NEW YORK - Roy Chelsen, a heroic 9/11 first responder, died yesterday after a long battle with cancer. He was 51. On 9/11, Chelsen, of Engine 28 in Manhattan, rushed a group of firefighters out of the World Trade Center's north tower moments before it collapsed, saving their lives. Then he stayed on at Ground Zero, spending weeks digging through the ...

TRENTON — The chairman of a state pension board publicly denounced a former Harrison firefighter as a cheat and a fraud Monday for collecting a $2,500-per-month disability pension from New Jersey while working as a full-time firefighter in North Carolina. As Herman Ellis looked on impassively during a hearing in Trenton, the board voted to refer the case to the state ...

WASHINGTON -- Police and fire officials are still investigating an accident in Southeast Monday morning that left a car engulfed in flames, killing a Washington lobbyist, mother and wife of a senior White House advisor. Ashley Westbrook Turton, director of congressional affairs for Progress Energy, Inc. and mother of three young children, died around 5 a.m. Monday morning outside her home ...

BOSTON - The City of Boston and six truck maintenance shops have been sued for their alleged roles in allowing a 49,000-pound firetruck to go out on the road with faulty brakes, leading it to plunge down a hilltop street two years ago, killing a firefighter and damaging a Mission Hill apartment complex. The lawsuit was filed by Federal Insurance Company, ...

SHAPLEIGH, Maine (AP) -- Officials say a Maine volunteer firefighter was killed when he lost control of his vehicle while responding to a call in Shapleigh. The York County Sheriff's Department says 58-year-old David Remington of Acton lost control of his pickup truck on Monday night on Owls Nest Road about a mile from Route 109. Remington, a former Portland firefighter, ...

DAYTONA BEACH -- A city firefighter has been offered a deal that would give her more than $500,000 over the next three years, and she would never once have to show up for work. At their meeting Wednesday night, city commissioners agreed to the deal that would put the firefighter on paid leave until she retires. The firefighter, Kristine Gray, signed ...

FORT EDWARD, N.Y. — A volunteer firefighter is being credited with saving the life of an 8-year-old boy who had fallen through the ice on an upstate New York pond. Police say Joshua Baker broke through the ice Wednesday evening at a pond in Fort Edward, on the Hudson River 45 miles north of Albany. Authorities say assistant fire chief Benjamin ...

HAVERHILL — The new year started unhappily for the 29 Haverhill firefighters accused of lying to obtain their emergency medical technician recertifications. On Friday, Mayor James Fiorentini notified the firefighters named last year by the state as participants in the EMT training scandal that they face unpaid suspensions and possibly even losing their jobs. Fire Chief Richard Borden has recommended the ...

APOPKA, Fla. -- A central Florida firefighter has resigned after being charged with setting a co-worker on fire during a Christmas party last month. Apopka police say 44-year-old Jason Leblanc has been charged with arson and arson resulting in the injury of another. Police say Leblanc was at a Christmas party Dec. 18 when he poured lighter fluid on 25-year-old Jack ...

SEATTLE - The father who was killed in a New Year's morning blaze was training to become a firefighter and had recently passed his initial firefighting tests, says the manager of the apartments where he died. David Thompson, 32, who was killed in the apartment fire along with his four sons, also worked as a maintenance assistant at the apartment complex ...

GARY, Ind. — A furloughed Gary firefighter has turned to panhandling to support his family. Gary Pickering is one of 34 firefighters the city laid off last week. The 34-year-old married father of four man has been wearing his turnout gear while he solicits donations from passersby in downtown Gary. He tells The Times of Munster that he receives only $350 ...

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – A retired firefighter from San Leandro won big when he visited a local casino this week. Dale Valentine was making one of his regular visits to Twin Pine Casino in Middletown on Tuesday when he hit a jackpot of approximately $8,430,301.44 on a statewide California Megabucks slot machine. “Our tribe has been committed to providing great success in ...

NEW YORK - A 9/11 hero-turned-tax-cheat pleaded guilty Wednesday to stealing more than $1.3 million in business taxes from the government. Ex-firefighter Thomas Casatelli, who runs The Kettle Black in Bay Ridge, admitted to swindling the city and state out of five years worth of taxes by filing false returns and paying most of his employees off-the-books. He will serve 90 ...

The Somerville Board of Aldermen approved six new additions to the permanent firefighter reserve list at their Dec. 16 meeting. All full-time, active firefighters must be appointed to this reserve list to get a job with the Somerville Fire Department. Missing from the lineup, however, was the most prominent would-be Somerville firefighter: Iraq veteran Sean O'Brien. Over the summer, O'Brien successfully ...

WASHINGTON, DC - The off-duty D.C. firefighter who was shot early Wednesday morning is a 25-year-old man who has been with the department for six years, according to authorities. He has been on leave without pay since March 2010, said Pete Piringer, spokesman for D.C. Fire/EMS. Piringer did not say why he was placed on leave. The shooting happened sometime before ...

BANGOR, ME — Capt. John Prentiss, a 23-year Bangor Fire Department veteran, says he hangs out with angels. Those angels are the four medically trained firefighters who worked with him on Sunday and brought him back from the dead. “I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for those four guardian angels,” Prentiss, 55, said Wednesday while sitting in his Dedham ...

MADISON, S.D. (AP) - A volunteer firefighter in Madison has been convicted of driving a fire truck while drunk over Labor Day weekend. Jurors on Wednesday deliberated about 45 minutes before finding 43-year-old Scott Johnson guilty of driving under the influence. Johnson was arrested following a false alarm call. A police officer tested Johnson's blood-alcohol level as being just over the ...

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Martha and Ronald Wimmer kissed and embraced in court yesterday after a former emergency medical technician admitted he posted a photo of their murdered daughter's corpse on the Internet last year. And while Mark Musarella, 47, must surrender his EMT license and perform 200 hours of community service, the couple was pained that the Oakwood Beach resident ...

It's a mistake that could have cost the city a four million dollar hole in the budget, but today Mayor Linda Thompson says she has a solution. Firefighters jobs are saved. Thanks to an idea to sell parcels of land that several parking garages sit on. The mayor says the money from the sale will solve the firefighter problem and the ...

Two Bethlehem Township Volunteer Fire Company firefighers were admitted to Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest after what might have been a "flashover" at a fire they were working to control Wednesday night, according to officials. A family of four also was displaced by the blaze at 2407 12th St. in the township, fire Chief Jamie Hauze said. Hauze did not release the ...