Embattled Fire Chief Teresa Deloach Reed, who has been heavily criticized since 36 people died in the Dec. 2 Ghost Ship warehouse blaze, is on leave from the department tending to a sick relative, according to a fire official. Deputy Chief Mark Hoffmann said he was told Reed was out due to a sick family member, and that he and Deputy Chief Darin White have been rotating as interim fire chief.
- PUB DATE: 2/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: East Bay Times

At around 1:30 a.m. Saturday, Mikaela Milano's video enabled, motion activated doorbell caught the unluckiest of visitors; smoke and flames, billowing from a raging fire just behind her apartment in Maplewood, New Jersey. Firefighters were struggling to contain the blaze as it tore through – at a shockingly fast rate – a still under construction AvalonBay apartment complex.
- PUB DATE: 2/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: PIX11.com

You've probably heard of fire departments hosting bingo nights to raise money, but what about naughty bingo? One volunteer fire department in Schuylkill County says it's had to get creative with fundraising events. The Hometown Volunteer Fire Company is preparing to host its second adults-only naughty bingo night.
- PUB DATE: 2/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WNEP-TV Newswatch 16

The NFPA 1971/1985 Task Group on Eye and Face Protection released a survey to help develop minimum standards for fire and EMS eye and face protection. Firefighters currently use partial face-shields, bourkes and goggles. However, many remove all form of face and eye protection from their helmet, and often times protection is damaged or dirtied.
- PUB DATE: 2/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1

When a check for nearly $83,000 arrived in the mail last month from the estate of a woman thankful for the help Sebastopol firefighters gave her over many years, Fire Chief Bill Braga was elated by the largest windfall his agency had ever received. “It’s five, six years’ worth of flipping pancakes,” Braga said.
- PUB DATE: 2/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Santa Rosa Press Democrat

A push to force Lincoln and Omaha to make significant changes to their pension plans for new police and fire employees met firm opposition from union leaders and some city officials during a legislative hearing Tuesday. But the proposal's backers called it essential to ensuring the state's two largest cities meet their obligations to cops and firefighters going forward.
- PUB DATE: 2/8/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Lincoln Journal Star

On February 6, 5 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

On February 2, 11 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

VIDEO: Two men had to be rescued from Delavan Lake in a hovercraft after their ATV broke through the ice Tuesday morning. Witnesses told first responders they heard the ATV go through the ice but could not see the men because of the dense fog in the area. "The fog was 100 percent dense. You couldn't see more than 50 to 75 feet.
- PUB DATE: 2/7/2017 5:08:58 PM - SOURCE: WISN-TV ABC 12 Milwaukee

Brian Schmitt is still facing questions about his long-term future as the head of the Town of Wilson’s fire department. But elected officials are considering giving him some wiggle room around a firefighting certification requirement he currently doesn’t meet. The town last year agreed to a set of bylaws for its new municipal fire department that would require its fire officers to have a certain certification.
- PUB DATE: 2/7/2017 4:49:47 PM - SOURCE: Sheboygan Press

The city of Altoona hasn't even hired its first full-time fire chief yet, but the position already may be in line for a raise. Just four days after the top candidate from a previous search elected not to accept the job, the city's Personnel Committee voted unanimously Monday to increase the pay scale offered to the fire chief.
- PUB DATE: 2/7/2017 5:36:24 AM - SOURCE: Altoona, WI

Two fired City of Sun Prairie paramedics have been awarded more than a half a million dollars by an arbitrator after being cleared of any wrongdoing in a patient’s care. City officials say they will meet on Feb. 7 and decide whether to pay or appeal the award in court. Sun Prairie EMS Paramedics John Uebelacker and Matthew Schaller were dismissed on Feb.
- PUB DATE: 2/7/2017 5:05:39 AM - SOURCE: Sun Prairie Star

VIDEO: A 54-year-old woman has died after being rescued from a mobile home fire in Oak Creek Monday night, February 6th. The fire broke out around 10:45 p.m. in a mobile home near 27th Street and College Avenue. Investigators are still trying to figure out the cause of the fire -- but the Oak Creek Fire Chief says it does not appear to be suspicious.
- PUB DATE: 2/7/2017 4:55:50 AM - SOURCE: WITI Fox Channel 6

After watching his good friend and fellow firefighter die of colon cancer, Chris Conner vowed to help other firefighters find ways to detect the disease in its early stages. Conner, who is president of the Bedford Professional Firefighters Association, worked with Fire Chief Sean Fay and the City Council, and now Bedford is the first in the country to contract with an Indiana-based company, MorNuCo, which provides the ONCOblot test.
- PUB DATE: 2/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Fort Worth Star-Telegram

The U.S. Forest Service can hire firefighters this year after winning an exemption from President Trump’s civilian governmental employee hiring freeze. On Friday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s acting deputy secretary Michael Young announced exemptions to “ensure a safe food supply, fire-safe communities, safe and secure public lands and rapid emergency response to natural and human-caused disasters,” according to a USDA press release.
- PUB DATE: 2/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Missoulian

As a boy, Brandon J. Thibeau was so determined to be helpful, his grandmother had to cut her broom’s handle in half. That way, he could still pitch in sweeping up around the house, his mother said. It was an early glimpse of the young man her son would become. Never one to draw attention to himself, he was always looking out for others – even until his last days, she said.
- PUB DATE: 2/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Portland Press Herald

Prosecutors plan to file 12 counts of capital murder with special circumstance allegations today against three people arrested in connection with a 1993 fire at a Westlake apartment building that killed seven children and three adults, including two pregnant women, according to District Attorney Jackie Lacey.
- PUB DATE: 2/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Los Angeles Daily News

A Bronx first responder is not content to spend his vacations relaxing — instead, he patrols the Mexican border with a heavily armed vigilante group. “Our main goal is to stop narcotics trafficking,” said FDNY emergency medical technician Andy Poliakoff, whose time off is spent in the desolate Sonoran Desert hunting for Mexican drug runners.
- PUB DATE: 2/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Post

VIDEO: The Waldo Fire Department is in mourning after one of its firefighters died in a weekend crash. The Sheboygan County Sheriff's Office says 31-year-old Ryan Moyer was killed in the crash Saturday afternoon in the Town of Lyndon. Moyer was driving a pickup truck when it crashed. Two other firefighters were injured.
- PUB DATE: 2/6/2017 10:18:37 PM - SOURCE: The Morning Blend

VIDEO: Portage County fire crews responded to an apartment fire Monday night. Authorities said a woman was taken to Ministry Saint Michael's Hospital and was being treated for smoke inhalation. The fire broke out around 7 p.m. on Martha's Lane in Stevens Point. According to fire officials on the scene, the fire appears to have started in the kitchen of one of the units.
- PUB DATE: 2/6/2017 7:04:48 PM - SOURCE: WAOW-TV ABC 9-Wausau