Gerald Munson, the former chief of the Croton-on-Hudson Fire Department, and member of a family involved in the village fire services for nearly a century, on Wednesday was sentenced to as much as four and a half years in state prison for stealing $313,000 from the department. Westchester County Court Judge Larry Schwartz handed down the sentence two months after Munson pleaded guilty to grand larceny as a crime of public corruption.
- PUB DATE: 11/29/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NY Journal News (Lohud.com)

The Detroit Firefighters Union is blasting Detroit police, questioning why it took police more than 20 minutes to respond to the scene of a murder. It happened Saturday at a home on Epworth Street on the city's west side. The first calls for help came in at 1:40 a.m. but police didn't get there until repeated calls for help were sent out.
- PUB DATE: 11/29/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WDIV-TV NBC 4 Detroit

On November 28, 10 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

On November 23, 8 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

Ongoing construction appears to be the cause of an Appleton house fire, crews say. Firefighters were called to a home in the 2000 block of N. Oneida St. Wednesday. A smoldering fire inside the wall near the front door of the home was extinguished. While the specific cause of the fire remains undetermined, crews believe it is construction related.
- PUB DATE: 11/28/2018 1:54:11 PM - SOURCE: WLUK TV Fox 11

The Norway town chairwoman is taking a wait-and-see stand regarding allegations of misconduct in Dane County against Don Catenacci, the new fire chief for the Wind Lake Volunteer Fire Company. Catenacci, in addition to his part-time position as fire chief in Wind Lake, is also a part-time assistant chief for the Verona Fire Department in Dane County.
- PUB DATE: 11/28/2018 5:31:30 AM - SOURCE: Racine Journal Times

Area law enforcement and firefighters raised over $50,000 at the Battle of the Badges: The Fight for Autism charity boxing event on Sept. 29 at Racine Case High School. The event is organized by Kenosha resident Jim Kelley of the Mount Pleasant Police Department. A check presentation was held on Nov.
- PUB DATE: 11/28/2018 4:14:39 AM - SOURCE: Kenosha News

Scherrer Construction will oversee the planning and construction of a new firehouse under a contract approved Monday by the Wheatland Town Board. Town Board chairman William Glembocki said Scherrer is a local company and provided the lowest bid, coming in at 4.95 percent of what the total project cost will be.
- PUB DATE: 11/28/2018 1:47:36 AM - SOURCE: Kenosha News

Three Dallas Fire-Rescue firefighters trapped in a burning condo while battling a massive fire Tuesday morning were treated for minor injuries after being rescued by an intervention team, fire officials say. The firefighters were among more than 100 called to battle a large four-alarm fire at about 9:30 a.
- PUB DATE: 11/28/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KXAS-TV NBC 5 Dallas - Fort Worth

When the Woolsey fire swept into the exclusive neighborhood of Bell Canyon, resident Yen Hsieh grabbed her late music teacher’s 200-year-old cello, some belongings and her son’s betta fish Sparky and fled, not sure whether her home would be destroyed. Hsieh said it’s not clear which of the firefighters — private or publicly funded — were responsible for saving her home, but she’s grateful.
- PUB DATE: 11/28/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: San Diego Union-Tribune

For decades, Scott Phillips-Gartner served as a member of Norfolk Fire-Rescue, first as a 911 operator and later as an assistant fire marshal and bomb squad technician. But then in October 2014 he married his longtime boyfriend, leading his bosses to find out he was gay. Phillips-Gartner, 55, says the department ultimately stripped him of his rank and directed him to start working out of a temporary facility miles away from his usual office “with little to no job duties.
- PUB DATE: 11/28/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Norfolk Virginian-Pilot/HamptonRoads.com

Mayor Sylvester Turner will ask Houston city council Wednesday to hire a law firm to advise the city on possible litigation related to the firefighter pay parity measure, setting in motion a potential court challenge to the item approved by voters earlier this month. While the firefighters union has urged the city to return to the negotiating table, Turner has questioned whether the city could preempt the ballot measure approved by voters, suggesting a judge should settle the question first.
- PUB DATE: 11/28/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Houston Chronicle

A Logansport fire that killed six people, including four children, is being investigated as a possible criminal case, according to the Cass County sheriff. The call for the fire came out around 1:50 a.m. in the 4300 block of Pottawatomie Road on the east side of the city. Cass County Fire Lt. Steve Crispen says the sheriff’s department arrived on the scene first.
- PUB DATE: 11/28/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WXIN-TV Fox 59 Indianapolis

A weekend fire has the La Crosse Fire Department warning people about dehumidifiers. Crews responded to a fire caused by a malfunctioning dehumidifier on Saturday. The device was in the home's basement when it caught fire. The Department says about 6-million of the appliances were recalled in recent years, particularly ones made between 2007 and 2014.
- PUB DATE: 11/27/2018 3:38:51 PM - SOURCE: WKBT-TV CBS 8 La Crosse

A criminal complaint filed Monday in Brown County Circuit Court likens the scene of a chemical scare on the city’s west side to a hoarding situation. Police officers who first entered the home’s basement found it littered with jars of chemicals and trash. They were quickly driven out by the smell of chemicals and concern for their own safety, according to a complaint charging Jennifer Lynn Gross with disorderly conduct and obstructing police.
- PUB DATE: 11/27/2018 9:01:19 AM - SOURCE: Green Bay Press-Gazette

On November 20, 8 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

Retirement was looking good for Alicia Welch. After more than 26 years in the Los Angeles Fire Department, she moved to Golden and was skiing, mountain biking, and was learning to play golf. Then she saw that the Golden Fire Department needed a new fire chief. Those golf clubs would have to be used on weekends.
- PUB DATE: 11/27/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KUSA-TV NBC 9 Denver

St. Paul firefighter Joaquin Rosales and several of his colleagues rushed to a pile of rubble on the city’s East Side Friday morning when an unusually large explosion destroyed a home and damaged several buildings. They were searching amid piles of debris and exposed nails when Rosales heard moaning and groaning.
- PUB DATE: 11/27/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune

Serving as the top cop or fire chief in a big city comes with a lot of expectations — waves of mayhem to prevent, thousands of employees to oversee and all of the politics that come with being one of the most recognizable figures on the street. In return, most police and fire chiefs also can expect to be well compensated, even if they aren’t working in one of the nation’s largest cities.
- PUB DATE: 11/27/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: BizJournals.com

VIDEO - The U.S. Forest Service has released video showing an off-duty Border Patrol agent's gender-reveal party explosion that caused a massive wildfire last year in Arizona. The video shows the words "Boy and "Girl" written across a target that's surrounded by tall grass in Green Valley. When the target is hit, a flash of blue powder appears before the explosion sparked the Sawmill Fire, which burned more than 45,000 acres of state and federal land.
- PUB DATE: 11/27/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Fox 10 Phoenix