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

Government inspections of railroads that haul volatile crude oil across the United States have uncovered almost 24,000 safety defects, including problems similar to those blamed in derailments that triggered massive fires or oil spills in Oregon, Virginia, Montana and elsewhere, according to data obtained by The Associated Press.
- PUB DATE: 4/5/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: ABC News

In the operational command structure of the fire service, the ability for firefighters to contribute good ideas is difficult if not wholly impossible. Accused of jumping over the chain of authority, displaying bad behavior or simply being a poor follower, good firefighters are acutely aware of the lack of opportunity for input.
- PUB DATE: 4/5/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1

On April 4, 1 residential fire fatality was reported by the Nation's news media.

PHOTO: A River Falls man remained in critical condition Tuesday after being struck by a semi-trailer one day earlier on Highway 35. River Falls Deputy Police Chief Jon Aubart said the 62-year-old man was being treated at Regions Hospital in St. Paul after sustaining life-threatening injuries in the crash.
- PUB DATE: 4/4/2017 7:19:52 PM - SOURCE: Rivertowns

VIDEO: Minocqua will soon see a new home base for its fire department. The Minocqua fire chief, town board members, and architects all took part in breaking ground for the new station. The new building will be next to the Minocqua Area Chamber of Commerce on Highway 51. Fire Chief Andy Petrowski says this new station will not only give the department the space it needs but will help its response time as well.
- PUB DATE: 4/4/2017 4:48:37 PM - SOURCE: WJFW-TV NBC 12 Rhinelander-Wausau

In hopes to reduce medical and emergency services’ costs, Wisconsin lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill that would allow the community to provide emergency care. Rep. Amy Loudenbeck, R-Clinton, one of the main sponsors of the legislation, introduced the bill March 17. The bill would set up state expectations for non-emergency health care and was created in collaboration with local emergency service organizations like Professional Firemen of Wisconsin, Loudenbeck said.
- PUB DATE: 4/4/2017 1:05:14 PM - SOURCE: Badger Herald

On April 2, 8 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.