An attempt to privatize the fire department in the tiny suburb of North Riverside was dealt a setback when an administrative judge ruled the village could not cancel its contract with union firefighters.
Facing a payout of $1.8 million for police and firefighter pensions last year, village officials cut off contract negotiations with the union and planned to enter a deal for fire protection with a private company. - PUB DATE: 3/31/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: chicago.sun-times.
Three city councilors have accused Human Resources Director William Mahoney of failing to enforce the city's residency requirement by allowing one deputy fire chief and five district chiefs to live outside Springfield despite their promotions.
"Many of these Chiefs have been in violation of the ordinance for years and Bill Mahoney has yet to demand that they comply," the councilors stated in a joint press release. - PUB DATE: 3/31/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Springfield Union-News & Sunday Republican
The Prescott Fire Department is operating on the slimmest of manpower margins, and it’s relying on firefighters to volunteers to work overtime in order to keep fire stations from being shut down entirely for a day.
When the problem first began to become evident at the end of last year, Fire Chief Dennis Light put into place a plan to “brown out” fire stations. - PUB DATE: 3/31/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: the daily courier
Philadelphia fire investigators had no scientific basis to conclude that a 1985 rowhouse fire in Oxford Circle was arson, a defense expert testified about the blaze that killed two boys and sent their father to death row for their murder.
Nationally known fire consultant John Lentini said that when he heard that a city fire marshal, and then a second, had identified three separate points of origin for the fire, "I said, 'He must be magic, because it can't be done. - PUB DATE: 3/31/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: philly.com
PHOTO - Four firefighters were injured Wednesday morning when the driver of a fire engine lost control of the vehicle after suffering a medical emergency and crashed into several parked cars in Valley Glen. The firefighters were responding to another medical emergency call about 2 a.m. when the driver lost control near the intersection of Burbank Boulevard and Woodman Way, said Capt. - PUB DATE: 3/30/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KTLA-TV WB 5 Los Angeles
A Wilmington Fire Marshal inspector conducting residency investigations outside the city was questioned by two different police agencies last week, including one in Pennsylvania. In one instance, he pulled a gun on a man who said he photographed the inspector coming out of neighbors' backyards.
No charges were brought against Thomas L. - PUB DATE: 3/30/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Wilmington News Journal
The Fire Department employees who racked up the most overtime last year weren’t putting out fires, according to an analysis of payroll records.
The records showed that not one of the FDNY’s top 25 OT earners was a firefighter or officer.
Thirteen were fire marshals, seven were marine engineers who repair fireboats, and the rest were mechanics and other blue-collar civilian workers. - PUB DATE: 3/30/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: new york post
San Francisco fire trucks are about to get spiffed up for a big birthday party, because that’s what you do when you turn a nice round number like 150.
The Fire Department unveiled its new logo Tuesday, a sparkly, golden shield with images of San Francisco landmarks and a legendary phoenix surrounded by flames that any of San Francisco’s 1,500 firefighters are duty-bound to extinguish. - PUB DATE: 3/30/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: SFgate
A former Novato firefighter who was terminated after failing a drug test is fighting back in Marin Superior Court, claiming the fire department violated his labor rights.
Kirk Lewis, 36, filed for a court injunction to be reinstated while the litigation is pending, but Judge Roy Chernus denied the request last week. - PUB DATE: 3/30/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Marin Independent Journal
Two Utah firefighters asked a federal appeals court to revive their lawsuit against state authorities who the men claim falsely accused them of prescription drug fraud after a warrantless search of a state prescription drug database.
Criminal charges were later dismissed, but lawyers for the two firefighters argue that giving police unfettered access to records of all prescription drugs dispensed to patients is unconstitutional. - PUB DATE: 3/29/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KSL-TV NBC 5
The Charlotte City Council met in closed session Monday night to discuss the leak of a confidential memo about a firefighter and whether Fire Chief Jon Hannan had any responsibility.
The March 4 memo was from City Manager Ron Carlee to firefighter Marty Puckett, the vice president of the Charlotte Firefighters Association Local 660, which has feuded with Hannan over how the department has been managed. - PUB DATE: 3/29/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Charlotte Observer
The first paid female firefighter in Snohomish County retired Monday after 33 years of service.
Janet Jaeger also served as the first paid female lieutenant and first battalion chief for Snohomish County Fire District 7.
"I just wanted to be a firefighter, more than anything," Jaeger said Monday, looking back at her career. - PUB DATE: 3/29/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KCPQ-TV FOX 13
After the Raynham Fire Department spent most of Easter morning battling a stubborn residential blaze in Raynham, Fire Chief James Januse exhaled deeply as he sank into his desk chair back at the station at 11 a.m.
It wasn’t the seven hours on scene that brought about Januse’s sigh, but the thought of yet another firefighter being injured — and how his depleted department will have to continue to overcome a staff shortage. - PUB DATE: 3/29/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: taunton gazette
As smoke and flames shot from the windows of the Federal View Apartments late Sunday night, bewildered residents gathered outside only to hear the piercing screams of a woman on the third floor. "Grab my baby!" she yelled through the sounds of shattering glass and rushing air. "Grab my baby!" Out from the top floors — one by one — people jumped for safety through a thick, black haze. - PUB DATE: 3/29/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: denver post
San Francisco Fire Department’s Deputy Chief of Operations, Mark Gonzales, said a “rogue wave” hit the rescue boat and caused it to capsize, despite calm conditions on the water.
The San Francisco Fire Department rescue boat was on a training mission Saturday morning, when it flipped over, said officials. - PUB DATE: 3/28/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: ktvu San Francisco
The state has cited Stafford’s Fire and Rescue Department for four violations after a February incident in which volunteer firefighters transported an 18-month-old girl having a seizure to the hospital in a fire engine.
The two firefighters at the center of the controversy are still working at the Falmouth Fire Station. - PUB DATE: 3/28/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Charlottesville Daily Progress
“The only thing I was thinking was, ‘holy hell I gotta get out,'” Lieutenant Nicholas Hudek with Penn Hills VFD Station 221 said.
Hudek was one of three firefighters injured while fighting flames at a vacant restaurant in Penn Hills Saturday. He injured his hand while trying to find a way into the building. - PUB DATE: 3/28/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KDKA-TV CBS 2 Pittsburgh
When the local union of the Naples Fire-Rescue Department said last October its members had lost confidence in their chief, Steve McInerny, the group's action highlighted evidence of his troubled tenure.
City Council members had expressed concerns about McInerny for years. There were public spats during annual budget talks when the council rejected McInerny's expensive requests for new equipment, and McInerny was accused of over-reporting fire incidents to justify new spending. - PUB DATE: 3/28/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: naples daily news
Ohio has become the fifth state to require photoelectric smoke alarms in new homes.
In the state’s first official acknowledgement that traditional ionization alarms are insufficient, new building codes require both ionization and photoelectric alarms on all floors of homes.
The rule applies to new homes. - PUB DATE: 3/28/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: the columbus dispatch
Nicholas Scoppetta, who served in top city government posts spanning six decades and four mayors, has died.
Scoppetta, 83, served as the city’s fire commissioner just months after the Sept. 11 terror attacks under then-Mayor Mike Bloomberg.
He had the formidable task of rebuilding an agency that lost 343 firefighters. - PUB DATE: 3/25/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: new york post
