WASHINGTON — Federal aviation officials have known for years that cockpit window heaters in some Boeing planes catch fire. But they haven't required airlines to fix the problem, even after dozens of incidents that unnerved pilots and, in many cases, forced emergency landings. Pilots have complained about heaters that burned, smoldered or sent electric currents dancing across cockpit windows since at ...

DAYTONA BEACH -- The arrest of Daytona Beach firefighter Adam Silva angered and surprised many of his colleagues; but his release from the county jail incensed TV media. It was the way Silva left the jail that made tempers rise, Volusia County officials say. The 30-year-old firefighter, arrested twice in one week -- on charges of rape and attempted rape -- ...

PORTSMOUTH - A retired firefighter has won a $200,000 lottery prize. Raynor Britt won the Powerball prize with a ticket he purchased for the Aug. 21 drawing, according to a news release from the Virginia Lottery. Britt matched the first five numbers using the birth dates of his four grandchildren, the release says. The winning numbers were 7, 10, 12, 22 ...

Two firefighters received minor injuries early this morning while battling a two-alarm blaze in Kansas City, Kan. Shortly after 11 p.m. Monday night, fire crews were called to a house fire at South Minnie Street, near Southwest Boulevard, according to fire officials. The firefighters were injured when the structure around them began to collapse. The walls of the residence fell outward. ...

According to sheriff's deputies in the St. Tammany Parish, a man was arrested yesterday and charged with the first-degree murder of Battalion Fire Chief David Smith. Local news WDSU reports that the suspect was trying to buy a Camaro from the off-duty fire chief when the exchange became heated. The fire chief was found shot to death and stuffed into a ...

FOLKSTON, Fla. -- Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge Manager Curt McCasland admitted he didn't know much about swamp fires when he experienced his first: the now 148,522-acre Honey Prairie Fire. After all, McCasland just arrived in October from the Arizona desert where there's a different strategy for fighting fires. "My first reaction was to rain water on this thing," he said of ...

FORT EDWARD, NY - As a lethal fire intensified, one woman shoved an air conditioner out a window and then threw a 5-year-old boy out after it to safety, even as the blaze devoured a two-story house, killing six children. Two other adults tried in vain to rescue the children trapped inside the blazing building in a faded mill town along ...

LiTTLE ROCK — A state Forestry Commission ranger died today in a rollover accident in Lafayette County. Chris Adams, a 25-year-old firefighter, was killed when the Forestry Commission tractor-trailer he was driving overturned on Arkansas 360, about one-half mile east of its intersection with Arkansas 29 in Lafayette County. Adams was en route to check on a fire from earlier in ...

WEST PHILADELPHIA - An off-duty firefighter was killed after the motorcycle he was on collided with another vehicle, police say. The firefighter has been identified as Odell Pommells, a 7-year veteran of the Philadelphia Fire Department. At 6:27 p.m., Ladder 6, Medic 3 and Medic 34 responded to a motor vehicle accident at the intersection of Lancaster and Wyalusing avenues. There ...

CHELSEA - There may not have been fire in a Chelsea apartment yesterday morning, but firefighters responding to a call of smoke found something else. Firefighters who arrived at a Lafayette Avenue apartment complex just after midnight yesterday came upon a home invasion in progress in the same apartment. Police responded, and one of the suspects was arrested and charged with ...

HARRISBURG - Firefighters' work is full of risks. Everyone knows that. What's not so widely known is the risks that come later, after they've hung up their helmets. Consider one statistic: A Cincinnati study found male firefighters 100 times more likely than other men to contract testicular cancer. Because of that and other cancer dangers linked to exposure to toxic chemicals, ...

DULLES, Va. - A search and rescue team from Fairfax County returned home from Japan early Sunday morning. Virginia Task Force 1 spent the last week searching for survivors around the seaport city of Ofunato, without success. Spokeswoman Renee Stilwell says a team from Los Angeles was also pulled out because the weather conditions in northern Japan make it unlikely there ...

Arson investigators believe at least 30 intentionally set fires in southwest Houston dating to the beginning of last year may be the work of the same person or group of people, officials said Tuesday. Almost all the fires occurred at apartment complexes or homes on the southwest side during the early morning hours. In all instances a flammable liquid such as ...

DEKALB COUNTY, GA - A second DeKalb County firefighter dismissed after a fatal Dunwoody fire has won back his job, WSB-TV is reporting. A hearing officer ruled for William Jeffrey Greene when he appealed his termination last week, according to reports. Greene was one of the five firefighters fired when a blaze killed 74-year-old Ann Bartlett, hours after the firemen responded ...

KANSAS CITY - A man is believed to have blown off his hand when a homemade firework exploded while he and another man were trying to make a stronger one. The explosion happened about 10:50 p.m. Monday in the 3100 block of Southeast Third Street in Blue Springs. Police had received a report saying that several people were injured. When Blue ...

BOSTON - Unmarked white box trucks arrived without warning outside three Boston firehouses yesterday, as the Fire Department began random drug and alcohol testing, a quiet ending to what had become a bitter and protracted labor dispute. A total of 20 firefighters stepped inside the customized trucks with private bathrooms and running water, submitting to instant-read breathalyzers for alcohol and to ...

DOVER, N.H.—A former New Hampshire firefighter is going to prison for at least three years after pleading guilty to setting a series of fires. Forty-four-year-old Stark Liedtke of Alton had pleaded guilty to three charges that he set fires on Berry Road in New Durham in 2006 and 2007. He also pleaded guilty to eight other arson-related charges. In court Tuesday, ...

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 ...

WARWICKSHIRE, UK - The father of one of four firefighters killed in a fire at a warehouse in 2007 was one of six men recently arrested in connection with the deaths. Paul Stephens, 54, was questioned along with two others last Wednesday. Three other men were arrested in February. Mr Stephen's son Ashley died alongside Darren Yates-Badley, John Averis and Ian ...

Chris Lytle is one of a few Ultimate Fighting Championship veterans who still keeps his day job. Technically, it's a day/night job. He's a firefighter in Indianapolis. Between his job, a busy fight schedule in UFC and his four kids, he has little time for anything else. He admits he doesn't have other hobbies and says his many fight-night bonuses have ...