In the history of the Ulah Fire Department, there has only been one fire chief: Jerry Dickinson. Now, after almost 50 years at the helm, health problems have made it clear to Dickinson that it is time for this dedicated firefighter to retire. “I’ve worked all my life,” Dickinson said. “My uncle owned a salvage yard — a junk yard — in Ulah and I started working there when I was 12 years old.
- PUB DATE: 6/5/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Courier-Tribune

Nearly half of all Americans have not developed a home fire escape plan. Of those that have, one-quarter have never practiced it. These and other findings from a recent survey conducted by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) prompted the official theme for this year’s Fire Prevention Week campaign, October 8-14, 2017: “Every Second Counts: Plan Two Ways Out™” “The results from our most recent survey show we still have a lot of work to do in educating the public about home fires, escape planning and practice.
- PUB DATE: 6/5/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse

When word came about a month ago that Stephen Johnson, former chief of training for the Detroit Fire Department, was dying of kidney cancer, his family and friends quickly planned a June 25 tribute party complete with live music. But earlier this week, his condition worsened and they knew they needed to move quickly.
- PUB DATE: 6/5/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Detroit Free Press

Jupiter police said two EMT paramedics were killed in a rollover crash involving a car early Thursday morning at Indiantown Road near Military Trail in Jupiter. The EMTs were employed by American Medical Response and identified as caregivers, Lahiri Garcia, 51, and critical care paramedic and supervisor, Paul Besaw, 36.
- PUB DATE: 6/2/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WPTV-TV NBC 5 West Palm Beach

It was their first big call — and they saved two little lives. Two rookie firefighters, one of them fighting the first blaze of his career, saved a mom and two small boys trapped in a burning Brooklyn basement apartment early Thursday, officials said. Firefighters from Ladder Co. 149 rushed to the blaze on 64th St.
- PUB DATE: 6/2/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Daily News

As fire swept through a Hartford home in the early evening of Oct. 7, 2014, five firefighters inside the second-floor living room heard a commander's desperate radio call to "bail out." "All units out of the building now." Engine 16 Lt. John Moree would later tell investigators he searched for, but couldn't find, his partner, firefighter Kevin Bell, who was manning a hose inside the room.
- PUB DATE: 6/2/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Hartford Courant

Former State Fire Marshal Tonya Hoover was named superintendent of the U.S. Fire Administration’s National Fire Academy (NFA) in May. As superintendent, Hoover will provides leadership for the NFA, which focuses on enhancing the ability of fire and emergency services and allied professionals to deal more effectively with fire and related emergencies.
- PUB DATE: 6/2/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse

Almost 300 state firefighters whose promotions were suspended after Cal Fire discovered suspected cheating on a November 2016 exam can move up the ranks as long their individual results are vetted one more time, according to a Thursday decision from the State Personnel Board. The board voted to allow Cal Fire to promote from an exam that it dismissed last month when it reported that it found “irregularities” on a test that captains must pass before advancing to battalion chief.
- PUB DATE: 6/2/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Sacramento Bee

PHOTOS - Sixty people are without a home today after a seven-alarm blaze tore through a Reading condo complex, where about 100 firefighters were called to help contain the fire. Abby Brennan, who lives on the fourth floor, said she heard a fire alarm go off, opened her door and made her way down through the smoke with her 4-year-old son.
- PUB DATE: 6/2/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Boston Herald

Houston's firefighters pension fund sued Mayor Sylvester Turner and numerous city officials late Tuesday over the pension reform plan that passed the Legislature last week, arguing the landmark legislation is unconstitutional. The Houston Firefighters Relief and Retirement Fund argues the reform plan unlawfully undercuts the board's legal authority to "select legal counsel and an actuary and adopt sound actuarial assumptions" and seeks to have a court permanently block the city from acting as though the reforms will become law.
- PUB DATE: 6/1/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Houston Chronicle

One person was killed and several others injured in a late Wednesday explosion and fire at a corn milling plant in Columbia County. Two of the 16 employees that were on shift at the Didion Milling plant on Highway 146 in Cambria were still missing as of about 5 a.m. Thursday, Sheriff Dennis Richards said during a press conference at the Cambria Village Hall on Edgewater Street.
- PUB DATE: 6/1/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WISN-TV ABC 12 Milwaukee

An Ontario councilman used racial slurs to refer to an ousted Ontario fire chief, according to legal papers filed in San Bernardino Superior Court on Wednesday. Floyd E. Clark first filed his lawsuit nearly 11 months ago. In February, he retained new trial lawyers, who amended the complaint to add specific, incendiary language a councilman used in referring to him, including “n-----” and “token black.
- PUB DATE: 6/1/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

The man was still, mouth open, head back in a white Crown Victoria stalled in the middle of a neighborhood street. A paramedic pushed a flexible tube in the man's vein to pump in lifesaving naloxone to block the effects of whatever opioid he had taken and, if all worked well, revive him. Routine work.
- PUB DATE: 6/1/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin

A volunteer firefighter in Lancaster County is being credited with saving the life of his 5-year-old son, after the boy slipped away from his family and nearly drowned in a backyard pool. It happened shortly before 7 p.m. Saturday at a family birthday party in the Unity community, just south of the state line, reports the Lancaster News.
- PUB DATE: 6/1/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Charlotte Observer

Pittsburgh City Council on Wednesday voted unanimously to advance legislation that would provide training for 100 firefighters to operate a $542,750 fireboat the city ordered from Lake Assault Boats of Superior, Wis., this year. If approved, the legislation would authorize up to $300,000 in fees to be paid to the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators of Lexington, Ky.
- PUB DATE: 6/1/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Volunteer firefighters in Ozark County could only watch as a fire destroyed their own station early Tuesday morning. The fire at the Gainesville Fire Department occurred one month to the day after flash flooding left a mess inside the station. The department hadn’t fully cleaned up from the flood waters when the fire occurred.
- PUB DATE: 5/31/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KSFX/KOLR-TV FOX 27 Ozarks First

Upland Fire Chief Daniel Smith has settled a federal civil rights lawsuit against the borough, former police chief Nelson Ocasio and former council president Ed Mitchell, according to online court records.No details on the settlement were available Tuesday, but the suit filed by attorney Jacqueline Vigilante on behalf of Smith last year claimed Mitchell and Ocasio conspired to create false allegations against him and threatened bogus criminal charges unless he resigned from council in the wake of a dustup over improvements at the fire house.
- PUB DATE: 5/31/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Delaware County Daily Times

When a New York City firefighter dies in the line of duty, the fire bells ring 20 times: five rings, followed by a pause, and again, and again, and again. The 5-5-5-5 code rang for Bronx fireman Ray Pfeifer, who died Sunday at the age of 59 from cancer, years after he spent eight months following the attacks of Sept.
- PUB DATE: 5/31/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Daily News

When first responders arrived to the burning home on Eugene Street in Manchester, New Hampshire just after 2 am on January 27, half the home was already up in flames. It was a big fire, but relatively routine: Working in the dark, the firefighters made sure the two residents got out unharmed, and got to work.
- PUB DATE: 5/31/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Wired.com

As the first responders to most emergency calls, firefighters often handle many other tasks beyond just putting out fires. But it's not every day their line of duty calls for cooking skills. Latoya Riley, who lives in an apartment on Ashley Hall Plantation Road in West Ashley, was recently preparing pork chops for dinner for her two sons when the grease she was heating up caught fire.
- PUB DATE: 5/31/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Charleston Post and Courier