James Williams, the 2016 Safety Officer of the Year, believes the role of safety officers is not just about keeping firefighters safe on the fireground, but includes improving firefighters’ physical and mental health and being proactive in cancer prevention and hearing conservation.
“Think ‘big picture’,” said Williams. - PUB DATE: 11/7/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse
Volunteer firefighters in Semmes are worried about protecting the community after they say the city locked them out of their stations without warning. They say they now don’t have access to the millions of dollars’ worth of equipment inside.
Former Volunteer Fire Chief Mickey Dearmon, along with several volunteer firefighters and council members, gathered outside the volunteer station on Wulff Rd. - PUB DATE: 11/4/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WAFB.com
The first female battalion chief for the Salt Lake City Fire Department has filed a whistleblower lawsuit in 3rd District Court against the municipality, claiming workplace retaliation for highlighting practices by top brass that include alleged fraud, state fire-code violations and cover-ups.
Martha Ellis, a 21-year veteran firefighter, was demoted May 3 to captain from her previous position of division chief of logistics. - PUB DATE: 11/4/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Salt Lake Tribune
A 22-year-old Baltimore man has been ordered to pay $1 million in restitution and serve 250 community service hours for puncturing a fire hose during the April 27 riots, prosecutors announced Thursday.
Gregory Lee Butler, Jr. (a/k/a Greg Baly) will also serve three years of supervised release, after a judge gave him credit for five weeks served. - PUB DATE: 11/4/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WBFF-TV Fox 45 Baltimore
The San Antonio Fire Department has placed on paid administrative leave the head of the agency’s training academy, city and department officials said.
“We can confirm that Assistant Chief Joe Jones has been placed on leave,” said city spokesman Jeff Coyle. “But it’s an ongoing personnel matter so we will have no further comment. - PUB DATE: 11/4/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: MySanAntonio.com
Seven experimental series with over 100 configurations using two structures reveal the impact of hose stream patterns and nozzle movements on air flow inside structures. (NIST photos)
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Fire Research Division released the findings from their experiments on hose streams, nozzle movement and air flow inside a structure. - PUB DATE: 11/4/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Fire Engineering
The lingering issue of hiring a new paid fire chief in Lake Wylie grew heated at the firehouse Wednesday night with a makeshift public forum.
The five-member Bethel Rural Fire Tax Board set up to oversee spending in the special tax district went behind closed doors to meet with the York County attorney as about 40 people awaited word on whether a new chief would be hired during the board meeting at Station 1 on Oakridge Road. - PUB DATE: 11/4/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Herald Online
Portland police emergency and crisis teams have taken a suspect into custody after after a man barricaded himself inside a burning Southeast Portland home Wednesday morning.
Portland police spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson at a news conference just before noon said police initially responded to reports of a disturbance near Southeast 127th Avenue and Rhone Street about 10 a. - PUB DATE: 11/3/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse
Harold B. Hairston, 76, Philadelphia's first African American fire commissioner, died Tuesday, Nov. 1, at his West Mount Airy home. Circumstances of his death were not available late Tuesday.
Commissioner Hairston was appointed head of the Fire Department in 1992 by Mayor Ed Rendell and served for 12 years until he retired in 2004. - PUB DATE: 11/3/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Philadelphia Inquirer
A firefighter was seriously injured Wednesday morning after he fell out of a building during a training exercise. According to Largo Fire Rescue, the firefighter was rappelling out of a second-story window at the department's training grounds at 751 16th Ave. SE when his equipment failed about 9:30 a. - PUB DATE: 11/3/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Tampa Bay Times
The former treasurer for the Patterson Fire Department has pleaded guilty to federal charges he stole more than $1.1 million from the department to support his personal businesses and live a lavish lifestyle.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara announced the plea by Albert Melin on Wednesday. Melin's plea concludes a nearly year-long investigation that included Bharara's office, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's office, the Internal Revenue Service's criminal investigation division, the FBI and New York State Police. - PUB DATE: 11/3/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NY Journal News
Teresita Peralta tried to sleep. But there was that chirping. Again and again.
“They cried all night,” Peralta said of the baby sparrows that hatched in her bathroom’s exhaust fan.
She tried calling her building manager. She was told no help until after the weekend. Two days away? Maddening. Chirp-chirp-chirp!
Sanity in the balance, she called the fire department. - PUB DATE: 11/3/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Miami Herald
Internal accounting errors led to a $1.15 million budget shortfall for the Boulder Rural Fire Protection District in 2015, a gap district officials knew about but didn't understand — or disclose — when they asked voters to approve a $1 million tax increase last year.
Those are the findings of a report by financial investigator James Davis, who was retained by the fire district's board of directors to investigate the budget shortfall. - PUB DATE: 11/3/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Boulder Daily Camera
The City of Lockport violated the law and its contract with the city firefighters' union by privatizing ambulance service in 2014, a state administrative law judge ruled Monday.
Judge Lynn Fitzgerald of the Public Employment Relations Board ordered the city to return the ambulance duties to the fire department. - PUB DATE: 11/2/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Buffalo News
A driver has been cited for failing to stop for a fire engine in a domino-effect crash in the Back Bay Monday morning that sent four firefighters to the hospital and damaged numerous parked luxury cars, police said.
Witnesses told police the driver of a Chevrolet Equinox failed to stop for the fire engine flashing its lights and sounding its siren in the crash at Dartmouth Street and Commonwealth Avenue Monday. - PUB DATE: 11/2/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Boston Herald
Prosecutors are claiming that a serial arson case in Sacramento federal court has national security implications and, in a highly unusual ruling, a judge is allowing the government to withhold parts of the evidence from defense lawyers.
Attorneys on both sides declined Monday to comment publicly, but court papers they have filed outline a dispute over the legality of hiding evidence with no obligation to disclose the reasons to the defense team. - PUB DATE: 11/2/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Sacramento Bee
A Michigan State Police trooper testified that suspended Allegan District Fire Chief Matt Gillies admitted to sexually abusing a 4-year-old girl and recording it.
During the hearing Tuesday, the trooper affirmed Gillies sexually abused the young girl at his home and recorded it in September. Gillies had a previous foster care relationship with the girl but not at the time of the alleged incident, according to investigators. - PUB DATE: 11/2/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Detroit Free Press
Rural fire departments have more than 140 additional firefighters one year after legislation became law that eliminated the age limit for new volunteers.
House Bill 2005, authored by Rep. Mike Sanders, took effect Nov. 1, 2015. The law eliminated the 45-year-old age limit for new firefighters by giving them the option of joining the system without the requirement that they be added to the state’s pension plan. - PUB DATE: 11/2/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Norman Transcript
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Four firefighters and one civilian were injured today when a fire truck collided with a car in the Back Bay causing a domino effect that damaged eight other cars, fire officials said.
The civilian and firefighters, including one captain, all were taken to Massachusetts General Hospital, where they were being treated for non-life-threatening injuries, Fire Commissioner Joseph Finn said. - PUB DATE: 11/1/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Boston Herald
A 25-year veteran of Cleveland's fire department sued the city and several employees Monday claiming he was subject to retaliation based on an erroneous belief that he had leaked damaging information about a former fire chief.
Sean DeCrane, who retired in September as Third Battalion chief, contends he warned city officials in January 2013 that former fire division Chief Daryl McGinnis lacked required continuing training and certification needed to hold his position. - PUB DATE: 11/1/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Cleveland Plain Dealer & Cleveland.com
