PHILADELPHIA - On North Fifth Street in Northern Liberties, Louis Bell was known by his nickname, "Joe" - a friendly retired police officer who enjoyed holiday barbecues, admiring his flower-filled front garden, and sitting on his steps swapping jokes and chitchat. Whenever a neighbor suffered a loss in the family, Bell, 70, who used a wheelchair after falling ill a few ...

TRENTON - Call Augustine Pope a miracle toddler. About an hour after falling asleep in a Trenton basement, he awoke to flames and smoke clogging the air early Thursday. As at least four others escaped the house, Augustine got trapped in the basement, which began to fill with water as firefighters fought the blaze. Somehow, he stayed afloat as the fire ...

NEW YORK — A woman who lost seven children and her husband in a 1978 arson at their home near Albany was questioned again this week as investigators put renewed effort into solving the case. No one was ever charged for setting the fire 32 years ago in Cohoes. Detectives traveled to Okanogan, Wash., and spent several hours Wednesday questioning Virginia ...

SACRAMENTO, CA - Dozens of regional firefighters Thursday got a peek at UC Davis' new facility for burn victims – a center they helped get built and a replacement for the facility where some of them were patients themselves. The renamed Firefighters Burn Institute Regional Burn Center, which will begin receiving patients in late September, was financed in part by $1 ...

FARMINGTON, MO — Six volunteer firefighters survived a rollover accident in the Farmington Fire Department's pumper tanker truck, one that the Missouri State Highway Patrol says was caused by another motorist. Investigators say the driver of the tanker were trying to avoid a motorist during a routine fire call. The Farmington volunteer crew had their lights and sirens blaring heading down ...

SACRAMENTO — The tires of a JetBlue airplane caught fire yesterday during a hard landing in Sacramento that sent passengers down emergency slides to escape the aircraft and left 15 people with minor injuries. Passenger Michelle McDuffie said people onboard felt a thud when the plane touched down at about 12:50 p.m. after a flight from Long Beach, Calif., but nobody ...

Sometimes, a person will lose their job through no fault of their own. The whims of a psychotic boss, an economy in shambles, or a simple misunderstanding can have an otherwise satisfactory employee packing up his or her cubicle. [widget:688] Other times, a person will lose their job because they have done something so incredibly foolish, you wonder how they ...

“Rescue Me” needs help. The FX drama about New York firefighters led by Worcester native, series co-creator, executive producer and writer Denis Leary is choking on fumes. After watching the first four episodes of the sixth season back-to-back - an endurance test I don’t recommend - it’s apparent “Rescue Me” is recycling plots, revisiting Tommy’s tired battle with the bottle and ...

ASHLAND, Ore. — Families looked for valuables, pets and mementoes Wednesday in the ashes of 11 homes destroyed by a fast-moving wildfire while a homeless man accused of starting the blaze sat in jail. John Thiry, 40, was arrested at 3 a.m. under a freeway ramp and charged with 11 counts of reckless endangerment and 11 counts of reckless burning, authorities ...

PHILADELPHIA - There were moments when Upper Darby Police Officer Raymond Blohm thought about quitting his dream job and never returning to the streets again. "I had doubts and, yes, a lot of sleepless nights at first," he said of a shooting this year that left him injured and struggling with questions about his career. Blohm was among 39 police officers ...

CHICAGO - Mayor Daley’s appointment of third-generation firefighter Robert Hoff to replace ousted Fire Commissioner John Brooks sailed through a City Council committee on Monday — with a promise from Hoff to embrace older black applicants bypassed by the city’s discriminatory handling of a 1995 firefighters exam. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month that African-American applicants did not wait too ...

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Authorities say a South Carolina mother who died in a fire with her twin 3-year-old sons had left them alone in her house with food on the stove when the blaze broke out. Charleston County Sheriff's spokesman Maj. John Clark says 30-year-old Mary P. Brown of Charleston had left the house to pick up a friend Tuesday evening. ...

MOUNT WASHINGTON, N.H. — An injured New Jersey hiker has been rescued from the Northeast's highest peak via an old railway. New Hampshire state police contacted the Fish and Game department Monday evening about the hiker, on Gulf Side Trail on Mount Washington. Personnel from the Appalachian Mountain Club hiked down to examine him and determined he needed to be carried ...

BRAZIL - Like a special effect from a Harry Potter film, a tornado of fire rises from the ground as if enchanted. This rare phenomenon then swept through burning fields and stopped traffic in Brazil as bush fires spread across the country. The whirlwind of flame, several metres high, was caught on camera in Aracatuba, in southern Sao Paulo state. It ...