SYRACUSE, NY -- Nearly 200 people, half of them in uniform, gathered for a memorial service for fallen firefighters and Onondaga County Sheriff's deputies. The service included the reading of the names of all firefighters, auxiliary members and sheriff's deputies who died this year. Also read was a list of county firefighters who died in the line of duty. They stretched ...

SAN FRANCISCO - A dozen cats died in a fire that damaged the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society early today, authorities said, but a woman who lives above the animal shelter is crediting her pit bull mix with waking her up and saving her life. The fire broke out in a dryer at the shelter at 2700 Ninth Street in west Berkeley ...

TRENTON - A law reducing pension and health care benefits for police and firefighters will go into effect today after a state judge Thursday refused to block it. Unions representing police and firefighters argued that the changes improperly infringe upon the collective bargaining process. They also said the requirement to contribute 1.5 percent of their salary to health care constitutes a ...

MANCHESTER CITY, UK - "Getting verbally abused is the norm but this was no way near normal - in my 26 years as a paramedic I have never been subjected to an attack like this." Ann Sumner had much of her hair pulled out of her head, she was punched and scratched and left with a form of whiplash in her ...

LOS ANGELES — Motorists jumped from vehicles to kick open doors and help about two dozen third-graders out of a blazing school bus that had stalled on a busy freeway Wednesday near Universal Studios Hollywood, authorities and witnesses said. Two children complained of minor smoke inhalation and were examined by paramedics, but the driver and other youngsters were not injured. The ...

SAN JOSE - Firefighters who arrived at a burning house in San Jose on Wednesday saw a horrifying sight — a man standing in the entryway with his clothes on fire. Two firefighters pulled the man from the house on Tampa Way, rolled him on the grass and began administering medical treatment, according to fire Capt. Chuck Rangel. He was transported ...

BALTIMORE - Three firefighters were injured Wednesday night while battling a fire in East Baltimore, officials said. A fire broke out just before 11 p.m. in a vacant two-story brick building in the 1100 block of North Patterson Ave., according to fire department spokesman Chief Kevin Cartwright. One firefighter battled the fire from the roof, fell through, and suffered an injured ...

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - Two pension funds must collect $76 million in overpayments that went to retired Minneapolis police officers, firefighters and their survivors. A judge has ordered two Minneapolis pension funds to recover about $76 million in overpayments to retired police and firefighters or their spouses. Under the order, the 860 retired police officers or their survivors must repay the city ...

BOSTON - One man died and another man survived after jumping from the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge into the Charles River Tuesday night, State Police said. The men jumped around 11 p.m. from the bridge, which connects Boston and Cambridge, Sergeant Matthew Murray, a State Police spokesman, said. State Police troopers assigned to the Suffolk district attorney's office are investigating, Murray said. ...

NORTH COUNTY, CA - A North County firefighter, called to the scene of a car accident involving his own child did everything he could but couldn't save his only son. "I've saved a lot of people, but I couldn't save my own boy," Bill Hoffman said Tuesday remembering the moment he rushed to the scene of the crash that killed his ...

ST. ANNA — The 5½-month investigation into the Dec. 29 explosion that killed St. Anna firefighter Steven Koeser pinpointed the cause of the blast, but not the origin of the fire. The blast that killed Koeser and injured eight others occurred when firefighters directed streams of water and suppressant foam onto a burning trash bin that contained aluminum alloy shavings and ...

LOS ANGELES - A firefighter is recovering from several stab wounds after being attacked while responding to a medical emergency. The knife wielding attacker remains at large. Charles MacDougal was recently named paramedic of the year. He was set to receive that honor Thursday at the very hospital where he was rushed today. Tuesday, MacDougal came to the emergency room as ...

LOS ANGELES - A group of former U.S. Forest Service officials is calling for a new and independent investigation into the agency's handling of last year's devastating Station fire, with many contending that an internal inquiry completed in November ignored critical missteps. That probe by the Forest Service's Washington, D.C., headquarters found no tactical errors in the initial attack on the ...

HAVERHILL, Mass. — Prosecutors have charged a 10-year-old Massachusetts boy with involuntary manslaughter for allegedly starting a fire that killed two relatives, including a 6-year-old boy. A not guilty plea was entered for the boy Monday in Lawrence Juvenile Court. His name was not released because of his age. Prosecutors say the boy used a lighter to start the fire in ...

WASHINGTON — Investigators are looking into whether long-known problems with the heating system in a cockpit window of the Boeing 757 played a role in a fire that forced an airliner to make an emergency landing near Washington, federal safety officials said Monday. United Airlines Flight 27 en route from New York to Los Angeles with 112 people aboard made an ...

NORFOLK, UK - Heroic firefighters - commended for their efforts in saving a young woman from near certain death in a Norwich bedsit - have relived the dramatic rescue. Norfolk fire service's Green Watch were praised by a judge last week as rogue landlord Michael Billings' was jailed for ignoring safety laws at a block of bedsits he owned in Magdalen ...

BOSTON - The Boston City Council should reject an arbitration award for firefighters because the cost would be “disastrous for the taxpayers,’’ a fiscal watchdog agency said in a report yesterday. The analysis by the Boston Finance Commission highlighted what the agency described as “deceptive’’ calculations by arbitrator Dana Edward Eischen, who estimated that the award would cost $39.4 million in ...

MARLBORO, MA — The Marlboro Fire Department hosted the Scott Firefighter Combat Challenge Friday and Saturday at Solomon Pond Mall on the Berlin-Marlboro line, attracting several thousand onlookers and participants. Thirty-eight teams from all over New England and Canada competed in what organizers call “the toughest two minutes in sports.” The challenge includes five major obstacles: climbing a five-story tower carrying ...

TROY, PA - Two Troy Hill families lost their homes to fire this morning after a vacant dwelling between them burned to the ground. One Pittsburgh firefighter was injured when he slipped while climbing from a ladder onto the railing a 20-foot-high deck at the rear of one of the properties. The man, who has not yet been identified, may have ...

A representative for the city in contentious firefighter contract talks accused an arbitrator of pulling an 11th hour “about-face” in awarding raises - a claim the union angrily rejected last night. Leominster Mayor Dean Mazzarella, a member of the team that was negotiating a deal between Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Boston Firefighters Local 718, fired off a harshly worded letter ...