You don’t see it often. Even less so in Wisconsin — bipartisan legislation. The state got that last year in restricting firefighting foam containing PFAS, compounds that have been linked to cancer and other illnesses that have turned up drinking wells across the U.S. After some debate, lawmakers agreed to regulate the use and disposal of PFAS.
- PUB DATE: 8/14/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WIZM News Talk 1410 AM

It was the worst of the worst. Good young men. Running for their lives. Nowhere to hide. The fire was relentless. This month marks the 83rd memorial anniversary of the worst forest fire disaster in Wyoming history when it comes to loss of firefighter lives. In an obscure and difficult place to reach called Blackwater, a group of forest rangers and Civilian Conservation Corps firefighters lost their lives on Aug.
- PUB DATE: 8/14/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Cowboy State Daily

When everyone who tests positive for coronavirus in your community gets a call from a public health worker asking them about their contacts, and those contacts are then asked to quarantine, that can be a powerful way to keep the virus from spreading. But contact tracing can do more than that: At scale, the data gathered in those calls also offers vital information about where transmission is happening in a community.
- PUB DATE: 8/14/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: National Public Radio

VIDEO: Prankster Stephen Gilchrist Glover, better known as Steve-O, was removed from a Hollywood billboard to which he taped himself Thursday. Glover posted a selfie on Instagram, showing several layers of what appears to be black tape covering his body from his armpits to his thighs. Video of him being removed from the billboard showed he only wore what appeared to be white underwear underneath the tape.
- PUB DATE: 8/14/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KCAL-TV CBS 9 Los Angeles

A Lebanon firefighter who was injured in an explosion at a hotel on Christmas Eve morning last year is telling what happened. Capt. Jeffrey Egner was one of two firefighters who were injured in an explosion at the Element Hotel in Lebanon on the morning of Dec. 24. According to the Lebanon Fire Department, they received an alarm just after 5:15 a.
- PUB DATE: 8/14/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WPTZ-TV NBC 5 Plattsburg

Eric Retterbush has never liked taking photos of people. The practice feels invasive and risks overlooking the beauty of, say, a wheelbarrow or a particularly striking façade, he says. It also teeters on voyeurism. How many in the throng of a bustling Burmese market—one of the countries he works in as a travel guide (his day job)—have been photographed without their permission? Wasn’t it Honoré de Balzac who said all physical bodies were made of ghostlike images, “an infinite number of leaflike skins laid one on top of the other,” and repeated exposure to a camera stripped these—that is, the very essence of life—off? No—street photography, candid portraiture, a shot of someone who doesn’t know you—it was never Retterbush’s pull.
- PUB DATE: 8/14/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Arizona Daily Sun

The search for a new South Beloit Fire Chief is moving along at a brisk pace as city officials are preparing to interview six applicants for the position on Saturday. Brian Hedrington, who serves as commissioner of health and public safety on the city council, said there were 20 to 25 applicants for the fire chief’s position.
- PUB DATE: 8/13/2020 8:48:52 PM - SOURCE: Beloit Daily News

A lack of volunteers and eligible recruits in the area is forcing a longstanding fire department in rural Dodge County to make a tough decision. A large majority of Wisconsin’s fire departments are run mostly or entirely by volunteers, according to recent government statistics. It’s getting harder for many departments to recruit those volunteers, fire service leaders said, especially in rural communities.
- PUB DATE: 8/13/2020 8:38:30 PM - SOURCE: WMSN-TV Fox 47 Madison

Two firefighters were treated for injuries sustained while battling a fire at Chilton’s Kaytee Products facility. The Chilton Fire Department says they were dispatched at around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday afternoon for a commercial fire alarm via a pull station activation at Kaytee Products in the 600 block of Clay Street.
- PUB DATE: 8/13/2020 5:00:37 AM - SOURCE: WFRV-TV and WJMN-TV CBS 5 Green Bay

Randy Wichlacz was a hero to the people of Pulaski. The longtime firefighter put everything into his job at the Pulaski Tri-County Fire Department, where he became chief in 2008 after his father – the department’s former leader – died in an accident at the station. He loved to help people, said his daughter, Kimberly McGrath.
- PUB DATE: 8/13/2020 4:24:47 AM - SOURCE: Appleton Post-Gazette & The Post Crescent

