There is a gaping hole in the fabric of the Spring Valley community after the unexpected death of longtime Fire Chief Terry Shafer, who died Saturday, Feb. 25 while on a weekend trip with his brothers. He was 62. Shafer joined Spring Valley Fire in 1979 and began wearing the white chief’s helmet in 1986.
- PUB DATE: 3/1/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Rivertowns

A Superior Court judge said he will decide soon whether to block the state’s overseers from cutting the city’s Fire Department to save the city money. The city’s firefighters are suing the state and met for the first time Tuesday in court before Superior Court Judge Julio Mendez. Attorneys for both the city’s firefighters and state overseers predicted dire outcomes if the judge doesn’t rule in their respective favor, with the union raising public-safety concerns and the state invoking bankruptcy.
- PUB DATE: 3/1/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Press of Atlantic City

The parents of a University of Connecticut student who was killed in October after being run over by a campus fire department vehicle are suing the driver and the state over "the negligence and carelessness" that led to the young woman's death. Abraham and Shiny Chemmarappally, of West Hartford, filed the suit Feb.
- PUB DATE: 3/1/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Hartford Courant

When the weather’s nice on the weekends, Jennifer Chisholm watches children flock to the end of her street in the Chimney Hill neighborhood. Two antique fire trucks are often parked in front of the house at the corner of Rosemont and Bunyan roads. “It’s a main street, so everybody’s like ‘Wow,’ ” she said.
- PUB DATE: 3/1/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Norfolk Virginian-Pilot/HamptonRoads.com

VIDEO - A firefighter in China was caught in dramatic footage as he rappelled from the ninth floor of a hospital and kicked a suicidal woman back inside. The distraught woman in Ruzhou City opened an eighth-story window and sat on the ledge, where she caught the attention of passers-by and hospital staff, Asia Wire reported.
- PUB DATE: 3/1/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Post

There is a gaping hole in the fabric of the Spring Valley community after the unexpected death of longtime Fire Chief Terry Shafer, who died Saturday, Feb. 25 while on a weekend trip with his brothers. He was 62. Shafer joined Spring Valley Fire in 1979 and began wearing the white chief’s helmet in 1986.
- PUB DATE: 2/28/2017 10:41:51 PM - SOURCE: Rivertowns

VIDEO: A lightning strike started a fire Tuesday night in a Kenosha home. A Kenosha Fire Department battalion chief confirmed the strike on 47th Avenue near 42nd Street. "We did have a line of severe thunderstorms that came through the area with multiple lightning strikes," Battalion Chief Matthew Haerter said.
- PUB DATE: 2/28/2017 7:26:45 PM - SOURCE: WISN-TV ABC 12 Milwaukee

Baraboo Fire Department Deputy Chief Steve Pointon thought he was about to attend a regular staff meeting Monday evening. Instead, he entered the garage to see friends and family standing alongside his fellow firefighters. They were gathered around a cake, ready to congratulate Pointon on his 40 years with the department.
- PUB DATE: 2/28/2017 6:51:55 PM - SOURCE: wisc news

VIDEO: A man wanted for starting fires at three West Bend businesses has been arrested. Police announced the arrest Tuesday. The most recent fire happened behind Mountain Outfitters on Sunday, when police say the man started a trailer filled with cardboard boxes on fire. "I came out and checked it out, and it was pretty ugly and dirty and damaged," says Mary Gamerdinger, who works at a non-profit next door.
- PUB DATE: 2/28/2017 1:51:07 PM - SOURCE: WDJT-TV CBS 58 Milwaukee

Firefighters from multiple area departments were working Tuesday afternoon to put out a structure fire at a residence in southwestern Sheboygan County. Emergency personnel were dispatched around 1:35 p.m. to the fire at N8746 County Highway W, in the Town of Mitchell, the county sheriff’s office reported.
- PUB DATE: 2/28/2017 1:44:07 PM - SOURCE: Sheboygan Press

Germantown FD help deliver baby at McDonald's Germantown firefighters help deliver baby at McDonald's early Tuesday morning A woman left a Germantown McDonald's
- PUB DATE: 2/28/2017 9:48:04 AM - SOURCE: The Morning Blend

On February 22, 9 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

A barn caught fire Monday in Chippewa County east of Colfax. Firefighters responded to the fire at about 3:30 p.m. Monday at the intersection of Highway T and Highway B near the town of Howard, according to the Chippewa Fire District. Multiple fire crews responded. Firefighters were still on scene as of 9:30 p.
- PUB DATE: 2/28/2017 2:25:12 AM - SOURCE: Eau Claire Leader-Telegram

On February 27, 4 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

A CareFlite medical helicopter on the way to pick up a patient came "very close" to striking a drone aircraft Monday near Denton, the company's top executive said. The helicopter had just taken off at about 5:30 p.m. when the incident occurred about four miles south of Denton Regional Airport, said CareFlite Chief Executive Officer Jim Swartz.
- PUB DATE: 2/28/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NBC Dallas Fort Worth

Three people were killed and two others are in critical condition after a small plane crashed into a California home on Monday, authorities said. Two dwellings were destroyed when the plane went down in Riverside at about 4:45 p.m, Fire Chief Michael Moore said. All of the victims had been flying in the aircraft, he said.
- PUB DATE: 2/28/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NBC News

When Dallas Fire-Rescue Chief David Coatney rode out on an ambulance for a shift in southern Dallas on the night of New Year's Eve, his paramedics responded to a hectic 10 calls in 12 hours. "I thought that was an anomaly because of New Year's Eve," Coatney said. "But then when I pulled the data, I found that was a normal shift for them.
- PUB DATE: 2/28/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Dallas Morning News

The former South Thomaston fire chief has been ordered by a judge to account for approximately $15,000 that went missing from the town’s fireman’s association after it was allocated to help buy a new fire truck. Justice William Stokes, in his Feb. 14 ruling, ordered that former Fire Chief Wayne Brown, along with former firefighter Colin Grierson, to come up in the next month with a detailed list of “any and all withdrawals and/or disbursements from the [South Thomaston Firemen’s] Association’s funds.
- PUB DATE: 2/28/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Bangor Daily ews

Soot, grit and grime once were the height of fashion at American firehouses. Strutting around in a singed helmet and smudged turnout gear let the world know that you were one tough firefighting son of a gun. “For some it’s still like the red badge of courage,” said Herington, Kan., fire chief Ken Staatz.
- PUB DATE: 2/28/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Kansas City Star

Fire Chief Teresa Deloach Reed is on leave from her job for the second time this year. A spokeswoman refused to say late Monday afternoon whether Reed’s absence is performance related. There is no current administrative investigation of the chief, she added. Reed did not return a phone message. “The city does not comment on the leave status of employees,” said Erica Derryck, a spokesman for Mayor Libby Schaaf.
- PUB DATE: 2/28/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: East Bay Times