A state agency has dismissed the last of several unfair labor practice complaints filed by the union representing Toledo's firefighters. All four such disputes submitted since last year by Toledo Firefighters Local 92 to the State Employment Relations Board were dismissed. The most recent denial of these complaints against the city of Toledo was issued Thursday.
- PUB DATE: 10/6/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: toledo blade

Hours after shaking hands with President Obama, an Arkansas firefighter stopped along a Maryland highway to help save a life. Brody Channell spotted the Montgomery County police officer stopped along I-270 treating child. Channell identified himself to the officer as an out-of-state firefighter, but no one caught his name in the midst of the roadside incident, police said in a statement.
- PUB DATE: 10/6/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: firehouse

The consolidation of seven municipal fire and rescue departments on the North Shore 20 years ago has saved the communities millions of dollars while providing a superior level of service, the Public Policy Forum says in a new report. Those seven municipalities together would have paid a total of $2.
- PUB DATE: 10/6/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Amid a drought that has created bone-dry conditions across much of California’s wildland area, a state fire prevention account has ended recent fiscal years with tens of millions of dollars unspent. The money has been generated by a contentious, four-year-old fee pushed through by Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative Democrats over the objections of Republicans and rural property owners.
- PUB DATE: 10/6/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: sacramento bee

Brenda Pridgen dabbed away another tear as she composed herself to meet President Barack Obama, an encounter that elicited a rush of conflicting emotions for the widow of Baltimore firefighter James E. Bethea. "My husband would have loved this," Pridgen said of Sunday's memorial service at Mount St. Mary's University for 87 firefighters — including Bethea and Baltimore County firefighter Robert W.
- PUB DATE: 10/5/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: baltimore sun

Bob Harvey, the former chief of the Black Forest Fire Rescue Protection District, has sued the fire district for $1 million on the grounds of defamation, emotional harm and that he was wrongfully terminated in 2014. The beleaguered chief's departure in June 2014 was mysterious. By Harvey's account last summer, he resigned after a prolonged sick leave due to post-traumatic stress disorder after the Black Forest Fire in 2013.
- PUB DATE: 10/5/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: the gazette

A firefighter is in the hospital after a fire truck pinned him to another truck Saturday afternoon. Chief Lynn Blake with the Wynne Fire Department said the department was paged to help the Parkin Fire Department on a fire call when the incident happened. Firefighter Rick Wimberley arrived on the scene in his personal truck, waiting for crews to come.
- PUB DATE: 10/5/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WREG-TV Memphis Channel 3

Firefighter Daniel Lyon is about halfway through his initial treatment for the severe burns he sustained in the Twisp River Fire, according to his father, Dan Lyon. Based on physicians’ projections for the healing process from this type of injury, Daniel could be released from Harborview Medical Center in about six weeks.
- PUB DATE: 10/5/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: methow valley news

A call for help Sunday morning left a Columbia firefighter in need of help for himself. The firefighter, who officials did not name on Sunday, was responding alone to a rescue call at a home in a flooded Bluff Road community in Lower Richland. Rushing waters swept him off his feet, Columbia Fire Chief Aubrey Jenkins said.
- PUB DATE: 10/5/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: the state

In a few brutal minutes Thursday, a 26-year-old man turned Roseburg's Umpqua Community College into the site of Oregon's deadliest mass shooting -- a rampage so violent police pleaded for "as many ambulances as possible" and President Barack Obama went on national TV to argue, again, for tougher guns laws.
- PUB DATE: 10/2/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: the oregonian

Federal authorities are investigating an anonymous report that an armed landowner confronted firefighters battling an Idaho wildfire and accused them of not properly protecting a private elk-hunting ranch. The report recently posted on the National Interagency Fire Center's website said two hotshot crews refused an order to fight the fire because of safety concerns.
- PUB DATE: 10/2/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: U.S. News & World Report

Former Middletown fire Captain Greg Justice pleaded guilty Thursday in Butler County Common Pleas Court to a felony charge for submitting a fake doctor’s note to allow him to stay home rather that returning to duty. Justice, 52, of Springboro, is facing a maximum of 12 months in prison for forgery, a fifth-degree felony.
- PUB DATE: 10/2/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Hamilton Journal-News

A longtime emergency dispatcher is on paid administrative leave while city officials investigate whether her performance delayed the emergency response to a fire last month that left three firefighters injured, according to City Manager Lawrence J. Kendzior. Public safety officials are also reviewing operations at the city’s dispatch center, and have been meeting monthly since June to discuss concerns, Kendzior added.
- PUB DATE: 10/2/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: MyRecordJournal.com

Firefighter Michael Agostinelli was moonlighting on the set of a new TV show about a Chicago trauma center when he smelled smoke and noticed a light haze rising from the back of a house a few doors down in Kenwood. "I knew it wasn't part of the scene," said Agostinelli, who was working as a medic for the cast and crew on the set of the "Chicago Med" show.
- PUB DATE: 10/2/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: chicago tribune

Preliminary information indicates 10 people were killed and more than 20 others injured in a shooting at Oregon's Umpqua Community College on Thursday, said Oregon State Police spokesman Bill Fugate. Douglas County Commissioner Chris Boice told CNN that the shooter is in custody. It was not immediately clear whether the shooter was injured.
- PUB DATE: 10/1/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: cnn

The Zadroga Act, federal law providing medical monitoring and treatment for 9/11 first responders, expired overnight after Congress failed to extend it. Patients still can get their health care for now but the program's administrators warn it will face challenges by February and will have to begin shutting down by next summer.
- PUB DATE: 10/1/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WPIX-TV PIX 11

Fewer than 4% of all firefighters are women, according to the National Fire Protection Association, and even fewer are leaders in the industry. But the fire chief in the city of Harlan, Kentucky has been breaking barriers for decades. “It’s a good feeling to know I was able to accomplish these things,” said Chief Linette Hutchison, “It’s not to brag.
- PUB DATE: 10/1/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WBIR-TV Knoxville

Suicide prevention is usually not mentioned in an employee handbook or in regular workplace meetings. However, the Denver Fire Department has made it a priority. "It's OK to talk about these things," Denver Fire Chief Eric Tade said. "There is no need to internalize them." Chief Tade has worked at Denver Fire for more than 20 years.
- PUB DATE: 10/1/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KUSA-TV NBC 9 Denver

One day after police raided his lockers at the Woodward Avenue Station, firefighter Kenneth Burgos was put on leave with pay. On Sept. 15, police searched two lockers at the Woodward Avenue Station and did not leave empty-handed, though it is unclear what they found. The search and seizure warrant, signed on Sept.
- PUB DATE: 10/1/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: new haven register

I recently witnessed the following exchange outside of a fire station. Three firefighters, including an officer, were standing on the front ramp at the station when a woman who was walking by paused and approached them. "Why is the flag at half-mast?" she asked them. The officer responded in a sarcastic tone, "Because I guess the president finally decided it was time to lower it for the guys who were killed in Chattanooga last week.
- PUB DATE: 10/1/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: firerescue1