Serving as the top cop or fire chief in a big city comes with a lot of expectations — waves of mayhem to prevent, thousands of employees to oversee and all of the politics that come with being one of the most recognizable figures on the street.
In return, most police and fire chiefs also can expect to be well compensated, even if they aren’t working in one of the nation’s largest cities. - PUB DATE: 11/27/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: BizJournals.com
VIDEO - The U.S. Forest Service has released video showing an off-duty Border Patrol agent's gender-reveal party explosion that caused a massive wildfire last year in Arizona.
The video shows the words "Boy and "Girl" written across a target that's surrounded by tall grass in Green Valley. When the target is hit, a flash of blue powder appears before the explosion sparked the Sawmill Fire, which burned more than 45,000 acres of state and federal land. - PUB DATE: 11/27/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Fox 10 Phoenix
City officials have withdrawn a lawsuit against a firefighter accused of working a side job while receiving disability payments.
Fire Lt. Peter Joyce was accused by city officials of receiving more than $43,000 in disability pay from taxpayers while working, which is not allowed under the city's contract with firefighters. - PUB DATE: 11/27/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NY Journal News (Lohud.com)
In an “historic” move that could trigger a transformation in how small suburban municipalities deliver emergency services, Calumet Park has outsourced its fire department to a private contractor in an effort to cut costs, village attorney Burt Odelson said.
The board voted unanimously Nov. 8 to approve a separation agreement with its firefighters union and to enter into a five-year contract with Kurtz Ambulance Service to provide fire suppression and ambulance services to the village, he said. - PUB DATE: 11/26/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Chicago Tribune
Family members of the deceased man Bellingham Fire Department employees practiced performing endotracheal intubations on in late July have filed three separate claims for damages seeking more than $15.5 million from the city of Bellingham, according to records from the Bellingham City Attorney’s office. - PUB DATE: 11/26/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Bellingham Herald
Gavin McMenama was having a bad day at his job just before Christmas when he checked his mail and discovered a thick package from the Lexington Fire Department.
This wasn’t the type of package he was accustomed to seeing. After receiving rejection paperwork 13 times from the fire department, he was all too familiar with that sort of letter. - PUB DATE: 11/26/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Lexington Herald-Leader (Kentucky.com)
Firefighters from the Los Angeles city fire department had just returned to their station after responding to the mass shooting at the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks, Calif. when they saw smoke filling the sky.
Roughly 12 hours after responding to one horrific incident, they were on their way to another. - PUB DATE: 11/26/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: OPB.org
The city could more wisely spend the $1.1 billion it costs to provide emergency medical services, a budget watchdog group says, in part by reducing the role fire engines play in responding to 911 calls — and then considering whether it really needs all of its engine companies.
In a new report, the Citizens Budget Commission recommends ultimately reducing the number of engine companies, which for years has been a political nonstarter. - PUB DATE: 11/26/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Daily News
Long Beach City Council voted Tuesday, Nov. 20 to rename a Fire Department training center after David Rosa, the captain who was killed on duty earlier this year.
The facility, at 2249 Argonne Avenue in the Stearns Park neighborhood, will now be called the “Captain David Rosa Regional Training Center. - PUB DATE: 11/21/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Long Beach Press-Telegram
A former town fire lieutenant charged last week with two counts of computer trespassing deleted hundreds of thousands of files from the department’s computer system, according to Fire Chief Kevin Robinson.
Robert Warner, who was fired from the Fire Department in July, was charged last week by the Attorney General’s office after an investigation by the East Greenwich police. - PUB DATE: 11/21/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Providence Journal
Long before he opened fire at a Near South Side hospital, Juan Lopez had a documented history of abusive behavior that he sometimes backed up with a gun.
While a trainee at the Chicago Fire Department Academy nearly five years ago, Lopez faced dismissal after being accused of “aggressive and improper conduct” toward women, according to the department. - PUB DATE: 11/21/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Chicago Tribune
The U.S Department of Justice has ended its oversight of Austin Fire Department’s hiring processes after allowing a legal settlement regarding racial discrimination to expire.
Federal officials could have continued their oversight of the Fire Department’s hiring of new firefighters for four years, according to a memo sent from interim Fire Chief Tom Dodds to the Austin City Council on Tuesday, but the Justice Department did not find “good cause” to extend the settlement, also known as a consent decree. - PUB DATE: 11/21/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Austin American-Statesman
Some D.C. firefighters have been using their own money to buy auto parts and perform minor repairs on their vehicles themselves at their stations to avoid lengthy delays and shoddy workmanship at the fire department’s garage, five department sources have told The Washington Times.
The station repairs violate D. - PUB DATE: 11/21/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Washington Times
New video released Monday shows Los Angeles fire officials pause their work dropping water on the Woolsey Fire to rescue three people and two dogs who were stuck in a remote area of the Santa Monica Mountains one day after the deadly blaze broke out, officials said.
Pilots David Nordquist and Joel Smith were battling the blaze in an L. - PUB DATE: 11/20/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KTLA-TV WB 5 Los Angeles
The city's fire union has filed an unfair labor charge over a controversial response policy that dictates when firefighters use lights and sirens. The union contends the policy was unilaterally imposed without regard for the bargaining unit or the public.
The Detroit Fire Fighter Association filed its complaint Friday with the Michigan Employment Relations Commission alleging the city violated its duty to bargain under the Public Employment Relations Act with unilateral changes to terms and conditions of employment without bargaining in good faith. - PUB DATE: 11/20/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Detroit News
Three people died Sunday night when a Bismarck Air Medical plane crashed northwest of Mandan.
According to a release from CHI St. Alexius Health, the plane, which was flying to Williston to assist in a patient transport, went down prior to arrival. A Bismarck Air Medical pilot and paramedic, along with a CHI St. - PUB DATE: 11/20/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Bismarck Tribune
Eighth Utilities District firefighters petitioned the agency’s board of directors Monday for sweeping changes, including appointment of a new chief, a financial audit and “the redevelopment and rebuilding of the department.”
“We, the volunteer members, want to reclaim the department and form it into the department and family it once was,” the petition, signed by 27 current and former firefighters, said. - PUB DATE: 11/20/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Hartford Courant
State Auditor General Eugene DePasquale said Monday a team from his office will begin auditing the Delmont Volunteer Firemen’s Relief Association as four former members of the fire department are charged with stealing tens of thousands of dollars in recent years.
“I was deeply troubled by the theft charges filed against several former members of the fire department,” DePasquale said. - PUB DATE: 11/20/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
A lack of training, an unclear strategy and flawed communication contributed to the 2016 deaths of three Wilmington firefighters in Canby Park, according to a report published by federal investigators on Friday.
The report from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health is the result of an investigation launched within weeks of the Sept. - PUB DATE: 11/19/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Wilmington News Journal (Delaware Online)
More than two dozen people were hospitalized Friday afternoon after an FDNY engine and a city bus collided in the Bronx, officials said.
Firefighters from Engine 46 were responding to medical emergency about 12:15 p.m. in Mount Hope when it turned left from E. 175th St. onto Webster Ave. — right into the path of a BX41 bus. - PUB DATE: 11/19/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Daily News
