VIDEO: As we enter peak tornado season in Wisconsin Eau Claire County is releasing a new emergency alert system that is making use of social media and apps. Emergency management is encouraging people to sign up for its new mass notification system. Emergency Management Coordinator Tyler Esh explained, “This allows anybody who signs up for the system to receive alerts via email, phone calls, text messages about impending severe weather.
- PUB DATE: 5/30/2018 2:27:32 PM - SOURCE: WEAU-TV 13 News

Division Chief Troy Haase recently attained the distinction as a Certified Fire Investigator IAAI-CFI from the International Association of Arson Investigators. The IAAI-CFI qualification is a standard evaluation of a fire investigator’s training and expertise. Investigators must complete an extensive application requiring documentation, earn sufficient points for their achievements in education, training and experience, and pass a comprehensive examination.
- PUB DATE: 5/30/2018 1:59:57 PM - SOURCE: Fond du Lac Reporter

Ten people with the Directorate of Emergency Services Fire Department completed 40 hours of training in the Ropes Rescue I course for technical rescue. The firefighters completed training on towers at the installation's Air Assault Course on the cantonment area. The course is the first of many for the firefighters in technical rescue training, said assistant fire chief Jeremy Olivier.
- PUB DATE: 5/30/2018 6:29:50 AM - SOURCE: Tomah Journal

An early morning fire has damaged a home in Altoona. More than a dozen firefighters responded to the scene at 311 Saxonwood Road just before 4 a.m. Wednesday morning. When they arrived, they saw smoke and flames coming from the roof of the home. The Eau Claire Fire Department says everyone inside the home made it out safely, and the fire was quickly put out.
- PUB DATE: 5/30/2018 5:52:38 AM - SOURCE: WEAU-TV 13 News

An executive committee representing nearly 8,700 current and former Dallas police officers and firefighters has agreed to a $173.3 million settlement in their decades-old class-action lawsuits against City Hall over years of back-pay claims. The figure is an agreed-upon price that comes with caveats because it's not yet a done deal.
- PUB DATE: 5/30/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Dallas Morning News

Jeremi Roesler takes over as Julian fire chief Friday, succeeding five-year Chief Rick Marinelli and inheriting a firestorm. A battalion chief with Cal Fire’s Hemet-area Battalion 5, Roesler will be dealing with lawsuits, complaints of Brown Act violations, expected protests at the Julian fire station on state Route 79 and an angry citizenry that has petitioned twice to keep its last-in-the-county volunteer force.
- PUB DATE: 5/30/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Times of San Diego

A former 23-year veteran employee of the Kansas City Fire Department is suing the department for racial discrimination. In a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday, Travis Yeargans, who is black, says he's not the only one who has been discriminated against. The lawsuit claims KCFD has a "pattern and practice of not promoting African-Americans to any position above firetruck driver due to race.
- PUB DATE: 5/30/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KCUR Public Radio

Although well-trained in the strategic and tactical aspects of firefighting, firefighters often receive too little training when it comes to handling the mental stress that accompanies the job. Firefighters make great personal sacrifices during emergency situations, but don’t always take the risks seriously.
- PUB DATE: 5/30/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1

As demand for emergency fire and medical services grows, town leaders and the chiefs of the two fire departments have drafted a plan to boost collaboration and blur territorial lines. Released Tuesday, the strategic plan for the town Fire/Rescue/EMS and Eighth Utilities District departments is meant "to identify ways to work together to provide the highest level of service and the quickest and most effective response to the entire community," department leaders said in a prepared statement.
- PUB DATE: 5/30/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Hartford Courant ·

Fortunately, the house at 404 N. Memorial Drive was unoccupied when it caught fire on Tuesday afternoon. Racine Fire Department Battalion Chief Willie Hargrove said city fire crews were dispatched to the scene after multiple 911 calls about the fire at about 5:33 p.m. Tuesday. Initial reports indicated that the house was “fully engulfed” and that people may be trapped inside proved to be unfounded.
- PUB DATE: 5/29/2018 8:13:07 PM - SOURCE: Racine Journal Times

On Wednesday, Firefighter/Paramedic James Acker was promoted to the position of assistant fire chief with the Watertown Fire Department. Acker will serve in the capacity as the department's EMS director, taking over for fire Chief Kraig Biefeld. Acker is a 14-year veteran with the department and served as union president for 11 years.
- PUB DATE: 5/29/2018 10:47:22 AM - SOURCE: Watertown Daily Times

Improper disposal of smoking materials is being blamed for a fire on the balcony of an apartment in Kaukauna. Firefighters were called to the Trail Park Apartments, 715 Saunders Rd., around 5 a.m. this morning. When crews arrived they found that a board connecting the balcony to the building was burning.
- PUB DATE: 5/29/2018 7:35:48 AM - SOURCE: WNFL SPORT REDIO

On May 28, 4 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

A Chicago Fire Department diver died and two others were injured Monday night while searching for a 28-year-old man who fell off a boat on the Chicago River on the Lower West Side. Firefighters responded at 7:49 p.m. in the 2600 block of South Ashland after others on the boat called 911 to report the fall, according to the Chicago Fire Department.
- PUB DATE: 5/29/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Chicago Sun-Times

Longtime rescue volunteer and current North Beach Volunteer Fire Department rescue captain Patricia Ann “Pat” Osburn died Saturday morning in the line of duty, the department reports. Osburn experienced a medical emergency while performing her duties as an emergency medical technician and was found unresponsive upon arrival at CalvertHealth Medical Center.
- PUB DATE: 5/29/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Southern Maryland Newspapers

After a 2016 investigation revealed gender bias and cultural problems within the Vancouver Fire Department, Chief Joe Molina had this to say: “We have to get better.” Now, 17 months later, the chief points to improvements made in the wake of the report: Stations were changed in ways the chief says better accommodates men and women working together.
- PUB DATE: 5/29/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Vancouver Columbian

VIDEO/PHOTO - A sweet moment captured on camera between a Wells firefighter and the dog he rescued from a roof is getting national attention. A dog somehow managed to get onto the roof of his home through an upstairs window, prompting numerous calls to Wells police on Sunday. Police said “an awesome citizen” stood by the dog until firefighters arrived at the scene.
- PUB DATE: 5/29/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Portland Press Herald

No one in Michigan can say how often fire safety inspections happen at some of the riskiest buildings used by the public, where firefighters have battled at least 1,245 blazes in the last 18 months. The state fire marshal has never performed annual inspections of churches, theaters, restaurants and other "places of public assemblage," as required by a 1978 law enacted in response to a massive fire at a Kentucky ballroom that killed 168 people.
- PUB DATE: 5/29/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Battle Creek Enquirer

A three-alarm fire is now out at Beloit Box Board. Crews extinguished the fire around 1 a.m. Tuesday. The fire was first reported around 10 p.m. Monday at Beloit Box Board at 801 Second Street. The city of Beloit says one employee was inside the building at the time, but that person got out safely without being hurt.
- PUB DATE: 5/28/2018 10:05:40 PM - SOURCE: WKOW-TV 27 ABC

On May 25, 2 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.