Black FDNY employees plan to hit the department with a $150 million federal lawsuit charging they have been discriminated against on the job, they announced Wednesday. In a complaint filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and a lawsuit they plan to file later this year, 10 plaintiffs charge black workers were passed over for promotions and raises that white workers with similar or lesser qualifications received.
- PUB DATE: 10/13/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Daily News

The hospital where a Wilmington firefighter is recovering following a deadly Canby Park rowhouse fire said her condition has become more serious. Firefighter Ardythe Hope was downgraded to critical condition Wednesday at Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Upland, Pennsylvania, where she was taken after the Sept.
- PUB DATE: 10/13/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Wilmington News Journal (Delaware Online)

Clowns might be scaring kids across the country, but the Mansfield Fire Department is calling their bluff. Since 2003, Mansfield firefighters have dressed up as clowns to produce fire safety shows for the city’s elementary schools, and they aren’t going to let a new creepy clown trend stop them. But the firefighters don’t want to scare anyone.
- PUB DATE: 10/13/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Star-Telegram

After finding common ground with the city, the fire union Local 825 has withdrawn its prohibitive practice complaint regarding safety and labor concerns related to Office of Emergency Management Deputy Director Rick Fontana, who the bargaining unit alleged had been performing the duties of Fire Department employees.
- PUB DATE: 10/13/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New Haven Register

A former Oklahoma firefighter is suing his former department after he says he was wrongfully terminated. Greg Chapman was a firefighter with the Tulsa Fire Department for nearly 20 years when a Facebook comment brought his career to a halt. According to FOX 23, Chapman commented on a viral video of a police officer threatening to take a man’s child away after mistaking him for a fugitive.
- PUB DATE: 10/13/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KFOR-TV NBC 4 Oklahoma City

On October 12, 1 residential fire fatality was reported by the Nation's news media.

VIDEO: In the town of Delafield a firefighter and his three-year-old son are having a shared experience no one would wish for. Both have been diagnosed with brain tumors and critical treatment lies ahead for the young child especially. Nicholas Stacey and his three-year-old son Brayden have found support in the firefighting and emergency responder community.
- PUB DATE: 10/12/2016 4:44:58 PM - SOURCE: WDJT-TV CBS 58 Milwaukee

On October 11, 4 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

On October 10, 3 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

A fire in the kitchen of a Sun Prairie apartment was quickly put out Tuesday, but displaced one resident, the Sun Prairie Fire Department said. Shortly before 4 p.m., firefighters responded to an apartment complex on South Bird Street after reports of a structure fire, the fire department said. After arriving, firefighters quickly took care of a fire in the kitchen of a first floor unit, while an off-duty firefighter helped the apartment's resident out, according to the fire department.
- PUB DATE: 10/12/2016 3:21:09 AM - SOURCE: Madison.com-Wisconsin State Journal-Capital Times

VIDEO: National Fire Prevention Week kicked off Monday morning. Milwaukee second graders from Franklin Pierce Elementary joined Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Ronald McDonald to kick off a week long series of events at Milwaukee Fire Department’s Survive Alive House. It’s a mock home that fills with smoke and children have to figure out how to get out safely, even if that means climbing out of a window.
- PUB DATE: 10/12/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WDJT-TV CBS 58 Milwaukee

Recent examples of fraud, mismanagement and embezzlement inside Delaware volunteer fire companies have precipitated state action which on Wednesday will take form as a task force focused on their financial management. Delaware's 60 volunteer companies — encompassing fire protection for the entirety of the state excluding Wilmington — are self-regulated entities required only to submit an annual report to the State Fire Prevention Commission.
- PUB DATE: 10/12/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: DelawareOnline.com

Some police and fire departments are bucking a trend to conceal dispatch communications from the public, acknowledging that radio encryption has the potential to backfire and put first responders in danger. Agencies with digital radio systems have turned off the encryption to their main dispatching channels and others have decided not to turn it on.
- PUB DATE: 10/12/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WTIC-AM CBS Connecticut

Slatington Borough Council terminated its fire chief Monday night. Council members voted 6-1 to remove Keith Weaverfrom the volunteer position he has held for 13 years. Councilman Bryon Reed was the only member to go against the motion made by Councilman Jon Rinker to strip Weaver of his rank. “Termination for insubordination for Weaver taking the ladder truck out of town when he was not supposed to,” Rinker said about his motion.
- PUB DATE: 10/12/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Lehighton Times News

VIDEO - A firefighter was seriously injured in a house fire on Tuesday that forced a fire crew that was searching the building to retreat outside. Toronto Fire Service said they received a call about a fire that broke out in a two-storey home on Dufferin Street near Alma Avenue, north of Queen Street West, shortly after 9 a.
- PUB DATE: 10/12/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: CBC News Toronto

The widow of a Denver firefighter is trying to recover an estimated $70,000 in pension benefits lost due to a simple bureaucratic error 15 years ago. “The whole process was poorly managed and poorly executed,” said Julie Drennan. Her husband, Charles Drennan Jr., a division chief with the Denver fire department, was shot and killed Sept.
- PUB DATE: 10/12/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KCNC-TV CBS 4 Denver

On October 11, 0 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

VIDEO: The Osseo Fire Department has a $2.5 million advisory referendum on the Nov. 8 ballot to build a new fire station. Firefighters take mere minutes to respond to emergencies in the area, but the Osseo Fire Department has spent years preparing for the referendum with a committee taking almost five years to put it together.
- PUB DATE: 10/11/2016 4:36:26 PM - SOURCE: WQOW-TV ABC 18 Eau Claire

VIDEO: There have been numerous fires at the Milwaukee Materials Recovery Facility this year -- so officials with the Milwaukee Fire Department are reminding people that there are things you shouldn't be putting in your blue recycling bin. Officials say people commonly toss items they don't know what to do with into their recycling bin.
- PUB DATE: 10/11/2016 3:03:57 PM - SOURCE: WITI Fox Channel 6

On October 10, 2 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.