Wildland firefighters operate in a difficult environment where a variety of factors including topography, vegetation and quickly changing weather and fire conditions can lead to great risk of injury or death from burnovers or entrapment.
There are various models that provide firefighters with estimates of safe separation distance: the distance between themselves and the flames necessary to reduce the risk of burn injury. - PUB DATE: 5/10/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: U.S. Fire Administration
The Chicago Fire Department has already been accused of creating a hostile work environment where women are sexually harassed with impunity by their superiors and a “code of silence” covers it up. Now, the department faces yet another embarrassing incident — this time involving an allegation of violence in the workplace against a woman. - PUB DATE: 5/10/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Chicago Sun-Times
The city of Pensacola has motioned to dismiss a discrimination lawsuit filed by a former city fire chief.
In late 2016, Joseph Glover filed a federal lawsuit against the city and the mayor alleging he was investigated, suspended and fired in retaliation for filing a discrimination complaint.
In a filing last week, attorneys for the city called for a summary judgement in their favor. - PUB DATE: 5/9/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Pensacola News Journal
The Colorado Springs City Council will vote whether to place a collective bargaining issue on the ballot next year for the city's firefighters, council President Richard Skorman promised Tuesday.
Scores of firefighters stood shoulder to shoulder in council chambers Tuesday, clad in navy blue shirts. - PUB DATE: 5/9/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Colorado Springs Gazette
Fire icon Chief Alan Brunacini, otherwise known as Chief Bruno, made an impact on the fire service in more ways than one. And while he may be gone, he is most definitely never forgotten – especially by two former International Association of Fire Chiefs Fire Chief of the Year award winners.
Chiefs Bruce Varner and Thomas Kuntz learned from Chief Bruno, along with many other mentors during their fire service career, that educating the community, putting the customer first and having empathy are some of the many keys to success as a fire chief. - PUB DATE: 5/9/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1
CHI's Nebraska Heart Hospital is celebrating two milestones, and they have to do with a Nebraska firefighter. He came to them with a failing heart, and now doctors said not only is his heart fixed for now, but it could heal itself so he wouldn't need a transplant. The staff at NHH said it could work on future heart patients, too. - PUB DATE: 5/9/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KOLN-TV CBS 10/KGIN-TV CBS 11 Lincoln-Grand Island
Authorities have revealed the cause of a fire on a Harlem movie set that killed a firefighter in March.
Fire Marshals determined that heat from a boiler ventilation pipe ignited nearby combustible materials and caused the fire in the basement of a building on St. Nicholas Avenue.
Firefighter Michael Davidson was trapped and killed. - PUB DATE: 5/9/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WABC-TV 7online.com
Pay inequities among firefighters and sheriff’s deputies have left some leaders earning less than the people they supervise or less than others in comparable positions.
While pay disparity has been a problem for all city employees, it’s more pronounced in public safety, where dozens hold the same rank and expect to earn the same amount as their peers, said Vice Mayor Jim Wood, who was a police officer in the 1980s. - PUB DATE: 5/8/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Norfolk Virginian-Pilot/HamptonRoads.com
Trailblazing FDNY Lt. Adrienne Walsh is making history — again.
Walsh, 51, on Monday became the first woman to serve in a position of rank in one of five of the department's elite rescue companies.
Serving as a lieutenant in Rescue Company 1, which covers Manhattan, Walsh is joining one of five highly technical emergency response units that race to large fires or other high-risk situations where specialized training, skills and equipment are required. - PUB DATE: 5/8/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Daily News
A bright red firetruck, a firefighter in full gear, and a fireman’s pole are visible through the picture windows of the brick building, along with lockers full of equipment and a waiting stretcher.
Instead of a fire-company name or logo, however, the lettering on the building in Rockville, Md., announces that this is not a real, live firehouse – but a recruitment center. - PUB DATE: 5/8/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Philly.com
St. Joseph County Undersheriff Mark Lillywhite said 66-year-old Patricia Frye was killed instantly around 7:30 p.m. Saturday when her motorcycle was rear-ended by the driver of a minivan while stopped at the intersection of Broadway and U.S.131 in Three Rivers.
Her husband, 55-year-old Mike Frye, chief of Fabius & Park Townships Fire Department, was also struck and airlifted to Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo and is currently listed in critical condition. - PUB DATE: 5/8/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WWMT-TV Kalamazoo 3
The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation’s (NFFF) Everyone Goes Home® program is conducting a needs assessment to build effective suicide prevention and awareness programs. The NFFF has partnered with Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas, a leading suicidologist with experience in developing innovative programs for first responders. - PUB DATE: 5/8/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: National Fallen Firefighters Foundation
The Westbrook fire chief and deputy fire chief are suing the city, alleging the mayor retaliated against them for raising legal and safety concerns in their department.
The lawsuit details months of tension beginning last year between Mayor Mike Sanphy and the top two officials in the Westbrook Fire Department. - PUB DATE: 5/7/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Portland Press Herald
A three-alarm warehouse fire in Houston's East End scorched at least one nearby home and led to the hospitalization of a firefighter.
Firefighters were called out to a warehouse fire on North Drennan Street near Navigation Boulevard shortly after 7 p.m. Friday, according to Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña. - PUB DATE: 5/7/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Houston Chronicle
Growing eruptions in the Big Island's Leilani Estates on Sunday night prompted officials to issue an emergency alert urging any residents remaining in the lava-ravaged subdivision to "go now" and stoking fears that the toll of homes claimed by lava — at 26 so far — would undoubtedly grow. The alert went out to smartphones across the Big Island at 7 p. - PUB DATE: 5/7/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KHNL/KGMB-TV Hawaii News Now
It was just before Christmas, when Battalion Chief Chris Burger responded to a call of an unresponsive infant.
With the sort of muscle memory training only thousands of hours of training can build, he went to the home and did his job. He was the helper — cool under pressure, someone you can lean on — that everyone expects a firefighter to be. - PUB DATE: 5/7/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Panama City News Herald
The cost of the city’s legal bills for the ongoing firefighters’ contract dispute increased $110,000 during a recent three-month period and now exceeds $634,000.
City Comptroller James E. Mills on Friday confirmed that the law firm has billed $634,740.56 through January for costs associated with the nearly four-year labor dispute with the Watertown Professional Fire Fighters Association Local 191. - PUB DATE: 5/7/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Watertown Daily Times
A Las Vegas Fire Department captain paralyzed in an on-duty crash almost 15 years ago has died.
Thelonious “Theo” Adams, a captain and 13-year veteran of the department, was paralyzed from the neck down after a fire engine responding to reports of smoke in an apartment rolled over on Halloween night in 2003. - PUB DATE: 5/4/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Las Vegas Review-Journal
A veteran Harris County firefighter is suing his former department, claiming that his bosses fired him for missing a holiday shift as retaliation for whistleblowing on illegal behavior by the department’s leadership.
The state district court lawsuit alleges that Jeramie Casiano, a lieutenant in the Harris County Emergency Services District 48’s fire department, first warned in January 2017 of “highly concerning and illegal practices,” including the misuse of government property and services by the ESD’s leadership. - PUB DATE: 5/4/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Houston Chronicle
A town meeting measure that would change the hiring practice for future chiefs and deputy chiefs in the fire department is under fire by the local union. Hull Firefighters Local 1657 is urging voters to reject proposals at town meeting, the second of which eliminates the requirement that firefighters be certified paramedics. - PUB DATE: 5/4/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Quincy Patriot Ledger
