The Merrill Fire Department is honoring veterans and active military personnel by wearing a specially designed duty shirt. The MFD members are wearing these shirts in honor of the brave men and women who have and are selflessly defending our freedoms. The idea for the shirts came from crew members trying to find a creative way to show support for the new Northwoods Veterans Post soon to be constructed in Merrill.
- PUB DATE: 11/3/2016 11:41:09 PM - SOURCE: Merrill Foto News

VIDEO: The Mount Horeb Area Joint Fire Department and EMS are pushing for a referendum to get a new building that they say they desperately need. The department serves two villages and six townships totalling up to nearly 13,000 residents. The voters in those municipalities will have the chance to vote for a referendum on Election Day.
- PUB DATE: 11/3/2016 9:44:44 PM - SOURCE: WMTV-TV NBC 15 Madison

On November 2, 4 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

Firefighters extinguished a roof fire at Nemak in Sheboygan Wednesday night. Fire crews responding to Nemak, 4243 Gateway Drive, just before 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday found flames coming from a vent duct on the roof. The vent stack contained aluminum dust, so water could not be used to extinguish it. Firefighters used a collection of portable CO2 and Dry Chemical extinguishers from their rigs and Nemak to extinguish the fire.
- PUB DATE: 11/3/2016 9:03:36 AM - SOURCE: Sheboygan Press

Firefighters were called at 11:24 p.m. to 2226 Jackson Street where they found a small fire on the outside the front of the home and burning its way up the side toward the roof. The homeowner told firefighters that he saw a flickering outside and when he went out he saw flames from the bottom of the home moving toward the roof.
- PUB DATE: 11/3/2016 5:37:04 AM - SOURCE: WISC-TV Channel 3000.com Madison

A landmark home in the village sustained heavy damage in a fire Wednesday afternoon. The South Shore Fire Department was dispatched at about 1:50 p.m. to a report of smoke coming from the residence at 3128 Lathrop Ave. Within 10 to 15 minutes, South Shore Battalion Chief John Radewan requested assistance from neighboring departments.
- PUB DATE: 11/3/2016 2:12:14 AM - SOURCE: Racine Journal Times

Firefighters battled a stubborn fire late Wednesday night in the upper floor of a two-story home at 1653 Edgewood Avenue. Fire crews were dispatched at 10 p.m. to a report of an active fire in the home, located between St. Patrick Street and Rapids Drive on the city's north side. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
- PUB DATE: 11/3/2016 2:11:54 AM - SOURCE: Racine Journal Times

On November 2, 3 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

Portland police emergency and crisis teams have taken a suspect into custody after after a man barricaded himself inside a burning Southeast Portland home Wednesday morning. Portland police spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson at a news conference just before noon said police initially responded to reports of a disturbance near Southeast 127th Avenue and Rhone Street about 10 a.
- PUB DATE: 11/3/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse

Harold B. Hairston, 76, Philadelphia's first African American fire commissioner, died Tuesday, Nov. 1, at his West Mount Airy home. Circumstances of his death were not available late Tuesday. Commissioner Hairston was appointed head of the Fire Department in 1992 by Mayor Ed Rendell and served for 12 years until he retired in 2004.
- PUB DATE: 11/3/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Philadelphia Inquirer

A firefighter was seriously injured Wednesday morning after he fell out of a building during a training exercise. According to Largo Fire Rescue, the firefighter was rappelling out of a second-story window at the department's training grounds at 751 16th Ave. SE when his equipment failed about 9:30 a.
- PUB DATE: 11/3/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Tampa Bay Times

The former treasurer for the Patterson Fire Department has pleaded guilty to federal charges he stole more than $1.1 million from the department to support his personal businesses and live a lavish lifestyle. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara announced the plea by Albert Melin on Wednesday. Melin's plea concludes a nearly year-long investigation that included Bharara's office, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's office, the Internal Revenue Service's criminal investigation division, the FBI and New York State Police.
- PUB DATE: 11/3/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NY Journal News

Teresita Peralta tried to sleep. But there was that chirping. Again and again. “They cried all night,” Peralta said of the baby sparrows that hatched in her bathroom’s exhaust fan. She tried calling her building manager. She was told no help until after the weekend. Two days away? Maddening. Chirp-chirp-chirp! Sanity in the balance, she called the fire department.
- PUB DATE: 11/3/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Miami Herald

Internal accounting errors led to a $1.15 million budget shortfall for the Boulder Rural Fire Protection District in 2015, a gap district officials knew about but didn't understand — or disclose — when they asked voters to approve a $1 million tax increase last year. Those are the findings of a report by financial investigator James Davis, who was retained by the fire district's board of directors to investigate the budget shortfall.
- PUB DATE: 11/3/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Boulder Daily Camera

On November 1, 0 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

The City of Lockport violated the law and its contract with the city firefighters' union by privatizing ambulance service in 2014, a state administrative law judge ruled Monday. Judge Lynn Fitzgerald of the Public Employment Relations Board ordered the city to return the ambulance duties to the fire department.
- PUB DATE: 11/2/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Buffalo News

A driver has been cited for failing to stop for a fire engine in a domino-effect crash in the Back Bay Monday morning that sent four firefighters to the hospital and damaged numerous parked luxury cars, police said. Witnesses told police the driver of a Chevrolet Equinox failed to stop for the fire engine flashing its lights and sounding its siren in the crash at Dartmouth Street and Commonwealth Avenue Monday.
- PUB DATE: 11/2/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Boston Herald

Prosecutors are claiming that a serial arson case in Sacramento federal court has national security implications and, in a highly unusual ruling, a judge is allowing the government to withhold parts of the evidence from defense lawyers. Attorneys on both sides declined Monday to comment publicly, but court papers they have filed outline a dispute over the legality of hiding evidence with no obligation to disclose the reasons to the defense team.
- PUB DATE: 11/2/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Sacramento Bee

A Michigan State Police trooper testified that suspended Allegan District Fire Chief Matt Gillies admitted to sexually abusing a 4-year-old girl and recording it. During the hearing Tuesday, the trooper affirmed Gillies sexually abused the young girl at his home and recorded it in September. Gillies had a previous foster care relationship with the girl but not at the time of the alleged incident, according to investigators.
- PUB DATE: 11/2/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Detroit Free Press

Rural fire departments have more than 140 additional firefighters one year after legislation became law that eliminated the age limit for new volunteers. House Bill 2005, authored by Rep. Mike Sanders, took effect Nov. 1, 2015. The law eliminated the 45-year-old age limit for new firefighters by giving them the option of joining the system without the requirement that they be added to the state’s pension plan.
- PUB DATE: 11/2/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Norman Transcript