Jennie Stout, a nurse in Ocala, Fla., was finishing an afternoon shift when she got a panicked call from home. Her 13-year-old daughter, Ashlyn, had tripped and fallen into smothered coals left over from burning leaves in their backyard, scorching her hands, knees, and shins. Ambulance paramedics on the scene when Jennie arrived said that Ashlyn should be sent by helicopter to a burn center in Gainesville for fast treatment.
- PUB DATE: 4/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Consumer Reports

On April 5, Senators John McCain (R-AZ), Thomas Carper (D-DE), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Jon Tester (D-MT) introduced legislation reauthorizing the Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) and Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant programs. The bill, S. 829, extends the authorization for AFG and SAFER through FY 2023 and eliminates a “sunset” provision currently set to take effect in January 2018 that would eliminate the programs.
- PUB DATE: 4/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1

All Orlando Fire Department emergency vehicles are now equipped with bulletproof vests and helmets specially designed for firefighters and medics responding to mass-casualty incidents and active violent crime scenes, and Orange County Fire Rescue is planning to do the same. After last year’s June 12 Pulse shooting that killed 49 and injured more than 63, Orlando-area officials and first responders gathered to brainstorm how to best address what OFD Chief Roderick S.
- PUB DATE: 4/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Orlando Sentinel

On April 6, 0 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

PHOTO: CPR is a life-saving technique -- but you may be surprised by how many people don't actually know how to perform it. That's why every year, members of the Milwaukee Fire Department travel the city, teaching CPR to students. In 2018, a new state law goes into effect, requiring Wisconsin students to have CPR training.
- PUB DATE: 4/6/2017 3:34:48 PM - SOURCE: WITI Fox Channel 6

The city of Altoona is another step closer to hiring its first full-time fire chief. On Wednesday, the Altoona Police and Fire Commission interviewed two candidates for the position. A third candidate backed out before Wednesday’s interviews. City Administrator Mike Golat says the commission selected James Cleveland of New Mexico for the chief position.
- PUB DATE: 4/6/2017 3:39:55 AM - SOURCE: WEAU-TV 13 News

After voters in Osseo approved a referendum Tuesday night for a new fire station, plans to build the new facility are getting underway. Osseo Fire Chief Nels Gunderson says Olympic Construction was awarded the contract for the 2.5 million dollar project. He says construction is expected to begin in about 30 days, and will done by the end of the year.
- PUB DATE: 4/6/2017 3:32:55 AM - SOURCE: WEAU-TV 13 News

On April 5, 8 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

Contestants are asked to have their chili at the Fire Hall no later than 3 p.m. Please prepare 1 gallon of chili and deliver it in a crock-pot. Extensions cords will be provided. Entries will be divided into three categories: hot, medium and mild. A distinguished panel of judges will pit their taste buds against the chili entries starting at 3:30 p.
- PUB DATE: 4/6/2017 3:24:28 AM - SOURCE: New Richmond News

Police and fire investigators are trying to determine what caused a fire to break out in a home at 2214 Washington Ave. Wednesday afternoon. Firefighters were called to the scene at 3:30 p.m. after a resident on the second floor reported the carpet was on fire. When crews arrived a piece of burned carpet was lying outside the residence, already extinguished.
- PUB DATE: 4/6/2017 3:06:16 AM - SOURCE: Racine Journal Times

Raleigh Fire Chief John McGrath says his department will need 60 new firefighters, three platoon EMS coordinators, a training captain, an inventory specialist and three additional battalion chiefs to keep up with growing demand, but he’s willing to forgo it all for another year if it means his firefighters get raises.
- PUB DATE: 4/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: News & Observer

A former fire academy administrator could avoid jail after allegedly falsifying test scores that were used to improperly certify thousands of Iowa firefighters, a scandal that has rocked the profession, court records revealed Wednesday. Filings show former Fire Services Training Bureau certification and accreditation manager John McPhee has agreed to plead guilty to felonious misconduct in office.
- PUB DATE: 4/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier

Today the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) and the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) have announced the topic for the 2017 Safety Stand Down, which takes place June 18-24. MAYDAY, Self-Rescue, and Rapid Intervention will focus this year’s activities on those critical skills required of individual firefighters to recognize when they are in a MAYDAY situation; the skills they need as an individual to remove themselves from the situation (Self-Rescue); and ultimately on the team skills needed to rescue a trapped firefighter (Rapid Intervention).
- PUB DATE: 4/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: International Association of Fire Chiefs

The city of San Luis Obispo will pay up to $70,000 — higher than the $50,000 previously estimated — for an investigator’s report into the roles of two high-ranking San Luis Obispo city officials in creating a spoof video that allegedly sexually objectified city firefighters. The video — shown at the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce annual dinner Jan.
- PUB DATE: 4/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: San Luis Obispo County Tribune

It was 1979 when U.S. District Judge John T. Curtin first ordered the desegregation of Buffalo's police and fire departments. Thirty-eight years later, the courts are closer than ever to ending their historic oversight. Satisfied that the city is abiding by most of Curtin's landmark decrees, the judge now handling the case recently ended much of his order.
- PUB DATE: 4/6/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Buffalo News

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

On April 4, 8 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

In many of central Ohio’s sprawling outer suburbs, neighboring township fire departments provide the services that keep the growing populations safe. But because tax deals between cities and developers often fuel suburban growth, townships say they’re losing millions of dollars in revenue they need to keep up with the increase in emergency calls.
- PUB DATE: 4/5/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Columbus Dispatch

West Haven Fire Department Deputy Chief Scott Schwartz has been out of work for more than a month, placed on paid administrative leave after a series of clashes involving him and a rank-and-file firefighter, according to several sources. Schwartz, who also is the city’s emergency management director, has not been suspended from that job.
- PUB DATE: 4/5/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New Haven Register

Three days before a candle likely ignited a Oakland apartment house blaze that killed four people, inspectors ordered a dangerous extension cord removed from the same room where the fire started. The news, revealed in an interview Tuesday with Oakland Assistant Fire Marshal Maria Sabatini, raises the possibility that a resident of the second-floor room was using a candle because electricity was no longer available.
- PUB DATE: 4/5/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: East Bay Times