For Patrick Hardison, the Mississippi volunteer firefighter who underwent the world’s most extensive face transplant one year ago, the highlights of the past year have been things most people take for granted: People no longer stare. Children don’t run away. He can drive again. When he went to Disney World with his family, he was able to swim in the pool.
- PUB DATE: 8/25/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Washington Post

When the ambulance arrived at the scene, glass was broken out in front of the building. People were waving for help. Two people had been shot. In the past, Paramedic Lisa Matthews would have waited for police to arrive and make sure the scene was secure. But not this time. Following their new training, Matthews and her CoxHealth Emergency Medical Services crew rushed into Prairie Mountain Screening in Lockwood early in the morning on Aug.
- PUB DATE: 8/25/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Springfield News-Leader

There was nothing to indicate fire was coming from anywhere but the attic when two fire chiefs entered a burning home's kitchen to begin an internal attack. Nothing, that is, until one of them fell through the floor.Blue Lake Township Fire Chief Jim Petrie said all indications were that the fire was in the attic of the home in Holton Township that caught fire before 1 p.
- PUB DATE: 8/25/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Mlive.com

A female Providence firefighter who was a material witness in a sexual harassment case involving another city firefighter has filed her own lawsuit against the city. Danielle Masse, a rescue lieutenant who was hired in 2001, claims she was demoted from the rank of captain and suspended for 10 days less than one month before she took the stand to testify on behalf of Lori Franchina, a former firefighter who was awarded $806,000 by a federal jury in a gender discrimination and sexual harassment trial earlier this year.
- PUB DATE: 8/25/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WPRI.com

It’s a call nobody wants to make. When someone picks up the phone and dials 911, it’s probably because they or someone they know is hurt. Dispatchers at the Phoenix Fire Dispatch Center are standing by. “We are very busy," said Phoenix Fire Department Capt. Reda Bigler. "It’s constantly moving in this place,” The dispatch center handles more than a million calls a year.
- PUB DATE: 8/25/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: 12news.com

After months of internal upheaval over a backlog in inspections, the Los Angeles Fire Department is replacing the official in charge of enforcing fire safety codes for apartment houses, schools, hospitals and other high-occupancy buildings. Fire Chief Ralph M. Terrazas said in a staff memo that Fire Marshal John Vidovich will step down next month and be assigned to the mayor’s office in an advisory position focused on new construction.
- PUB DATE: 8/24/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Los Angeles Times

A former fire chief contends that two firefighters were key conspirators in ousting him as chief and should be added as defendants in his lawsuit against the Eighth Utilities District. Paul Litrico claims in court filings that he did not know the two men were involved in plotting against him four years ago until district board member John Topping revealed their names during a deposition this year.
- PUB DATE: 8/24/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Hartford Courant

A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit Larry D. Christmas Jr. filed after the city rejected him as a firefighter because he refused to cut off his dreadlocks. U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr. dismissed the case at the city’s request because he found the Pascagoula man failed to back up his claim that the city enforced an official policy that led to employment discrimination based on racial or religious beliefs.
- PUB DATE: 8/24/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Sun Herald

The Oswego Common Council voted unanimously tonight to approve the 2017 budget that will eliminate 16 full-time firefighter positions and raise taxes by 1.97 percent. A public hearing, which was held before the vote, drew a standing-room-only crowd to City Hall. People packed the chambers and the hallway, but only four people spoke against the budget.
- PUB DATE: 8/24/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Syracuse.com

Highway 9 is an ordinary Arkansas country road. It has turn after turn but Sunday morning a Choctaw firefighter took a turn for the worse on the state highway. "My heart just sunk," says Choctaw Fire Chief Lamar Harvey. Harvey says his volunteer firefighter was headed to a house fire when he lost control, rolled over multiple times and crashed into a creek.
- PUB DATE: 8/24/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: nwahomepage,com

The Syracuse firefighters union says the city is refusing benefits to a firefighter who had a heart attack after battling a blaze. Firefighter Bill Adsitt was denied a disability claim regarding a quadruple bypass surgery he had earlier this year. A doctor hired by the city determined the bypass an "elective procedure.
- PUB DATE: 8/23/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Syracuse.com

Canton Safety Director Andrea Perry told City Council on Monday that the city will rehire 10 firefighters by Sept. 3. The city laid off the firefighters April 29 as part of an effort to reduce a $5.1 million budget deficit, attributed to decreasing income tax revenue and state budget cuts. A Federal Emergency Management Agency Staffing for Adequate Fire & Emergency Response (SAFER) grant awarded earlier this month will bring Fire Department staffing from 134 to 144.
- PUB DATE: 8/23/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: CantonRep.com

When Fairfax County firefighter Nicole Mittendorff hanged herself in April, a fellow firefighter likened the suicide to a “fire bell in the night” demanding an urgent response. It is not known why the 31-year-old took her life, but Mittendorff’s death stirred anger about lewd and harassing comments that had been made about her in a popular online forum.
- PUB DATE: 8/23/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Washington Post

Four minutes. That could mean the difference between life and death. When Kennewick city officials were considering spending $4.7 million to build and equip a fifth fire station, they talked a lot about getting more quickly to fires and medical emergencies. The last fire station in Kennewick was built 20 years ago.
- PUB DATE: 8/23/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Tri-City Herald

Oak Lawn is hailing a recent Illinois Appellate Court decision in its longstanding litigation over staffing with the village's firefighters union as a significant victory for taxpayers. On Aug. 12, the appellate court upheld a 2015 Illinois Labor Relations Board's ruling that found Oak Lawn not liable for $3.
- PUB DATE: 8/23/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Chicago Tribune

The fire union is objecting to a new emergency plan by the city that includes replacing a fire vehicle with a paramedic unit at one of the city’s 10 fire houses. Union President Frank Ricci said the department’s current deployment plan is working well and he believes changing it could affect response times to fires and emergency and other medical calls.
- PUB DATE: 8/22/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New Haven Register

Last summer, the Stouts Creek fire burned for more than a month, scorching more than 26,000 acres. Now the men blamed for starting it are expected to reimburse the government the estimated $37 million it cost to put it out. The wildfire sparked July 30, 2015, forced evacuations and destroyed timber, said Kyle Reed, a fire prevention specialist at the Douglas County Fire Association.
- PUB DATE: 8/22/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Oregonlive.com

A former finalist in the search for a new fire chief in Twin Falls has been named as a defendant in a wrongful termination lawsuit filed against a local fire district. Former training Capt. Brent Blamires of Kimberly filed suit in July against Rock Creek Rural Fire District and Chief Jason Keller for violating Idaho’s Whistleblower Act and for wrongful termination.
- PUB DATE: 8/22/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Magicvalley.com

Cumberland Fire Chief Donnie Dunn knows the local heroin problem isn't going away. “It's a problem and it's going to be here," the chief said. “I don't see any solutions. It's unfortunate." Overdoses involving heroin have become routine calls for the Cumberland Fire Department. “The calls could be anywhere.
- PUB DATE: 8/22/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Cumberland Times-News

After fighting a wildfire in Eastern Washington, Williams Jones of Battle Ground realized that his black Lab, Hunter, had run away from the dog sitter, was picked up by an animal shelter and adopted by another family. Although the family was reluctant to return the dog to Jones last week, they had a change of heart over the weekend, according to the Humane Society for Southwest Washington.
- PUB DATE: 8/22/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Columbian.com