The Salt Lake City Public Service Commission has issued a blistering report regarding the lack of evidence and apparent manufactured allegations by fire department brass in the demotion of the city’s first female battalion chief. The commission said that it appeared Assistant Fire Chief Robert McMicken was “looking for reasons” to discipline Martha Ellis, a 22-year-veteran firefighter.
- PUB DATE: 11/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Salt Lake Tribune

A Utica city firefighter who is alleging discrimination based on his gender and religious beliefs has filed an amended civil complaint with the help of new religious-rights lawyers John Brooks, son of former Utica Fire Chief Russell Brooks, said in court papers he's been subjected to a hostile work environment, threatened with disciplinary action, harassed and ridiculed because he refuses to cut his hair.
- PUB DATE: 11/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Syracuse Post-Standard & Syracuse.com

Things have returned to some degree of normalcy for the Central Yavapai Fire District board now that a six-month internal conflict has come to a definitive close. On March 14, Central Arizona Fire and Medical Authority (CAFMA) Chief Scott Freitag lodged a written complaint against ViciLee Jacobs, a member of the CYFD board, claiming she had made “unsubstantiated accusations” against him and his command staff, some of which he warned were potentially defamatory.
- PUB DATE: 11/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Daily Courier

“If you had not been here and we hadn’t had that rain, we don’t know what would have happened to our little town,” said Pigeon Forge City Manager Earlene Teaster. She was speaking before a group of first responders from fire and rescue departments throughout Tennessee who came to Sevier County to battle the fire that swept through the area on Nov.
- PUB DATE: 11/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Knoxville News Sentinel

A longtime fire department volunteer and active community member will be remembered during a Line of Duty funeral service on Friday. David E. Carr, 62, a firefighter with the Brasher-Winthrop Fire Department, passed away Saturday morning after returning home from a massive fire at Curran Renewable Energy, 26 Trade Drive.
- PUB DATE: 11/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Watertown Daily News

The city will pay firefighters $5.9 million to settle multiple legal complaints regarding overtime and shift changes filed in recent years, according to the mayor’s office. The deal, which still needs to be approved by members of the Local 799 of International Association of Firefighters and judges in Rhode Island Superior and U.
- PUB DATE: 11/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Providence Journal

San Francisco Fire Department officials are investigating why worn tires kept a special strike team’s fire truck from rolling to fight the Wine Country blazes when an emergency call for help came in. Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White said the engine captain at Station 9 on Jerrold Street in the Bayview cited the truck’s tread-poor tires as the reason for not joining four other San Francisco strike teams rushing to Santa Rosa to battle the deadly Tubbs Fire early Oct.
- PUB DATE: 11/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle

The White House released their official guide to first responder safety in cases of fentanyl exposure. The White House said in an announcement that the Fentanyl Safety Recommendations for First Responders “provides unified, scientific, evidence-based recommendations to first responders so they can protect themselves when the presence of fentanyl is suspected during the course of their daily activities such as responding to overdose calls and conducting traffic stops, arrests and searches.
- PUB DATE: 11/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1

The fire chief and labor union president agree: Lincoln's 249-member firefighter force is stretched thin. Lincoln Fire and Rescue has added eight full-time firefighters since 1990. In the same period, the city's population has swelled by nearly 87,000 — equal to two Kearneys and a Papillion. Overtime for firefighters has surged, injuries have increased and response times have dragged as demand for their services continues to climb, said Ron Trouba, president of the Lincoln Firefighters Association.
- PUB DATE: 11/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Lincoln Journal Star

The gunman behind the deadliest mass shooting in Texas history had in-laws who attended the church he targeted, the local sheriff said. "We know that his ex- in-laws or in-laws came to church here from time to time," Wilson County Sheriff Joe Tackitt told CNN Monday. "They were not here yesterday. So we don't know why he actually showed up yesterday.
- PUB DATE: 11/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: CNN

A beloved former fire chief and city councilman who spent his retirement dedicated to philanthropy died Saturday. Robert “Buddy” Bagley, 86, served 16 years as fire chief before he retired in 1986. He had been with the department for 35 years, according to his obituary, and was the city’s longest serving chief.
- PUB DATE: 11/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Norfolk Virginian-Pilot/HamptonRoads.com

Lockland Firefighter Michael Allen said he could feel his heart beating in his chest when he heard a 10-month-old was trapped in an apartment fire. A mother had been cooking at her apartment on North Wayne Avenue Sunday when a fire started in the kitchen. She was able to get three of her children outside, but the smoke was too thick for her to get to her baby.
- PUB DATE: 11/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WCPO-TV ABC 9 Cincinnati

VIDEO - A veteran firefighter is doing his part to help first responders come to terms with post-traumatic stress. In a video by Starbucks, 29-year veteran firefighter Mike Washington, with the Seattle Fire Department, said keeping stress in after difficult calls is like holding a “ticking time bomb.
- PUB DATE: 11/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1

An appeals court has affirmed the dismissal of separate lawsuits by two Unified Fire Authority firefighters who alleged their constitutional rights were violated when a Cottonwood Heights police detective accessed a state database containing their prescription drug records. Assistant Fire Chief Marlon Jones and firefighter Ryan Pyle sued after Detective James Woods ran queries in 2013 on all 480 UFA employees after prescription drugs disappeared from some ambulances.
- PUB DATE: 11/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Salt Lake Tribune

VIDEO - Cruiser cam video just released by Dayton Police shows the chase with a stolen ambulance. A paramedic and a patient were in the back at the time police say 44-year-old Jeffrey Brown stole the vehicle. The paramedic called 911, frantic for help. FOX 45 talked with a veteran paramedic about how he would handle the situation should it arise.
- PUB DATE: 11/3/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Fox 45 Now

Augusta Fire Department’s push to replace Gold Cross as city ambulance provider advanced Thursday with an unannounced presentation by Commissioner Sammie Sias at a Region 6 EMS Council meeting in Washington, Ga. Augusta Fire Chief Chris James, who in August defeated Gold Cross CEO Vince Brogdon by a single vote to become chairman of the 13-county council, added the presentation to the agenda at the meeting’s end.
- PUB DATE: 11/3/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Augusta Chronicle

A Chelsea man died Thursday following an apparent drug overdose inside a car that prompted a hazmat response. An unconscious man was found in a car in Cary Square on Thursday afternoon. Narcan was used and the 44-year-old man was transported to Whidden Hospital but did not survive. White powder was found in the car.
- PUB DATE: 11/3/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: CBS Boston

For decades, the sights and sounds in Detroit around Halloween were not those of costumed children frolicking in the streets as they went door-to-door seeking sweets from neighbors. The view in the Motor City consisted mainly of flames, the sounds were that of blaring fire apparatus sirens and the smells those of soot and ash.
- PUB DATE: 11/3/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse

Homer residents turned to Betty Crocker when they needed a firetruck in the late 1960s after learning about a promotion offered by General Mills. The nationally known company offered a program where people could turn in their coupons for large househlold items. An $800 piano could be purchased with 160,000 coupons redeemed at one-half penny each, according to a Homer Tribune article, titled "Bringing home 'Betty," by Naomi Klouda.
- PUB DATE: 11/3/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Senior Voice

The firefighter injured in a Springfield Twp. crash Wednesday night has been identified. David E. Noble, 72, of Springfield, is listed in critical but stable condition at Miami Valley Hospital. Sgt. Jason Cadle with the Ohio Highway Patrol Springfield Post said he had have a leg amputated. According to the officials, Noble was on the scene of a crash on U.
- PUB DATE: 11/2/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WHIO-TV Dayton