EMMITSBURG, MD-- USFA and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) are partnering on a study to examine the potential for increased risk of cancer among firefighters due to exposures from smoke, soot, and other contaminants in the line of duty. This will be a formal epidemiological study with medical oversight. The primary objective of the project is to ...

HOUSTON, TX - Overtime pay for police and firefighters cost Houston taxpayers $67 million last year, including 714 employees who each earned $20,000 or more, and four officers who pulled down more than $100,000. A Houston Chronicle analysis shows that most of the money — $50 million — went to the Houston Police Department, long bedeviled by staffing shortages while trying ...

BOSTON - Federal authorities say Massachusetts should enact laws that require firefighters to wear seat belts and be tested on air brake operation before they are allowed to drive firetrucks, according to a new federal report on the investigation of the fatal firetruck crash in Boston last year. The investigation concluded that a fire lieutenant who was killed and two firefighters ...

BUFORD, GA — A Vietnam veteran in still incarcerated after an incident where he fired a handgun and assaulted an off-duty firefighter with a walking cane outside of his Buford home Thursday. The man, who police said is considered “50 percent mentally disabled” and possibly suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, reportedly fired his semi-automatic pistol in order to get the ...

BOSTON - A labor arbitration panel has ruled that Boston firefighters must submit to random drug and alcohol testing in exchange for a 19 percent raise over four years, a significant bump that will dwarf the pay increases for other city unions. The decision, released yesterday after a bitter four-year standoff, is largely a victory for the firefighters, who the city ...

AUSTIN, Texas -- Callers to 911 emergency officials in February told of seeing and hearing a fiery plane crash at an IRS office building in Austin, Texas and described a chaotic scene afterward with people running all around. Some callers were frantic and others remarkably calm in the 911 recordings released Monday by the Austin Police Department. "I'm calling about the ...

TULSA - A paramedic had to be taken to the hospital herself after being hit by a Jeep while responding to an accident near 51st and Harvard. It happened early Friday morning. It started with an accident in the intersection in which the driver of a car t-boned a minivan. While investigators were attempting to move the car and minivan out ...

MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) — A 911 dispatcher in Missoula who broadcast a false report of an explosion as an April Fool's Day prank will be suspended for one week but will not be prosecuted. Missoula County Attorney Fred Van Valkenburg said Thursday it would be "extremely difficult" to establish criminal intent in the case. The request for an emergency response came ...

DETROIT - The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and the SAE International will be co-sponsoring the U.S. National Electric Vehicles Safety Standards Summit on October 19-20, 2010, at the Cobo Convention Center in Detroit, Michigan. The purpose of the U.S. National Electric Vehicles Safety Standards Summit is to support the rapid implementation of electrical and hybrid-electric vehicles in the United States, ...

WORCESTER — District Chief Geoffrey Gardell gets a little laugh when the Fire Department’s morning roll call is broadcast. His name is announced, then his brother’s — Capt. Timothy Gardell, who is an acting district chief. “I giggle every time I hear it,” Geoffrey said recently, standing outside the Franklin Street Fire Station. For the Gardell brothers, their lives are a ...

ANNAPOLIS, MD - A four-alarm fire in an historic Annapolis retail district just a block from the State House damaged two buildings and put on a show for tourists, but a quick response by firefighters appeared to have held losses to a minimum. The Saturday afternoon fire broke out in a space between the buildings at 54 and 56 Maryland Ave. ...

HORRY COUNTY, SC - Garry Alderman was heading onto an overpass at S.C. 31 en route to a fire call a year ago this week when he spotted embers flying overhead, "like fireflies." The Horry County Fire Rescue chief knew then that this was no routine emergency response. The blaze racing toward S.C. 22 would eventually be labeled the most destructive ...

APPLETON, WI - When a fire strikes their home or business, most people don't think about how much training the firefighters have gotten. They just want the fire put out. But it's worth considering. Wisconsin requires 60 hours of basic fire training. If you broke that down into eight-hour workdays, it's 7½ days. That doesn't seem like a lot when you ...

County Firefighter Justin Davidson went to his parents' Pennsylvania home last weekend to relax. But before he could finish his nap Sunday afternoon, his parents, John and Pamela Davidson, woke him up screaming that the house was on fire. Wearing mesh shorts and an Anne Arundel County Fire Department T-shirt, Davidson, 28, who lives in Baltimore, shot out of his childhood ...

BOSTON -- Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA) today announced the winners of its’ Firefighter Fitness Challenge, a 12-week challenge pitting over 160 firefighters in seven cities/towns (Arlington, Framingham, Hingham, Hudson, Ludlow, Peabody and Rockland) in a friendly competition to improve their health and wellness. Hudson, the winning station, received a $2,000 wellness grant today at Florian Hall in Dorchester. ...

CONWAY, AK - A motorcyclist who crashed his bike while fleeing Arkansas state troopers and local police at high speeds didn’t have to wait long for medical care. Gregory Wallace, 22, led police on a high-speed chase down Interstate-40 and through a heavily congested area near Little Rock, until he crashed his Suzuki Hayabusa into an ambulance, whose crew was the ...

NEW YORK - Five men charged with roughing up a cop, a firefighter and a Port Authority police officer in a wild Brooklyn bar brawl are furious cops have not also arrested the off-duty service members. The accused men - including Dan Golden, 23, nephew of Brooklyn state Sen. Marty Golden - claim they were tossed out of The Kettle Black ...

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. (AP) ― Four Framingham firefighters have suffered minor injuries after their fire engine crashed and rolled over. The fire truck was returning from a call when the driver hit a pole before rolling over onto an Edgell Road front yard. The firemen were taken to a local hospital for treatment. A fireman who answered the phone at the station, ...

One firefighter was in serious condition after falling from a second-story window at an apartment fire in Northwest Baltimore late Wednesday. The union has blamed the injury on budget cuts which has caused a rotating closure of firehouses. The firefighter, who also had burns to both hands, was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, said Chief Kevin Cartwright, a department spokesman. ...

FRANKLIN (AP) — Two people charged in connection with a raid on a meth lab were ordered held yesterday on $500,000 bonds while fire officials continued to investigate what caused an explosion at the outset of the raid. Jeremy Clough, 31, and Rebecca Fields, 33, were charged with two felony counts each of manufacturing methamphetamine at two labs that investigators say ...