A rash of firefighter injuries over the past month, including 26 injuries sustained at two wind-fueled blazes on March 31, prompted a city administration investigation into the contributing factors. Public Safety Commissioner Steven M. Pare said officials, are concerned about the number of firefighters injured — more than two dozen — at three burning houses on Eaton Street near Providence College and two houses on Laurel Hill Avenue.
- PUB DATE: 4/22/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: providence journal

PHOTO - An ambulance that was transporting a person to the hospital lost control Wednesday and smashed into an overpass on the Southern State Parkway — killing both the driver and the patient, cops said. The privately owned Hunter EMS vehicle was heading eastbound on the Long Island highway when it veered off the road and slammed into a brick wall at Eagle Avenue near Exit 18, just after 12 p.
- PUB DATE: 4/21/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: new york post

Before he was fired last month, Naples Fire Chief Steve McInerny argued that several members of the City Council defamed him and denied him his legal rights, according to a Feb. 9 letter sent by his lawyer. The lawyer, Robert Bates, sent the letter to Naples City Attorney Bob Pritt indicating McInerny wanted to settle his disputes with the city five weeks before McInerny was fired on March 15.
- PUB DATE: 4/21/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: naples daily news

A high-ranking Chicago Fire Department official has resigned his command position after he was in a traffic accident early Wednesday with his city-issued vehicle on North Lake Shore Drive, a department spokesman said. Chicago Fire Department Deputy Commissioner John McNicholas was “operating his city vehicle outside department policy” when it crashed sometime during the early morning hours near Lake Shore Drive and North Avenue, said spokesman Larry Langford.
- PUB DATE: 4/21/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: firehouse

A Hugo, Oklahoma firefighter, who led law enforcement on a chase that ended in a standoff and who took his own life in Savoy Monday afternoon, was said to have lived a life opposite of his final actions. “It’s not anything you expect at all with a guy of his capabilities,” Hugo Fire Chief Ron Cloud said.
- PUB DATE: 4/21/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: herald democrat

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