La Crosse Fire Chief Gregg Cleveland has announced plans to retire after more than a decade with the city of La Crosse. Cleveland, who has logged more than three decades as a firefighter and chief, will step down in June, according to a statement released Tuesday by Mayor Tim Kabat. Kabat praised Cleveland for his work in getting national accreditation for the fire department, overseeing the merger of building inspections and code enforcement into the department, and helping the department become one of the first in the state to carry an opioid overdose antidote.
- PUB DATE: 1/4/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: LaCrosse Tribune

VIDEO: Police have obtained a warrant for the records of a phone number they hope will lead to whoever placed a phony 911 call to a Milwaukee fire station so burglars could make their move. The heist happened in the wee hours last September. A caller dialed 911 to report his son was unconscious and he couldn't wake him.
- PUB DATE: 1/4/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WISN-TV ABC 12

The city has rejected plans to hire a consultant to review staffing shortages and other needs at the local fire department. Members of the Common Council, in a 10-to-5 vote, defeated on Tuesday a resolution that would have allowed the city to hire Missouri-based consulting firm Fitch & Associates, which some city officials had hoped would help them vet fire department funding requests.
- PUB DATE: 1/4/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Sheboygan Press

Crews responded Tuesday afternoon to reports of a vehicle that was on fire and rolling toward a steakhouse on Madison’s west side, according to a release. The Dane County 911 Center received at least nine calls around 1:30 p.m. reporting a vehicle that was on fire and parked between the AT&T store and Longhorn Steakhouse on Gammon Road, officials said.
- PUB DATE: 1/4/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WISC-TV News 3

La Crosse's fire chief says finding a location for a new station on the south side is a priority for the new year. Chief Gregg Cleveland says money has already been set aside as part of the city's capital improvement budget to buy land for a new station. The city hasn't built a new fire station since 1967, and an assessment done last year found response times at the southern edge of the city to be lacking.
- PUB DATE: 1/4/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: news8000

A fire broke out early Wednesday inside a Concord Fire Department station as firefighters were sleeping inside the building. The flames started inside Station 2 in West Concord just before 1 a.m. Chief Mark Cotreau said three firefighters who were sleeping on the second floor were awakened by smoke detectors and saw a haze of smoke.
- PUB DATE: 1/4/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WCVB-TV ABC 5 Boston

Marion Rural Fire Department mourns the loss of one of their own. Monday night, Amy and Freddie Dimmery, both volunteer firefighters with the Marion Rural Fire Department, were t-boned on Highway 76. Amy, didn’t make it and her husband suffered serious injuries. Chief of the Marion Rural Fire Department, Billy Wallace, was on the scene along Highway 76 Monday night and like the rest of the department, he is taking the loss to heart.
- PUB DATE: 1/4/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WMBF-TV NBC Myrtle Beach

City Commissioner Susan Chapman is under fire this week for sounding a siren about ambulances using Orange Avenue. In an email last Friday with the subject line "Ambulance scofflaws," Chapman chided two specific ambulances driving to and from Sarasota Memorial Hospital for repeatedly using Orange Avenue to bypass the Lift Station 87 construction that has shut down a portion of Osprey Avenue.
- PUB DATE: 1/4/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Herald Tribune.com

A new wildfire-fighting plan to protect a wide swath of sagebrush country in the Western U.S. that supports cattle ranching and is home to an imperiled bird will likely continue after the Obama administration ends, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said Tuesday. Jewell spoke after receiving her last update at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise where managers oversee the nation's firefighting resources.
- PUB DATE: 1/4/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Idaho Statesman

VIDEO - While a Kansas City firefighter was on duty, two men kicked in his front door and stole his belongings. It happened Saturday morning as two men broke in to the home while a camera was rolling. Police are still searching for those two, who they believe have been targeting other homes in the area.
- PUB DATE: 1/4/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WREG.com

The Wood County Fire Chief’s Association reports area fire departments responded to eight fires from Nov. 26 to Jan. 2. The time frame coincides with area fire department's Keep the Wreath Green campaign. Fire departments in Wood County, along with other departments place a wreath with green colored bulbs on their building and for each fire they respond to a green bulb is replaced with a red bulb.
- PUB DATE: 1/3/2017 9:45:01 AM - SOURCE: WSAW-TV CBS 7 Wausau

On January 2, 5 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

On January 1, 5 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

A woman and three dogs escaped without injury from a fire in an Oneida County Tuesday morning. Firefighters were called at about 8:30 to Poplar Drive, just off Highway 17 north of Rhinelander. The fire started in the living room and left heat and smoke damage to the home. Firefighters aren't sure what caused the fire, but they say it's nothing suspicious.
- PUB DATE: 1/3/2017 9:37:07 AM - SOURCE: WJFW-TV NBC 12 Rhinelander-Wausau

On January 2, 0 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

They’re supposed to be fighting blazes, not starting them — especially in their own firehouse. Members of the Goldens Bridge Fire Department in Westchester accidentally ignited a 2014 fire that wiped out their headquarters, a Manhattan federal lawsuit says. Their insurer filed the suit to force them to foot the bill for the damages to the tune of $9 million.
- PUB DATE: 1/3/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Post

Four children died after someone at their home sprayed water on a previously applied pesticide, causing a reaction that produced toxic phosphine gas, officials in Amarillo, Texas, said. At least five other people were hospitalized in Monday's incident. Fire Capt. Larry Davis said a family member had used water in an attempt to wash away the pesticide -- aluminum phosphide -- which had been applied under the home.
- PUB DATE: 1/3/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: CNN

Billy Burns has been the fire chief in Stuttgart for the last four years, but Burns said he’s spent the last two years trying to find a way to retire early. Burns claims working for Mayor J.W. Green is insufferable, saying he’s had no control of his department. Friday was Burns’s last day on the job at the Stuttgart Fire Department.
- PUB DATE: 1/3/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KATV-TV ABC 7 Little Rock

The biggest barrier to solving Dallas’ multibillion-dollar pension crisis isn’t just the money, it’s also the troubled relationship City Hall has long had with its own police and firefighters. The two sides have never been so far apart at a time when it’s never been more critical they come together. Any deal to fix the public safety workers' deeply troubled pension system must go to the state Legislature for approval, and lawmakers have consistently insisted on one thing: cooperation.
- PUB DATE: 1/3/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Dallas Morning News

It’s been more than three and a half years since 19 firefighters were killed battling the Yarnell Hill fire, and their families still have lingering questions. “We don't know why the Granite Mountain Hotshots weren't provided with proper communications equipment,” said attorney David Abney. “We don't know why they weren't equipped with proper fire shelters that were rated to deal with a wildfire.
- PUB DATE: 1/3/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KPHO-TV CBS 5 Phoenix