The assistant chief of the Eldorado Volunteer Fire Department was found dead at the fire station on Jan. 10, hours after a meeting. According to the U.S. Fire Administration, a firefighter found Assistant Fire Chief Rodney “Tiny” Menne, 53, at 2 a.m. deceased from an apparent heart attack. The USFA has provisionally listed the event as a line of duty death.
- PUB DATE: 1/26/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse News

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to sponsor state legislation to change a law that bars paramedics from taking patients to mental health urgent care and sobering centers. Under the law, which was branded as “outdated” by one county official, paramedics are required to take patients with psychiatric needs only to hospital emergency departments or 9-1-1 receiving units.
- PUB DATE: 1/26/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Los Angeles Daily News

VIDEO - Firefighters battled a massive, 3-alarm fire in Lynnwood Wednesday night. The fire broke out around 9:30 p.m. near 19800 Scribes Lake Road, between 196th St. SW and 200th St. SW. Crews said the apartment complex was under construction and was unoccupied. "Right now they're using defensing methods to keep the fire isolated to the construction site," said Julie Moore, Lynnwood Fire PIO.
- PUB DATE: 1/26/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KOMO-TV ABC 4 and Radio 1000

Mountain View Fire Rescue's Board of Directors on Monday night unanimously approved a separation agreement with fire Chief Mark Lawley a year before his contract was set to expire and appointed David Beebe as the interim chief. The decisions were made almost simultaneously following an hour-long executive session at the board's monthly meeting.
- PUB DATE: 1/26/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse

A rookie Los Angeles firefighter's attempt to connect with a man proved to be life-saving when the man safely surrendered after threatening to jump off a freeway overpass. Kenneth Fraser was driving home Tuesday night from training as a Los Angeles Fire Department firefighter when he noticed people crowded around a man on the 101 Freeway overpass in Hollywood.
- PUB DATE: 1/26/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KNBC-TV NBC 4 Los Angeles

The St. Louis Fire Department has launched an internal investigation into one of its employees after FOX25 Investigates uncovered inconsistencies in the first responder's story that he rushed to the scene of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. Investigative Reporter Eric Rasmussen traveled to St. Louis to get answers after paramedics in Boston and Missouri contacted FOX25 about Shawn Daniel, who was recently honored at a St.
- PUB DATE: 1/26/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WFXT-TV Fox 25 Boston

On January 19, 10 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

Officials with the Milwaukee Fire Department are investigating after two mobile homes catch on fire — and the flames spread to a nearby building. Firefighters were called to the area of 38th and Vliet just before 2 a.m. Wednesday, January 25th. Upon arrival, crews found two mobile homes, which were parked behind a business building, in flames.
- PUB DATE: 1/25/2017 5:24:52 AM - SOURCE: WITI Fox Channel 6

A fire on Tuesday afternoon destroyed a barn and multiple vehicles that were stored inside. The barn was engulfed when firefighters arrived, according to Winnebago County Sheriff's Lt. Joe Kroncke. No one was injured in the blaze at 1911 Winnebago County II. But seven or eight vehicles that were being stored inside the structure were destroyed, said town of Neenah Fire Chief Ed King.
- PUB DATE: 1/25/2017 4:55:40 AM - SOURCE: Appleton Post-Gazette & Post Crescent.com

A firefighter was injured while responding to a fire in Milwaukee early Wednesday morning. The fire was reported around 2:00 a.m. near 38th and Vliet streets. It appears that the fire started in a mobile tattoo parlor parked outside a tattoo shop. Flames spread from the truck to the business and caused significant damage.
- PUB DATE: 1/25/2017 3:59:46 AM - SOURCE: WISN-TV ABC 12 Milwaukee

On January 24, 0 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

VIDEO: A local fire department is approaching fire safety education in a new way. The Holmen Fire Department will focus on common mistakes made by people in different age groups. Lessons will be different for the elderly, adults, teens, and children. The events will have different activities such as coloring books for children or obstacles for teenagers.
- PUB DATE: 1/25/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WKBT-TV CBS 8 La Crosse

A former employee with the state's Fire Training Safety Bureau was arrested Tuesday after investigators determined that more than 2,000 fire safety certifications had been improperly issued between 2012 and 2016, according to a news release by the Iowa Department of Public Safety. John McPhee was charged with felonious misconduct in office, a Class D felony, and tampering with records, an aggravated misdemeanor.
- PUB DATE: 1/25/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Des Moines Register

Federal prosecutors filed a civil complaint Monday naming EMSA and its director, Stephen Williamson, in an alleged kickback scheme regarding a lucrative ambulance services provider contract. The complaint, filed in federal court in the eastern district of Texas, claims that a Texas hospital and ambulance provider, Paramedics Plus LLC, entered into a kickback scheme to obtain and retain a lucrative public ambulance services contract awarded by Williamson and the Emergency Medical Services Authority, a public trust that administers the ambulance service in the Tulsa and Oklahoma City metro areas.
- PUB DATE: 1/25/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Tulsa World

Murrieta Fire Department engineer Mike Macalinao and captains Sean DeGrave and Todd Bradstreet are certified swiftwater rescue technicians who each have trained for the risky missions for more than 10 years. They all have performed water rescues. But none, they said, matched the situation they encountered Sunday, Jan.
- PUB DATE: 1/25/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: San Bernardino County Sun

One person was killed during a crash involving a fire truck and a van on I-90 in Rocky River, which also ultimately resulted in the hit-skip death of a Cleveland police officer. The fire truck was on scene assisting in a single-vehicle accident when a white van crashed into the back of the truck. The driver of the van, 29-year-old Artem Vytiegov of San Francisco, was pronounced dead on scene.
- PUB DATE: 1/25/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Cleveland CBS 19

Federal workers scrambled on Tuesday to interpret how President Donald Trump’s hiring freeze of civilian employees might affect seasonal firefighters and other part-time employees. Trump’s order, issued Monday, stated “no vacant positions existing at noon on January 22, 2017, may be filled and no new positions may be created, except in limited circumstances.
- PUB DATE: 1/25/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Billings Gazette

Portsmouth will give police officers, firefighters and other emergency workers $1,000 apiece to keep working in the city. The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to give the one-time stipend next month to those employees, as well as paramedics and dispatchers. The proposal, submitted to the council by human resources director Elizabeth Gooden, says Portsmouth will spend about $860,000 on the incentive without adding to its operating budget.
- PUB DATE: 1/25/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Norfolk Virginian-Pilot/HamptonRoads.com

On January 23, 7 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

A Reedsburg family is homeless after a fire broke out on Jan. 23. The house, located on Enterprise Drive near South Dewey Avenue, was destroyed despite firefighters working for hours to knock down the flames. No one was home at the time and no injuries were reported. Jordan Sullivan, who grew up in the house during her teen years, told the Times-Press she received notice of the incident around 9:30 a.
- PUB DATE: 1/24/2017 4:14:13 AM - SOURCE: Reedsburg Times-Press