A suspected drunken driver plunged into the Fox River in downtown Waukesha earlier this month.
Witnesses said the driver, 19-year-old Viktoria Droegkamp, drove around a bend and clipped a tree before she careened into the river. "(The) car was going zig-zag," said Leslie Silvernail, who pulled the driver to safety. - PUB DATE: 7/24/2019 8:54:55 PM - SOURCE: WISN-TV ABC 12 Milwaukee
"There's not much new here, as you can see," explained Captain Jim HIllcoat of the La Crosse Fire Department.
Nearly 80 years old, Fire Station Four has a lot of history to it, and a lot of wear and tear.
"You see the windows on the apparatus bay? What happens when you have windows like that? What happens to your utility bills?" questioned Hillcoat. - PUB DATE: 7/24/2019 4:48:10 PM - SOURCE: WKBT-TV CBS 8 La Crosse
The Eau Claire Fire Department responded to an appliance fire and explosion that hurt one person.
It happened just before 5 p.m. at the Gyro King in the 300 block of Water Street.
Crews say nothing was showing from the structure, but they could smell natural gas.
Businesses on both sides were evacuated and Water Street was closed off for about two hours
There was no fire and crews turned off the gas and ventilated the building. - PUB DATE: 7/23/2019 5:53:24 PM - SOURCE: WEAU-TV 13 News
Communication systems usually are the first thing to break down in an emergency situation, Portage Fire Inspector Craig Ratz said.
In a push to improve communication among local firefighters when responding to calls, Ratz said he ordered several new noise-reducing headsets that block out some noise of sirens and make it easier for teams to plan ahead and chat back and forth between engines. - PUB DATE: 7/23/2019 5:34:03 PM - SOURCE: Portage Daily Register
Running the master streamer on a Rhinelander firetruck gave Nick Heise a sense of control over an exciting situation this morning. The junior firefighter got the chance to do something he s never done before: go into a burning building and put out the fire.
"You can call us crazy, but we actually like to do it," Heise said. - PUB DATE: 7/23/2019 4:59:07 PM - SOURCE: WJFW-TV NBC 12 Rhinelander-Wausau
The mortgage on fallen Appleton firefighter Mitchell Lundgaard’s home was paid in full, The Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation announced Tuesday, July 23.
Lundgaard was killed in a shooting on May 15 at the transit center in downtown Appleton.
Lundgaard left behind a wife and three sons.
According to a news release, the mortgage was paid after Rush Limbaugh announced a $2 million donation, a portion of sales proceeds from his Stand Up For Betsy Ross T-shirts. - PUB DATE: 7/23/2019 4:40:21 PM - SOURCE: WITI Fox Channel 6
With hot summer temperatures here to stay, the Sun Prairie Fire Department is finding ways to help the community stay cool.
"We try to get out as much as we can between calls," said firefighter Bryan Davis.
Sometimes the firefighters just hand out water, but this summer, they are trying something different. - PUB DATE: 7/23/2019 3:46:15 PM - SOURCE: WMTV-TV NBC 15 Madison
The foam firefighters used to put out the fires Friday at substations for utility companies is not believed to have contained a group of chemicals compounds commonly known as PFAS.
Assistant Chief of Support Services Michael Popovich said firefighters used a foam called FireAid 2000 and consulted the manufacturer, which said the foam is not linked to perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances. - PUB DATE: 7/23/2019 1:41:45 PM - SOURCE: WMSN-TV Fox 47 Madison
Firefighters on Tuesday morning, July 23 responded to the scene of a house fire near 4th and Plainfield in Milwaukee. The call came in around 3:30 a.m.
Officials say the fire started in the basement. All of the occupants were out of the home when crews arrived on scene. No injuries have been reported. - PUB DATE: 7/23/2019 4:36:32 AM - SOURCE: WITI Fox Channel 6
As part of their 24-hour work shifts twice a week, Bob Gillman and Scott DeVault essentially live together.
Working for Medix Ambulance Services in Delavan for the past five years, they make breakfast together. They do chores together.
They’re like brothers.
“He’s just a phenomenal person to be around. - PUB DATE: 7/23/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse.com
La Crosse Fire Chief Ken Gilliam hopes 2020 will be the year fire station improvements first proposed in 2012 move forward, he said Monday in a meeting to discuss next year’s capital improvement program budget.
