VIDEO: The city's Fire Chief Len Vander Wyst will retire from his position in March 2018, he announced this week. "I'll be here for a while so no need to say goodbyes at this point," Vander Wyst told the Common Council at its meeting on Wednesday night, according to video of the meeting. "Thank you for allowing me to serve the community as fire chief for almost nine years.
- PUB DATE: 9/11/2017 1:05:13 PM - SOURCE: Appleton Post-Gazette & Post Crescent.com

Calling for the community to help come up with a better way of remembering those who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Mayor Jim Schmitt Monday led a deaccession ceremony for the 9/11 monument at the Neville Public Museum. “We need to properly memorialize that event,” Schmitt told a crowd of about 100 gathered at the monument.
- PUB DATE: 9/11/2017 9:51:40 AM - SOURCE: Green Bay Press-Gazette

A 26-year-old Plover man admitted to starting at least 10 fires in the Plover area over the last three months, according to Plover police. Kyle Andrich was arrested Friday in connection with a fire at an abandoned house at 2110 Post Road in Plover. The Plover fire and police departments responded to the fire.
- PUB DATE: 9/11/2017 8:51:07 AM - SOURCE: WSAW-TV CBS 7 Wausau

On September 10, 2 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

On September 9, 4 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

On September 7, 9 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

The Waupun Fire Department, in partnership with the Wisconsin Propane Education & Research Council will host an emergency response, live propane fire training at 6 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 18, at Waupun City Garage, 903 N. Madison St., Waupun. Firefighters from Waupun and the surrounding area are expected to attend.
- PUB DATE: 9/11/2017 3:39:06 AM - SOURCE: Fond du Lac Reporter

A Long Island beach where people gathered and watched in horror as the distant World Trade Center towers collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001 is the site of the latest memorial to victims of the terror attacks and among a growing number that honor people who died of illnesses years after participating in the rescue and recovery effort.
- PUB DATE: 9/11/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Post

A veteran San Francisco firefighter died Sunday after returning from an early morning fire alarm call, according to the San Francisco Fire Department. Battalion Chief Terry Smerdel, a 26-year veteran of the department, was found unresponsive by coworkers in his office, Chief Joanne Hayes-White said in a news release.
- PUB DATE: 9/11/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KNTV-TV NBC 11 Bay Area

When the winds kicked up as Hurricane Irma made its way up Florida's west coast, rescue workers watched helplessly as the 911 calls piled up on a computer screen. They weren't allowed to respond. Winds were so high that emergency services in many areas were suspended to protect the rescuers. "It just stinks.
- PUB DATE: 9/11/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: CNN

A union rep who tried to help a fellow EMT cited for hanging a noose in an ambulance was rewarded with a racist letter calling her the N-word and threatening her life. Paramedic Keisha Brockington, 41, was stunned and sickened on Aug. 29 after finding the hate-filled missive in her locker at the FDNY EMS Station 22 on Staten Island.
- PUB DATE: 9/11/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Daily News

At 87, retired Lexington Fire Major Orville Cook leafed through a scrapbook of newspaper clippings Sunday, reminiscing about his work on dramatic fires and rescues and when the city’s Station 6 “was at the center of everything.” The fire station at 501 South Limestone Street had its centennial celebration Sunday.
- PUB DATE: 9/11/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Lexington Herald-Leader

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

VIDEO: Nearly one month after the La Crosse Common Council approved a Fire Station Planning Task Force, members of that group held their first meeting. It has been 50 years since the La Crosse Fire Department has built a new fire station. "Things have changed. Apparatus have changed," said Jason Gilman, Director of Planning and Development for the City of La Crosse.
- PUB DATE: 9/8/2017 7:18:51 AM - SOURCE: WXOW-TV ABC 19 LaCrosse

A woman was rescued from the Chippewa Falls NSP dam after jumping off the Highway 124 bridge, Chippewa Falls police chief Matt Kelm said Thursday. Police responded to emergency calls at 7:27 a.m. that a woman had jumped into the river near the dam area. While driving over the bridge, the woman stopped her car in traffic and jumped off the edge of the bridge, Kelm said.
- PUB DATE: 9/8/2017 4:13:06 AM - SOURCE: Chippewa Herald

VIDEO: A suspect in an attempted homicide is likely the focus of an investigation into a Monona house fire, after authorities say SWAT team devices used to enter the home were not incendiary. Authorities say 42-year old Edward Matthews was arrested Thursday at a home at 5606 Tecumseh Avenue, after he fired gun shots at Sheriff's deputies, and emerged from the home as it became fully engulfed in flames.
- PUB DATE: 9/8/2017 3:08:02 AM - SOURCE: WKOW-TV 27 ABC

Fire investigators are looking into a fire Thursday that damaged an assisted-living facility. The emergency call went out at 3:30 p.m. at Racine Commons, 8500 Corporate Drive, just north of Highway 20, and escalated to a second alarm for equipment and personnel. South Shore Fire Battalion Chief John Radewan said as soon as firefighters got to the scene they saw smoke and flames coming from the northeast corner of the H-shaped housing complex, which is west of Stuart Road and east of 90th Street.
- PUB DATE: 9/8/2017 2:26:11 AM - SOURCE: Racine Journal Times

Kate Rodeman sat among friends and family as the letter she wrote to the man who killed her husband was read to a courtroom full of people. "When you killed my husband, you turned my life into pure chaos," said Justin Conklin, the Lansing firefighter who read the letter on her behalf. "His death did not only break my heart, it broke all of me and more.
- PUB DATE: 9/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Livingston Daily Press & Argus

Five children died Thursday morning in a mobile home fire in the Butte community near Palmer. The fire also left two adults homeless. Alaska State Troopers said the remains of the children — all girls, between the ages of 3 and 12 — were recovered by 10:30 a.m. The state fire marshal's office is investigating the cause of the fire while the state medical examiner is conducting autopsies on the victims.
- PUB DATE: 9/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Alaska Dispatch News

A group of first responders exposed to smoke from a Crosby, Tex., chemical plant fire after Hurricane Harvey are suing the owner of the plant for more than $1 million, saying that they vomited and gasped for air in the middle of the road in a scene the suit describes as “nothing less than chaos.” The responders allege that the plant owner, Arkema, minimized the dangers of exposure to the fire and failed to warn the responders manning the perimeter of the mandatory 1.
- PUB DATE: 9/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Washington Post