Some Orlando firefighters were exposed to high levels of cancer-causing asbestos, according to a report. Environmental Protection officials started investigating in February and said they found 27 pieces of equipment had high levels of asbestos contamination. They tested 93 pieces of gear, including clothing.
- PUB DATE: 4/21/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WFTV-TV ABC 9 Orlando

California's firefighting agency can twice demote three state firefighters who cheated to get jobs and promotions at a training academy that was rocked by an ethics scandal, a state appeals board said in a decision made public Tuesday. The State Personnel Board backed an administrative law judge's decision that the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection has the authority to impose tougher penalties than were originally sought against the three.
- PUB DATE: 4/20/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KCRA-TV NBC 3 Sacramento

Firefighter Jason Rivera, an 18-year veteran of the fire service and a member of the New Haven (CT) Fire Department, was awarded the 2016 Ray Downey Courage & Valor Award at Wednesday’s Opening Session. Robert Biolchini, chairman of the board, PennWell Corp., presented the award. Fire Department of New York Battalion Chiefs Joe and Chuck Downey, sons of Ray Downey; Ron Siarnicki, executive director, National Fallen Firefighter Foundation; Chief Ron Kanterman, National Fire Academy Alumni Association; and Bobby Halton, Fire Engineering editor in chief / FDIC education director, also members of the Selection Committee, participated in the ceremony.
- PUB DATE: 4/20/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: fire engineering

When Orange City firefighter-paramedic Caroline Dorton heard a woman had been stabbed in the parking lot of the Chili's restaurant where she was eating in Lake Mary on Sunday, she did what came naturally. Dorton rushed outside to help. But the stabbed woman's husband returned. He saw Dorton and another person trying to help his bleeding wife and ran them over, police said.
- PUB DATE: 4/20/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: the daytona beach news-journal

Firefighters trying to save a burning home walked into something they say they have never seen before, a garage full of dozens of snakes, many of them venomous. There was nothing firefighters could do to save the snakes and the family not only lost their pets, but also their home on Silver Leaf Circle in James Island.
- PUB DATE: 4/20/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WCBD-TV Charleston 2

We all know that you don’t need an advanced degree to pull ceiling. So why are departments placing a greater emphasis on higher education and advanced degrees these days, particularly when the process of getting a degree can be expensive and time-consuming? Firefighting is a dangerous, difficult and inherently risky job.
- PUB DATE: 4/20/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: firehouse

Retired Providence Fire Lt. Lori Franchina was awarded more than $800,000 by a Federal jury Monday, after jurors found she endured both sexual harassment and retaliation while on the job. Jurors deliberated less than four hours before reaching their decision, which included $100,000 in punitive damages.
- PUB DATE: 4/19/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WJAR-TV NBC 10 Providence

The Norwood Fire Department stunned its Town Council Monday night with firefighters announcing their resignations. Fed up with rumors and innuendos that the Norwood Town Council wanted to eliminate the town’s fire department in favor of contracting fire services with the Center Rural Volunteer Fire Department, all of the department’s officials quit, according to Mayor Beverly Johnson.
- PUB DATE: 4/19/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: the stanly news and press

Retired Providence Fire Lt. Lori Franchina was awarded more than $800,000 by a Federal jury Monday, after jurors found she endured both sexual harassment and retaliation while on the job. Jurors deliberated less than four hours before reaching their decision, which included $100,000 in punitive damages.
- PUB DATE: 4/19/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WJAR-TV NBC 10 Providence

The Norwood Fire Department stunned its Town Council Monday night with firefighters announcing their resignations. Fed up with rumors and innuendos that the Norwood Town Council wanted to eliminate the town’s fire department in favor of contracting fire services with the Center Rural Volunteer Fire Department, all of the department’s officials quit, according to Mayor Beverly Johnson.
- PUB DATE: 4/19/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: the stanly news and press

