Woodland Fire Department will cease serving the area after 150 years due in part to a lack of volunteers. “It is the membership,” Woodland Fire Department Chief Tony Roethle said. “People are busy these days and with young married couples both work and they share child care duties as they should.” Roethle said he found many people showing interest in joining were not able to make the time commitment.
- PUB DATE: 10/19/2020 4:29:04 PM - SOURCE: Wisc News - Metered Site

After ushering in an era of shared services and more collaboration with suburban fire departments, retiring Milwaukee Fire Chief Mark Rohlfing sees consolidation as “the next logical step" for firefighting in the area. Under his stewardship, nine Milwaukee County fire departments reached a shared services agreement pledging that the closest unit, regardless of municipal boundaries, will respond to emergency calls.
- PUB DATE: 10/19/2020 4:36:16 AM - SOURCE: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Damaging winds caused significant damage around the Chicago area Saturday night, and strong winds may have even sparked a fire in the northwest suburbs. Multiple fire departments responded to the massive house fire on Burning Tree Circle in McHenry. McHenry police say the house was fully engulfed when crews arrived.
- PUB DATE: 10/19/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WBBM-TV CBS 2 Chicago

A Houston firefighter was injured while responding to a burning storage unit but not by heat or flames. Investigators said a woman shot him with a pellet gun. Houston Fire Department Engine 82 was at a storage facility about 11:30 a.m. Friday in the 12400 block of Fondren Road. They were able to extinguish the fire using a pump can.
- PUB DATE: 10/19/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KHOU-TV CBS 11 Houston

VIDEO: A new device for the Crescent Township Fire Department will help to search and rescue as well as search and recovery efforts go quicker. It’s a drone for underwater. The fire department will be one of the first in our area to have a remote operating vehicle like this for the water. “Just about anything underwater and you want to see if you can find it,” Crescent Township Volunteer Fire Department President John Kriger said.
- PUB DATE: 10/19/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KDKA-TV CBS 2 Pittsburgh

On Friday afternoon, someone stole a flag, designed to honor fallen firefighters, from a Middletown fire engine. By Saturday night, thousands of people across the state and across the country knew about the theft, thanks to a deftly written and slightly sarcastic Facebook post by the firefighters' union.
- PUB DATE: 10/19/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WTIC-TV Fox 61 Hartford

On Oct. 17, 1966, 12 firefighters were killed in what was the deadliest day for the New York City Fire Department until the 9/11 terror attacks. Two chiefs, two lieutenants, and eight firefighters lost their lives as they tried to battle a fire at 22nd Street by entering a building on 23rd Street before it collapsed.
- PUB DATE: 10/19/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Daily News - Metered Site

Facing a nearly $5 million projected shortfall, city leaders in Racine knew they had to make budget changes for 2021. While tightening the belt, Racine Mayor Cory Mason says his proposal still provides a key point of focus: improving racial disparities. In a year that's seen budgets topple, between the coronavirus pandemic, declining revenues and more, Mayor Mason said he's still focused on long-term goals.
- PUB DATE: 10/18/2020 9:32:40 PM - SOURCE: WITI-TV Fox 6 Milwaukee

VIDEO: Seven people were taken to the hospital after a boat explosion and fire on the south fork of the New River early Thursday afternoon. One of those patients had to be airlifted to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial’s burn unit with burns to over 40 percent of the body. Chopper 4 over the burning boat spotted firefighters shooting a stream of water at it from shore as it drifted near a sea wall at 2001 SW 20th Street.
- PUB DATE: 10/16/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WFOR-TV CBS 4 Miami

VIDEO: One first responder in North Sioux City, South Dakota is using his creative skills to give back to his brothers and sisters in the department. Firefighter and emergency medical crew member Joe Pham got inspired to create his own Thin Red Line flag to hang inside the North Sioux City Fire Department.
- PUB DATE: 10/16/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KTIV-TV NBC/CW+ 4 Sioux City

When you think about how technology is enabling remote government work, what comes to mind? Online city council meetings, or enhanced portals for renewing your driver’s license or paying taxes? What about firefighting? While most emergency responders cannot work fully remote due to the nature of their job, they can access the same benefits of unified collaboration tools to quickly connect with stations and seamlessly communicate with other first responders.
- PUB DATE: 10/16/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: American City and County

An 11-year-old girl from Morris Township is showing just how far one small act of kindness can go. It all started as a service project through Callie Danysh's Cub Scouts, a project to honor a local hero. But with the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, the assignment was put on hold. That's when "Flags of Gratitude" was born.
- PUB DATE: 10/16/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New Jersey News Network

The National Transportation Safety Board says the U.S. is woefully unprepared to deal with EV fires, which require different strategies than gasoline vehicle fires. 31 percent of fire departments don't train for EV fires, and half say they don't have special protocols in place to deal with EVs after a crash, the agency's report found.
- PUB DATE: 10/16/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Car and Driver

The City of Portage finalized the decision for the city’s next fire chief on Thursday after an “extensive selection process” with the Police and Fire Commission. The city and the commission announced Portage native Troy Haase will succeed current fire chief Clayton Simonson. Simonson announced earlier this year that he was retiring in January.
- PUB DATE: 10/15/2020 4:29:16 PM - SOURCE: WMTV-TV NBC 15 Madison

The Milwaukee Fire Department plans to close a south side fire station in 2021, a reflection of the tough financial spot the city is in. The decision follows the closure of six stations as part of the 2018 budget. At this point, the "leading candidate" to be shuttered is Station 17 at 4653 S. 13th Street, Fire Chief Mark Rohlfing said.
- PUB DATE: 10/15/2020 3:58:55 PM - SOURCE: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

On Wednesday morning, Tracy Williams, the assistant fire chief for the Westview-Fairforest Fire Department in Spartanburg County, joined other firefighters from across the state at the South Carolina State Fire Academy for a ceremonial bill signing for a law that will support firefighters in the state diagnosed with cancer.
- PUB DATE: 10/15/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WIS-TV NBC/CW 10 Columbia

VIDEO: Before the age of two-way radios, police and fire call boxes could be found on numerous corners across the District of Columbia. The first installations of these boxes began as early as the 1860s. Firefighter call boxes were connected to a central call station and emergency responders would receive a telegraph of which box to dispatch to.
- PUB DATE: 10/15/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WUSA-TV CBS 9 Washington, D.C.

San Diego agreed this week to pay $3.4 million to more than 700 city firefighters to compensate them for underpaid overtime they should have received several years ago. The payout comes six months after the city reached a similar legal settlement with more than 2,300 other city workers for the same kind of underpaid overtime.
- PUB DATE: 10/15/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The San Diego Union-Tribune - Metered Site

Coronavirus cases have been rising in Illinois and many of its surrounding states this fall as health experts brace for a second wave during flu season, and while testing numbers could play a large role in the increased numbers, there's another factor that may be contributing to the spike: the return to school at colleges and universities in the Midwest.
- PUB DATE: 10/15/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WMAQ-TV NBC 5 Chicago

Being a firefighter isn’t what they do, it’s who they are. “It is just something once you start doing it you continue and continue and it builds within you,” said Wayne Cosner. “Either you are going to get in and be in here a couple of years and, BOOM, you are gone, or it grabs hold of you and you become loyal to the system and it becomes a way of life for you.
- PUB DATE: 10/15/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Richmond Times-Dispatch