Homeowners frantically asked for help as a swiftly moving wildfire headed toward their houses, 911 audio calls show, and dispatchers tried to clear up confusion over injured firefighters from a blaze in Washington state that ultimately killed three firefighters. The Aug. 19 fire near Twisp, Washington, also injured four firefighters — one critically.
- PUB DATE: 8/31/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: u.s. news & world report

Former Van Alstyne Fire Chief Landon Smith isn’t taking the things the city said about him to the media back in July mildly. He has sued the city for defamation and wrongful termination. The city of Van Alstyne has yet to file an answer to the suit but sent out a news release Thursday about the suit that was filed on Aug.
- PUB DATE: 8/31/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: herald democrat

The romance was born of necessity. Before air-conditioning, fire escapes offered New Yorkers a refuge from tenements in the summer heat. They read there. They drank there. At night, they slept there. Introduced in the mid-1800s, the iron Z’s that still cling to thousands of city apartment buildings became so synonymous with New York life that they made cameos in “West Side Story,” “Rear Window” and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
- PUB DATE: 8/31/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: new york times

Los Angeles County authorities have demanded the end of a controversial program that reduced the number of paramedics on Long Beach ambulances by half, saying it compromised public safety. In July 2014, the so-called “rapid medic deployment” moved one paramedic from each of the eight city ambulances to work on Long Beach Fire Department fire engines.
- PUB DATE: 8/31/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: press-telegram