On October 18, 5 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

On October 15, 0 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

On October 14, 2 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

On October 13, 8 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

A collapse during a fire at a west Austin condominium complex sent three firefighters to the hospital with burns Sunday morning. While fighting the fire, the second floor gave way and burning debris trapped Lt. Jeremy Burke, Firefighter Wille Cook, and Firefighter Jimmy Casares, according to the Austin Fire Department.
- PUB DATE: 10/19/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KXAN-TV NBC 36 Austin

City officials ordered flags flown at half staff to honor former fire Chief John B. Stewart Jr., a 40-year veteran of the Hartford fire department, who died Sunday morning. Stewart was the first African American fire chief in New England when he took over the department in 1980. He remained chief for 12 years before getting into politics, and eventually became majority leader of the city council.
- PUB DATE: 10/19/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: hartford courant

The International Association of Fire Fighters is a small union of just under 300,000 members with political influence far beyond its size. The obvious reason for this is the respect many Americans have for firefighters, who consistently rank as some of the country’s most admired professionals. The less obvious reason is Harold A.
- PUB DATE: 10/19/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: the new york times

The state association that handles workers’ compensation claims for cities is appealing a decision last month to award benefits to a cancer-stricken Bedford firefighter. Lt. Keith Long, who has stage 4 colon cancer, has fought the city and the Texas Municipal League Intergovernmental Risk Pool for lost wages for two years, saying his illness was caused by on-the-job exposure to carcinogens.
- PUB DATE: 10/19/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: star-telegram

A high-ranking Cal Fire Academy official fired during a drinking-and-sex scandal that roiled the department has lost his appeal to return to work. Lawyers representing former Assistant Chief Mike Ramirez says he is now prepared seek a rehearing by the State Personnel Board or take the case to civil court.
- PUB DATE: 10/19/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: sacramento bee

Some Kansas City blazes that claimed the lives of firefighters over the past half-decade have led to safety innovations that became commonplace nationally. Two Kansas City firefighters were killed last Monday when the wall of a burning, multi-story brick building collapsed onto them and two others. A rapid intervention team, or RIT team, rushed in and pulled the four men from beneath the rubble.
- PUB DATE: 10/19/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KCTV-TV CBS 5 Kansas City

PHOTO - A violent collision between a van and a Prince George's County fire engine critically injured a driver and closed the Inner Loop of the Capital Beltway for several hours. A work van rammed into the back of a Ritchie Volunteer Fire Department engine at the scene of an earlier crash on southbound I-495 at Ritchie Marlboro Road around 11:00 Thursday night, according to tweets from Mark Brady, spokesman for the Prince George's County Fire Department.
- PUB DATE: 10/16/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WUSA-TV 9 DC

Branford Deputy Chief Ronald R. Mullen died last night when he walked onto an Amtrak railroad track and was struck by an oncoming Shoreline East passenger train near Pleasant Point Road in Pine Orchard. Mullen, who was 55, served with the Branford Fire Department for nearly four decades and was considered one of the best arson investigators in the state.
- PUB DATE: 10/16/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: new haven independent

California's corrections chief is defending the state's use of inmates with violent pasts to fight drought-fueled wildfires, while promising to mend relations with critics who fear the prisoners create a public safety danger. "This is not the time to do any retrenching with the fires we've been having — and there's no need to do any retrenching because there haven't been any problems," Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard said.
- PUB DATE: 10/16/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: abc news

A recent column published in the Washington Post suggested that because overall losses from fires have gone down in recent years, career firefighters are therefore largely irrelevant and their ranks could be diminished or replaced by part-time or volunteer workers. The column went on to describe firefighting as mostly about "eating and sleeping, mopping floors, lifting weights, grocery shopping.
- PUB DATE: 10/16/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: firerescue1

PHOTO - Emergency crews shoveled mud from a section of Interstate 5 north of Los Angeles after flash flood debris blocked the important roadway, stranded hundreds of vehicles, and forced some motorists to take refuge on top of their cars. Excavator trucks scooped and hauled away mud in the darkness Thursday night with the cleanup expected to continue well into Friday, leaving thousands of drivers searching for alternative routes.
- PUB DATE: 10/16/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: santa cruz sentinel

Former Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran, who described homosexuality as a perversion akin to bestiality in a book he authored two years ago, is entitled to his religious beliefs, attorneys for Cochran and the City of Atlanta agreed Wednesday. But his faith isn’t the reason he was fired last January, Mayor Kasim Reed’s administration argued in a federal court hearing over his dismissal.
- PUB DATE: 10/15/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: wsb radio

A veteran firefighter died Wednesday while on a call around the corner from his home, according to city officials. Gerald "Bear" Celecki, 70, collapsed after responding to a call concerning the smell of gas at a home on Parker Avenue, said South Amboy Fire Chief Michael Geraltowski. "We don't know exactly what happened yet," Geraltowski said Wednesday afternoon.
- PUB DATE: 10/15/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Newark Star-Ledger/NJ.com

Mayor Mike Duggan named someone from outside the Detroit Fire Department to become the city's new fire commissioner this morning, selecting Eric Jones, a former cop and director of the city's Building Department. Duggan introduced Jones, 46, at a news conference this morning at the Detroit Fire Department's Engine Co.
- PUB DATE: 10/15/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: detroit free press

Rapid City firefighter Dave Ruhl apparently was trapped by a sudden shift in the direction of the California wildfire he was scouting in July, according to a newly issued Forest Service report on his death. The body of Ruhl, 38, was found July 31 at the scene of the Frog Fire in the Modoc National Forest, where he was on a temporary assignment away from his regular duties as an engine captain in South Dakota’s Black Hills National Forest.
- PUB DATE: 10/15/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: rapid city journal

VIDEO - October is Fire Prevention Month and it can be a challenge to get children excited about fire prevention. So, the Mustang Fire Department put on a production like no other to get elementary kids to soak up the safety tips and it worked. Firefighters took popular songs and changed the lyrics into fire safety terms.
- PUB DATE: 10/15/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KWTV-TV Oklahoma City