More than 20 people - including a veteran Houston police officer - have died or are feared dead in the Houston area in flooding triggered by Tropical Storm Harvey, according to local officials.
Among those is a family of six reported missing after their van was overtaken by floodwaters in east Houston Sunday afternoon near Greens Bayou. - PUB DATE: 8/30/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Houston Chronicle
The chiefs of Wicomico County’s volunteer fire companies said they cannot support a fire service agreement between the county and the city of Salisbury, citing disputes over funding and territory for the new Station 13.
The Wicomico County Fire Chiefs Association voted unanimously to reject the contract that was signed in April by Mayor Jake Day and County Executive Bob Culver, according to a letter from Joe Morris, the group’s president. - PUB DATE: 8/30/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Delmarva Now
The Chief of the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department (SDFD) called out the department's union leader for making false claims regarding disaster assistance in Texas.
"It’s absolutely inappropriate to politicize and personalize this disaster when Texans are suffering and this disaster isn’t over yet," SDFD Chief Brian Fennessy said in a statement. - PUB DATE: 8/30/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KNSD-TV NBC San Diego
PHOTO - Fire Lt. Peter Francis was filling out a police report stating he had lost his prized firefighter’s helmet Tuesday when one of his fire brothers told him he was needed back at the fire station.
Francis was convinced the helmet, which he bought almost 30 years ago and lost at a call scene the week before, was gone forever. - PUB DATE: 8/30/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Seacoast Online
Police are looking for a gunman after a Charleston ambulance was hit by gunfire Tuesday morning. Charleston Police say medics responded to a call around 2:50 a.m. for a man with leg pain near Central Avenue and Vine Street.
Police say after the ambulance arrived, shots rang out and that the person in need of medical attention ran and took cover. - PUB DATE: 8/30/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WSAZ-TV NBC 3
Baltimore fire officials revised a new dispatching policy Monday amid an investigation into why an engine on the scene of a house fire on Friday was turned away. The city began looking into the matter after audio of firefighters being ordered to leave the scene circulated on the internet.
According to audio of fire department communications posted on YouTube under the name Mack Flickerson, Engine 31 from Waverly responded to a house fire at 7:17 p. - PUB DATE: 8/29/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Baltimore Sun
PHOTO - Seguin firefighters responding to a call during Hurricane Harvey found themselves needing a little help.
After responding to a call on Timber Elm in the Elm Grove area, a tree fell due to the high winds onto the cab of the fire engine, disabling the truck.
While no injuries were reported, Seguin Fire Chief Dale Skinner said it served as a stark reminder of what can happen in high wind situations. - PUB DATE: 8/29/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Seguin Gazette
A New Orleans firefighter killed Saturday (Aug. 26) after authorities say he was the unintended target of a shooting outside a Memphis-area nightclub had accomplished everything he was supposed to by age 37, his cousin said.
"He found somebody, they fell in love, they had kids," said Hope Howard, 46, of her younger cousin, Gregory Howard. - PUB DATE: 8/29/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New Orleans Times-Picayune & Nola.com
City officials have submitted a plan to the state to layoff Trenton firefighters if federal grant money is not awarded to the city, officials confirmed Monday.
Details of the plan were not immediately known Monday evening, but a city official confirmed that a layoff plan was sent to the state Civil Service Commission last week. - PUB DATE: 8/29/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NJ.com
When Brian Schaeffer was chosen to be the new Spokane Fire Chief, he set out to diversify the department in a way that extends beyond numbers.
Schaeffer's role follows a family tradition. He joined the Spokane Fire Department 12 years ago and his dad worked as a firefighter in Illinois. He is now three months in as the new Spokane Fire Chief and is leading his department into brand new territory. - PUB DATE: 8/29/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KREM-TV CBS 2
A couple of days ago, San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood got a “Godspeed” text from Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña.
He also got a similar text from Corpus Christi Fire Chief Robert Rocha, Hood said during an afternoon briefing on Harvey.
But, oh, how the tables have turned.
“They are going through those challenges (now) and I had to reciprocate with texts and phone calls to them because of what they are going through,” Hood said. - PUB DATE: 8/28/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Corpus Christi Caller-Times
A veteran FDNY captain threw water on the notion that the job of New York’s Bravest is dangerous, insisting in a pitch to potential minority recruits that firefighters “do not run into burning buildings.”
Capt. Paul Washington, who launched a landmark racial-discrimination lawsuit against the city, is now getting heat for his “ridiculous” and “insulting” comments last March to a group of young people at Borough of Manhattan Community College. - PUB DATE: 8/28/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Post
The state's plan to cutback on the number of firefighters that worked in the Atlantic City Fire Department hit a setback Friday.
In a ruling released Friday, Judge Julio Mendez blocked the state's efforts to reduce the number of firefighters from 198 to 148. The state, who took over control of Atlantic City in November, has been trying to find ways to cut costs in the resort town. - PUB DATE: 8/28/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: South Jersey Times
The Tulsa Fire Department is replacing five of its most expensive ladder trucks after years of malfunctions and mounting maintenance costs rendered the $1.4 million assets unusable for firefighting operations.
The E-One truck and Bronto Skylift ladder combos, purchased under the previous Fire Department administration, were a major expense. - PUB DATE: 8/28/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Tulsa World
The “Safe Stations” initiative in Anne Arundel County has taken off over the past month, offering opioid addiction help to 45 people over the last three weeks. At 15 people a week, according to Anne Arundel police, its popularity is well beyond what county officials expected. The program — which turned police and fire departments into veritable safe havens for those addicted to drugs looking for help — originally launched with the expectation that its capacity would be about five people per week. - PUB DATE: 8/28/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Capital Gazette
The man police say intentionally struck and killed a firefighter who was collecting donations for charity pleaded guilty Thursday as part of an agreement with prosecutors.
Grant Taylor, 24, of Lansing, pleaded guilty but mentally ill to second-degree murder and other charges in a plea deal in the death of firefighter Dennis Rodeman. - PUB DATE: 8/25/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Lansing State Journal
Kansas City firefighters now take two simple safety steps that might have saved the lives of two colleagues in a 2015 building collapse.
The steps were among the recommendations in a federal report released Thursday.
Emergency tones are sounded, as they were two years ago, when firefighters are ordered out of a collapse zone. - PUB DATE: 8/25/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Kansas City Star
The International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) and the IAFC Company Officers Section (COS) have released a new publication exploring the importance of succession management in the fire service and offers simple steps fire chiefs can take to prepare their fire department for the future.
“Succession Management for the Fire-Rescue Service – Understanding and Applying the Process” is a user-friendly 34-page guide providing steps for departments to start their own plans and includes a history of succession management in the fire-rescue service. - PUB DATE: 8/25/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: International Association of Fire Chiefs
Seventy retired and active firefighters from Scranton, Dunmore and Wilkes-Barre suing a siren manufacturer claim its devices caused hearing loss.
In five separate but similar lawsuits filed Tuesday in Lackawanna County Court, the firefighters — most of whom are retired — claim they suffered hearing losses from firetruck sirens manufactured by Federal Signal Corp. - PUB DATE: 8/25/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Scranton Times & Tribune
A new study by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shows scientifically for the first time that an individual’s ability to respond quickly to a residential fire determines who dies and who gets injured. Home fire deaths, the NIST researchers state, are more likely among those they define as frail populations—persons who are not in robust health and primarily age 65 and older—while nonfatal injuries occur more often in adults ages 20 to 49. - PUB DATE: 8/25/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NIST.gov
