ROCKVILLE, Md. - Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett has agreed to cut firefighter physical fitness costs from the budget in order to give some emergency workers a pay raise. [widget:news__wtop] Leggett and the Montgomery County firefighters' union recently formed an agreement to drop random drug and alcohol testing and eliminate the department's physiologist position for two years to fund special pay ...

PHILADELPHIA - A 12-year-old autistic child who died in a West Philadelphia rowhouse fire Saturday night might still be alive if not for a recent city policy of temporarily shutting firehouses to save money, the head of the firefighters union and community members said Sunday. "This is just a Russian roulette game, and now a kid is dead," said Bill Gault, ...

AUGUSTA, Maine — A 49-year-old man has pleaded not guilty to two counts of arson for allegedly setting fire to a topless coffee shop in central Maine. Raymond Bellavance Jr., of Augusta, entered his pleas Tuesday in Kennebec County Superior Court. Bellavance is accused of setting fire to the Grand View Topless Coffee Shop in Vassalboro in the early morning hours ...

CONCORD, N.H. — A recently created Cold Case Unit has brought criminal charges against a California man in the 1989 deaths of four family members in a New Hampshire apartment house arson, authorities said. David McLeod was arrested Wednesday in California on four counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of Carl Hina, his 12-year-old daughter, Sara, his wife, Lori, and ...

MILWAUKEE— The Milwaukee Fire Department says it's conducting an internal investigation into a bar fight allegedly involving two off-duty firefighters. The victim, 56-year-old Jonathan Loiacano, told WISN-TV (http://bit.ly/oXU5uL) he thinks the firefighters should be fired. Loiacano says he suffered a shattered cheek, broken teeth and other facial injuries at the Fit `N Feather Bar in Greenfield on June 23. He says ...

BALTIMORE — A Baltimore police officer has been taken to a trauma center after crashing his police cruiser into a city fire engine. It happened around 10 a.m. in west Baltimore. City fire department spokesman Kevin Cartwright says the fire engine had responded to a report of an injured person. Firefighters were trying to locate that person when the police car ...

SEATTLE, WA - More than 1,000 fireworks-related injuries and fires were reported to the state fire marshal's office in 2009, according to the Washington State Patrol. It found there were 1,236 reports received last year, mostly on July 4. They included 1,036 fires and 200 injuries. Most were caused by children ages 8 to 14, according to the State Patrol. Specifically, ...

IRVINGTON — Seven firefighters injured while fighting a three-alarm blaze on Irvington’s Grove Street Tuesday evening all returned to duty, fire officials said. Although four firefighters were taken to area hospitals suffering from bruises, sprains and burns, all were released shortly afterward, Irvington Deputy Chief Pat Hand said. “They’re all going to be OK,” he said. The fire’s cause is still ...

BOSTON - The roiling debate over the controversial arbitration award for Boston firefighters came to a head today at City Hall, where an army of firefighters held a defiant, spirited rally before standing watch over marathon hearings in the City Council that inflamed passions. The proceedings, stretching into the evening, swung from tedious discussion about city finances to loud, contentious arguments ...

DENVER - Denver firefighters helped a dog from a sixth-floor ledge of the Denver Dry Lofts building this morning. Phil Champagne, spokesman for the Denver Fire Department, said the person who owned the dog tried several times to get the dog off the ledge without success. However firefighters, who worked their way along the ledge, were able to grab the dog ...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Whirlpool Corp.'s Maytag unit is recalling about 1.7 million dishwashers because of a fire hazard. The Consumer Product Safety Commission, which announced the recall Thursday, says the company, part of Whirlpool Corp., has received 12 reports of electrical failures in the dishwasher heating element that led to fires and damage. One kitchen fire caused extensive damage, the agency ...

TEMPE, AZ - The flash and explosion that smashed windows, hurled doors and threw people several feet in Tempe on Saturday was one of the worst nightmares firefighters face. In days gone by, the back-draft-driven blaze that caused a flash and explosion in a 1940s house on South Mill Avenue could have spelled disaster. But with today's equipment and training programs, ...

BOSTON - Prosecutors this week dropped a reckless-conduct charge against a Salisbury man after what the police initially described as a powerful pipe bomb at his home turned out to be a "tire thumper" used to check the pressure of truck tires, his lawyer said. The misdemeanor charge against Walter Scott Jr., formerly a volunteer fireman, was dropped Tuesday, the day ...

Yuma, Ariz. -- After determining the 751 acre Laguna fire to be human caused, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management is offering a $10,000 reward to the public for information that leads to a conviction. "Right now, it's under investigation to determine who started it and whether it was accidental or intentional," BLM information officer Pamela Mathis said Monday. "But regardless ...

HUDSON, Fla. -- A Florida church dedicated to feeding the homeless has been destroyed in a fire. Fire rescue crews were called to the Lakeview Baptist Church in Hudson, about 45 miles north of Tampa, on Tuesday. Flames were shooting from the roof and the nearest hydrant was six blocks away. Forty firefighters battled the flames, which took about an hour ...

Two firefighters were injured Friday while fighting a wildfire along the Mexican border, according to the Coronado National Forest. The firefighters were taken to a hospital with non-life- threatening injuries, the news release said. One was released from the hospital and the other was being treated for first- and second- degree burns. They were battling the Bull Fire, which is burning ...

ROCKVILLE, Md.-- Four firefighters were rushed to the hospital after a roof collapsed on their heads while they were cleaning up after a fire on Wilmart Street in Rockville Wednesday night. The fire broke out on the 1700 block of Wilmart Street at around 7:25 p.m., according to Montgomery County Fire spokesperson Beth Anne Nesselt. "Three of the four firefighters will ...

A woman was killed in a warehouse fire that sent two other people to a hospital suffering from smoke inhalation Tuesday night. Tulsa Fire Department spokesman Tim Smallwood said the woman was found inside the building, which is on Trenton Avenue just north of Interstate 244, and that medics brought her out and administered CPR before taking her to a hospital. ...