A Milwaukee man is accused of setting his wheelchair-bound sister on fire, and killing her, according to a criminal complaint. Nasif Salaan Hibbler, 30, is charged with first-degree intentional homicide in the death of his sister, Sgakira Hicks. Police said Hibbler walked into a Milwaukee police station on Saturday and told officers, “I just set my sister on fire.
- PUB DATE: 6/8/2017 1:53:27 PM - SOURCE: WMSN-TV Fox 47 Madison

Crews responded to a report of a fire at a facility in DeForest Thursday morning, a Dane County dispatcher said. Dispatch said the DeForest Fire Department responded to a report of a fire at 9:16 a.m. at 605 Bassett St., which is the Sanimax plant building. Dane County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Elise Schaffer said deputies also responded to the fire scene to assist DeForest crews.
- PUB DATE: 6/8/2017 8:27:01 AM - SOURCE: WISC-TV Channel 3000.com Madison

On June 6, 2 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

Three firefighters were injured while battling a house fire in Liberty. Officials say the fire broke out shortly before 9 a.m. Wednesday, at a home on Markean Rd. When fire crews arrived, they saw smoke and flames coming from the home. 14 fire departments responded to the fire. Three firefighters were injured and taken to the hospital.
- PUB DATE: 6/8/2017 3:34:40 AM - SOURCE: WNCY-FM Y100

Firefighters were called to a mechanic shop Wednesday after the property owner spotted a blaze but was unable to stop the flames from spreading. The call for help came at 5:26 p.m. from Carr Auto and Truck Repair, 1824 Charles St. Racine Fire Capt. Mark Villalpando said the man was checking out a motion alarm that was activated when he discovered the fire in the shop owned by Brad Carr.
- PUB DATE: 6/8/2017 2:18:37 AM - SOURCE: Racine Journal Times

Northern Star Fire, an Eau Claire startup with a device to help firefighters find their way out of a burning building, is the grand prize winner in the 2017 Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest. Jeff Dykes, a captain in the Eau Claire Fire Department and a firefighter for 20 years, has developed an electronic, eight-direction compass that fits inside a firefighter’s face mask and lights up, showing the direction.
- PUB DATE: 6/8/2017 12:32:21 AM - SOURCE: Madison

Neil Svetanics, former chief of the St. Louis Fire Department and the Lemay Fire Protection District, died Wednesday (June 7, 2017) after a brief lung illness. He was 77 and lived in St. Louis Hills. Mr. Svetanics joined the St. Louis Fire Department in 1962 and moved up in ranks, serving as chief from 1986 to 1999.
- PUB DATE: 6/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: St. Louis Post Dispatch

Warren firefighters, digging with their bare hands and metal shovels, rescued a Howell man trapped in a collapsed trench on Tuesday, Warren Mayor Jim Fouts said. The 37-year-old man was rushed to Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, where he was in serious condition, the mayor wrote on his Facebook page Tuesday.
- PUB DATE: 6/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Detroit Free Press

The risk firefighters face for developing job-related cancers was well known in the fire service long before elected officials and the national news media started taking more notice in recent years and cast a brighter light on the issue. There are 37 states that have passed cancer presumption laws for firefighters, which provide workers' compensation benefits for those with certain types of cancers directly attributed to the job.
- PUB DATE: 6/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse.com

The Tulsa Fire Department is removing blue stripes from fire trucks. The chief thinks the stripes may send the wrong message to some people. "It hit me in my heart that this was the right thing to do for the City of Tulsa and for the citizens," Chief Ray Driskell said. TFD added the stripe after the Dallas police shooting as a symbol of solidarity with law enforcement, but Driskell said he's following his heart and taking the stripes off.
- PUB DATE: 6/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: newson6.com

Fire Chief Dale C. Herman and Deputy Chief Russell J. Randall were the only members of the city’s management team not to receive 2 percent salary increases in the newly adopted budget. The two top fire departments officials have been criticized for not taking the city’s side in a nearly three-year contract dispute with the firefighters’ union.
- PUB DATE: 6/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Watertown Daily News

The Red Wing Solid Waste Campus sustained significant damage due to a fire Wednesday night, June 7, according to Red Wing Fire Department. The blaze was reported around 7:45 p.m. inside the facility. No injuries were reported. The scene remained active as of a 9:34 p.m. update Wednesday, and residents were asked to avoid the area around 1873 Bench St.
- PUB DATE: 6/7/2017 10:32:48 PM - SOURCE: Rivertowns

On June 7, 0 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

One person was displaced after a fire damaged a home Tuesday afternoon in Stevens Point. Fire crews responded to the 1000 block of Portage Street shortly before 5 p.m. after a neighbor reported smoke coming from a home, Stevens Point Fire Capt. J.B. Moody said. The first firefighters at the scene found smoke and flames coming from the front of the home, but managed to contain most of the damage to the main floor, Moody said.
- PUB DATE: 6/7/2017 6:03:31 AM - SOURCE: Stevens Point Journal

A Wisconsin company says a fourth worker has died after an explosion at its corn milling plant. Didion Milling released a statement saying 46-year-old Angel Reyes died Tuesday at the University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison. The company says Reyes was a pack operator at the plant and died from injuries he suffered in the explosion last week.
- PUB DATE: 6/7/2017 5:51:32 AM - SOURCE: Appleton Post-Gazette & Post Crescent.com

In the last six months, two of 70-year-old Kathleen Kauppi’s homes have been destroyed by fire. This weekend, it almost became number three. On Tuesday, Kauppi was charged with attempted arson, accused of using gasoline to start a fire in the Pleasant Prairie home of a relative who had taken her in. According to the criminal complaint, Pleasant Prairie Police were called to the home at 11511 Sheridan Road for a fire at 11:40 p.
- PUB DATE: 6/7/2017 4:53:32 AM - SOURCE: Kenosha News

On June 6, 1 residential fire fatality was reported by the Nation's news media.

On June 4, 6 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

An Anchorage firefighter remains in critical condition at a local hospital Tuesday after being injured during training Monday afternoon, according to an Anchorage Fire Department official. Ben Schultz, 29, a firefighter and paramedic, has been with the fire department for six years. Schultz was injured at 4:15 p.
- PUB DATE: 6/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Alaska Dispatch News

Growing up in rural West Virginia, Benjamin M. Barksdale remembers hearing the siren blow from the neighboring fire station and asking his mother about the commotion. Barksdale’s mother explained to him, then a boy of about 6, that the siren signaled volunteer firefighters would soon launch out of the station to help people in the community.
- PUB DATE: 6/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Washington Post