The La Crosse Plan Commission began the daunting task of winnowing $36 million in funding requests to the city’s self-imposed limit of $7. - PUB DATE: 7/22/2019 5:23:26 PM - SOURCE: Lacrosse Tribune
A lot has happened to firefighter Alexis Metko in the 2½ years since she fell headfirst from a ladder during an exercise at Fox Valley Technical College's Public Safety Training Center in Greenville.Metko, 32, has sufficiently recovered from her injuries, which included fractures to her skull, femur and wrist and lacerations to her liver and spleen. - PUB DATE: 7/22/2019 1:06:13 PM - SOURCE: Appleton Post-Gazette & Post Crescent.com
Members of the Tichigan Fire Department came to the aid of an elderly man who was trying to clean up a fallen tree and downed wires after Saturday's storms.
Two firefighters came across the tree in 5800 block of Marsh Road. Upon investigating, the homeowner was found on the other side of the tree with a chainsaw and he was pulling on the wires trying to remove the tree himself. - PUB DATE: 7/21/2019 5:48:22 PM - SOURCE: WISN-TV ABC 12 Milwaukee
The Vilas County Sheriff's Office says a building is a total loss after it caught fire Saturday morning.
Firefighters were called to the 4000 block of County Highway G, in the Township of Lincoln, just after 11:30 Saturday morning.
A caller said K & M Services was on fire.
A press release from the Sheriff's office says the owner was on scene, and told first responders that no one else was inside. - PUB DATE: 7/20/2019 4:04:14 PM - SOURCE: WSAW-TV CBS 7 Wausau
No one was hurt after a fire broke out at 12:10 p.m. July 19 in a two-story home at 2254 N. 73rd St. in Wauwatosa.
Fire crews found light smoke coming from a bedroom on the second floor. The fire was extinguished within minutes of the crew’s arrival, according to a fire department press release.
The cause of the fire is undetermined, but the fire appears to have started in the northwest corner of the upstairs bedroom. - PUB DATE: 7/19/2019 2:59:30 PM - SOURCE: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Fire badly damaged a home on a Boulder Junction area lake Thursday afternoon.
At 1:40 p.m. Tuesday, the Vilas County Sheriff's Office got a 911 call reporting smoke coming from a home on the south side of Island Lake.
Another report came in from the Manitowish Waters boat patrol.
When firefighters arrived, the fire had already spread throughout the home at 12578 La Fave Road in Boulder Junction. - PUB DATE: 7/18/2019 5:10:10 PM - SOURCE: WJFW-TV NBC 12 Rhinelander-Wausau
A man was pulled from a burning house in Bristol’s Lake George neighborhood Thursday.
Bristol Fire Department Chief John Niederer said the department got the call for the house fire at 19206 101st St. at 11:14 a.m.
He said both his department and deputies from the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department got to the house within about five minutes. - PUB DATE: 7/18/2019 1:03:51 PM - SOURCE: Kenosha News
A lightning strike sparked a house fire Thursday in Mequon.
Lightning hit the home on Winding Hollow Road during morning thunderstorms. "It was like a bomb. It was like a bomb went off. And I knew it fell somewhere. But I didn't know it was my home," homeowner Saryu Shaah said.
She and her husband said they heard a loud boom about 6 a. - PUB DATE: 7/18/2019 11:39:06 AM - SOURCE: WISN-TV ABC 12 Milwaukee
A lightning strike is the likely cause of an early morning apartment fire on Thursday in Stevens Point.
Assistant Fire Chief JB Moody said the call came in around 6am.
He said everyone, including pets, at the Edgewood Apartment complex were evacuated. He told a WAOW-TV reporter on scene no injuries from any of the eight units. - PUB DATE: 7/18/2019 8:28:15 AM - SOURCE: WRIG-AM Fox Sports 1390
Nobody was injured in a house fire Wednesday night in the City of Appleton.
According to the Appleton Fire Department, it started at around 10:19 p.m. at 837 W. Lynch Avenue. Once they arrived, fire crews could see smoke coming from the home. Firefighters were able to quickly extinguish the flames and contained it to an appliance in an upstairs room. - PUB DATE: 7/18/2019 6:50:37 AM - SOURCE: WFRV-TV and WJMN-TV Green Bay
