Janesville Deputy Fire Chief Jim Ponkauskas will serve as the department’s interim chief starting in January. The Janesville Police and Fire Commission selected Ponkauskas Oct. 3. Fire Chief Randy Banker will retire in January. Based on the existing shared administrative services agreement with the Janesville, Ponkauskas will, as Banker is doing, serve as interim chief of the Milton and Milton Township Fire Department.
- PUB DATE: 10/10/2018 1:41:40 AM - SOURCE: Milton Courier

VIDEO: The Rhinelander Fire Department plans to wear bright pink shirts all month long to raise breast cancer awareness. The department has worn and sold pink shirts since 2009 for the month of October. Firefighter Adam Johnson said last year the department raised enough to help out four local families affected by breast cancer.
- PUB DATE: 10/10/2018 12:05:48 AM - SOURCE: WJFW-TV NBC 12 Rhinelander-Wausau

Durham has named a northern Virginia firefighter and mayor its new fire chief. Robert J. Zoldos II will start work Nov. 13, replacing interim Chief Chris Iannuzzi. Zoldos is the former three-term mayor of the small town of Lovettsville, Virginia, which is in Loudoun County in northern Virginia. He has worked for the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department for 25 years and is the deputy chief of the department’s health, safety and wellness division.
- PUB DATE: 10/10/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Durham Herald-Sun & Chapel Hill Herald

VIDEO - Dashcam video from the Wilmer Police Department captured a scary moment Saturday when an SUV lost control on a wet highway and crashed into police officers and firefighters responding to a separate incident. The crash, which everyone survived, happened Saturday morning in Hutchins on the eastbound side of Interstate 20 between Interstate 45 and Dowdy Ferry Road, according to Wilmer police.
- PUB DATE: 10/10/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KXAS-TV NBC 5 Dallas - Fort Worth

Brainerd city officials committed unfair labor practices by eliminating full-time firefighter positions in 2015, moves that led to to the elimination of the firefighters union, the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled. In a published opinion posted Monday, Oct. 8, the appeals court reversed part of a Crow Wing County District Court decision that had sided with the city in a lawsuit filed by the Firefighters Union Local 4725 and union President Mark Turner.
- PUB DATE: 10/10/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Brainerd Dispatch

The New Haven Fire Department has launched an internal investigation after a firefighter was found unresponsive while on duty. “Any time one of our units does not respond, it is a great concern of all of us,” Chief John Alston told NBC Connecticut. “Whether that be a firefighter in distress or even a mechanical issue, we take all of it seriously.
- PUB DATE: 10/10/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NBC Connecticut

VIDEO - The Yorktown Fire Department is taking a popular social media trend to an emotional, yet powerful new level. The all-volunteer department collaborated with local filmmaker Hayden Goldsworthy to produce an eight-minute video for a "Lip Sync Challenge." But instead of doing what many organizations have done — make a goofy, costume-filled parody of a song — their video is more serious and highlights a troubling trend among groups of first responders: suicides left more officers and firefighters dead last year than all line-of-duty deaths combined.
- PUB DATE: 10/10/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Muncie Star Press

On October 9, 0 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

Officials say an explosion at an ethanol plant in southern Wisconsin caused structural damage, but did not result in any injuries to employees or first responders. Green County Emergency Management Director Tanna McKeon says the explosion occurred in a silo at Badger State Ethanol in Monroe shortly before 6 a.
- PUB DATE: 10/9/2018 9:11:00 AM - SOURCE: Chippewa Herald

In recognition of National Fire Prevention Week, the Oshkosh Fire Department will be canvassing a south-side neighborhood offering to check residences for working smoke detectors. The boundaries for this project are in the neighborhood bordered by South Park Avenue and 16th Avenue (North-South) and South Main Street and Ohio Street (East-West).
- PUB DATE: 10/9/2018 5:12:36 AM - SOURCE: Oshkosh Northwestern

VIDEO: Two families were displaced by fire at a home near 12th and Center in Milwaukee Monday, Oct. 8, according to the American Red Cross. Red Cross officials said the duplex was heavily damaged. Seven people were displaced, and Milwaukee Fire Department officials said one firefighter was burned. He was taken to the hospital, where he was treated and released.
- PUB DATE: 10/9/2018 3:50:53 AM - SOURCE: WITI Fox Channel 6

Evanston city officials have proposed cutting nearly 40 jobs — including five police officers and nine firefighters — slashing the public health department budget, closing one recreation center, and closing and selling a fire station in order to deal with a $7.4 million deficit expected in the city’s fiscal year 2019 budget.
- PUB DATE: 10/9/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Chicago Tribune

Verizon is touting its commitment to firefighters and public safety in a new ad, released weeks after Verizon throttled the Santa Clara County fire department while it was fighting California's largest-ever wildfire. "From coast to coast and everywhere in between, people rely on us to ensure they can communicate when they need it most," Verizon said in an introduction to the new ad.
- PUB DATE: 10/9/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: ars Technica

Gold Ridge volunteer firefighters Tonia and Vail Bello and their son and daughter were in Hollister last year for an early October weekend and asleep when the flurry of texts and pages began. Are you coming? firefighters and friends asked. When can you be here? They woke their kids, gathered the dog, climbed into the family SUV and sped north on Highway 101.
- PUB DATE: 10/9/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Santa Rosa Press Democrat

You are at the training grounds, moving through some hoseline deployment evolutions. It’s a beautiful day, and everyone is enjoying the opportunity to get some hands-on training completed. The training division has created timed evolutions, and it’s become somewhat of a competition between adjacent companies.
- PUB DATE: 10/9/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1

A six-month-old program aimed at getting help for people addicted to opioids is seeing positive results , according to leaders of the effort. The city’s heroin quick response team has contacted 65 people who have had an opioid overdose since its launch March 1. Called the Helping Overdose through Prevention and Education, or HOPE, program, a team consisting of a police officer, paramedic and a social worker has a goal of meeting with a person who overdosed within three to five days to connect them with appropriate assistance.
- PUB DATE: 10/9/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Journal-News

VIDEO: 147 years ago, two deadly fires in the Midwest destroyed thousands of homes and businesses. But no other fire compares to the Peshtigo fire which killed at least 1,200 people - and is the deadliest in U.S. history. The Great Chicago fire blazed it's way across the Windy City the same day a forest fire ignited in Peshtigo.
- PUB DATE: 10/8/2018 10:30:13 PM - SOURCE: WFRV-TV and WJMN-TV Green Bay

On October 7, 5 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

On October 7, 4 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

Greenfield Police are looking for answers about a body found inside a burned-out pickup truck. Officers got a call from a neighbor about a vehicle on fire in the 5600-block of Parking Street about 4am Sunday. After firefighters put the fire out, they found a body inside the car. Greenfield Police are not saying who it is, or how they died.
- PUB DATE: 10/8/2018 9:01:33 AM - SOURCE: WXER-FM 104.5 & 96.1 The Point