The Fire Department will have to go an extra two months understaffed after the city abruptly - and without offering an explicit explanation - took the unusual step of scrapping a new list of screened and tested recruits. The entire process now has to be repeated. The delay in holding a training academy means the department, which is short three firefighters and coping with long-term illnesses and injuries, risks running up costs, according to Chief Oscar Elmasian.
- PUB DATE: 2/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse.com

Fans flooding into Houston for Super Bowl LI could land in hotels and motels that have not been fully inspected, a local critic of the Houston Fire Marshal's office said Thursday. Randall Kallinen, a civil rights attorney who has represented fire inspectors, said the department scaled back inspections about a year ago in favor of self-inspection forms that could be filled out by the facilities.
- PUB DATE: 2/3/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Houston Chronicle

The Kleberg County Volunteer Fire Department's Fire Chief was flown to a San Antonio burn center Wednesday afternoon. According to the Department, Patrick Guzman, who is also a bus driver with Ricardo ISD, was doing maintenance on a school bus in the bus yard when the radiator ruptured. We're told Guzman suffered second degree burns on his arms and chest.
- PUB DATE: 2/3/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KZTV-TV CBS Action 10 News

Sacramento firefighters worked more than a quarter-million overtime hours in 2015, with some firefighters working thousands of extra hours, according to a new city audit released Thursday. The Sacramento Fire Department spent more than $13 million on overtime pay in 2015, in addition to more than $44 million in regular pay, based on the report by City Auditor Jorge Oseguera.
- PUB DATE: 2/3/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Sacramento Bee

VIDEO - "Rare circumstances and operational errors" caused an explosion during a training exercise in October that injured two of the town's firefighters, investigators have concluded. While the report does not explicitly fault any state or local fire personnel for the explosion, it does indicate operators of a fire simulator did not use the equipment properly and did not follow one safety protocol.
- PUB DATE: 2/3/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: MassLive.com

Last fall, close to 50 members of the fire service and major fire service organizations gathered at the Johnson Foundation Inc. at Wingspread complex in Racine, WI, to evaluate the fire service and examine both long and short term challenges. Wingspread VI was the 50th anniversary of the Wingspread Conference, which began in 1966 at the same location with 11 members on the committee.
- PUB DATE: 2/3/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse

The city’s firefighters union withdrew a lawsuit against the state Wednesday after the state delayed implementing changes to the union’s contract. But the union’s attorney said the suit may be refiled as early as Thursday if the state doesn’t drop demands to cut 100 firefighters and make other changes.
- PUB DATE: 2/2/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Press of Atlantic City

A southern Indiana fire chief arrested for battery is not going to face criminal charges and now he wants his arrest records erased. Eyewitness News first broke the story about Cannelton Fire Chief Christopher Herzog in late December. Herzog was charged with felony battery after he allegedly pushed a police officer while fighting a fire.
- PUB DATE: 2/2/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WTVW-TV Fox 7 Evansville

Five more FDNY engine companies are getting their “fifth man,” officials said Wednesday. As part of a contract agreement between City Hall and the Uniformed Firefighters Association, the department on Wednesday ensured that five more engine companies — one in each borough — will be getting a fifth man to work on fire engines when responding to fires.
- PUB DATE: 2/2/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Daily News

Dighton’s Board of Selectmen moved Wednesday to terminate the town’s fire chief as he faces criminal charges. Fire Chief Antone Roderick, Jr. was suspended by the board in November amid accusations he used public funds to buy personal items, specifically clothes for his girlfriend. Chairman Dean Cronin said it’s alleged Roderick used his own and other firefighters’ clothing allowances to buy almost $239 worth of women’s clothing.
- PUB DATE: 2/2/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WPRI-TV Providence 12

Fire departments in nearly every pocket of Iowa have members who were awarded nationally recognized certifications by the state fire academy despite failing their tests, according to documents released Wednesday. The Fire Service Training Bureau has sent letters to 560 departments, a majority of those in the state, to notify them that "one or more firefighters on your department may have been" erroneously granted certificates in recent years and will be expected to undergo retesting.
- PUB DATE: 2/2/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Des Moines Register

The top three emerging trends in EMS grants reflect the shift in health care toward value amid political uncertainty. EMS organizations will need to adapt, innovate and build new programs. This is a different approach for EMS providers who are widely seen as transport for emergent and non-emergent patients to the hospital.
- PUB DATE: 2/2/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1

The volunteer fire department in this Morgan County village was mourning for one of their own on Tuesday after an early-morning fire swept through a firefighter's home, killing his wife and two small children. Jonathan Austif, a U.S. Marine veteran and a volunteer firefighter for about four years, was injured when he jumped out of a second-story window after fire broke out at his home at 409 Main St.
- PUB DATE: 2/1/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Springfield State Journal-Register

Proposed changes to state regulations that would reduce requirements for electrical protections and sprinklers in new homes, college dorms, hotels and other buildings fly in the face of reason, state firefighters and building inspectors said during a public hearing Tuesday in Eau Claire. The proposal would halt nationally required expansion of devices used to prevent fires and electrocutions in new building projects.
- PUB DATE: 2/1/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Eau Claire Leader-Telegram

Linda and Michael Hart met retired Prince George’s County firefighter Stu Newman for the second time. The first was nearly 58 years ago. “I handed Linda off to the police officer on the ladder in the back of the house and I carried Michael down,” said Newman. Michael was unconscious. “I got onto the stairwell and took my air mask off and put it on his face,” said Newman.
- PUB DATE: 2/1/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WJLA-TV ABC 7 Washington

A former Clark County Fire & Rescue employee alleges she was forced out of the department because she was married to another employee, despite the fact multiple related men have worked at the district without reproach. In a notice for a tort claim, which are filed before formal lawsuits, attorney Robert S.
- PUB DATE: 2/1/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Columbian

New Jersey lawmakers are attempting to jump-start a bill that would provide fire-safety education grants to colleges. The bill was first introduced following the deadly Seton Hall dormitory fire in 2000, and has languished in Congress since. The blaze at Boland Hall killed three students and injured 58 in January 2000.
- PUB DATE: 2/1/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NorthJersey.com

The city of Chula Vista is on the hook for more than $1 million after losing a lawsuit filed by a former fire chief. Former Deputy Fire Chief James Garcia sued the city after he claimed he found himself the victim of discrimination. "I was one of those little boys who was 8 years old that decided I wanted to be a firefighter when he grew up," said Garcia.
- PUB DATE: 1/31/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KGTV ABC 10 San Diego

Investigators from the state fire marshal’s office have determined the cause of an explosion that injured two student firefighters and an instructor back in the fall. The incident took place on October 4 during a training exercise at a Mobile Live Fire Training Unit trailer, which was set up in South Hadley.
- PUB DATE: 1/31/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WWLP-TV Springfield

The two El Paso County emergency districts are seeking a declaratory judgment from the 448th District Court to prevent the county from having final authority of their budgets and tax rates. The emergency services districts filed a lawsuit against the county Dec. 29. The lawsuit was discussed by the Commissioners Court on Monday in executive session, but no action was taken in public.
- PUB DATE: 1/31/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: El Paso Times