Kelley Whitelens hiked a steep hill toward the backyard of a home on Coyote Road in Santa Barbara, one hand wiping the sweat from her face, the other pulling up her sagging pants.
Whitelens is the only female firefighter in a 19-person team from South Dakota fighting the fierce Thomas fire — which, at 281,620 acres spread across Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, is California’s largest wildfire on record. - PUB DATE: 12/27/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
Mayer Fire Captain Jeffrey A. Vollmer died early Tuesday at his home from an apparent heart attack. He was 40.
Captain Vollmer passed suddenly after returning home from a training exercise.
Captain Vollmer was a second-generation firefighter and a 12-year veteran of the Mayer Fire Department. He was a graduate of Ortonville High School and the University of North Dakota at Grand Forks. - PUB DATE: 12/22/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KARE11.com
Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill this week that allows the Yonkers Fire Department to tap into a controversial fund used for a variety of department expenses.
The fire union and Democrats in the state Legislature pushed for the law after the union stopped spending the cash when Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli found the spending flouted state law. - PUB DATE: 12/22/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin
The U.S. Senate Thursday night passed the United States Fire Administration, AFG, and SAFER Program Reauthorization Act (H.R. 4661). The House of Representatives passed the same bill Monday. As a result, the measure is on its way to the president’s desk, saving the FIRE and SAFER Grant programs from expiring on January 2 and pushing their sunset dates out to September 30, 2024. - PUB DATE: 12/22/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: International Association of Fire Chiefs
It is with a shared vision, to save lives from sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) by stimulating effective community, professional and citizen action, that the PulsePoint Foundation and the Citizen CPR Foundation announce Sonoma County EMS/Save Lives Sonoma as the inaugural winner of the 2017 PulsePoint Grant Competition. - PUB DATE: 12/22/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Citizen CPR Foundtion
VIDEO - Rob Hecksel, a retired firefighter diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in February, was hoping for a long second career as a social worker.
He’s trying to compress that mission into his remaining time.
Hecksel, 51, of Lansing was a battalion chief with the Lansing Fire Department. He retired three years ago after a 25-year career but wanted to find another job that he loved and that improved the lives of others. - PUB DATE: 12/22/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Lansing State Journal
A firefighter with the Hamilton Township Volunteer Fire Department died Wednesday after he helped battle an early morning barn blaze.
Jeffery Alan Blackmer, 42, apparently fell ill at the fire station at 8021 N. Ind. 3, where he was cleaning gear after the fire in the 7700 block of North Delaware County Road 320-E. - PUB DATE: 12/21/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Muncie Star Press
Rules cited in the dismissal of an Atlanta fire chief that require city employees to get pre-clearance for outside employment are not constitutional, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
But U.S. District Judge Leigh May ruled in the city's favor on a number of other constitutional issues raised by former chief Kelvin Cochran in a lawsuit filed against the city and Mayor Kasim Reed. - PUB DATE: 12/21/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Times
Police officers rode their horses with attached antlers to make them look like reindeer.
Cheer squads pumped up a crowd of families who watched the Twinkle Light Parade in Nob Hill earlier this month with glee.
But trouble wasn’t far away. “It was an evening that took a frightening turn for one little girl and her mother,” Albuquerque Fire Chief Gilbert Santistevan told a news conference to honor a pair of quick-thinking firefighters. - PUB DATE: 12/21/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Albuquerque Journal
Congress today passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (H.R. 1), a comprehensive reform of the U.S. tax code. The IAFC applauds Congress for addressing several important issues affecting the fire and emergency service, including: Fire Sprinklers: Since the devastating 2003 fire at the Station Nightclub in Rhode Island, the IAFC has urged Congress to incentivize business owners to retrofit their properties with fire-sprinkler systems. - PUB DATE: 12/21/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: International Association of Fire Chiefs
The Baltimore Fire Department is reeling as the city has experienced the most fire deaths in a decade, Chief Niles R. Ford said Wednesday.
Twenty-eight people have died in fires with more than a week left to go in the year — more than half of them in just four incidents, according to the Fire Department. - PUB DATE: 12/21/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Baltimore Sun
A firefighter with the Hamilton Township Volunteer Fire Department died Wednesday after he helped battle an early morning barn blaze.
Jeffery Alan Blackmer, 42, apparently fell ill at the fire station at 8021 N. Ind. 3, where he was cleaning gear after the fire in the 7700 block of North Delaware County Road 320-E. - PUB DATE: 12/20/2017 10:15:37 PM - SOURCE: Muncie Star Press
Premature. That is how a state Supreme Court judge described a lawsuit filed by Utica fire Chief Russell Brooks against the City of Utica when he ruled to dismiss it without prejudice.
Brooks filed his lawsuit against the city and Mayor Robert Palmieri. In it, Brooks claimed the city rejected an application for sick leave benefits connected with his chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a condition he said was contracted as a result of his response to ground zero for 9/11 recovery operations. - PUB DATE: 12/20/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Utica Observer-Dispatch
The House of Representatives Monday night passed the United States Fire Administration, AFG, and SAFER Program Reauthorization Act (H.R. 4661) under suspension of the rules of the House, which usually is reserved for non-controversial legislation. The bill would: Authorize $76.49 million in funding for the U. - PUB DATE: 12/20/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: International Association of Fire Chiefs
The municipality of Anchorage has paid one of its firefighters more than three-quarters of a million dollars after his successful lawsuit against the fire department.
It’s the second large civil award this year the municipality has paid to a public safety employee, after two police officers won $2.7 million last summer in a lawsuit over racial discrimination. - PUB DATE: 12/20/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Alaska Public Radio
Poor communication by Great Smoky Mountains National Park rangers with Gatlinburg authorities undermined the initial response to last year's deadly wildfire and cost lives, a report released Tuesday found.
"Insufficient warning by (the park) contributed to a dramatically reduced time frame to conduct needed evacuations," the outside review concluded. - PUB DATE: 12/20/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Knoxville News Sentinel
As Hermosa Beach moves toward contracting with the Los Angeles County Fire Department for firefighting services, 13 firefighters have sued the city over how their regular and overtime compensation has been calculated, it was announced today.
The suit filed in federal district court alleges the city has violated the Fair Labor Standards Act and seeks not only the compensation the firefighters say they deserve but double damages spanning three years as a penalty, plus interest and attorneys fees, according to Katie Casey, Hermosa Beach's public information officer. - PUB DATE: 12/20/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KNBC-TV NBC 4 Los Angeles
Officials say a firefighter suffered a heart attack while responding to a call at a Chase Bank Monday morning in Nyack and later died.
Nyack fire crews responded to the bank on North Broadway around 8:30 a.m. after reports of a chemical spill. Officials say a battery in the bank's alarm system overheated, creating an odor. - PUB DATE: 12/19/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: News 12 Westchester
The city and state used private investigators to check on firefighters out on extended sick leave after the city’s Fire Department failed to conduct those compliance checks, state officials said.
The decision to use investigators, allowed under the state takeover of the city, came after city and state officials were made aware of possible abuse of sick leave, said Lisa Ryan, spokeswoman for the Community Affairs Department. - PUB DATE: 12/19/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Press of Atlantic City
A Cranston firefighter who accused a deputy chief of assaulting him has filed a federal lawsuit against the chief, the city of Cranston, and the fire union.
As first reported by Target 12, Lieutenant Scott Bergantino filed the suit Friday, alleging assault, poor training, breach of duty, and negligence. - PUB DATE: 12/19/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WPRI-TV Providence 12
