The Fire Department no longer will be able to have firefighters fill in for colleagues who call in sick, a move that City Manager Sharon A. Addison admits violates the union contract. Ms. Addison directed Fire Chief Dale C. Herman on Wednesday morning that firefighters cannot be called into work to fill in for their colleagues who are absent because of illness.
- PUB DATE: 11/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Watertown Daily Times

After a weekslong investigation, Anchorage fire officials still can't say for sure what caused a firefighter to fall more than 70 feet from a fire truck ladder in June. No one, not even security cameras, saw the fall that left 29-year-old Anchorage firefighter and paramedic Ben Schultz hospitalized with a traumatic brain injury.
- PUB DATE: 11/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Alaska Dispatch News

An infant was left in a Michigan City Safe Haven Baby Box late Tuesday night. Emergency responders were dispatched to the Coolspring Township Volunteer Fire Department at 10:24 p.m. after receiving an alert from the box. Coolspring Fire Chief Mick Pawlik arrived at the station within five minutes and found the newborn infant.
- PUB DATE: 11/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WNDU-TV NBC 16 South Bend

A former Travis County firefighter who sought employment with the Austin Fire Department is now suing the city of Austin and Austin Fire Chief Rhoda Mae Kerr, arguing that he wasn’t hired because of his role in negotiations to expand AFD’s jurisdiction. Andrew Garcia, the former union president for the Travis County Emergency Services District 4, claims in his lawsuit he was discriminated against because of his input in Austin City Council discussions regarding a possible merger between ESD 4 and the Austin Fire Department.
- PUB DATE: 11/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Austin American-Statesman

VIDEO - When Terry Sanders saw the glow on the horizon on Oct. 8, and felt the heavy wind in his face, he knew there was trouble. But the Santa Rosa resident and Oakland firefighter didn’t realize the magnitude until he headed a few hundred feet down the road from his home to talk to the only man left at Fire Station 5.
- PUB DATE: 11/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1

VIDEO: Firefighters Wednesday night, November 8th were on the scene of a fire involving a detached garage near 13th and Silver Spring in Glendale. The call came in around 8:00 p.m. Upon arrival, fire crews quickly initiated an aggressive attack on the fire, as well as established protective hose lines to prevent any fire from spreading to multiple neighboring homes and garages.
- PUB DATE: 11/8/2017 8:47:02 PM - SOURCE: WITI Fox Channel 6

VIDEO: As part of their final exam, Milwaukee Fire Department recruits had to put out a staged fire on the city's north side. Their test continues Thursday, and the recruits will graduate next week. They will start working shortly after that.
- PUB DATE: 11/8/2017 6:01:03 PM - SOURCE: WISN-TV ABC 12 Milwaukee

VIDEO: Someone is now being held responsible for rioting and torching a BP gas station in Milwaukee's Sherman Park neighborhood -- more than year after the violence. The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin announced that 20-year-old Toronse Carter of Milwaukee was indicted on Tuesday, November 7th for rioting and arson connected with the Sherman Park violence that broke out in August 2016.
- PUB DATE: 11/8/2017 2:30:23 PM - SOURCE: WITI Fox Channel 6

On November 7, 6 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

A motion to approve bids to take down the Sturgeon Bay west-side waterfront granary was tabled until January at Tuesday’s meeting of the city council but that does not mean the life of the historic structure is assured. Even with more than $1.3 million in commitments from members of the public to restore the granary, a council majority was still hesitant to give the Sturgeon Bay Historical Society more time to save the granary.
- PUB DATE: 11/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Door County Daily News

When Lester Parker’s daughter visited him on Christmas Eve, family pictures decorated his television. Three days later, his daughter came back to take Parker and his wife to the airport. They were headed to Las Vegas to celebrate their anniversary. While inside to help load luggage, Parker's daughter noticed the pictures had been taken down and cabinets that were once full were nearly empty.
- PUB DATE: 11/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Cincinnati Enquirer & Cincinnati.com

The Salt Lake City Public Service Commission has issued a blistering report regarding the lack of evidence and apparent manufactured allegations by fire department brass in the demotion of the city’s first female battalion chief. The commission said that it appeared Assistant Fire Chief Robert McMicken was “looking for reasons” to discipline Martha Ellis, a 22-year-veteran firefighter.
- PUB DATE: 11/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Salt Lake Tribune

A Utica city firefighter who is alleging discrimination based on his gender and religious beliefs has filed an amended civil complaint with the help of new religious-rights lawyers John Brooks, son of former Utica Fire Chief Russell Brooks, said in court papers he's been subjected to a hostile work environment, threatened with disciplinary action, harassed and ridiculed because he refuses to cut his hair.
- PUB DATE: 11/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Syracuse Post-Standard & Syracuse.com

Things have returned to some degree of normalcy for the Central Yavapai Fire District board now that a six-month internal conflict has come to a definitive close. On March 14, Central Arizona Fire and Medical Authority (CAFMA) Chief Scott Freitag lodged a written complaint against ViciLee Jacobs, a member of the CYFD board, claiming she had made “unsubstantiated accusations” against him and his command staff, some of which he warned were potentially defamatory.
- PUB DATE: 11/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Daily Courier

“If you had not been here and we hadn’t had that rain, we don’t know what would have happened to our little town,” said Pigeon Forge City Manager Earlene Teaster. She was speaking before a group of first responders from fire and rescue departments throughout Tennessee who came to Sevier County to battle the fire that swept through the area on Nov.
- PUB DATE: 11/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Knoxville News Sentinel

A man accused of vandalizing and then trying to burn down a home in Sheboygan multiple times, whom prosecutors say blamed his alleged actions on “aliens,” has been committed by the court after he was found incompetent to proceed in the case against him. 32-year-old Anouphong Inphachack was in court Tuesday, November 7th for a competency hearing.
- PUB DATE: 11/7/2017 5:03:02 PM - SOURCE: WITI Fox Channel 6

The Milwaukee Common Council fought back against the mayor on Tuesday, taking a step toward being able to fire the Milwaukee police chief. Alderman Bob Donovan says Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn is losing the rank and file and Council voted 10-5 on Tuesday to ask the state for the ability to fire the police and fire chiefs.
- PUB DATE: 11/7/2017 10:46:13 AM - SOURCE: WDJT-TV CBS 58 Milwaukee

The Dunn County Sheriff's Office says a woman has died in a house fire in the Town of Sand Creek. Dispatchers got a call about the fire at 8:20 p.m. Monday. Firefighters learned the 69-year-old woman who lived in the house was probably at home. Officials later found the woman's body during a search of the home.
- PUB DATE: 11/7/2017 8:23:24 AM - SOURCE: WQOW-TV ABC 18 Eau Claire

The Sturgeon Bay Historical Society is offering to cover up to $75,000 of demolition costs for the granary if a third-party structural engineer declares the building cannot be saved. The announcement came on the eve of the Sturgeon Bay Common Council’s decision on whether to follow through on a raze order issued by Fire Chief Tim Dietman on October 17 or to accept over one million dollars from donors to save it from demolition.
- PUB DATE: 11/7/2017 6:04:58 AM - SOURCE: Door County Daily News

For both Bob Leonard and Mike LaVenture, the time to retire from their respective fire departments felt like the right move. Leonard, who served with the Dousman Fire Department for 45 years, retired as assistant chief in 2015. LaVenture, who served for 42 years, decided to step down from his position as a lieutenant at the Oconomowoc Fire Department a year later.
- PUB DATE: 11/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel