Two volunteer firefighters are set to go on trial Monday for the 2015 assault of a career firefighter outside a burning home near Hyattsville, Maryland. Jeffrey Miller and Christopher Kelly — both members of West Lanham Hills Volunteer Company 28 — were indicted on a charge of fighting with a career firefighter unit over who should go inside a house that was ablaze Dec.
- PUB DATE: 5/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WTOP-AM 1500 Washington

Annoyed with how much sick time firefighters use, the City Council on Monday night informally agreed to reduce the amount of overtime in the proposed 2017-18 budget from $631,000 to $570,000. Mayor Joseph M. Butler Jr. recommended cutting the fire department’s overtime by $61,000 after a lengthy discussion about sick time.
- PUB DATE: 5/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Watertown Daily Times

After a week of silence and speculation, former Sioux Falls Fire Chief Jim Sideras was arrested Monday, charged with possessing child pornography. State police and county deputies removed CDs, hard drives and computers from the fire chief's home last Tuesday, hours before his employment with the city was abruptly terminated.
- PUB DATE: 5/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Argus Leader

VIDEO - A Facebook Live tour of a Memphis fire truck is now under investigation. Two men saw the truck, hopped in, and streamed the whole thing on Facebook. Memphis Fire said the fire engine was never stolen, not even moved from the spot where it was parked on Monday afternoon near Lamar Avenue and Prescott.
- PUB DATE: 5/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WMC-TV Action News5 Memphis

A bomb threat was found written on the wall of a bathroom at North Shore Middle School on Monday, May 8. Authorities received a call around 1:44 p.m. of the threat at the school, located at 800 North Shore Drive. Scanner traffic appeared to say the threat mentioned a bomb was to go off at 2 p.m., but authorities did not comment on exactly what the threat stated.
- PUB DATE: 5/8/2017 7:18:50 PM - SOURCE: Livinglakecountry

A Merrill man accused of arson of another family's home is expected to avoid a jury trial and take a plea deal in July. 23-year-old David Ostrowski is accused of starting a fire that destroyed the house and endangered seven people. Only one person was burned that night back in October of 2015. Ostrowski was charged with five felonies - arson, recklessly endangering safety, burglary, injury by negligent handling of a weapon and bail jumping - for the fire at the corner of First and Hope streets.
- PUB DATE: 5/8/2017 5:04:37 PM - SOURCE: WSAU-AM 550

VIDEO: Eau Claire firefighters battled a blaze at a home on East Madison Street Monday afternoon. Tony Biasi, with the Eau Claire Fire Department, said the call came in a little after 2:30 p.m. with reports that people were trapped on the second floor of that complex: "Prior to the fire department's arrival – or just as the fire department was arriving – some neighbors got a ladder and some contractors down the street that used their Bobcat with a bucket to rescue people off that second floor balcony out front.
- PUB DATE: 5/8/2017 3:56:36 PM - SOURCE: WQOW-TV ABC 18 Eau Claire

Fire crews were called to a wildfire at the Navarino State Wildlife Area Sunday. According to the Bonduel Fire Chief, at least 19 acres were burned. Nobody was hurt and the cause of the blaze is unknown. The DNR is leading an investigation.
- PUB DATE: 5/8/2017 3:28:28 AM - SOURCE: WLUK TV Fox 11

A family of three safely escaped a house fire this morning in Madison. It happened in the 800 block of Northland Drive after a person inside a home saw smoke coming from the basement. Firefighters saw smoke when they arrived on scene and began flowing water into the basement window, then put out the fire.
- PUB DATE: 5/8/2017 3:07:52 AM - SOURCE: WMTV-TV NBC 15 Madison

Emergency radio recordings show that helicopter pilots with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and the Orange County Fire Authority bickered, and that sheriff pilots ignored a direct order to “stand down,” during a pair of rescues in Laguna Beach and Orange on Saturday, April 29, revealing an escalating battle between the two agencies over helicopter-related emergencies and who responds to them.
- PUB DATE: 5/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Orange County Register

