A deputy fire chief has filed an age discrimination lawsuit against the town, citing policies that stripped him of benefits because he didn’t retire when he reached his maximum pension, The Patriot Ledger reported.
The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Boston last week by Deputy Fire Chief Alan Predella, 56, of Marshfield, who marked his 34th anniversary as a Braintree firefighter this month. - PUB DATE: 6/30/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WCVB-TV ABC 5 Boston
Every year an average of 10 volunteer firefighters quit the West Barnstable, Mass., Fire Department, about 27 percent of the department’s total. Fire Chief Joseph Maruca never finds out why half of those department members leave, but does know that about one-third of his crew leaves for career firefighting positions at larger, nearby fire departments, typically after serving in West Barnstable fewer than four years. - PUB DATE: 6/30/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: GovTech.com
Early Thursday morning as a group of firefighters slept and read in the cozy confines of their Little Haiti firehouse, someone outside was making their lives a little more miserable.
Behind a locked gate at the firehouse, broken glass from the shattered windows of 10 vehicles covered the parking lot. - PUB DATE: 6/30/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Miami Herald
News 18 has shared West Lafayette Firefighter Curtis Shidler’s story before. How he lost his eye playing with fireworks while off-duty. It’s a safety story worth telling every summer, but a recent reunion makes it news you have not yet heard.
Fireworks should go up in the air.
“This is where the fireworks should have happened,” Shidler said while high up on a fire engine ladder. - PUB DATE: 6/30/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WISHTV.com Channel 8
The Houston Firefighters Union is suing the City of Houston as their dispute over a new contract drags on. Hundreds of frustrated firefighters also rallied outside City Hall on Wednesday.
The lawsuit accuses the city of breaking a state law that directs cities to pay firefighters on par with what they’d make at a similar private sector job. - PUB DATE: 6/29/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KHOU-TV CBS 11 Houston
VIDEO - Four people, including two firefighters, were injured Wednesday morning in a violent crash involving an LAFD ambulance and a civilian vehicle in Pacoima, officials said.
The collision occurred shortly before 11 a.m. in the 12000 block of Osborne Street, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. - PUB DATE: 6/29/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: abclocal.go
With more than a hundred firefighters from across the state watching, Syracuse's fire chief Wednesday rejected a state union's decision to censure him.
Firefighters from Buffalo, New York City, Syracuse and beyond lined up to watch Syracuse Fire Chief Paul Linnertz speak Wednesday morning during a news conference outside the South State Street fire station. - PUB DATE: 6/29/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Syracuse Post-Standard & Syracuse.com
Reducing the amount of paid time off for Muskegon firefighters and cutting back retiree benefits will be the city's top priorities at the bargaining table now that nearly $700,000 in cuts have been approved.
High overtime costs, prompted by the level of vacation and sick time, and skyrocketing pension and retiree health costs are the primary problems facing the department's budget, according to City Manager Frank Peterson. - PUB DATE: 6/29/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: MLive
Two months before 36 people died in the Ghost Ship fire, an Oakland Fire Department employee entered the warehouse and observed exposed electrical wiring, recommending tenants fix the hazard, according to an amended lawsuit filed Wednesday by attorneys representing victim families.
The 179-page amended lawsuit adds the city of Oakland, Alameda County and state of California to a growing list of defendents, and alleges the agencies failed in their duties to shut down the crowded fire trap and its illegal parties. - PUB DATE: 6/29/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: East Bay Times
The state’s public-safety unions have scored a potential win in their end-of-session push for a law that will make it easier for police officers and firefighters to get disability pensions that pay them two-thirds pay, tax-free for life.
The Rhode Island House of Representatives on a 53-to-8 vote approved legislation to equate an “illness sustained while in the performance of duty” with an on-the-job injury so more firefighters can qualify for benefits they have, in some past cases, been denied. - PUB DATE: 6/28/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Providence Journal
The City of Charleston, SC, approved plans to replace the current Fire Station 11 and build adjacent to the Charleston 9 memorial site. Residents wanted the station to be the neighborhood’s “shining light and a beacon of the community.”
As the West Ashley area of Charleston grows, the city determined that the current Station 11 needed to be relocated to improve service delivery and found that the property adjacent to the memorial site—about a mile from the existing station, would help fill a service gap. - PUB DATE: 6/28/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse
The city’s fire chief announced Tuesday that he is closing one fire house and reducing staffing at another beginning this Saturday over concerns about fiscal year 2018 funding in the municipal budget.
Fire Chief Dan Goonan said he is closing Station 9 at 575 Calef Road in Ward 9, effective Saturday, July 1. - PUB DATE: 6/28/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Union Leader
A Providence firefighter has been fired for saying an African-American woman should “stop eating fried chicken” when he responded to a medical call earlier this year.
Andre Ferro, a firefighter who has previously faced disciplinary action for violating the department’s sexual harassment policy, was terminated for making racially-insensitive comments by the city’s Fire Department Trial Board Tuesday, according to Public Safety Commissioner Steven Pare. - PUB DATE: 6/28/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WPRI-TV Providence 12
Former Assistant Fire Chief Jonathan Swarey says he resigned after what he called a heated meeting Monday morning between Whiteville city and fire officials. The decision prompted more than a dozen volunteer firefighters to follow in his footsteps. “I finally got to the point [Monday] and this weekend that, you know, I’m here to fight fires, here to do EMS work,” Swarey said. - PUB DATE: 6/28/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WBBJ-TV ABC 7
As she was at lunch earlier this month in an Oklahoma City hospital cafeteria, Bobbie Gilbreath began to turn blue.
A kernel of corn had become lodged in her throat, said her son, Greg Gilbreath, 60, who was with his parents on June 2 at Oklahoma Heart Hospital South. After only a few seconds, Bobbie Gilbreath, 80, began slipping out of consciousness. - PUB DATE: 6/28/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NewsOK.com
Firefighters in Newark who were rushing to a fire and were on the way to help others were in need of some rescuing of their own.
The fire truck collided with a GMC Acadia and a Camry as it was traveling westbound on Orange Street near Clifton Ave. The truck completely flipped around, crushing the other two cars. - PUB DATE: 6/27/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WABC-TV 7online.com
The Anderson firefighters union is seeking answers to why the department is short on manpower, which is requiring mandatory overtime.
Cody Leever, president of Anderson Firefighters Local 1262, said Monday at the Anderson Board of Public Safety meeting that the Anderson Fire Department is budgeted for 112 firefighters, but is currently working with 106 firefighters. - PUB DATE: 6/27/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Herald Bulletin
The American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire is requesting permission to join a federal lawsuit filed by a Farmington firefighter who argues he was unlawfully fired because of what he posted on Facebook.
Alexander Morin, of Ten Rod Road in Farmington, sued the town last year, challenging his July 21, 2015, termination as a per-diem firefighter by the town. - PUB DATE: 6/27/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Fosters.com
Common Voices, an advocates’ coalition determined to create a fire safe America, announces the launch of its newly redesigned website, www.FireAdvocates.org. It provides resources and information to assist fire departments and fire safety advocates with their fire prevention messages and fire safety lobbying efforts. - PUB DATE: 6/27/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireAdvocates.org
British Prime Minister Theresa May said Tuesday there must be a "major national investigation" into the use of potentially flammable cladding fitted to high-rise towers across the country, as police formally identified a five-year-old boy as one of youngest victims of London's Grenfell Tower fire tragedy. - PUB DATE: 6/27/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: CBC News
