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National Fire News

Detroit Executive Fire Commissioner to retire

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan gained a new administrator and lost one Monday as he announced a new director of immigrant affairs while the city's fire chief announced his retirement from the force. Executive Fire Commissioner Edsel Jenkins, appointed to the job by Duggan in April 2014, had been a city firefighter for nearly 30 years.
- PUB DATE: 10/13/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: detroit free press

California may allow inmate firefighters with violent pasts

California officials are considering allowing inmates with violent backgrounds to work outside prison walls fighting wildfires, and the idea is generating concerns about public safety. The state has the nation's largest and oldest inmate firefighting unit, with about 3,800 members who provide critical assistance to professional firefighters.
- PUB DATE: 10/13/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KCRA-TV NBC 3 Sacramento

Florida fire chief terminated over hostile workplace claims

Fire Chief Dan Sullivan was fired by letter Monday, six months after being sent home on paid leave amid allegations he had presided over a department that tolerated discrimination and spawned a good old boys environment that belittled minorities and women. Sullivan, who was hired as a firefighter more than 32 years ago and spent 18 years as chief, declined to comment Monday.
- PUB DATE: 10/13/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: sun-sentinel

Judge finds former California assistant fire chief illegally 'double-dipped'

A former Alameda County fire assistant chief illegally collected a $60,000 salary as a part-time Sacramento area chief, while also receiving his East Bay $137,000-a-year pension, intentionally deceiving the state retirement system, a state administrative law judge has found. David Wheeler, who retired from the Alameda County Fire Department on Jan.
- PUB DATE: 10/13/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: san jose mercury news

Military tech is helping fight wildfires

Military technology used to track terrorists and insurgents while keeping American troops safe is making its way to the blazing battlefields of wildfires. From heat-seeing cameras to drones to night-vision goggles and satellite trackers pinpointing firefighters’ exact locations, military technology is helping fire managers better deploy air tankers above, and fire crews on the ground.
- PUB DATE: 10/12/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: usa today

Georgia city's fire marshal indicted on extortion charges

Augusta Fire Marshal Jason Beard has been indicted on extortion charges. According to the federal indictment returned by a grand jury Thurs­day, Beard is accused of extorting money from nightclub owners and managers with threats of economic harm. The indictment, which contains six counts of extortion and one count of attempted extortion, accuses Beard of making threats to enforce overcrowding regulations and ignoring such violations if owners did pay, which allowed the clubs to operate in an overcrowded and dangerous manner.
- PUB DATE: 10/12/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: augusta chronicle

After fatal fire, Virginia family pushes city for new fire station

On March 7, twin babies and a 3-year-old boy died after a fire erupted in their home in Truxtun. The community, near the intersection of Portsmouth Boulevard and Deep Creek Boulevard, does not have a fire station. Without a station in Truxtun, according to a recent report from fire officials to City Manager Lydia Pettis Patton, the department cannot meet "minimum response times for fire and emergency medical calls" there.
- PUB DATE: 10/12/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: hampton roads

Los Angeles Firefighter Hurt in Fall Through Roof

A Los Angeles firefighter was injured Saturday after falling through a roof of a paint supply business while battling a fire in Sylmar, authorities said. The firefighter fell between 10 and 20 feet through the roof of the one-story commercial building at 15513 Cobalt St, said LAFD spokesman Erik Scott in written statements.
- PUB DATE: 10/12/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Los Angeles Daily News

FDNY EMT faked 911 call to avoid traveling to sick kid: officials

A Queens EMT who was dispatched to Brooklyn for a sick toddler used a pay phone to call 911 with a fake emergency closer to his post in a pathetic attempt to avoid the cross-borough schlep, officials said on Friday. William Medina, 27, had just dropped off a patient at a hospital on Aug. 19 when he got the call for the ill child, according to the Department of Investigation.
- PUB DATE: 10/12/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: new york post

Oregon shooting carnage traumatizes first responders, deputy fire chief says

Several of the rural firefighters and paramedics who first confronted the carnage at Umpqua Community College haven't returned to work yet or else they've tried to return only to request time off. Some can't shake the smells and sounds they encountered in classroom 15 in Snyder Hall last Thursday. One described having to help move a lifeless body to get to someone who was still alive, said Rob Bullock, deputy fire chief of Douglas County Fire District 2.
- PUB DATE: 10/9/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: the oregonian

Connecticut board may cut funding to department following unauthorized fire truck purchase