A historic building in Uptown in Kenosha that houses several businesses and apartments was the scene of a massive fire early Wednesday morning. The fire, which was called in just before 8 a.m., apparently started at the Music Outlet, 6217 22nd Ave., according to Kenosha Fire Chief Charles Leipzig. Leipzig said the investigation was still ongoing and the official cause of the fire was yet to be determined, but it was believed a person inside the record store was burning incense in the early-morning hours and attempted to extinguish the fire alone, but was unsuccessful.
- PUB DATE: 8/13/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Kenosha News

A firefighter narrowly missed what could have been a dangerous situation. Sacramento Fire crews responded around 2:15 a.m. Thursday to deal with a pickup truck that caught fire near the intersection of Beloit Drive and Main Avenue During the firefight, one of the tires on the truck exploded right in front of a firefighter.
- PUB DATE: 8/13/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KOVR-TV CBS 13 Sacramento

the wake of last September’s explosion in Farmington, which was caused by a gas leak and claimed the life of Farmington Fire Department Captain Michael Bell and injured several others, Governor Janet Mills announced Wednesday that her administration has purchased gas detection meters for twenty fire departments across Maine.
- PUB DATE: 8/13/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WCSH-TV NBC 6 Portland

The large overnight fire in Durham may bring back memories of a similar one three years ago in Raleigh. During the historic Raleigh fire, flames spread to nine buildings – it was a much bigger fire. Many people are asking: Why did the Raleigh fire expand so much farther and cause so much more damage than the Durham fire? Sandy Kromenacker, a fire expert in Raleigh, compared this Durham fire to the memorable downtown Raleigh fire in 2017, saying, "Both properties were under construction.
- PUB DATE: 8/13/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WRAL-TV NBC 5 Raleigh

In a town where nearly everyone lives in the same building, COVID-19 has emerged. The Prince William Sound community of Whittier, where around 85% percent of its 280 year-round residents live in the 14-story Begich Towers building, now has six positive resident cases among a family there, according to Jim Hunt, Whittier city manager.
- PUB DATE: 8/13/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Anchorage Daily News - Metered Site

VIDEO: A historic building in Uptown in Kenosha that houses several businesses and apartments was the scene of a massive fire early Wednesday morning. The fire, which was called in just before 8 a.m., apparently started at the Music Outlet, 6217 22nd Ave., according to Kenosha Fire Chief Charles Leipzig.
- PUB DATE: 8/13/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Kenosha News

The Wind Lake Volunteer Fire Department has undergone a bit of shuffling within the leadership department. Justin Lyman took over as fire chief on July 9 after the former chief, Don Catenacci, a former career firefighter with Wauwatosa and an assistant chief with Verona, retired. Catenacci began as Wind Lake chief in September 2018.
- PUB DATE: 8/12/2020 5:14:47 AM - SOURCE: Racine Journal Times

Far fewer people voted in Wheatland on a binding resolution to authorize funding for firehouse construction than voted in a non-binding referendum in February seeking support to build a new station. But, the result on Monday night was the same. Their answer was “no.” This time, by a larger margin. In February, 426 residents, or 58%, voted against a plan to spend up to $3.
- PUB DATE: 8/12/2020 1:05:23 AM - SOURCE: Kenosha News

Mayor Lori Lightfoot has cut a one-year deal with the Chicago Firefighters Union that includes $95 million in back pay but would nearly double employee health care contributions. One union official said rank-and-file members are “not happy” about the hike in health care costs, though the contract also maintains treasured union perks and outdated staffing requirements that cost taxpayers millions.
- PUB DATE: 8/12/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Chicago Sun Times - Metered Site

VIDEO: The Franklin Fire Department trains for all types of incidents, but the rescue of two teenagers from a railroad bridge above the Harpeth River Monday was unique. Officials told News 2 the teenagers were walking on the railroad tracks around 8:15 at night. One of them dropped a cell phone, and both went to retrieve it.
- PUB DATE: 8/12/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WKRN-TV ABC 2 Nashville