On February 22, 1 residential fire fatality was reported by the Nation's news media.

The La Crosse Fire Department responded to a fire at an apartment building Friday night. Firefighters got the call around 9:45 p.m. for a fire at 918 Denton Street. According to La Crosse Fire Chief Ken Gilliam, firefighters were able to get everyone out of the two-story building safely and put out the fire fairly quickly.
- PUB DATE: 2/22/2019 10:18:40 PM - SOURCE: WKBT-TV CBS 8 La Crosse

The Merrill Fire Department is asking residents to help them dig out snow-covered fire hydrants next weekend. With more than three feet of snow falling across central Wisconsin in February so far and more snow on the way this weekend, firefighters are concerned they will have a hard time finding fire hydrants and will then have to spend valuable time digging them out at the scene of a fire.
- PUB DATE: 2/22/2019 10:52:55 AM - SOURCE: WSAW-TV CBS 7 Wausau

The Hales Corners Fire Department is investigating why three on-duty personnel were unable to respond with a fire engine to a January car fire. Village Administrator Sandra Kulik said that one the morning of Jan. 16, three part-time firefighters who didn’t have certification for driving a fire engine were on duty when a 59-year-old woman reported her car was on fire.
- PUB DATE: 2/22/2019 8:20:46 AM - SOURCE: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Three men were rescued Friday morning after they became trapped in the sub-basement of a downtown Appleton bar. At about 1:50 a.m., the Appleton Fire Department was called to The Durty Leprechaun, 343 W. College Ave., for a report that a stairwell had collapsed and trapped three men in a sub-basement, the department said.
- PUB DATE: 2/22/2019 6:46:40 AM - SOURCE: Sheboygan Press

Great Falls City Firefighter Jason Baker lost his battle with Stage IV lung cancer Wednesday morning. His friend and fellow firefighter, David Van Son, remembers Baker, an 18-year-veteran of the city’s fire fighting team, as not only a terrific firefighter, but an all-around great man. The 45-year-old Baker, a non-smoker and otherwise the picture of fitness, was diagnosed with cancer in 2016.
- PUB DATE: 2/22/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Montana Public Radio

Orlando Fire Department Chief Roderick Williams resigned Thursday after the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission determined he and two deputy chiefs discriminated against a female employee. “I regret that during my tenure there have been allegations that have hurt the department and the City of Orlando,” Williams said in a letter submitted Thursday afternoon.
- PUB DATE: 2/22/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Orlando Sentinel

VIDEO: Dorchester County Council is considering taking steps to have the North Charleston Fire Department take over the area that is currently served by the Ashley River Fire Department, and shut the department down. The Ashley River Special Tax District was formed in 1979 to create the fire department because there was no fire protection near the area.
- PUB DATE: 2/22/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WCBD-TV

VIDEO: Fire officials in Dauphin County are questioning how safe their paging systems are. Deputy Fire Chief of Hummelstown Fire Department, Leland Blough, says the pagers they use, requires them to look down and read fire calls, sometimes while driving, making them unsafe. The pagers were a 35 million dollar investment, purchased in 2010 by Dauphin County.
- PUB DATE: 2/22/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WPMT-TV Fox 43

Waukegan Mayor Sam Cunningham accused the Waukegan firefighters union of fearmongering in its push to increase contractually mandated staffing levels. The city and Waukegan International Association of Firefighters Local 473 are in the midst of negotiating a replacement to a three-year contract that expired in April 2018.
- PUB DATE: 2/22/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Chicago Tribune - Metered Site

A man known as a pillar of the Sun Prairie Fire Department is stepping down after generations of work. Arnie Kleven first joined the department in 1972. Kleven worked across the street form station 1 before he took the job. He worked at GT and would hear the fire sirens go off, prompting him to poke his head out to see where they were going.
- PUB DATE: 2/21/2019 9:20:09 PM - SOURCE: WMTV-TV NBC 15 Madison

The La Crosse Fire Department has responded to 13 fires just in 2019 alone. "It's been abnormally busy for the last two months," said Assistant Chief Jeff Murphy. Despite recent record-setting snowfalls, officials say most of the fires have not been related to the cold weather. "Most of the calls, most of these fires have been related to careless smoking, electrical, various other causes," said Murphy.
- PUB DATE: 2/21/2019 5:22:25 PM - SOURCE: WEAU-TV 13 News

On February 19, 7 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

Houston officials have offered to raise firefighters’ base salaries, but not sufficiently to establish pay parity with police officers as approved by voters, city and firefighter union officials said Wednesday. “In my mind, the proposal makes no effort to implement Prop B,” union attorney Troy Blakeney said, referring to the ballot item reflecting a city charter amendment approved in a Nov.
- PUB DATE: 2/21/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Houston Chronicle

Baltimore City Council members on Tuesday questioned Fire Department officials about the agency’s aging vehicles and stations and demanded more information on staffing policies and overtime costs. The council members who sit on the public safety committee asked the department to provide them with data on its operations to help determine how best to allocate resources to improve response times, repair aging firehouses and vehicles, and provide proper overtime pay to employees.
- PUB DATE: 2/21/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Baltimore Sun - Metered Site

VIDEO: Springfield's Fire Chief says there is nothing he can do when it comes to recommending charges in fires caused as a result of drug production, so he is taking the fight to the capitol. The issue regards to two sections of the current state fire law-- which were written when focus was on methamphetamine.
- PUB DATE: 2/21/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: OzarksFirst.com

The city of Los Angeles will pay $800,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by a veteran fire marshal who was transferred out of his job after he clashed with inspectors in his department and the fire union sought his removal. The City Council voted 10 to 0 without discussion Wednesday to approve the settlement payment.
- PUB DATE: 2/21/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Los Angeles Times - Metered Site

A spat between Cleveland and one of its labor unions over when firefighters should start work each day has escalated to a case before the Ohio Supreme Court over who should referee the fight. The high court this week ordered Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Nancy Margaret Russo to file a brief by Friday that explains why she should be allowed to have a part in the case.
- PUB DATE: 2/21/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Cleveland.com

On February 20, 1 residential fire fatality was reported by the Nation's news media.

Earlier this week, CBS 58 News told you how cancer caused 70% of firefighter line-of-duty deaths in 2016. Now, that story is being used to promote change at a Waukesha County station. Leaders have decided one single shower in the building isn't enough to keep firefighters safe from the toxins and carcinogens they're exposed to in their work.
- PUB DATE: 2/20/2019 9:16:38 PM - SOURCE: WDJT-TV CBS 58 Milwaukee