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National Fire News

Pennsylvania firefighters injured when fire vehicle, well-drilling truck crash

Police are trying to sort out the circumstances surrounding a crash involving an Exeter Township Fire Department utility vehicle and a well-drilling truck. The crash was reported shortly after 8 a.m. Wednesday on an icy stretch of Shelbourne Road, between Wingspread Drive and Rugby Road, in Exeter Township.
- PUB DATE: 12/19/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WFMZ-TV 69 News

Former Colorado Assistant Fire Chief Lost His Battle To Cancer, But Not Before His Fight Inspired Safety Changes

A Front Range fire chief and former firefighter has died from a rare form of cancer that’s believed to be job-related. Troy Jackson worked with South Metro Fire Rescue for nearly 30 years. He passed away today after a six-year cancer battle. Doctors diagnosed Jackson with adenoid cystic carcinoma in 2013.
- PUB DATE: 12/18/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Colorado Public Radio

Indiana mayor sues council over fire staffing changes

Mayor Anthony Copeland struck back Tuesday against the city council in their fight over who controls the city firefighters’ work schedule. John Bushemi, the city council attorney, announced Tuesday night to the council’s public safety committee that the mayor is suing to keep in place a new swing shift he imposed this month on firefighters.
- PUB DATE: 12/18/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Northwest Indiana Times (nwitimes.com)

North Carolina fire chief answers claims that medical call was wrongly treated as 'routine'

Fire Chief Scott Burnette has said a captain's decision to respond to a 2012 medical call in a routine, nonemergency fashion did not delay life-saving efforts, despite accounts of two former firefighters who said the patient died but might have been saved with quicker action. Burnette's Dec. 14 statement about the seven-year-old incident brought surprised reactions from a former Asheville Fire Department chief and an ex-captain of the station involved with the call, who said responding to a "difficulty breathing" call as a nonemergency was highly unusual and did not seem appropriate.
- PUB DATE: 12/18/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Citizen-Times

Budget cuts will force Oregon fire department to 'run harder with fewer resources' union says

The union representing Ashland firefighters is sounding the alarm on budget cuts that will affect Ashland Fire & Rescue's ability to respond to emergencies. According to Ashland Firefighters Local 1269, the agency will be running "harder with fewer resources" next year. "Ashland Firefighters received some disappointing news this week, as the fallout from 2019’s budget cut continues to evolve," the union said in a Facebook post.
- PUB DATE: 12/18/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KDRV ABC 12

Virginia law is meant to take care of firefighters with cancer — but it’s not working the way it should

Firefighters have long complained that a state law meant to assure their bills are paid when they get work-related cancers isn’t helping the way it should. And a state review says they’re right. The law says that when firefighters get leukemia as well as breast, pancreatic, prostate, rectal and throat cancers, they should be presumed to be the result of their work.
- PUB DATE: 12/18/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Daily Press

Philadelphia firefighters prevent disaster at ethanol storage facility with high-risk move

Firefighters jumped into action when an industrial facility went up in flames in Southwest Philadelphia on Monday night. They performed a high-risk move, shutting off a valve within feet of the flames. It happened around 6:45 p.m. at the Point Breeze Terminal located along the 6300 block of Passyunk Avenue.
- PUB DATE: 12/17/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WPVI-TV ABC 6 Philadelphia

'Join our ranks': Dallas Fire Fighters Association offering jobs to Houston firefighters

The Dallas Fire Fighters Association is hoping to recruit Houston firefighters days after Sylvester Turner was elected to his second four-year term as mayor. Houston's Proposition B, the voter-approved pay parity plan for Houston firefighters, has caused turmoil between HFD and the city of Houston.
- PUB DATE: 12/17/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KTRK-TV ABC 13 News Houston

Virginia city appoints first black permanent fire chief

Alexandria acting fire chief Corey A. Smedley will step up to the role for good, becoming the first black permanent fire chief in the Virginia city’s history. On the heels of what Alexandria City Manager Mark B. Jinks described as a nationally competitive recruitment effort, the city announced on Monday it opted to promote Smedley from his current role as acting fire chief — a position which he has held since the retirement of chief Robert C.
- PUB DATE: 12/17/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WTOP News

Pennsylvania Fire Chief Steps Down for Job in Other Field

Scranton Fire Chief Patrick DeSarno gave notice Monday he will resign from his position effective Jan. 3, Mayor Wayne Evans said. DeSarno accepted a job offer in another field, the mayor said. The decision was not unexpected, Evans said. “I appreciate his doing this and of course I wish him well in the future and thank him for his service,” the mayor said.
- PUB DATE: 12/17/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse

California fire department honors its own with 'Paramedic Wall of Fame'

