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
Brainerd is considering restructuring its fire department, saving almost $266,000 a year by eliminating full-time firefighter positions stationed in its fire hall. The department currently has five full-time equipment operators who work over three shifts to staff the fire hall 24 hours per day.
There is also 38 paid on-call firefighters. - PUB DATE: 9/18/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Bemidji Pioneer
Sheriff Steve Loftis said a driver who ran over a Greenville County deputy, hit and killed a motorcyclist after deputies ended a "wild high speed chase" Thursday on US 25 north of Travelers Rest.
Lieutenant Ty Miller said deputies responded to investigate a possible stolen vehicle at TD's gas station on SC 253. - PUB DATE: 9/18/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: fox carolina
A battalion chief died Wednesday morning after suffering a cardiac arrest.
Firefighter Close Calls reported that an ambulance was transporting Batt. Chief Maywood Gaskins, 56, with the Santee Circle (S.C.) Fire Department, after he suffered a cardiac arrest in his home following training at the firehouse. - PUB DATE: 9/17/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: firerescue1
Cal Fire Capt. Scott Rohrs and his three crewmen were racing to the scene of the Valley Fire when the foreboding news crackled over radio dispatch: Four elite firefighters had been overrun by flames, suffering serious second-degree burns.
The fire was barely an hour old, but driven by fierce winds and the most intense, dry conditions of California's four-year drought, those men had been forced to deploy their silver shelter bags, survival gear of last resort. - PUB DATE: 9/17/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: san jose mercury news
A deputy was injured and a firefighter killed Thursday after a high-speed chase ended in a fatal wreck in northern Greenville County, authorities said.
North Greenville firefighter Jordan Barry Howard, 30, of Marietta, was on his motorcycle heading to work at about 7:30 a.m. when he was struck head-on by a Ford pickup, Deputy Coroner Kent Dill said. - PUB DATE: 9/17/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: greenville online
Standards are intended to provide a set of criteria by which firefighters can have some confidence that their turnout gear provides a minimum level of protection.
For the past 40 years, NFPA 1971 has provided these criteria and undergone seven major revisions going from a dozen pages to the current 145 pages. - PUB DATE: 9/17/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: firerescue1
San Antonio firefighters have received an internal memo asking that they do not wear their uniforms while going to and from work.
"We had heard information that there had been a Houston fire captain that had been targeted, some other firefighters in the Houston area that had been targeted just by having uniforms on," SAFD Chief Charles Hood said. - PUB DATE: 9/17/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KSAT-TV ABC 12 San Antonio
Four children were injured Wednesday in a late-night house fire in southeast Atlanta, and a neighbor Thursday described the dramatic rescue of the children by other neighbors and firefighters. When firefighters arrived at the home on Valley View Road about 10:30 p.m., a mother and her 9-year-old daughter were already outside, but they indicated that three other children were still inside the burning house, Channel 2 Action News reported. - PUB DATE: 9/17/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Trained to jump off helicopters and launch early attacks on wildfires with only the tools on their backs, four firefighters took off from the Boggs Mountain Helitack Base in a Super Huey chopper Saturday during the Valley fire’s first explosive moments.
Firefighters Niko Matteoli, Richard Reiff, Logan Pridmore and Capt. - PUB DATE: 9/16/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: the press democrat
The Providence firefighters union has hired a private security firm to protect Mayor Jorge Elorza's house after threatening social media posts against him became the subject of a police investigation.
Paul Doughty, president of Local 799 of the International Association of Firefighters, AFL-CIO, said Tuesday the union hired Imperial Security of Johnston to guard the mayor's house at an estimated cost of $500 per day. - PUB DATE: 9/16/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: providence journal
Cleveland's outgoing fire chief and two supervisors will face internal charges after an audit revealed dozens of missing and erroneous records at the department's training academy.
The charges, outlined in letters released by the city Tuesday, make Patrick Kelly the third consecutive chief to leave the embattled fire department under a cloud of controversy. - PUB DATE: 9/16/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: the plain dealer
Someone makes an angry comment at a city council meeting about a fire response. A blogger creates a cartoon that makes the fire department look incompetent after a recent event. An anonymous person posts inflammatory comments about the fire department online.
As fire chief, you will be affected by all of these occurrences. - PUB DATE: 9/16/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: firerescue1
Wildfires that have raged in California this summer haven't just overwhelmed firefighters — they've also stumped computer models designed to predict the intensity of flames and where they'll burn.
"These fires are actually exceeding what our models will even predict," said Ken Pimlott, director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. - PUB DATE: 9/16/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: U.S. News & World Report
Grant Taylor told police he struck a firefighter with his pickup truck after he became angry with firefighters who were collecting donations and slowing down traffic, according to court records.
He honked his horn and threw an apple core at Lansing Firefighter Dennis Rodeman before driving away, turning around and running down Rodeman in the street, according to testimony from a Lansing police detective. - PUB DATE: 9/15/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: lansing state journal
At least eight people were confirmed dead and five more missing late Monday after two cars were caught in a flash flood in Hildale on the Utah-Arizona border.
Several vehicles were reportedly swept into waterways after heavy rains hit at approximately 5 p.m. MT, including two vehicles that had been carrying 16 people in Maxwell Canyon north of the city, said Kevin Barlow, assistant fire chief. - PUB DATE: 9/15/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: usa today
VIDEO - An Atlanta fire station is feeling the heat after allegedly letting prostitutes pose in their fire house.
CBS46 found these racy pictures on a website advertising, among other classifieds, local escorts.
In the ads, two girls in lingerie sit provocatively on trucks that belong to the city. - PUB DATE: 9/15/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: CBS 46 Atlanta
A terrifying video a man said he recorded as he escaped a fast-moving fire in northern California on Saturday captures the intensity of the conflagration.
The man, listed as MulletFive on his YouTube account, says he recorded the video as he drove away from his home in Anderson Springs around 7:30 p. - PUB DATE: 9/15/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: usa today
