ST. LOUIS — An off-duty firefighter is being hailed as a hero for rescuing a man whose pickup truck veered into St. Louis' River Des Peres. Authorities say firefighter Steve Nienhaus saw the vehicle enter the river Sunday morning, then quickly swam into the water to save the driver who was slumped over inside the truck. St. Louis Fire Department Capt. ...

For years, Firefighter Rick Rickerson has been plagued by a problem. According to the National Volunteer Fire Council, each year in the United States, approximately 500,000 pets are affected by home fires; and according to the Live Safe Foundation, around 40,000 of those pets die every year. Unfortunately, Rickerson has been witness to this fact more than most people. As a ...

SEATTLE - A window washer was rescued by Seattle firefighters Thursday after he fell off his seat and dangled from his safety harness about 65 feet above the ground outside McCaw Hall at Seattle Center. The man was not injured, but "he's being checked out by a medic unit as we speak," Kyle Moore, spokesman for the Seattle Fire Department, said ...

NEW YORK - Supreme Court Justice Paul Feinman dismissed a suit filed by Firefighter Timothy Brown with the backing of the American Center for Law & Justice, a Washington conservative group. Feinman ruled that Brown didn't have a leg to stand on legally in his suit that challenged the city's refusal to grant landmark status to 45-47 Park Place, a building ...

BEDFORD - An off-duty New Bedford firefighter and a Cranston, R.I., police officer performed CPR and saved the life of a 3-year-old boy who nearly drowned Saturday in a pond at Myles Standish State Forest. Raymond Ryan, 40, the firefighter, performed compressions while Officer Mallory Reis, who was also off-duty, held the child's head steady and kept his airway open. Lori ...

MILWAUKEE— The Milwaukee Fire Department says it's conducting an internal investigation into a bar fight allegedly involving two off-duty firefighters. The victim, 56-year-old Jonathan Loiacano, told WISN-TV (http://bit.ly/oXU5uL) he thinks the firefighters should be fired. Loiacano says he suffered a shattered cheek, broken teeth and other facial injuries at the Fit `N Feather Bar in Greenfield on June 23. He says ...

SAN CARLOS, CA - Four of five San Carlos City Council members said this week they are open to dropping the pay of new firefighters by as much as 10 percent to increase the city's savings when it forms a new fire department in October. If the council decides at its Monday meeting to pay new firefighters that much less than ...

AUSTRALIA - UNION officials say they are struggling to find new ways to prevent assaults on ambulance officers following a weekend attack on a female paramedic by a nine-year-old boy. A Department of Community Safety spokeswoman confirmed the paramedic suffered a cut to the head after being kicked by the child while attempting to treat a 21-year-old with a broken foot ...

SELDEN, N.Y. — A Long Island firefighter says he had a bad feeling as he rushed to a house fire. It claimed the life of a visitor — his brother. Selden volunteer Richie Zdenek tells Newsday that he knew when he saw the fire address Sunday that his brother was often at that house. Before he left home, he checked his ...

NEW YORK - Firefighters rushed through a wall of flames to rescue an elderly couple Thursday after an early morning blaze ripped through their Brooklyn apartment, authorities said. The blaze started just after 5 a.m. in a fifth-floor apartment at 111 E. 21st St. in Flatbush belonging to Manuel and Maria Gonzalez. When a firefighter scaling a ladder spotted the unconscious ...

NEW YORK, NY - Ralph Gullickson never found his firefighter brother's remains after 9/11. All he has is a street sign honoring him - and now a city atheist group wants to take it away. The Manhattan-based NYC Atheists are demanding the city change the name of a Brooklyn block christened "Seven in Heaven Way" in honor of seven area firefighters ...

WAYCROSS, Ga. -- Firefighters battling a wildfire in south Georgia discovered 339 sticks of dynamite, and a U.S. Army bomb squad was called to detonate the explosives. The dynamite was found Monday in a bunker-like structure at Okefenokee Swamp Park about eight miles south of Waycross, Ga. Park manager Martin Bell said it was left over from the construction of the ...

Los Alamos, N.M. -- Thousands of residents fled the town that's home to the Los Alamos nuclear laboratory as a rapidly growing wildfire approached, sending up towering plumes of smoke, raining down ash and charring the fringes of the sprawling lab. The blaze, which began Sunday, destroyed 30 structures south of Los Alamos and forced the closure of the lab while ...

HARTFORD, CT - The Hartford Fire Department's latest class of 30 recruits began training Monday, along with $460,000 of new protective firefighting gear for the city's fire force, officials say. The new "bunker gear" consists of a coat made of fire-resistant fabric, pants and suspenders, waterproof boots, a strong helmet with eye protection, gloves, an integrated harness and self contained breathing ...

BOSTON - The Boston Fire Department suspended 54 firefighters yesterday who were among more than 200 EMTs who state investigators say faked medical training certifications in a fraudulent scheme that came to light last year. While many private ambulance companies planned to fire emergency medical technicians named in the state public health investigation, the Boston Fire Department began its own yearlong ...

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (AP) — A fast-moving wildfire has broken out in New Mexico and forced officials at the Los Alamos National Laboratory to close the site Monday as residents nearby evacuate their homes. The fire has grown to 3,500 acres, or 5.4 square miles, since it started at around 1 p.m. on Sunday about 12 miles southwest of the town ...

LONDONDERRY — Firefighters had a chance to practice their skills yesterday during a controlled burn of a donated house. The home at 32 Pillsbury Road was given to the fire department by a local real estate company to burn down and use as practice for fighting a real structure fire. Capt. Jim Roger was the incident commander and organized the controlled ...

FORT BLISS, Texas -- In what Col. Joseph Simonelli, Jr., Fort Bliss garrison commander, called a "complete garrison team mission," almost a half-dozen Fort Bliss firefighters and a 25-ton fire truck departed Bliss en route to Fort Huachuca, Ariz., June 23. Bliss answered the call for support in cantonment operations as Huachuca firefighters are participating in off-post firefighting efforts in the ...

GREELEY, CO - The Weld County district attorney's office has charged a Greeley firefighter with one count of official misconduct after he gave out tests to firefighters preparing for a certification exam. Lt. Roger Moore, 46, was issued a summons for the Class 2 misdemeanor, according to Jennifer Finch, the district attorney's spokeswoman. No date has been set for a court ...

TALLAHASSEE — Two forest rangers trapped by shifting flames died while fighting a wildfire that also injured two others near Jasper in north Florida, officials said yesterday. The rangers were working Monday to stop a rekindled blaze called the Blue Ribbon Fire in Hamilton County on the Georgia line, one of more than 400 wildfires burning around Florida in one of ...