The Board of Public Safety is considering cutting funding for the Burrville Fire Department for the rest of the fiscal year upon the recommendation of Corporation Counsel Raymond Rigat, following the unauthorized purchase of a fire truck by the head of the department earlier in the year. Rigat made the recommendation Wednesday evening as part of the regular meeting of the board.
- PUB DATE: 10/9/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Torrington Register Citizen

Conference Room Named for Deputy U.S. Fire Administrator Gaines

Deputy U.S. Fire Administrator Glenn A. Gaines had a thirst for knowledge. He was a familiar face in classrooms at the National Fire Academy. Often, he wasn’t there as the instructor or guest lecturer, but as a student. The retired Fairfax County Fire and Rescue chief’s passion for education never waned.
- PUB DATE: 10/9/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: firehouse

Source: Out of control D.C. fire truck needed repair

A document obtained by WUSA9 indicates Engine 28 had an air leak on the day it crashed into a police car, breaking the arm of a firefighter and hospitalizing a police officer. The 30-ton fire truck relies on air brakes to operate safely. "It should have been taken out of service we believe there was a braking issue that occurred," said Scott Hudson with the firefighters union said when told about the log.
- PUB DATE: 10/9/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: wusa 9

Russian dash cam: BMW driver intentionally blocks ambulance on highway

Shocking dash cam footage revealed a BMW driver intentionally blocking the path of an ambulance as it headed down a highway. Mirror.co.uk reported that the footage was taken from the dashboard of the ambulance, capturing the moment the driver swerved into the ambulance’s path and slammed on the brakes.
- PUB DATE: 10/9/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: firerescue1

Legislation introduced to make drone offenses federal misdemeanors

Citing recent clashes between civilian drone encounters that slowed recent firefights, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California, introduced the Safe Drone Act on Wednesday to address the growing problem of jeopardizing public safety by flying too close to wildfires and airports. In announcing the legislation, Boxer cited the fiery July 17 incident on Interstate 15 in the Cajon Pass.
- PUB DATE: 10/8/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: San Bernardino County Sun

Missouri firefighters detail mayday rescue

A Grandview firefighter used an 8-foot hooked pole to pull a trapped colleague to safety this week. A pile of plaster from a building’s ceiling had fallen on a fire captain who had been trying to find a second-floor resident. He issued a “mayday” call, firefighter language for “man down.” The rescue was part of the drama associated with the fast-moving Grandview fire on Monday morning that killed one person, displaced eight and left the trapped firefighter with second-degree burns.
- PUB DATE: 10/8/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: kansas city star

FDNY firefighter rescues 9-month-old boy from raging Brooklyn apartment fire

City firefighters brought a 9-month-old boy to safety from a raging Brooklyn inferno on Wednesday. Smoke-eater Rhyan Wischertch, of Engine 283, carried infant Gerard DeBellot Jr., dressed in a maroon T-shirt with white stripes and swaddled in a baby blue towel, to awaiting EMS after the 2:59 p.m. blaze.
- PUB DATE: 10/8/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: new york daily news

Dash Cam Captures Deadly New Jersey Turnpike Tanker Explosion

A pile of mattresses on top of a cargo van sprang loose onto the New Jersey Turnpike Wednesday afternoon, forcing a tanker truck driver to swerve so suddenly that his truck flipped over a guardrail and instantly burst into flames, killing him, authorities and witnesses say. The fire on the northbound side of exit 15W in Kearny sent thick black smoke into the air that was visible from New York City as firefighters worked to douse the flames that raged around the charred carcass of the truck.
- PUB DATE: 10/8/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: nbc washington

Granite From Oklahoma City's Murrah Building Donated to National Fire Heritage Center

A chunk of granite from the facade of the Murrah building in Oklahoma City now has a place in the National Fire Heritage Center here. It was delivered Tuesday afternoon by a contingent of Oklahoma City fire and state officials including Oklahoma Fire Marshal Robert Doke. On April 19, 1995, a truck bomb blew up in front of federal building leaving 168 dead and hundreds injured.
- PUB DATE: 10/8/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: firehouse

Video: Minnesota crews pull off breathtaking rescue in rugged terrain

The orange jump-suited rescuers are first seen leaving the ground, suspended beneath a helicopter. They land near the crumpled figure of a 61-year-old Stillwater woman, injured on rugged terrain during a hike near Lake Superior. The two rescuers wrap her in a mummy-shaped carrier, then the three are lifted and carried to safety.
- PUB DATE: 10/7/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Minnesota Public Radio

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