet through the roof of the one-story commercial building at 15513 Cobalt St, said LAFD spokesman Erik Scott in written statements. - PUB DATE: 10/12/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Los Angeles Daily News
A Queens EMT who was dispatched to Brooklyn for a sick toddler used a pay phone to call 911 with a fake emergency closer to his post in a pathetic attempt to avoid the cross-borough schlep, officials said on Friday.
William Medina, 27, had just dropped off a patient at a hospital on Aug. 19 when he got the call for the ill child, according to the Department of Investigation. - PUB DATE: 10/12/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: new york post
Several of the rural firefighters and paramedics who first confronted the carnage at Umpqua Community College haven't returned to work yet or else they've tried to return only to request time off. Some can't shake the smells and sounds they encountered in classroom 15 in Snyder Hall last Thursday. One described having to help move a lifeless body to get to someone who was still alive, said Rob Bullock, deputy fire chief of Douglas County Fire District 2. - PUB DATE: 10/9/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: the oregonian
The Board of Public Safety is considering cutting funding for the Burrville Fire Department for the rest of the fiscal year upon the recommendation of Corporation Counsel Raymond Rigat, following the unauthorized purchase of a fire truck by the head of the department earlier in the year.
Rigat made the recommendation Wednesday evening as part of the regular meeting of the board. - PUB DATE: 10/9/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Torrington Register Citizen
Deputy U.S. Fire Administrator Glenn A. Gaines had a thirst for knowledge.
He was a familiar face in classrooms at the National Fire Academy. Often, he wasn’t there as the instructor or guest lecturer, but as a student.
The retired Fairfax County Fire and Rescue chief’s passion for education never waned. - PUB DATE: 10/9/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: firehouse
A document obtained by WUSA9 indicates Engine 28 had an air leak on the day it crashed into a police car, breaking the arm of a firefighter and hospitalizing a police officer.
The 30-ton fire truck relies on air brakes to operate safely.
"It should have been taken out of service we believe there was a braking issue that occurred," said Scott Hudson with the firefighters union said when told about the log. - PUB DATE: 10/9/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: wusa 9
Shocking dash cam footage revealed a BMW driver intentionally blocking the path of an ambulance as it headed down a highway.
Mirror.co.uk reported that the footage was taken from the dashboard of the ambulance, capturing the moment the driver swerved into the ambulance’s path and slammed on the brakes. - PUB DATE: 10/9/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: firerescue1
Citing recent clashes between civilian drone encounters that slowed recent firefights, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California, introduced the Safe Drone Act on Wednesday to address the growing problem of jeopardizing public safety by flying too close to wildfires and airports.
In announcing the legislation, Boxer cited the fiery July 17 incident on Interstate 15 in the Cajon Pass. - PUB DATE: 10/8/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: San Bernardino County Sun
A Grandview firefighter used an 8-foot hooked pole to pull a trapped colleague to safety this week.
A pile of plaster from a building’s ceiling had fallen on a fire captain who had been trying to find a second-floor resident. He issued a “mayday” call, firefighter language for “man down.”
The rescue was part of the drama associated with the fast-moving Grandview fire on Monday morning that killed one person, displaced eight and left the trapped firefighter with second-degree burns. - PUB DATE: 10/8/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: kansas city star
City firefighters brought a 9-month-old boy to safety from a raging Brooklyn inferno on Wednesday.
Smoke-eater Rhyan Wischertch, of Engine 283, carried infant Gerard DeBellot Jr., dressed in a maroon T-shirt with white stripes and swaddled in a baby blue towel, to awaiting EMS after the 2:59 p.m. blaze. - PUB DATE: 10/8/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: new york daily news
A pile of mattresses on top of a cargo van sprang loose onto the New Jersey Turnpike Wednesday afternoon, forcing a tanker truck driver to swerve so suddenly that his truck flipped over a guardrail and instantly burst into flames, killing him, authorities and witnesses say. The fire on the northbound side of exit 15W in Kearny sent thick black smoke into the air that was visible from New York City as firefighters worked to douse the flames that raged around the charred carcass of the truck. - PUB DATE: 10/8/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: nbc washington
A chunk of granite from the facade of the Murrah building in Oklahoma City now has a place in the National Fire Heritage Center here.
It was delivered Tuesday afternoon by a contingent of Oklahoma City fire and state officials including Oklahoma Fire Marshal Robert Doke.
On April 19, 1995, a truck bomb blew up in front of federal building leaving 168 dead and hundreds injured. - PUB DATE: 10/8/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: firehouse
The orange jump-suited rescuers are first seen leaving the ground, suspended beneath a helicopter. They land near the crumpled figure of a 61-year-old Stillwater woman, injured on rugged terrain during a hike near Lake Superior.
The two rescuers wrap her in a mummy-shaped carrier, then the three are lifted and carried to safety. - PUB DATE: 10/7/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Minnesota Public Radio
An alleged cheating ring involving Orange County firefighter made use of a website sources described as a collection of test questions. The website has the same questions that would show up during certification in pediatric advanced life support, according to those sources. That means it was allegedly designed to help firefighters avoid having to study the actual procedures for keeping a young child alive in an emergency. - PUB DATE: 10/7/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WFTV-TV ABC 9 Orlando
Monday afternoon a District of Columbia fire truck smashed into a city police cruiser while on an emergency call and investigators are now looking into a possible brake issue.
The fire engine was responding to a call for a report of a fire in a residential area of Northwest D.C. prior to the accident taking place. - PUB DATE: 10/7/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: the daily caller
Grand Forks officials will have to look elsewhere to fund its emergency response training center.
The city did not receive a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant worth nearly $2 million that would have assisted in building the training center. The grant was instead awarded to five other projects. - PUB DATE: 10/7/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: grand forks herald
Coming at a time when we are raw from its association as a symbol of hate in the massacre of nine worshippers at a historic South Carolina Church, discussions about the history, meaning and display of the Confederate battle flag are passionate and divisive.
In July, a Minnesota firefighter was suspended pending an investigation arising from flying the Confederate flag alongside the Stars and Stripes on a department truck in a 4th of July parade. - PUB DATE: 10/7/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: firerescue1
Overwhelmed by spot fires in bone-dry pine needles and leaf litter at their feet, a Cal Fire captain and three firefighters retreated to a patch of bare earth on a Cobb Mountain ridgetop during the first hour of the voracious Valley fire on Sept. 12.
But they were not safe for long in the fenced goat pen where they took refuge. - PUB DATE: 10/6/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: santa rosa press democrat