Mark Hatch said it started four years ago with a simple idea scrawled onto a Post-it note: Make a wall of fame plaque honoring the paramedics of the Burbank Fire Department. The battalion chief’s idea became a reality on Thursday when the agency formally unveiled its Paramedic Wall of Fame to a crowd of about 50 former and current members of the department’s emergency medical services division, along with their family members.
- PUB DATE: 12/17/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Los Angeles Times - Metered Site

Latest mergers sought by fire agencies will test California county's funding and resolve

Bodega Bay’s financially struggling firefighting agency could have a new name, more firefighters and more paramedics under a plan that would expand the growing Sonoma County Fire District next year — but only if the Board of Supervisors ponies up as much as $2.5 million a year to make it happen. The 66-year-old coast agency and the 100-year-old Russian River Fire Protection District both want to join Sonoma County Fire, the latest in a series of moves meant to consolidate and modernize the county’s far-flung and somewhat antiquated fire services network.
- PUB DATE: 12/16/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Press Democrat - Metered Site

Washington firefighters treated for hypothermia after rescuing man from sinking vehicle

VIDEO: First responders rescued a man trapped in an upside down submerged vehicle in Liberty Bay Saturday morning. The Poulsbo Fire and Police departments responded to the scene of the rollover accident off Fjord Drive around 8:40 a.m. The vehicle went off the roadway into Liberty Bay south of the Poulsbo Yacht Club, according to Poulsbo Fire Department spokesperson Jody Matson.
- PUB DATE: 12/16/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KING 5 News

Proposed Massachusetts addiction treatment facility would include wing for first responders

A Quincy-based addiction treatment company is looking to open a facility in Canton that would include a specialized wing for first responders. ARK Behavioral Health has proposed converting the shuttered Kindred-Tower Hill nursing home, nestled at the end of Getchell Way near Randolph, into a substance-use treatment facility that could help up to 160 people at a time through the first steps of recovery.
- PUB DATE: 12/16/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Patriot Ledger

Kentucky: Volunteer fire departments seeing a decline in ranks; special team to help combat issue

According to the National Volunteer Fire Council, 65% of all firefighters in the United States in 2016 were volunteers. But the number of people joining volunteer fire departments is on the decline, and not just in Daviess County. "The volunteer service on the fire side is really suffering," said Randy Lawson, executive director for the Kentucky Firefighter's Association.
- PUB DATE: 12/16/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Messenger-Inquirer

Retiring New York fire chief laments impending layoffs

There’s something about the scene that unfolds when the tones sound and fire trucks race out of the City of Newburgh fire headquarters on Grand Street, said acting Chief Terry Ahlers. He watched Thursday afternoon as the firemen did their dance, jumping out of their everyday shoes, slipping on turnout gear and hopping in two trucks.
- PUB DATE: 12/16/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Record Online - Metered Site

Trailblazing Houston firefighter who fought city for benefits, succumbs to cancer

Kevin Leago, the trailblazing Houston firefighter with cancer who fought City Hall to provide workers compensation benefits for his illness — and won — died Thursday. He was 40. Leago’s victory in court over city lawyers who argued his illness was unrelated to on-the-job carcinogen exposure set a precedent for dozens of current and retired Houston firefighters stricken with cancer, Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association President Marty Lancton said.
- PUB DATE: 12/13/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Houston Chronicle

In series of ominous ads, Honolulu firefighters push message of working fire alarms

VIDEO: A new public service announcement from the Honolulu Fire Department that began airing recently features a wake up call on the dangers of house fires. The PSA shows a boy, his father and pet dog asleep while actually succumbing to the impacts of smoke ? without even knowing it. “This boy is dying.
- PUB DATE: 12/13/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Hawaii News Now

Pennsylvania clergymen will cut short their sermons to fight fires in their community

Every firefighter knows a call can come at any time. But the Rev. Dave Driesch and the Rev. Tim McGill serve a God as well as their community — meaning their pagers go off while they’re praying or leading a service. Driesch, a veteran firefighter and Catholic priest who is prior of Daylesford Abbey, is helping newbie firefighter and Southern Baptist minister McGill, pastor of Paoli Community Church, balance both worlds.
- PUB DATE: 12/13/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Philadelphia Inquirer - Metered Site

Chicago Firefighters Union asks judge to halt promotions after members score low on exam

The union representing Chicago firefighters wants a Cook County judge to halt the promotion of more than a dozen department members to battalion chief. The Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2 filed a motion for an injunction in Cook County Circuit Court on Tuesday that seeks to stop the promotions — set to take effect Dec.
- PUB DATE: 12/13/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Chicago Sun Times

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