Over the years that the big white shed loomed in fields by the railroad tracks, this small town slowly crept up around it. First came the high school, built a quarter of a mile away in the late 1990s. More recently, a small Wal-Mart opened a two-minute walk across the highway. Last year, real estate developers came to this North Texas town with a plan to put low-income housing just 1,000 feet from the shed — a fertilizer depot that handles tons of potentially explosive ammonium nitrate.
- PUB DATE: 4/19/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: the dallas morning news

Ever since 31-year-old Nicole Clardy Mittendorff’s cream-colored Mini Cooper was found Saturday in Shenandoah National Park near the Whiteoak Canyon Trail, the search for her has focused near that popular trail. Now the National Park Service has closed four other areas in the Whiteoak Canyon area — Limberlost, Crescent Rocks, Cedar Run, and Cedar Run Link Trail — in connection with the search for the career Fairfax County firefighter/paramedic, who was last heard from Wednesday.
- PUB DATE: 4/19/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WTOP-AM 1500 Washington

Earlier this year, a photo of a woman breastfeeding her son went viral on the Internet. The photo depicted not just any woman, but a woman dressed in fire turnout gear, holding the naked infant to her mostly concealed breast. The image was part of a series by an El Paso photographer who was depicting women breastfeeding at work.
- PUB DATE: 4/19/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: firerescue1

Two young children were killed in a fire at a Lumpkin County home on Monday. The flames engulfed the home on Rider Road Spur NE, just off of Highway 9, between Dawsonville and Dahlonega. Lumpkin County officials confirmed that two children, ages 1 and 2, were taken to North Side Hospital in Cumming and Chestatee Regional Hospital Dahlonega, Ga.
- PUB DATE: 4/19/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WXIA-TV NBC 11 Atlanta

A man who shot two Maryland firefighters -- one of them fatally -- was released from custody without any charges, police said Saturday. "Yes, he was released from custody and as far as why charges have not been filed, call the state's attorney office," Prince George's County Police spokesman Tyler Hunter said.
- PUB DATE: 4/18/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: cnn

The Prince George’s County Fire Department tells WUSA 9 it’s not uncommon for them to force entry into a home in an absolute emergency as they continue to mourn one of their own, shot and killed while trying to conduct a welfare check. “We’re not going to get into the warrant aspect of it. That’s more of a procedural matter for the police.
- PUB DATE: 4/18/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: wusa9

A veteran Memphis firefighter collapsed and died just after battling a house fire in the Westwood area of South Memphis late Saturday night. Around 11:45 p.m., Lt. Rodney Eddins and his crew were looking for hot spots inside the small home in the 4500 block of Marigold Lane when he collapsed. His fellow firefighters carried him out and began CPR on the home’s front lawn, witnesses said.
- PUB DATE: 4/18/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: memphis commercial appeal

The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health did not recommend any further actions in its final report on the 2013 line of duty death of Wayne-Westland firefighter Brian Woehlke. Hometownlife.com reported that the 113-page report investigation the May 8, 2013 death of 29-year-old firefighter Woehlke provides a detailed account of what happened during the fatal fire, which has been ruled arson and homicide.
- PUB DATE: 4/18/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: firerescue1

Come May, Craig Utter will begin his 11th season of his dangerous, dirty job fighting wildland fires with the U.S. Forest Service. He goes to places so remote, he needs a helicopter to get there. “There” is all over the country. “Last summer I was in California for two weeks, home for two days, then to Missoula for a week, home for a week and then to Alaska for two weeks, home for three weeks then to North Carolina for a week and then Texas for a week and then back to Idaho,” said Utter, who is lives in McCall, Idaho.
- PUB DATE: 4/18/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The washington post - metered site

Jon Hansen, the spokesman for the Oklahoma City Fire Department during the 1995 Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing, has died. Hansen, 65, died early Friday after a long battle with cancer. He died in his home with his family at his side, the fire department said in a news release. The bombing of the former Oklahoma City federal building on April 19, 1995 claimed the lives of 168 people, and in the hours and days following Hansen played a key role in disseminating information to the public.
- PUB DATE: 4/15/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: the oklahoman