PHOTO: An early-morning fire damaged two homes in Milwaukee's Uptown neighborhood on the northwest side. It's unclear whether the fire, reported at around 4 a.m. Tuesday at 50th and Wright, is related to the recent spate of violence in the adjacent Sherman Park neighborhood. An official with the fire department said flames were shooting from a vacant home when they arrived.
- PUB DATE: 8/16/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WISN-TV ABC 12 Milwaukee

A northwest Louisiana firefighter who traveled to Baton Rouge to help with flood rescue efforts is believed to have accidentally discharged his weapon, wounding another firefighter, according to officials. The incident happened Monday night in the 9000 block of Greenwell Springs Road. Investigators say the bullet first hit a boat and then hit the fireman.
- PUB DATE: 8/16/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KSLA-TV Shreveport News 12

A California man was arrested Monday on arson charges for allegedly sparking a wildfire that exploded over the weekend, destroying more than 175 homes, businesses and other structures in a small town, authorities said. Lake County Sheriff Brian Martin said Damin Anthony Pashilk, 40, of Clearlake was arrested Monday on 17 counts of arson and is in jail.
- PUB DATE: 8/16/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Fox News

As a Philadelphia firefighter, Steven Mesete often is required to spring into action at a moment's notice, abruptly sending his heart into rat-a-tat mode. "You can be sitting still, and then running at 100 miles an hour," he said. One day last week, Mesete ramped up his cardiovascular system in a much more controlled fashion, walking on a treadmill with wires stuck to his chest and a cardiologist standing nearby.
- PUB DATE: 8/16/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Philly.com

Chief Michael Jensen is leaving Unified Fire Authority, an agency under investigation over bonuses it approved for him and three others. During a two-hour closed-door meeting, Jensen said, he and the agency's board had a "long, good discussion" and agreed on a "mutual separation" in the best interest of Unified Fire Authority (UFA).
- PUB DATE: 8/16/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Salt Lake Tribune

NASA’s new artificial intelligence — capable of running on a cellphone — could soon put Apple’s Siri and Microsoft’s Cortana to shame. The hope for the AI, named AUDREY, is to be deployed in the field to help save first responders’ lives by making split-second recommendations in dangerous situations, NASA officials said.
- PUB DATE: 8/16/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Los Angeles Daily News

On August 15, 3 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

On August 14, 1 residential fire fatality was reported by the Nation's news media.

An overnight fire destroyed a shed and about 1,000 bales of hay. Firefighters from five area departments responded to the fire, which was still smoldering after sunrise Monday. It was called in about midnight, and town of Gillett firefighters arrived to find it fully engulfed, Chief Dale Reichwald said.
- PUB DATE: 8/15/2016 7:45:45 AM - SOURCE: Green Bay Press-Gazette

The recent use of a drone by the Barron County Sheriff to aid in locating the body of Dennis Meyer, the suspect in the recent murder-suicide in the Town of Round Lake, is the first time such an unmanned aircraft has been employed in a Sawyer County search. Sawyer County Search and Rescue member Mel VanWey owns drones and was asked to use his during the nighttime search for Meyer, but he declined because his drones do not have a thermal imaging camera and are unable to fly in the rain.
- PUB DATE: 8/15/2016 7:06:23 AM - SOURCE: Sawyer County Record

On August 13, 4 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

On August 10, 5 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

Residents from three apartments were displaced after a kitchen fire broke out Sunday night, according to a release from the Madison Fire Department. Firefighters were called at 10:18 p.m. to River’s Edge Apartments at 1766 Fordem Avenue on a report of an alarm activation. Neighbors also reported seeing fire on the top floor of the building.
- PUB DATE: 8/15/2016 6:06:49 AM - SOURCE: WISC-TV Channel 3000.com Madison

VIDEO: A standoff between police and an angry crowd turned violent Saturday night in the hours after a Milwaukee police officer shot and killed an armed suspect during a foot chase on the city's north side. After an hours-long confrontation with officers, police reported at 10:15 p.m. that a gas station at N.
- PUB DATE: 8/15/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Justin Beebe loved nature, especially the woods. He was also a hard worker who always put others before himself, his lifelong friend Colin James said. So it seemed only natural that Beebe combined these elements and joined the Lolo Hotshots crew to fight wildland fires. “This was the job of his dreams,” James said.
- PUB DATE: 8/15/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Las Vegas Review-Journal

More than 5,400 Ground Zero responders and others who lived, worked or went to school near the fallen Twin Towers have come down with 9/11-linked cancers, a grim tally that has tripled in the past 2¹/2 years. As of June 30, 5,441 people enrolled in the WTC Health Program have been diagnosed with 6,378 separate cancers, with some struck by more than one type, officials said.
- PUB DATE: 8/15/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: new york post

When the fast-moving Oak Knoll fire jumped from a field of dry grass and weeds across Interstate 5, it began devouring a row of Ashland homes, sending thick plumes of black smoke into the air. "Heavy, thick, dark, acrid smoke was rolling through the subdivision," Jackson County Fire District 5 Chief Darin Welburn said of the 2010 fire started by a mentally ill homeless man.
- PUB DATE: 8/15/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Mail Tribune

A wind-whipped wildfire roared through a Northern California town still recovering from a devastating blaze nearly a year ago, destroying more than 100 homes and forcing thousands of people to flee, authorities said Monday. The fire seemed calm Sunday before gusts kicked up the flames that tore through neighborhoods in Lower Lake, a town of 1,200 about 90 miles north of San Francisco, officials said.
- PUB DATE: 8/15/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KGO-TV ABC 7 San Francisco

A former Old Orchard Beach fire chief has been indicted on a felony arson charge and a related misdemeanor in connection with a seven-alarm fire in April that burned 42 acres of marshland in the town. Ricky Plummer, 59, of Biddeford resigned from his post about a week after he was arrested on the arson charge on May 7.
- PUB DATE: 8/15/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Portland Press Herald

On August 14, 0 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.