Part I and Part II - A newly obtained collection of police body camera footage offers exclusive insight into what Oakland police knew about the dangerous warehouse where 36 people died — and what happened that fateful night. A year before the Ghost Ship blaze killed 36 partygoers, an Oakland police officer could sense the fire danger as he and a colleague wandered through the cluttered Fruitvale district warehouse, called there for a tenant dispute.
- PUB DATE: 4/30/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: East Bay Times

City Secretary Anna Russell has one week to finish verifying a petition Houston firefighters submitted last summer seeking pay parity with police or risk being hauled into court, a state district judge said Friday. Judge Dan Hinde had given Russell until Friday at 5 p.m. to verify whether the firefighters had reached the minimum threshold of 20,000 signatures needed for the item to appear before voters.
- PUB DATE: 4/30/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Houston Chronicle

It's been nearly 16 years since cleanup work officially ended at New York City's ground zero, but the health effects for rescue and recovery workers are still making themselves known. Two studies published Thursday in the journal JAMA Oncology suggest that the firefighters who came to lower Manhattan after the Sept.
- PUB DATE: 4/30/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Los Angeles Times

Fires and twisted wreckage do not intentionally create harm, but a man with a gun lying in wait is an entirely new and different menace to the fire service. In the early morning hours of April 24, members of the Los Angeles Fire Department responded to a reported fire south of downtown LA. While extinguishment was an expected knockdown inside a two-story home, gunshots ringing out during overhaul were not.
- PUB DATE: 4/27/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1.com

CORRECTION - Yesterday's headline on this story mistakenly said Chief Scott was taking a position in Albany, New York when it should have read Albany, GEORGIA - Albany City Manager Sharon Subadan announced at Tuesday’s Albany City Commission meeting that Cedric Scott has been named the city’s new fire chief.
- PUB DATE: 4/27/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Albany Herald

A Muncie firefighter had a close call after a driver hit him and took off. First responders were on the scene of a gas leak near McGalliard and Reserve Street Thursday morning. Police officers and firefighters were helping direct traffic due to road closures. Surveillance video from a nearby business shows a firefighter motioning a vehicle and then seconds later he tries jumping out of the way to avoid a driver hitting him from behind.
- PUB DATE: 4/27/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FOX59.com

New York City will add the name of a firefighter who died in 1935 to the Fire Department of New York's memorial wall, the city's law department said Wednesday, ending a year-long struggle by his descendants who insisted his death was due to an injury he suffered while battling a blaze. The grandson of firefighter Tom O'Brien went to court in October to get him added to the wall that honors those firefighters who died as a result of a fire.
- PUB DATE: 4/27/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Post Star

Fires and twisted wreckage do not intentionally create harm, but a man with a gun lying in wait is an entirely new and different menace to the fire service. In the early morning hours of April 24, members of the Los Angeles Fire Department responded to a reported fire south of downtown LA. While extinguishment was an expected knockdown inside a two-story home, gunshots ringing out during overhaul were not.
- PUB DATE: 4/27/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1.com

Austin Freidt, a 19-year-old Mocksville firefighter, was born deaf. He had his first ear surgery at 2 years old, and then got his first cochlear implant on his left ear when he was 3. In 2012, he got one in his right ear, which allowed him to hear just like anyone else. He’s wanted to become a firefighter since he was 5 years old.
- PUB DATE: 4/27/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WFMY News

Albany City Manager Sharon Subadan announced at Tuesday’s Albany City Commission meeting that Cedric Scott has been named the city’s new fire chief. Scott, who currently is serving as fire chief for the city of Suffolk, Va., and has served in that position in Waycross, College Park and Rockdale County in Georgia, is expected to take over the Albany Fire Department in June.
- PUB DATE: 4/26/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Albany Herald

A veteran firefighter in a small community in northwestern Wisconsin has died following a response. The U.S. Fire Administration on Thursday announced the line-of-duty death of 69-year-old Spooner volunteer firefighter Philip H. Neubich, who was a 38-year veteran of the fire service. Late on Tuesday evening, Neubich responded to his fire station when the department was paged out for a reported gas leak inside a residence.
- PUB DATE: 4/26/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse

Albany City Manager Sharon Subadan announced at Tuesday’s Albany City Commission meeting that Cedric Scott has been named the city’s new fire chief. Scott, who currently is serving as fire chief for the city of Suffolk, Va., and has served in that position in Waycross, College Park and Rockdale County in Georgia, is expected to take over the Albany Fire Department in June.
- PUB DATE: 4/26/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Albany Herald

The Fire Department Instructors Conference also known as the FDIC, is happening downtown. It's back for another year at the Indiana Convention Center. More than 33,000 firefighters from around the world are in downtown Indianapolis this week for the event. It's known as the world's largest firefighter conference.
- PUB DATE: 4/26/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WISHTV.com Channel 8

Longtime Frankfort Fire Department Chief Charles Thompson is unsure if he wants to accept a demotion after city officials removed him from the helm of his own department. City officials on Monday ousted Thompson — and offered him a position as a firefighter — following multiple policy violations stemming from his “on-call service” requirements, according to a press release sent this week from city Superintendent Josh Mills.
- PUB DATE: 4/26/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Traverse City Record-Eagle

A shocking federal investigation has uncovered that some employees of Naval Station Newport deliberately falsified training records for emergency personnel. The report that was delivered to President Donald Trump Tuesday alleges that nearly all of the station's 29 fire and emergency services employees did not take part in all required training.
- PUB DATE: 4/26/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WPRI-TV Providence 12

VIDEO - "I heard a call for help, scanned the building and saw a dad coming out with his baby," North St. Paul Assistant Fire Chief Dustin Kalis said. The video captured what is hard to imagine doing, and that's dropping your three-month-old baby off a second-story balcony. But a North St. Paul dad said it was his only option.
- PUB DATE: 4/25/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KAAL-TV ABC 6 Austin

For the second time this month, authorities have charged a man with aggravated battery for allegedly attacking a firefighter during the performance of his duties. Christopher M. Roemer, 28, of the 2800 block of Gerson Avenue, Godfrey, was charged for allegedly kicking a firefighter in the shin and groin on Saturday.
- PUB DATE: 4/25/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Alton Telegraph

In the wake of a female firefighter’s victory against the city in a discrimination lawsuit, Mayor Bob Buckhorn is being urged to name a high-ranking woman to replace retiring fire Chief Tom Forward. Earlier this month, Buckhorn said he will name a replacement from within the ranks. A women’s Facebook group with 15,200 members, called "Surly Feminists for the Revolution," recently weighed in on the process, casting the selection as a referendum on the discrimination and retaliation case brought by firefighter Tanja Vidovic — and the department’s reaction to it.
- PUB DATE: 4/25/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Tampa Bay Times and Tampa Bay.com

Gulfport Fire Chief Mike Beyerstedt head-butted another firefighter during an alleged fight, according to an incident report filed with the Gulfport police department. It happened at 11 a.m. April 6 at the Central Fire Station. “The suspect (Beyerstedt) became enraged in front of the complainant and the witness, cursing and lunging at the complainant causing the suspect’s head to come in contact with the complainant,” according to the report.
- PUB DATE: 4/25/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Sun Herald

A relative of the Yorkville woman and child killed in a fire earlier this year is taking legal action, claiming the village fire department did not do enough to save their lives. Heather Mishlanie and her 6-year-old daughter Taylor were killed after the Jan. 18 fire ravaged their upstairs apartment at 95 Campbell Ave.
- PUB DATE: 4/25/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Utica Observer-Dispatch