VIDEO: We're learning a battery charging system is likely to blame for a fire at Heil Ginseng in Edgar. The fire was reported at just before 6 p.m. Wednesday on South Third Avenue. Not long after the call came in, first responders were informed the building was being evacuated. The assistant fire chief for the Edgar Fire Department tells NewsChannel 7, a machine shed started a fire.
- PUB DATE: 6/22/2017 7:11:14 AM - SOURCE: WSAW-TV CBS 7 Wausau

The Walnut Street Bridge was closed for about 90 minutes early Thursday when a vehicle got stuck in one of the opening spans. It happened about 2:45 a.m. The driver had gone past the traffic arm and apparently drove his minivan onto one of the opening spans, then coasted back into the opening between the span and the fixed roadway, according to Green Bay Metro Fire Department.
- PUB DATE: 6/22/2017 6:46:33 AM - SOURCE: Green Bay Press-Gazette

Long before “locavore” and “foodie” were trendy words, the Dane Firefighters Festival encapsulated both. From Thursday, June 22-Sunday, June 25, at Bert Deans Park, 120 Railroad St. in Dane, the festival will continue its long tradition of serving bites like burgers, brats and slow-roasted pork. But the meal that tops it all off, in the opinion of Dane Fire Department Lieutenant Sara Grade, is the tantalizingly-tender chicken served on Sunday.
- PUB DATE: 6/22/2017 2:36:20 AM - SOURCE: Lodi Enterprise

A Racine man allegedly set his apartment on fire because he wasn’t invited to a cookout. Nolan J. Williams, 44, of the 1300 block of Douglas Avenue, has been charged with arson and three counts of second degree recklessly endangering safety. On June 2, an officer responded to Williams’ apartment to investigate a fire, according to a criminal complaint.
- PUB DATE: 6/22/2017 2:19:28 AM - SOURCE: Racine Journal Times

In the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire in London, where 79 people died or are presumed dead and many more were injured, serious concerns and questions around flammability of exterior cladding, the lack of fire sprinklers and the notion of “shelter in place,” among other subjects, have been brought to the forefront by the news media and the public at large.
- PUB DATE: 6/22/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: National Fire Protection Association

Hundreds of police officers and firefighters from across the Midwest joined community members in Kalamazoo Wednesday to honor Comstock Township Fire Chief Ed Switalski, who was hit by a vehicle and killed last week while responding to a call. It took firefighters and police officers about half an hour to file into the Wings Event Center for the funeral.
- PUB DATE: 6/22/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WOOD-TV NBC 8 Grand Rapids

Except for a Vallejo firefighter who got a $2 million payout for wrongful termination, the list of California’s highest-earning public employees for 2016 is dominated by medical personnel – surgeons, physicians, psychiatrists, hospital directors – and a few investment officers from CalPERS, the world’s largest public employee retirement system.
- PUB DATE: 6/22/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Orange County Register

Four employees of the Billerica Fire Department have been handed lengthy suspensions and one demoted following a town investigation into a months-long sex scandal, first reported in April. "All employees involved have acknowledged violations of the rules and regulations of the department and have accepted the discipline that has been imposed by the town," said Town Manager John Curran, in a statement posted to the town's website Wednesday.
- PUB DATE: 6/22/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Republican

A poorly performing computer program at the Knox County E-911 Center is placing law enforcement officers and firefighters in danger by depriving them of updated information on emergency calls, authorities said Wednesday. The $6.2 million Intergraph Computer Aided Dispatch program went online two years ago and has been problematic ever since.
- PUB DATE: 6/22/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Knoxville News-Sentinel

On June 21, 0 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

VIDEO: One person was injured after a silo explosion Wednesday evening. Officials said it happened just after 6:30 p.m. at a home on County Road S in the Town of Emmet. According to the Marathon County Sheriff's Department, several people were clearing brush on the property and putting it inside a concrete silo to be burned.
- PUB DATE: 6/21/2017 9:48:33 PM - SOURCE: WAOW-TV ABC 9-Wausau

It’s hard to go against family history. The Derrick family has a total of 154 years of service in Lake Geneva over three generations. And Lake Geneva Fire Capt. Ryan Derrick is a part of that legacy. Derrick, who was officially promoted to captain in May, started his career with the Lake Geneva Fire Department in July 2000.
- PUB DATE: 6/21/2017 1:22:27 PM - SOURCE: Lake Geneva News

On June 20, 2 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

The chief of the McDonald Volunteer Fire Department was killed in an explosion in West Virginia. Scott Albertini, died Tuesday morning at the Midland Resource Recovery plant in Barbour County, West Virginia. Two people were killed and one person was injured in an explosion at the same plant last month.
- PUB DATE: 6/21/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KDKA-TV CBS 2 Pittsburgh

Thirty-two members of the Chicago Fire Department’s brass resigned their exempt positions Monday and returned to rank-and-file status in a fight over pay and benefits that will cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. The bosses will return to their career service ranks of battalion chief and, in one case, paramedic field chief, but will continue to “act up” in their exempt positions.
- PUB DATE: 6/21/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Chicago Sun-Times

The city of Houston is gearing up to play hardball with its firefighters union in advance of contract mediation by passing less favorable employment terms that would take effect if the firefighters' current agreement lapses next week. The changes subject to City Council approval Wednesday would come a month after the fire union declared an impasse in negotiations with the city.
- PUB DATE: 6/21/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Houston Chronicle

A Kansas City firefighter is awake from a coma after suffering a heat stroke, and doctors are trying to determine if energy drinks may have played a part in his condition. The Kansas City Fire Department says he was participating in a training exercise last Saturday, June 10, when he suffered a heat stroke.
- PUB DATE: 6/21/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KCTV-TV CBS 5

The Los Angeles Fire Department could soon seek federal permission to fly drones, a tool that officials say could help them track down missing hikers, gauge the risks in burning buildings and search confined spaces. A Los Angeles City Council committee voted Tuesday to allow the department to start seeking Federal Aviation Administration authorization to use “unmanned aerial systems,” despite objections from groups concerned about privacy rights.
- PUB DATE: 6/21/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Los Angeles Times

The cause of a fire at a La Crosse business is under investigation. It happened at 8:20 p.m. Tuesday at Michaels Truck Equipment located at 1745 Miller Street in La Crosse. Firefighters said smoke was seen coming from the front of the building. Crews used a hose line to put out the fire. No one was in the building at the time.
- PUB DATE: 6/20/2017 10:56:21 PM - SOURCE: WEAU-TV 13 News

VIDEO: Local firefighters participated in a structural collapse training Tuesday. Eau Claire Fire and Rescue crews practiced building raker shoring systems, which are used to stabilize structurally compromised walls, at Fire Station No. 10 on Hastings way. More than 80 firefighters participated in the hands-on training and firefighters said they work on this type of training every year.
- PUB DATE: 6/20/2017 10:56:19 PM - SOURCE: WEAU-TV 13 News