Los Angeles, Calif. – Ford Motor Company presented the Los Angeles County Fire Department with a $75,000 donation on Tuesday to honor the firefighters’ Widows and Orphans Fund. The donation stems from Ford’s fundraising efforts at the Los Angeles Auto Show in December where Ford representatives and local firefighters were on hand to educate the public on fire safety and related ...

ROODEPOORT, South Africa - If there's a crisis in Roodepoort's Durban Deep, don't expect paramedics to turn up to help. Paramedics are under siege, fearing whether a callout may be an ambush, following the weekend rape of an ambulance crew while tending to a child. At Station 21, where the two paramedics are based, colleagues were still shaken from the incident. ...

LONG BEACH - David Kean had already chosen an adventurous, life-saving career. So what could have motivated the Long Beach firefighter to join an even more unpredictable career more than 20 years ago? "When I first became a firefighter, pretty much everybody at that station with me, with the exception of one guy, had been Vietnam vets," Kean said. "They talked ...

NEW YORK - A Long Island town's fire chief and a New York City firefighter were arrested Tuesday for brandishing guns while threatening a pedestrian, officials said. Michael Charles, the Hempstead fire chief, held a handgun on his hip while Brian Schuck, an eight-year-FDNY veteran, toted a shotgun when they harassed a man walking down a Hempstead street Sunday afternoon, Nassau ...

BORODINO, NY -- A Borodino volunteer firefighter died Saturday evening after complaining of trouble breathing while responding to a barn collapse in the town of Spafford. Gerard Marcheterre, 50, was riding in a rescue pumper truck en route to the collapse when his breathing became labored, said his brother, Second Assistant Fire Chief Joseph Marcheterre. A SAVES ambulance met the tanker ...

GROVE CITY -- The Wendell August Forge, an American institution that has furnished generations of families with its hand-cast decorative ornaments and plates, burned to the ground Saturday afternoon. About 25 employees and 15 tourists and shoppers were in the building when the fire started. They all escaped unharmed. The fire started around 2 p.m. in a workshop where an employee ...

PHILADELPHIA - Capt. Troy K. Gore, an officer detailed to the Philadelphia Fire Department's recruitment team, was placed on paid leave yesterday over allegations that he proposed a scheme to bring in more minority candidates by doctoring the city's computerized application process. Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers announced the move and said he was opening an investigation into an e-mail sent last ...

THE FORKS, Maine — A man who crashed his snowmobile into a tree in Maine has died — along with a fire department chief who was on his way to rescue him. The Maine Warden Service says Jason Dodge was snowmobiling with his brother Friday night when he crashed into a fir tree on a groomed trail in The Forks, an ...

A 28-year-old Tarzana woman was sentenced to life in prison Thursday for setting a nightclub dancer on fire. Rianne Celine Theriault-Odom was found guilty last month of aggravated mayhem and torture in connection with the February 2009 attack on Roberta Dos Santos Busby, officials said. During an argument, Theriault-Odom took a Dr. Pepper bottle filled with gasoline and hurled its contents ...

MILWAUKEE — Two felons were charged Thursday with homicide and arson in the deaths of a mother, her two young children and a woman who also was the men's alleged accomplice in a case that began with an $800 robbery. Desmond Laster, 21, and Anthony Edward Barnes, 23, of Milwaukee, face four counts each of first-degree intentional homicide and arson. They ...

WILMINGTON, Del. — Hundreds of Amtrak passengers in the Northeast were delayed for hours late Monday evening, following the fatality of a fire department official that halted at least six trains between New York and Washington into the early-morning hours. The Delaware State Police identified the victim on Tuesday as Brian P. Waynant Sr., a decorated inspector with the Wilmington Fire ...

GREENVILLE, S.C. - Family members of a teen killed when he jumped from a moving ambulance said that the death of the autistic 16-year-old on Sunday could have been prevented. For starters, Shelley Hodge didn't want her son, Ryan Emory, released from the William S. Hall Psychiatric Institute in Columbia on Feb. 6. On his discharge papers she wrote: "I, Shelly ...

INDIANAPOLIS - The Fishers Fire Department rescued an ice fisherman who broke through the ice at Geist Reservoir this morning. The victim was taken to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, said fire Capt. Ron Lipps. The rescue happened at about 7:30 a.m. near Fall Creek and Brook School roads. The victim was ice fishing when the ice gave way, Lipps said. Neighbor ...

DETROIT - A Detroit firefighter’s decision to park a $600,000 ladder truck on train tracks while responding to a traffic accident is under investigation after an Amtrak train slammed into it late Monday morning. One firefighter was treated and released at a metro Detroit hospital after he tried to drive the truck — with No. 13 on its side — off ...

CONCEPCION, Chile (AP) - When their 13th-floor apartment began to shake, Alberto Rozas pulled his 7-year-old daughter into the bathroom doorway and waited for it to stop. Instead, they fell. Plummeting as their brand-new apartment building toppled like a felled tree, they hugged each other all the way down. Rozas had no idea which way was up until he looked through ...

HOUSTON - Her small frame consumed by 60 pounds of firefighting gear, 18-year-old Andreina Rodriguez paused to steal a moment on the steps after escaping a burning building. Her expression masked by her helmet, Andreina quietly pumped her fists in the air. She was celebrating guts; that her grit had overpowered fear. Moments later, the sweat-soaked Sterling High teen freed her ...

BROOKLYN - Two firefighters were arrested Thursday on riot and assault charges stemming from a bloody Brooklyn bar brawl, officials said. Firefighters Ryan Warnock and Michael Reilly turned themselves in to the Brooklyn district attorney. They were arraigned Thursday night and released on their own recognizance. They could face up to four years in prison if convicted of first-degree riot, a ...

The Tri Community Fire Department was called to 1259 Lester Lane this afternoon at approximately 4:50 p.m. When they arrived on the scene it was determined that the fire was the result of a suspected methamphetamine lab. Deputies from the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office were called to the scene as well as detectives from the narcotics division. Information was received that ...

Awareness is a firefighter's #1 tool when it comes to saving a life. Check out this collection of close calls and ask yourself what you would have done in the situation. Share your thoughts with the community and let's learn from what we've seen! Chimney Collapse → [page] Chimney Collapse Always Read the Smoke → [page] Always Read the Smoke ...

ORLANDO, FL - An announcement regarding an Orlando firefighter who was caught cheating on a promotions test has his department in a frenzy: he's getting a promotion. Two years ago, Orlando Assistant Fire Chief Rudy Johnson said he didn't cheat after listening in on radio transmissions for advanced information on the promotions test. Johnson claims that it was broadcast over open ...