Despite the danger and disruption to property owners and renters, a couple of recent structure fires turned out to be proving grounds of the Holmen Area Fire Department reorganization and its improved ability to respond. At the Holmen Area Fire District Association Board’s Feb. 16 meeting, Assistant Chief Bill Bulawa reported on the fire department’s response to a kitchen fire in the town of Holland and its assistance to the Onalaska Fire Department when that department was battling an apartment complex fire.
- PUB DATE: 2/24/2017 2:47:09 AM - SOURCE: Onalaska Holmen Courier Life

On February 23, 1 residential fire fatality was reported by the Nation's news media.

PHOTO - A firetruck crashed in Whitley County, Kentucky Thursday. The Woodbine Fire Department truck crashed in a wooded area near Louden Road and Highway 92 eastbound. According to the report, two firefighters were on their way to help with a structure fire at the time of the crash. The men were transported to Baptist Health Corbin for minor injuries.
- PUB DATE: 2/24/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WATE.com

It would be difficult to find anyone more embedded in the culture of Prince George's County fire service —or in the community of Bowie — than county Fire Chief Marc Bashoor. As a kid, he rode his bike from the Tulip Grove section of town to Station 39 on Route 450 and watch the firetrucks go out. He became a volunteer there in 1981 at the age of 16 — he needed a note from his parents to sign up — and even lived in the firehouse for a time.
- PUB DATE: 2/24/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Capital Gazette

It’s been more than two years since Hartford Firefighter Kevin Bell was killed while battling a massive blaze in the city's North End and a final report reveals what factors contributed to his death. The National Institute for Occupation Safety and Health (NIOSH) report reveals how the firefighter died and lists several recommendations for the fire department.
- PUB DATE: 2/24/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NBC Connecticut

The Menlo Park Fire Protection District’s top official wants it to lead the pack in using drones for emergency operations. “I want this agency to be the lead agency in the United States in the terms of applying new technology,” district board President Peter Carpenter said at Tuesday’s board meeting.
- PUB DATE: 2/24/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Mercury News

A firefighter who fell 15 feet through a burning barn roof in Clare is recovering from several broken bones. Sam Eberhart, 33, was battling a fire at the barn when he fell 15 feet onto a concrete floor. "It was instant pain," Eberhart said. "It was the first time I had ever broken a bone. There was no comfort.
- PUB DATE: 2/24/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WDIV-TV NBC 4 Detroit

When Roy Jimerson saw a bunch of paper flying around Coastal Federal Credit Union on University Drive and Shannon Road, he stopped. "I saw that it was money, so I turned around and blocked traffic, picked it up; another citizen stopped and helped me gather it," Jimerson said. When Jimerson isn't busy working as a Durham firefighter, he's laying tile as an independent contractor.
- PUB DATE: 2/24/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WTVD-TV ABC Channel 11

Barn 23, a well-known Dodgeville landmark is destroyed after a fire last night leaving fire crews investigating and many reminiscing on what was once a popular bar and restaurant. "It really gets ya thinking,” said Thomas Davies. "When I was a youngster in grade school, this was a dairy farm and they had dairy cattle.
- PUB DATE: 2/23/2017 9:06:58 PM - SOURCE: WMTV-TV NBC 15 Madison

A Portage woman who has been in jail since December, accused of attempted arson, will have to wait another 30 days before her attorney can address what she said are underlying mental health issues. Linda Fuller, 58, is charged with felony attempted arson of a building, criminal damage to property and two counts of bail jumping following an incident on the evening of Dec.
- PUB DATE: 2/23/2017 6:56:25 PM - SOURCE: wisc news

VIDEO: Muddy ground made it hard early Thursday morning for fire trucks to get into a driveway of a home on fire. Fire crews fought the fire for at least three hours, citing the ground conditions and age of the home as reasons it was difficult to extinguish, according to Rosholt Fire District. One person at the house made it out safely before crews arrived, according to officials at the scene.
- PUB DATE: 2/23/2017 6:39:53 AM - SOURCE: WAOW-TV ABC 9-Wausau

VIDEO: The Dodgeville Fire Chief tells 27 News it's still too early to say whether the fire at Barn 23 is considered suspicious or not. They will investigate all possibilities. Fire Chief Brian Whitehouse says still, an Iowa County arson investigation team will be working with the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation to look into the fire, due to the value of the property.
- PUB DATE: 2/23/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WKOW-TV ABC 27

Federal investigators found thousands of child pornography images on a tablet computer seized from a Milwaukee firefighter, court records show. Robert Rutley, 44, told investigators he had been interested in child pornography for more than a decade and had begun downloading it at work after a relative caught him doing it at home, according to a federal arrest warrant affidavit.
- PUB DATE: 2/23/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

VIDEO: Donald Powis didn’t plan to be at Merrick State Park near Fountain City, Wisconsin on Friday afternoon. The 69-year-old social worker was planning to do a little fishing, but roughly 300 miles away from the shores along Fountain City Bay. The avid angler was preparing to try and reel in some brown trout.
- PUB DATE: 2/23/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WMTV-TV NBC 15 Madison

PHOTO - A firefighter with the Leach Fire Department died Wednesday morning in a single-vehicle crash on his way to a structure fire, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said. Troopers say Michael Dale Russell, 68, from Rose, Oklahoma, was pronounced dead at the scene with massive injuries. The crash occurred at about 7:30 a.
- PUB DATE: 2/23/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KOTV-TV CBS 6 Tulsa

Firefighter James Lee Jr. of the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) has been named the 2017 Ray Downey Courage and Valor Award recipient. The award will be presented on Wednesday during the Opening Ceremony of FDIC International 2017 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Firefighter (FF) James Lee rescued an 81-year-old man from the top-floor rear window of a five-story Old Law tenement that had two railroad flats per floor.
- PUB DATE: 2/23/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Fire Engineering

Last summer, as the Austin fire union was preparing to represent one of its members at a disciplinary hearing, department officials permitted union president Bob Nicks to review confidential documents in the case under a provision of the city’s labor contract with firefighters. With a couple of clicks, Nicks secretly downloaded the information onto his personal laptop — but says he disclosed what he’d done a few days later to top department officials.
- PUB DATE: 2/23/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Austin American-Statesman

Tacoma Fire Department leaders have revised their hiring practices in the wake of a News Tribune story about a firefighter who died of a drug overdose in July 2016 after showing up for work impaired. Deeper scrutiny of criminal background check information and broader questions about illegal drug use are the key changes the next round of job applicants will face in April, when the department will begin filling 16 positions — 12 new positions authorized in the city’s latest budget and four existing slots to account for retirements.
- PUB DATE: 2/23/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Tacoma News Tribune

At a Berlin day care center, a little boy lights a match and touches it to another, making a sudden flare. The girl sitting next to him shouts a word that is the same in German and English: “Cool!” The two children, both under 6, aren’t breaking any rules. They are taking part in a fire workshop designed by Kain Karawahn, an artist who, as part of a performance piece about freedom in 1987, once set a blaze at the Berlin Wall.
- PUB DATE: 2/23/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Times

VIDEO: The busiest fire engine company in Wisconsin is back open for business. Fire Station 13 at 30th and Locust in Milwaukee reopened Wednesday morning with heightened security after somebody used it for target practice last week. Battalion Chief Dan Lipski tells CBS 58's Julie Parise that morale is high.
- PUB DATE: 2/22/2017 8:29:14 PM - SOURCE: Telemundo Milwaukee,WI