For the first time in the FDNY’s 150-year history, more women and black, Latino and Asian applicants have filed for the upcoming firefighter exam than white men. The latest numbers mark a significant change for the department — which has been the city’s least diverse agency for decades, despite also being one of its largest with 10,000 members.
- PUB DATE: 5/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Daily News

Diana Matty joined West Palm Beach Fire Rescue fresh out of high school, in October 1994. She was 18. Work hard and someday you’ll be chief, they told her. “I took that to heart. I’ve been a hard worker all of my career,” Matty said. They made good on their promise Tuesday at 5 p.m. — on an interim basis, anyway — when City Administrator Jeff Green called to tell Asst.
- PUB DATE: 5/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Palm Beach Post

Two years before 36 partygoers died in the Ghost Ship warehouse inferno, Oakland firefighters toured the cluttered firetrap, even dancing in the same second-story performance space where the victims would huddle in their final moments, according to witnesses and documents. The visits started Sept. 26, 2014, a Friday, when firefighters extinguished a couch fire outside the warehouse artists’ collective on 31st Avenue before touring the eclectic interior, people who saw them inside the building said.
- PUB DATE: 5/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: East Bay Times

PHOTO/VIDEO - Five people were injured when a Hudson-Bergen Light Rail train crashed into a fire truck and derailed in Jersey City on Friday evening, fire officials said. Four firefighters and the train's operator suffered minor injuries in the collision near Washington Boulevard and Sixth Street, officials said.
- PUB DATE: 5/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NBC New York

Officials with the Milwaukee Fire Department are investigating two separate fires that happened Sunday, May 7th. The first happened around 10:30 a.m. at a home near Humboldt and Concordia. This was a porch fire that extended to the home’s attic. Everyone in the home was able to get out safely. Three adults were being assisted by the American Red Cross after this fire, which was brought under control within about 20 minutes.
- PUB DATE: 5/7/2017 12:52:53 PM - SOURCE: WITI Fox Channel 6

VIDEO: The Black River Falls Fire Department says no one is injured following a structure fire in the Township of Irving Saturday afternoon. According to the department, it received a call around 2:30 p.m. for a fire on Nichols Road. Upon arrival, crews found a garage fully engulfed in flames. A nearby home also sustained fire and heat damage.
- PUB DATE: 5/7/2017 9:28:50 AM - SOURCE: WXOW-TV ABC 19 LaCrosse

VIDEO: It's a call Milwaukee Firefighters are seeing more than ever before: A car engulfed in flames, abandoned on a quiet road or in a parking lot. Their first concern is putting out the flames. Their second, figuring out how the fire started. "What we're trying to do is determine whether or not the car fires that we do see in the city of Milwaukee are accidental, or whether they're arson," says Captain Schuyler Belott.
- PUB DATE: 5/7/2017 3:39:50 AM - SOURCE: Telemundo Milwaukee,WI

The Merrill Fire Department is hoping to begin a pilot program that would provide recently released emergency room patients with in-home care. The program is called Community Care Paramedics. “There's a void here in this rural area that we serve.” Merrill Fire Chief Dave Savone said. “What it does is shift the role from this emergency paramedic to a kind of preventative proactive type of thing.
- PUB DATE: 5/5/2017 4:53:11 AM - SOURCE: WAOW-TV ABC 9-Wausau

Since the beginning of the year, the Holmen Area Fire Department has been experiencing greater demand for services. HAFD Assistant Chief Bill Bulawa told the Holmen Area Fire District Association Board at its April 20 meeting, the department has responded to 99 calls since the board’s March meeting. “We’re running,” said Bulawa.
- PUB DATE: 5/5/2017 2:17:22 AM - SOURCE: Onalaska Holmen Courier Life

47-year-old Leon Butts — a high-ranking Milwaukee firefighter facing several domestic abuse charges after he allegedly beat and strangled his live-in girlfriend, appeared in court Friday, May 5th for a preliminary hearing and a bail/bond hearing. During the hearings, Butts plead not guilty and the court found probable cause and bound Butts over for trial.
- PUB DATE: 5/5/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WITI Fox Channel 6