On March 18, 7 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

With Springfield Fire Chief Barry Helmerichs retiring at the end of the month, Mayor Jim Langfelder is interviewing Springfield Fire Department members to find a replacement. Langfelder is mandated to limit his search to the existing force because of a clause in the firefighters’ contract that stipulates the hire must be internal.
- PUB DATE: 3/19/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: State Journal-Register

The city will not appeal the discrimination and retaliation case it lost to a pregnant firefight last year. That means the court case is over. Tampa Fire Rescue will obey a federal judge’s order and re-hire Tanja Vidovic, the firefighter it fired the day after she filed suit in March 2016. The city will also pay the $245,000 in damages the jury awarded her in December.
- PUB DATE: 3/19/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Tampa Bay Times

San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin criticized Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White as a residential and commercial building in his district burned, saying that firefighters had been slow to pour water on the blaze and that he had been unable to reach the chief as the emergency unfolded. “This was an abject failure of the Fire Department,” said Peskin, leader of the board’s progressive faction, as smoke poured from the building across from Washington Square Park in North Beach on Saturday night.
- PUB DATE: 3/19/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle (SFGate.com)

Limington’s Board of Selectmen has ordered its volunteer fire department to “stand down until further notice” while the town tries to bring its firefighting protective gear into compliance with national standards. Selectmen said in a statement released Sunday that the town’s emergency rescue crews will continue to respond to all medical emergency calls during the stand-down, which is expected to last a few days, but in the meantime the town will rely on mutual aid from neighboring fire departments if a structure fire should break out.
- PUB DATE: 3/19/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Portland Press Herald

The body of missing Nashville firefighter Jesse Reed has been recovered in Humphreys County. Reed went missing in the Tennessee River on March 6 after his vehicle was submerged. The search for Reed lasted 12 days. He was found around 11:15 a.m. Saturday in a cove about a half mile from where his vehicle went into the water.
- PUB DATE: 3/19/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WTVF-TV CBS 5 Nashville

A motorcycle is destroyed after it catches on fire in Eau Claire. It happened Saturday around 7 p.m. at the corner of Jeffers Road and North Crossing. The Eau Claire Police Department said the fire started because of a mechanical issues. It was fully engulfed by the time firefighters arrived. No one was hurt.
- PUB DATE: 3/18/2018 8:00:27 PM - SOURCE: WEAU-TV 13 News

The Sheboygan Fire Department said that a home near 8th and Jackson is a total loss after a Saturday evening fire. The Sheboygan Fire Department Dispatch Center received multiple 911 calls around 5:30 p.m. reporting smoke and flames shooting from the home. A large amount of fire was coming from the back of the home when firefighters arrived on scene.
- PUB DATE: 3/18/2018 10:28:59 AM - SOURCE: WDJT-TV CBS 58 Milwaukee

A structure fire happened early Sunday morning at a single-family residence under construction, according to a news release. The City of Madison Fire Department responded to the 4200 block of Doncaster Drive around 3 a.m. after a neighbor reported visible flames and smoke from the front of the residence, the release said.
- PUB DATE: 3/18/2018 7:22:42 AM - SOURCE: WISC-TV Channel 3000.com Madison

On March 17, 0 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

Chase Hartl, 6, was over the moon Saturday when a Sturgeon Bay fire truck pulled up to his house and gave him and his dad a ride to the Frozen Spoon for a yogurt treat. While Chase was reveling in the ride with the firefighters, who allowed him to toot the horn, more than 40 friends and family members had congregated at the Frozen Spoon to surprise him.
- PUB DATE: 3/16/2018 9:16:01 AM - SOURCE: Green Bay Press-Gazette

A man working inside an old boiler at a Near East Side power plant had to be rescued when the lift he was in stopped functioning, leaving him about five stories off the ground. The Madison Gas and Electric worker was lifted down by rope and harness about an hour after the emergency call came in to the Madison Fire Department.
- PUB DATE: 3/16/2018 7:03:18 AM - SOURCE: Madison

On March 15, 9 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

VIDEO: Monroe Street is down to one lane in one directions as summer construction gets underway. The work is happening between Odana and Nakoma Road and Regent Street. Despite the narrow road, emergency service providers aren't too worried about the construction because they say they're prepared. Emergency Fire and EMS crews strive to respond in 5 minutes or less, and they're still going to push for that by adjusting which station is going to respond to certain areas.
- PUB DATE: 3/16/2018 6:33:11 AM - SOURCE: WKOW-TV 27 ABC

VIDEO: The recovery of some residents’ belongings just before the controlled burn that destroyed their apartment building here Thursday offered the first piece of good news since an explosion in one of the apartments on March 5 killed a man who was allegedly making bombs. But it was hard to find anybody speaking in an optimistic tone.
- PUB DATE: 3/16/2018 6:21:08 AM - SOURCE: Lacrosse Tribune

At least six fatalities have been confirmed following the collapse of a pedestrian bridge over Tamiami Trail on Thursday. But at a press conference held Friday morning at the Florida International University Tamiami campus, Miami-Dade Police Department director Juan J. Perez said the names of the people killed in the collapse would not be made public until their families had been notified.
- PUB DATE: 3/16/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Miami Herald

Hillsborough County firefighters and paramedics will vote on a new union contract next week that for the first time would require random drug testing. Union leadership says it is up in the air whether the contract will pass, citing growing discord between the rank and file and Fire Rescue Chief Dennis Jones.
- PUB DATE: 3/16/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: tbo.com

For many of the firefighters who worked for hours to free a teenager from a North Side cave last week, it was the first time they were required to do so, as cave rescues in the San Antonio-area are extremely rare. On March 8, the San Antonio Fire Department’s technical rescue team was called out to the Robber Baron Cave, which stretches for a mile about 30 to 80 feet underground.
- PUB DATE: 3/16/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: San Antonio Express- News

Researchers recently conducted a study that suggests firefighters are still absorbing toxic chemicals through their skin despite wearing full turnout gear. A study conducted by University of Ottawa researchers found that firefighters had anywhere from three to more than five times the amount of toxins in their urine after battling a blaze than they did before.
- PUB DATE: 3/16/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1.com

Utica fire Chief Russell Brooks is back to Square One. A motion to reargue his lawsuit against the City of Utica -- in which he claimed the city rejected an application for benefits offered to responders affected by health conditions related to 9/11 recovery efforts -- was denied Thursday in state Supreme Court in Rome.
- PUB DATE: 3/16/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Observer-Dispatch