ROCKFORD, Ill. (AP) — A veteran Rockford firefighter accused of stealing more than $15,000 from the department by falsifying time sheets has resigned. Rockford fire lieutenant Brian Watkins stepped down Saturday during a hearing to decide whether he would keep his job. He'd been with the department for nearly 20 years. [widget:flywheel_links] Watkins told supporters at the Rockford Board of Fire ...

After more than 40 years in the FDNY, new Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano knows the job's glories - and its risks. A "firefighter's firefighter" with five citations for bravery, Cassano's voice still trembles when he describes losing a colleague in a blaze. He has made it his mission to prevent others from making that supreme sacrifice. "If you're going to send ...

NEW YORK CITY - A Mississippi tourist's first trip to New York will include all the regular attractions, plus an unusual stop at the downtown Brooklyn home of the city's Bravest. He's going off the beaten track to say thanks to a man he's never met. Gary Williams, 55, received a lifesaving donation of bone marrow, and Monday he'll get a ...

NEW YORK - Headed to the blaze where they died five years ago Saturday, Firefighter John Bellew drove and Lt. Curtis Meyran sat beside him. After a dedication Saturday to mark the anniversary of the day they died, known as Black Sunday, Ladder 27 now bears their names just as they sat that day -- Bellew's name on the left windshield, ...

ARLINGTON, Va. – Ray Vivier had been an adventurer, a Marine veteran who explored the country from South Carolina to Alaska, the father of five children. The 61-year-old also was a man starting to get his life back together after living for years in a shanty beneath a Cleveland bridge. He had struggled with alcoholism, but by November he had a ...

BALTIMORE - Five firefighters battling a house fire in Lothian on Wednesday afternoon fell into the basement of the two-story house in the 5800 block of Little Road when the first floor collapsed, a county Fire Department spokesman said. [widget:news__edu_and_gear] Three got out on their own without injuries, but two had to be rescued and were taken by ambulances to area ...

Federal regulators warned the Tennessee Valley Authority on Thursday about "apparent violations" involving fire safety at the utility's Browns Ferry nuclear plant in north Alabama. Officials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the findings don't pose an immediate safety risk but are urging TVA to fix the three-reactor plant, which suffered a nearly disastrous fire in 1975 and later had to ...

DETROIT - No one was injured and there were no reports of significant damage from an electrical fire at a Detroit auto show exhibit that shut the event down for a few hours today, officials said. The fire, which spread smoke throughout Cobo Center and forced the evacuation of the main showroom, began in scaffolding and high-powered lights in the ceiling ...

NORTH BELFAST, UK - A man accused of stabbing a teenage boy to death also threatened an off-duty firefighter as he left the scene of the attack, it has been alleged in court. Testifying at the Thomas Devlin murder trial, witness Laurence Kelly said two men walked past him on a road, moments before he found the dying boy. Mr Kelly ...

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI - A New York rescue squad pulled two miracles from the rubble of Haiti on Tuesday night. One week after the devastating earthquake threw Haiti into chaos, a joint NYPD-FDNY rescue team dragged two children alive from the debris of a two-story building in Port-au-Prince, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said. The 8-year-old boy and 10-year-old girl, believed to be ...

KEENE – Two people were injured when an ambulance transporting a patient slid off of Route 12 yesterday morning. Police did not say whether anyone was seriously injured, but Keene fire Capt. Ron Leslie said everyone was "up and walking around after the crash." He said they were taken to the hospital for evaluation. The Golden Cross ambulance, based out of ...

Members of Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue conduct a rescue operation at the Montana Hotel in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The all volunteer service partnered with U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and multi-national relief agencies to support the massive relief efforts needed in the aftermath of Tuesday's earthquake. Eight personnel, including 7 Americans, have been rescued from the rubble of ...

LOUISVILLE, KY - 33-year veteran firefighter Major Terry Cannon died of a heart attack hours after responding to a residential fire alarm Sunday, January 17th. Cannon, age 52, had been a member of the Buechel Fire Department in Funeral services are pending.

The Detroit Fire Department has suspended a 10-year veteran firefighter, who's expected to be charged today with creating a false fire department report after leaving the scene of a hit-and-run accident. Jonathan Britt, 30, of Detroit was put on leave without pay last week when the department learned a warrant had been signed Jan. 6, Fire Commissioner James Mack said Thursday. ...

HOUSTON - On the day that Houston firefighter Jane Draycott returned to Station 54 for the first time after accusing her colleagues of harassment, she was met by the fire chief, his command staff, a psychologist and at least a dozen coworkers for what the chief dubbed a “team building” session. Instead, according to Draycott, it turned into an “insulting” and ...

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The distance between life and death narrowed in this flattened city Thursday, with survival depending on the luck of being freed from under rubble, on treating the thousands of wounded, and on speeding the flow of emergency food and water. Two days after a huge earthquake struck the capital, the international Red Cross estimated the number of deaths ...

LOS ANGELES - Testimony has begun in the case of a former Los Angeles County assistant fire chief who prosecutor alleged mortally wounded his neighbors' 6-month-old dog because it ran onto his property. The case in Riverside County has received national attention and is being closely watch by animal rights activists. [widget:news__featured_career_fire_captain] The defendant, Glynn Johnson, is accused of beating the ...

To Donate to the Ashland Fire Department email FireLink member Karpone at: karpone62@aol.com ASHLAND — Fire companies from as far away as New Jersey are planning to donate gear and apparatus to the Ashland Fire Department in the wake of Sunday’s devastating fire that destroyed Ashland’s firehouse and adjacent town hall. A human chain of volunteeers fought to save files of ...

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- The commute along Interstate 270 is always grueling, but a massive gasoline fire on Montrose Road Thursday morning made it worse than normal. So how bad has the commute been? "On a scale of one to 10 for Montgomery County, I'm going to give it a nine," says WTOP Traffic Reporter Lisa Baden. The huge fire on Montrose ...

OKLAHOMA CITY - Oklahoma City police officers and firefighters squared off against each other in a jalapeno eating contest Tuesday at the Whataburger at NW 36 and MacArthur Boulevard. The firefighters won and received a $750 check to be donated to the Muscular Dystrophy Association. The police officers received a $250 check that will be donated to the Police Action League. ...