People driving by many of the fire departments in central Wisconsin will notice brightly lit wreaths hanging on the stations beginning Thursday. Many departments in central Wisconsin participate in annual "Keep the Wreath Green" programs. Departments hang wreaths filled with green Christmas lights on fire stations.
- PUB DATE: 11/22/2017 6:07:27 AM - SOURCE: Stevens Point Journal

A homeowner and his nephew were found guilty Wednesday of aggravated arson and murder in the death of a 28-year-old Hamilton firefighter. Lester Parker, 66, and William Tucker, 49, of Richmond, Kentucky, face 15 years to life in prison when they are sentenced. The jury reached the verdict shortly after resuming deliberations about 9 a.
- PUB DATE: 11/22/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WXIX-TV FOX 19 Cincinnati

For the first time in city history, the Spokane Fire Department will be led in part by a woman. “Since 1884,” said Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer. “It’s exciting. It’s progressive.” On Monday, city officials announced Trisha Wolford would work as the department’s assistant fire chief. The position was previously held by Schaeffer, who was promoted to fire chief in May following the retirement of Bobby Williams, who worked as fire chief for 28 years.
- PUB DATE: 11/22/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Spokesman-Review

After the first of two explosions rocked the Verla International factory at 10:15 a.m. Monday, dozens of firefighters – some paid, most volunteers – raced to the scene on Temple Hill Road. They found chaos. Employees poured out of the burning building. They were using multiple exits, and many didn’t speak English, said Chris Sweeney, chief of the Vails Gate Fire Department.
- PUB DATE: 11/22/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Times Herald-Record

New charges have been filed in connection with the October 2015 arson fire that killed two Kansas City firefighters. Thu Hong Nguyen, the 45-year-old woman accused of starting that fire, now faces a new arson charge for allegedly setting a 2013 Lee’s Summit blaze for which the cause previously had been ruled to be undetermined.
- PUB DATE: 11/22/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Kansas City Star

Have you ever struggled to defend yourself after a simple conversation or suggestion you have given as a manager to improve an operation or a process? Has that conversation taken on a life of its own? Has a conversation like that ever been perceived as discipline? I have found that in today’s environment, there is often confusion between the activity of management and the action of discipline.
- PUB DATE: 11/22/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1

On November 21, 1 residential fire fatality was reported by the Nation's news media.

A man was injured in an explosion at a home under construction here Tuesday morning. Lodi Fire Chief Bobby Annen said the nearly 4,000-square-foot house was destroyed in the blast and ensuing fire, which was reported just before 10 a.m. “The house exploded,” Annen said. “The structure was completely down when we arrived on the scene and the contents were fully involved.
- PUB DATE: 11/21/2017 7:24:35 PM - SOURCE: wisc news

VIDEO: Multiple fire departments, including the St. Nazianz Fire Department, responded to a kitchen fire Tuesday morning on the 300 block of S. 6th Street in St. Nazianz. The fire was mostly out by the time they responded. They woke one person who was sleeping in the apartment, and that individual went to the hospital, but no injuries were reported.
- PUB DATE: 11/21/2017 3:53:50 PM - SOURCE: WFRV-TV and WJMN-TV Green Bay

Officials with the Madison Fire Department are warning people to beware of calls from "the fire department," because they could be a scam, according to officials. City fire officials have been notified of a telemarketer-style scam that may be gaining traction in the area. A Madison woman answered her phone and spoke with someone who said they were from the fire department.
- PUB DATE: 11/21/2017 12:39:31 PM - SOURCE: WISC-TV Channel 3000.com Madison

VIDEO: Firefighters on Tuesday morning, November 21st responded to a scene of a garage fire in West Allis. It started around 2:30 a.m. in an ally near 75th and Walker. Authorities say discarded ashes in the garage likely sparked the blaze. Three cars -- one inside the garage and two outside the garage -- were damaged.
- PUB DATE: 11/21/2017 6:37:18 AM - SOURCE: WITI Fox Channel 6

On November 20, 6 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

Eau Claire Fire Department personnel are trying to determine the cause of a Monday morning blaze that severely damaged a trailer at The Maples, a mobile home park at 1611 Western Ave. According to Deputy Chief Allyn Bertrang: Firefighters were called to a blaze at Lot 19 and found the trailer fully engulfed, but they were able to knock the fire down quickly and prevent it from spreading to nearby trailers.
- PUB DATE: 11/21/2017 3:10:44 AM - SOURCE: Eau Claire Leader-Telegram

The head of the state’s firefighters union promises to bring principles that guide his profession to state government if voters elect him Wisconsin’s next governor. Mahlon Mitchell, who last week joined the crowded Democratic field of candidates hoping to unseat GOP Gov. Scott Walker, brought his high-energy campaign to Eau Claire on Monday and sprinkled firefighting analogies throughout his 20-minute speech to about three dozen supporters at The Oxbow Hotel.
- PUB DATE: 11/21/2017 2:12:25 AM - SOURCE: Eau Claire Leader-Telegram

Fifty-foot flames flaring down Agua Caliente canyon in the earliest hours of Oct. 9 were about to devour the Mission Highlands neighborhood and race into the backyards of Boyes Hot Springs. That’s when Glen Ellen Cal Fire Capt. Sean Jerry studied the situation from a crest on High Road and said, “OK, this is what we’re going to do.
- PUB DATE: 11/21/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Santa Rosa Press Democrat

Emergency crews responded to the scene of an explosion and fire that killed one man and injured more than 30 people, including firefighters, at a manufacturing plant in New York's Hudson Valley. The explosion happened at around 10:15 a.m. Monday in the north section of Verla International -- a business that makes cosmetics, primarily nail polish.
- PUB DATE: 11/21/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WABC-TV 7online.com

In Onalaska, the volunteer fire department is dealing with an emergency of its own. Brothers Chris and Craig Franklin say small town politics are putting everyone in jeopardy. "Now I am standing here, watching everything fall apart," said Chris. "I'm worried for my safety, my family's safety, and the safety of all the citizens of Onalaska.
- PUB DATE: 11/21/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KING-TV NBC 5

Ogle County Sheriff Brian VanVickle says the six people killed overnight in a house fire in rural Dixon included two parents, four children, a cat and a dog. Sheriff VanVickle says at this time no names or ages are being released. The school district where the children attended has been notified. Neighbors tell 23 News the area in unincorporated Lost Nation is a very close community where everyone knows each other.
- PUB DATE: 11/21/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WIFR-TV CBS 23 Rockford

It takes years of study and a fortune in tuition to earn a college degree, unless you take the kind of shortcut former Tarpon Springs Fire Chief Rick Butcher did. Instead of cracking the books, Butcher simply went online and bought his BS degree from Almeda University, one of the world’s most notorious diploma mills.
- PUB DATE: 11/21/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WFLA.com

Hamilton homeowner Lester Parker and his nephew William “Billy” Tucker, took the stand Monday in their own defense in the arson and murder trial for the 2015 death of Hamilton firefighter Patrick Wolterman. Parker, 68, and Tucker, 46, of Richmond, Ky., are charged with arson and murder in the fire at Parker’s Pater Avenue home that killed Wolterman on Dec.
- PUB DATE: 11/21/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Journal-News