SWEET HOME — Many heads turned skyward as EMT/firefighter Alex Thompson carefully climbed to the top of the 105-foot ladder mounted to one of the community’s newer fire trucks Saturday morning during the third annual safety fair sponsored by the city. This event has been renamed the Jim Bean Memorial Safety Fair in honor of the longtime city councilman who died ...

BOSTON - Boston firefighters will receive an average lump-sum payment of $29,000 because of retroactive pay increases included in the city’s new five-year contract with the firefighters’ union, city officials said yesterday. Some firefighters will receive significantly more because of their rank, seniority, and overtime; others will receive less. City officials said the payments, which will be sent to firefighters in ...

WAIKATO, New Zealand - Custard the dog's four day ordeal on a ledge above the Waikato River turned to custard for one of her would-be rescuers with firefighters called to haul both man – and later dog – to safety. Richard Gould's first attempt to retrieve neighbour Chele Clarkin's five-year-old golden labrador from a ledge on a cliff above the Waikato ...

BOSTON - Firefighters from across Boston stood two abreast in salute yesterday morning, paying tribute to fallen colleagues buried in Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain. Garbed in decorated navy dress uniforms, the firefighters removed their caps to place flowers on the Fireman’s Lot, a burial ground established in 1828 and the resting place for 135 firefighters, 13 of whom died ...

ST. LOUIS — Ernest Strong hobbled through the courtroom's swinging gate Friday morning and stopped next to the man who shot him seven times. The two did not look at each other. "This young man has completely turned my life upside down," Strong told the judge who was about to sentence Terrence Hendricks. "I ask that you give him as much ...

SEATTLE - With the first floor of her home in flames, Helen Gebregiorgis rushed upstairs to alert her sister and five young children as the smoke alarm blared. Gebregiorgis grabbed her 5-year-old niece, Samarah Smith, and dashed downstairs, believing the others were behind her. They weren't. Driven back by the heat and flames, her sons Joseph Gebregiorgis, 13, and Yaseen Shamam, ...

SEATTLE — A blaze tore through a Seattle apartment Saturday and killed five people, including a number of children, fire officials said. The fire was reported just after 10 a.m. in what authorities described as a two-story apartment unit in the city's Fremont neighborhood north of downtown. The first engine to respond had a problem with a pump that prevented it ...

Fayetteville, N.C. — A woman who had been in the hospital for three days returned to her Apache Drive home this morning only to discover it had been destroyed by fire. A neighbor in the Fairlane Acres Mobile Home Park notified firefighters about 6 a.m. that heavy smoke was coming from the trailer, said Hieu Sifford, a battalion commander with the ...

WILMINGTON, N.C. — Theresa Dailey was a little surprised to find firefighters equipped with drills and a ladder at her door Friday evening. Nor was she expecting the question posed to her: How many smoke detectors do you have in your house? Firefighters from the Wilmington Fire Department spent about an hour canvassing the area around Burnett Boulevard and North Carolina ...

ELKMONT, Ala. — An out-of-control grease fire ended Friday fish night at Country Boys' Cafe after flames engulfed the 3-month-old business, burning the restaurant to the ground, authorities said. Five employees and two diners safely escaped the business at 28941 Alabama 127 after grease from a fish fryer on the back patio caught fire shortly before 5:20 p.m. Elkmont Police Chief ...

MILWAUKEE, Wisc. — About a dozen firefighters were injured while battling a four-alarm fire on Milwaukee's south side Friday night. The fire was first reported at 7:41 p.m. in the attic of a vacant house in the 2400 block of S. 8th St., but spread to a house to the north and quickly escalated. The vacant house was destroyed, and 12 ...

At fire scenes, police and neighbors typically wait for firefighters, the ones with the protective gear. But that doesn't work when somebody says a toddler is trapped upstairs in a burning townhouse, which happened early Friday morning in Grandview. At that point, they went. No one was able to save the child. But they tried. First up was the neighbor, Steve ...

Want to get away from it all? Does your idea of a vacation involve taking in the great outdoors, and days of heart-pounding adventure? We thought so. FireLink has compiled 20 adrenaline-inducing adventures for the tried and true outdoorsman (or woman). We’ve scoured the travel guides, combed the Internet and sought out word-of-mouth recommendations to bring you the best of ...

Sometimes, a person will lose their job through no fault of their own. The whims of a psychotic boss, an economy in shambles, or a simple misunderstanding can have an otherwise satisfactory employee packing up his or her cubicle. [widget:688] Other times, a person will lose their job because they have done something so incredibly foolish, you wonder how they ...

NEW HAVEN — A city firefighter faces felony charges for allegedly striking his 14-year-old stepson with a belt during a heated domestic argument. The young man called police. Dawud Amin, 35, was arrested May 24 after police responded to his home on Norton Street. According to a police report, Amin and his stepson argued over a Bluetooth device that Amin suspected ...

DETROIT - A mentally ill man was killed Thursday night in the middle of Interstate 94 in St. Joseph Township, police said. The man, John Cameron Rivera of Detroit, was being transported to Lakeland Emergency medical Center in St. Joe, Michigan for psychological evaluation when he started fighting with medics in the back of an ambulance, police said. The driver stopped ...

PIERCE COUNTY, WI - A software glitch is the likely culprit behind a malfunction onboard a Red Wing ambulance that led to a woman’s death in April, according to ongoing investigations. Janice Hall, Red Wing, died April 22 while being transported to Minneapolis when the ambulance’s onboard oxygen system unexpectedly quit. The malfunction led to her death, according to a Dakota ...

LOS ANGELES—An ambulance ride in Los Angeles could go up 37 percent in July if the city approves a committee recommendation. The city's Public Safety Committee on Monday night proposed raising fees for basic life support ambulances to $974 from $712, plus mileage of $15.75 a mile. Advanced life support ambulance fees would go to $1,373 from $1,004, plus mileage. The ...

ROBESON, PA - Birdsboro and Robeson Township police departments received a shared crime scene vehicle that they hope will help increase efficiency. The 1991 Ford F-350, a former ambulance, was donated by Muhlenberg Township. Birdsboro Chief Theodore R. Roth said their methods of crime scene processing and emergency response were inefficient: Officers would pack whatever equipment they thought they might need ...

BALTIMORE - Baltimore's police and firefighters' unions filed a lawsuit against the city in federal court Thursday, contending that officials "knowingly underfunded" their pension plan over the past decade — ignoring the advice of financial experts hired by the city. The lawsuit threatens to introduce a protracted and costly legal battle into the emotionally charged debate about altering the retirement benefits ...