Austin city officials announced the temporary suspension of a fire battalion chief for being involved in what they described as a preventable car crash involving one of the fire department's vehicles. Battalion Chief Jeff Pine was suspended for three days, with his suspension starting Tuesday, a disciplinary memo from Austin fireChief Rhoda Mae Kerr said.
- PUB DATE: 11/17/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: firehouse

Town Council voted Monday night to bring charges against two of its four remaining suspended volunteer firefighters. The unspecified charges will be handled by a hearing officer, who will decide the firefighters' fates in the company, officials said. Town Solicitor Brian Howell, who along with Town Business Administrator Jerry Barberio has investigated allegations against six firefighters, did not name the two who will face a hearing.
- PUB DATE: 11/17/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: press of atlantic city

On November 15, 4 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

On November 14, 9 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

On November 13, 9 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

The city of Flagstaff is looking to try something new when it comes to training its firefighters for leadership positions. Flagstaff Fire Chief Mark Gaillard will propose a two-year pilot program with Summit Fire District at Tuesday’s Flagstaff City Council meeting. The program would involve the city making one of the Fire Department’s battalion chiefs an acting deputy chief and assigning that person to Summit Fire for day-to-day operations.
- PUB DATE: 11/16/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Arizona Daily Sun

Being a volunteer firefighter meant everything to Pat Hardison, but when an accident during a rescue mission left his face severely burned, he thought he would never be the same again. “It was terrible,” Hardison, 41, told “Nightline." “I mean, I left home one day a normal dad, leaving to go to work, just a blonde-haired, blue-eyed-- that had everything going, I thought, and just like that everything changed drastically.
- PUB DATE: 11/16/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: abc news

Attorneys representing a man accused of setting a fire in 1995 that killed three Pittsburgh firefighters called prosecutors' attempt to get a new judge “pure gamesmanship” in a motion filed Friday. Gregory Brown, 38, is awaiting a retrial based on evidence that prosecutors didn't share with jurors and the defense that a federal agent and a prosecutor promised two key witnesses cash rewards in exchange for their testimony.
- PUB DATE: 11/16/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Mendocino Redwood Co. is challenging a tiny fire protection district’s new parcel tax, calling it unlawful. It’s one of two fronts on which the timber corporation is wrangling with the 44-square-mile Albion-Little River Fire Protection District, which has about 3,000 residents along the Mendocino County coast.
- PUB DATE: 11/16/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Santa Rosa Press Democrat

VIDEO - A viral video of a dog nearly burning down a house in Waterbury is now being used around the country to teach fire safety. The video shows three dogs left alone with a couple of pizzas on a stove. One of the dogs jumped up to take a sniff, and wound up turning on the cooktop. The pizza box burst into flames.
- PUB DATE: 11/16/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WTNH-TV ABC 8 New Haven

On November 12, 1 residential fire fatality was reported by the Nation's news media.

On November 10, 4 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

The family of firefighter Kevin Bell, who died while fighting a house fire last year, will sue the city, claiming among other things that the lieutenant who entered the burning house with him may have left Bell behind to die because of "personal animus" between the two men. At a press conference Thursday in the office of their attorney, Paul Levin, Bell's widow and his brother said they hope the lawsuit will provide answers to why Bell was left behind last October and why no one searched for him for eight minutes even though a "mayday call had been made.
- PUB DATE: 11/13/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: hartford courant

An influential advisory committee backed a proposal Wednesday to streamline Sonoma County’s tangled mix of 40-plus fire agencies and request about $9.5 million in annual funding, ending a 14-month study that explored ways to reshape the county’s complex fire services network. About three dozen fire officials from throughout the county hammered out the final decisions at an almost four-hour meeting that touched on the most sensitive issue — the identity of local fire agencies.
- PUB DATE: 11/13/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Lights flashing and siren blaring, the ambulance stopped at a red light, checking for traffic. The firefighter at the wheel eased forward. Halfway through the intersection, his partner saw the truck. “I said, ‘This is going to hurt,’ ” Montgomery County firefighter Robert Sito, 27, told accident investigators later that day at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda.
- PUB DATE: 11/13/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: the washington post

The U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) is partnering on a project with the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) and Drexel University in Philadelphia to research the occurrences and effects of violence against firefighters and EMS responders. The study will examine the circumstances surrounding these acts and determine ways to mitigate workplace/on-duty incidents of violence against responders.
- PUB DATE: 11/13/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: firehouse

The ACLU has filed a sex discrimination charge with the Rhode Island Commission for Human Rights and the E-E-O-C on behalf of Former Harmony EMT and Firefighter Kimberly Perreault. "I just think that the board and the chief should be held accountable for their actions,” said Perreault. Perreault had been with the volunteer fire district for 12 years working primarily as an EMT.
- PUB DATE: 11/13/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WLNE-TV ABC 6

On November 11, 5 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

On November 10, 6 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

Federal officials have rejected a call to toughen the fire-resistance of railroad tank cars that carry highly flammable crude oil, hundreds of which pass through the Chicago area each day. The U.S. Department of Transportation is standing by its decision issued last spring that new and retrofitted tank cars be required to withstand being engulfed in a pool of burning liquid for 100 minutes without exploding.
- PUB DATE: 11/12/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: chicago tribune