Mayor Sylvester Turner has instituted a hiring freeze across the city government’s roughly 21,400 positions, ordering department directors seeking exceptions to meet with him or his chief of staff in person. The directive, he wrote in a memo dated Friday, will be reviewed “at a later date this year.
- PUB DATE: 9/26/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Houston Chronicle

Firefighters on patrol are safer than at the station where they’re at risk of a heart attack when the alarm sounds, Mayor Tony George said Tuesday in further explanation of why he’s ordered the department to conduct community fire watches. The department had been conducting the watches, but for the past 40 days stepped them up at the direction of the mayor by driving apparatus in the neighborhoods, not only to serve as a deterrent, but also to detect fires.
- PUB DATE: 9/26/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Wilkes Barre Times Leader

Since 2005, the Orlando Fire Department has trained its paramedics on how to work with police officers to rescue victims from active shooter situations. In 2013, administrators began updating the department’s policy and buying equipment. But the project wasn’t finished until after the June 12, 2016, shooting at the Pulse nightclub.
- PUB DATE: 9/26/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Propublica

Metropolitan fire chiefs from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom met last week for the National Fire Protection Association's (NFPA) annual Urban Fire Forum (UFF) aimed at reinforcing the critical role urban chiefs play in ensuring safe communities. The forum was held at NFPA headquarters in Quincy, MA, and featured special guests such as the head of the U.
- PUB DATE: 9/26/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse.com

Martin Pang, who set fire to a Seattle warehouse in 1995 in hopes of collecting an insurance payout — a blaze that killed four firefighters in the worst loss of life in the department’s history — will be released from prison on Thursday. Pang, now 62, set fire to a frozen-food warehouse owned by his parents in the Chinatown International District on Jan.
- PUB DATE: 9/26/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Seattle Times

A lightning strike exploded the chimney of a home and launched debris into neighboring yards in Wauwatosa. It happened near 72nd Street and Hillcrest Drive late Tuesday afternoon. Debris shattered car windows in the driveway, and bricks ended up inside a neighbor's home. Firefighters were able to extinguish the flames before the fire spread, and no one was hurt.
- PUB DATE: 9/25/2018 10:14:37 PM - SOURCE: WISN-TV ABC 12 Milwaukee

Today, the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation gave back to the firefighter community with the help of donating life-saving equipment and gear. The Town of Fond du Lac Fire Department received five sets of personal protective gear valued at $12,616. The gear includes coats and pants and will give volunteer firefighters will get the necessary protection in the line of duty.
- PUB DATE: 9/25/2018 4:45:14 PM - SOURCE: WFRV-TV and WJMN-TV Green Bay

Jacob Glasow knew something was wrong. He was having a hard time speaking without slurring his words. His wife, Sheena, hadn’t noticed, but after Jacob brought it up in December, she could hear it too. Still, they didn’t think much of it. A few months later, though, Jacob noticed twitching in his upper arms.
- PUB DATE: 9/25/2018 7:02:03 AM - SOURCE: Oshkosh Northwestern

On September 24, 2 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

On September 20, 3 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

VIDEO: Milwaukee police are investigating a fatal house fire that happened Monday night, Sept. 24 in the area of 5th and Wright. The call came in around 10 p.m. When crews arrived on scene, flames were coming from the second floor of the home -- where the 12-year-old boy was trapped. Officials say the boy died at the scene.
- PUB DATE: 9/25/2018 3:37:47 AM - SOURCE: WITI Fox Channel 6

An elderly man was found alive and apparently with a "sense of humor" inside of a D.C. senior apartment building five days after a fire broke out causing more than 100 residents to be displaced. The man has been identified as 74-year-old Raymond Holton, according to sources. Crews hired to evaluate the safety of the structure located Holton Monday morning sitting inside of his apartment in the building that caught on fire last Wednesday.
- PUB DATE: 9/25/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WUSA-TV 9 DC

One Bellingham Fire Department veteran officer retired and another resigned after an investigation revealed a deceased patient in July was taken to Fire Station 1 to await pick up from a funeral home and several department members, including a division chief and EMS captains, practiced multiple intubations on the body, according to information provided by City of Bellingham Communications Director Vanessa Blackburn.
- PUB DATE: 9/25/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Bellingham Herald

A fireman was charged after evidence showed he stole a prescription pill bottle that was found at the scene of a fatal motorcycle crash involving two victims, according to the Macomb County Sheriff's office. On Aug. 21, Macomb County sheriff’s deputies along with the Harrison Township Fire Department, responded to the motorcycle crash near the area of Executive Drive and Joy Boulevard in Harrison Township.
- PUB DATE: 9/25/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WDIV-TV NBC 4 Detroit

An independent study is being conducted on turnout gear after initial samples tested positive for fluorine. According to a press release, University of Notre Dame Experimental Nuclear Physics Professor Graham Peaslee is testing new and used personal protective gear issued through the 2000s for the presence of perfluorinated alkyl substances (PFASs), which have been linked to various forms of cancer.
- PUB DATE: 9/25/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1.com

The mounting costs of providing emergency medical services in rural Asotin County could lead to a new EMS levy proposal in places such as Anatone, Cloverland and the Snake River corridor. At Monday’s Asotin County Commission meeting, Lewiston Fire Chief Travis Myklebust and Asotin County Fire Chief Noel Hardin said first responders are getting more calls to areas outside the boundaries of the Asotin County Fire District.
- PUB DATE: 9/25/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Lewiston Tribune

On September 24, 1 residential fire fatality was reported by the Nation's news media.

The union for the Janesville Fire Department has filed a complaint against the city of Janesville with the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission over a contract dispute. Janesville Fire Fighters Local 580 posted about the complaint in a Facebook post Friday, saying the city has threatened to increase firefighters' health insurance by 400 percent after a dispute over parking.
- PUB DATE: 9/24/2018 9:19:22 PM - SOURCE: WISC-TV Channel 3000.com Madison

The Village Board on Monday approved a contract to build a new emergency medical service station for the South Shore Fire Department for $1.09 million, more than double the original estimate of $500,000. The station is to be constructed in the northeast portion of the village near the intersection of Emmertsen Road and Spring Street.
- PUB DATE: 9/24/2018 8:44:19 PM - SOURCE: Racine Journal Times

The Federal Emergency Management Agency awarded the Oregon Area Fire/EMS District a grant to retrofit the fire station's apparatus bay. According to a release, $116,100 was awarded as part of the Assistance to Firefighters Grant program for fiscal year 2017. The release said the money will retrofit the fire station's apparatus bay with an emissions disposal system that will catch diesel emissions and send them outside.
- PUB DATE: 9/24/2018 8:43:26 AM - SOURCE: WISC-TV Channel 3000.com Madison