Maine firefighters are missing out on a training opportunity at the National Fire Academy this year because the state is not in compliance with a decade-old federal ID law regulating state-issued driver’s licenses. Maine is among 23 states and five U.S. territories not in compliance with the Real ID Act, and the Legislature in 2007 passed a law prohibiting the state from complying with law amid concerns that it would create a de facto “internal passport.
- PUB DATE: 1/19/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Bangor Daily News

A high-rise building in Tehran engulfed by a fire collapsed on Thursday, killing at least 30 firefighters and injuring some 75 people, state media reported. The disaster struck the Plasco building, an iconic structure in central Tehran just north of the capital's sprawling bazaar. Iran's state-run Press TV announced the firefighters' deaths, without giving a source for the information.
- PUB DATE: 1/19/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Daily News

Martin Pang, the arsonist who set the deadliest blaze in the Seattle Fire Department’s history, will have to pay nearly $3 million in restitution and other legal costs when he’s released from prison, according to an opinion published Tuesday by the state Court of Appeals. Pang, who is serving a 35-year prison sentence for setting a massive warehouse fire in January 1995 that killed four firefighters in the Chinatown International District, filed a motion in King County Superior Court in August 2015 seeking relief from his legal financial obligations, known as LFOs.
- PUB DATE: 1/19/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Seattle Times

The city paid three Providence fire captains more than $200,000 each in 2016 and paid a total of 220 firefighters more than $100,000 apiece during the same period. Fire rescue Capt. Vincent J. D'Ambra had the biggest payout, $243,000, according to a Providence Journal analysis of the Fire Department's payroll, apparently making him the highest-paid employee on the city's payroll.
- PUB DATE: 1/19/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Providence Journal

Unified Fire Authority officials should seek criminal investigations of their former chief and deputy chief for a dozen potential violations and attempt to get half a million dollars in reimbursement from them and three other former fire department administrators, said two state audits released Wednesday.
- PUB DATE: 1/19/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Salt Lake Tribune

President Barack Obama began meeting with prominent Democrats in early January to develop a strategy to keep his signature domestic policy, the Affordable Care Act, intact in the hands of a new administration. Vice President-elect Mike Pence and Republican Congressional leaders have been strategizing and meeting since the election to develop an alternative to the ACA.
- PUB DATE: 1/19/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: EMS1

VIDEO: There's still no agreement to continue emergency services in a small Dane County community after this year, but community leaders say they're making progress after a meeting Wednesday night. Five municipalities make up the Brooklyn Fire and EMS District. The largest of those-- the village of Brooklyn-- voted last month to withdraw from the district.
- PUB DATE: 1/18/2017 9:00:21 PM - SOURCE: WKOW-TV 27 ABC

On January 17, 3 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

The city is looking to replace one of their 20-year old fire engines with a new one set to cost around $575,000. The city's common council approved entering into a contract up to that amount for a new Pierce fire engine to replace their current '96 reserve fire engine. The department has four total fire engines – one frontline engine for each of the three stations and one reserve.
- PUB DATE: 1/18/2017 1:48:51 AM - SOURCE: My South Now

On January 17, 1 residential fire fatality was reported by the Nation's news media.

VIDEO: The Eagle River Fire Department and other volunteers stacked the 90-pound blocks over the last five days. Each ice block is nearly uniform, so they fit together like Lego blocks. "It's a tedious process using those ice scrapers and getting that tight seam," said Fire Chief Michael Anderson. Even though it took a lot of hours and manpower to get the job done, Anderson says they do it for the Eagle River community.
- PUB DATE: 1/18/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WJFW-TV NBC 12 Rhinelander-Wausau

A Tea family of six is now homeless after a devastating fire Sunday morning. Fortunately, they still have each other as no one was seriously hurt in the blaze. However, Tea Volunteer Fire First Assistant Chief Steven Oberle said there was a scary moment after a firefighter fell through the floor of the burning home.
- PUB DATE: 1/18/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KDLT-TV Sioux Falls

Four children were hospitalized in critical condition Tuesday morning after being rescued from a burning home in the Vermont Knolls neighborhood of South Los Angeles. Firefighters found the front of the home in the 800 block of West Manchester Avenue heavily involved with flames when they arrived about 10:51 p.
- PUB DATE: 1/18/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KTLA-TV WB 5 Los Angeles

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Superintendent Cassius Cash said a team that will review the forest fires that spread from the park into Gatlinburg and beyond has been activated and “should be here in the next week or two.” Fed by near-hurricane-force winds, the flames swept through Sevier County on Nov.
- PUB DATE: 1/18/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Knoxville News Sentinel

The final judgment in a long-awaited civil lawsuit against the Trenton Fire Department was released last week, ordering the city to pay nearly $1 million in damages and fees, according to the court document. The judgment stems from a 2014 lawsuit filed by former firefighter Jesse Diaz, who alleged that he overheard a racial slur made by a co-worker of his at the department in 2012.
- PUB DATE: 1/18/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Trenton Times

The Kern County Administrative Office has delayed, for now, a plan to reduce staffing at nine largely rural fire stations after the Kern County Firefighters union objected. "The union requested a 'meet and confer' on the staffing adjustment late last Friday afternoon. We've temporarily delayed implementation due to their request," County Administrative Officer Ryan Alsop said in an email Monday.
- PUB DATE: 1/18/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Bakersfield.com

The goal of the SAFER grant program is to assist local fire departments with staffing and deployment capabilities to respond to emergencies and to assure that communities have adequate protection from fire and fire-related hazards. Local fire departments accomplish this by improving staffing and deployment capabilities so they may more effectively and safely respond to emergencies.
- PUB DATE: 1/18/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1

A fire at a Sturgeon Bay law firm extinguished on its own Monday morning, but not before destroying boxes of legal records and a door. The Sturgeon Bay Fire Department received a call of smoke in the 454 Kentucky St. office building at 7:35 a.m., said Sturgeon Bay Firefighter Ethan Jorns. Upon arrival, personnel found that members of the Police Department and an employee had evacuated the building, Jorns said.
- PUB DATE: 1/17/2017 8:39:23 PM - SOURCE: Green Bay Press-Gazette

After 32 years on the job, Brussels-Union-Gardner Assistant Fire Chief Jim Wautier is getting the additional recognition he deserves. Wautier was honored last week as the Door-Kewaunee Fire Association Firefighter of the Year for Door County at a ceremony held in Algoma. The honor was unexpected by the Brussels man who also farms when he is not at the firehouse.
- PUB DATE: 1/17/2017 9:35:25 AM - SOURCE: Door County Daily News

On January 16, 1 residential fire fatality was reported by the Nation's news media.