GREELEY, CO - A south Weld County volunteer firefighter pleaded guilty Monday to a felony count of attempting to influence a public servant in a case in which she was accused of making 48 phony suicide and ambulance calls. Caryn Sodaro, 44, who lives in Lochbuie but was a volunteer firefighter in Hudson, took a deal just a little more than ...

On January 22nd, Senators Tom Carper (DE) and Susan Collins (ME) introduced the Fire Sprinkler Incentive Act in the Senate. This bill would amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to classify automatic fire sprinkler systems as 5-year property for purposes of depreciation. The bill, S. 2947, was referred to the Senate Finance Committee for consideration. Both Senator Carper and Senator ...

UK - Honda has announced the recall of 646,000 cars globally to fix a switch defect that could cause a fire. The recall includes Jazz models, also known as Fit in some countries, built in Japan, China, Brazil, Thailand, Malaysia and India, Honda said. Three cases of fires due to the defect have so far been reported - two in the ...

PORTLAND - A Portland police officer accidentally used pepper spray instead of a fire extinguisher on a man who lit himself on fire downtown near a fur store Wednesday. Portland Police Bureau Chief Rosie Sizer said the officer was at a stoplight at Southwest 12th Avenue and Yamhill Street when she saw a man in flames. When the officer went to ...

LOS ANGELES - Millions of Southland residents were glued to their television sets last week watching the live team coverage of a rescue of man's best friend. A German shepherd mix was fighting for its life in a maelstrom of debris in the fast-moving flow of a swollen flood control channel during the recent rainstorms. Not to worry, the good men ...

SALEM - As Dennis Covey watched news coverage of the earthquake in Haiti, the 51-year-old retired Salem firefighter wanted to help in any way he could. "I just said, 'We've got to go,'" he said yesterday. Covey, a lieutenant with the Fire Department who now lives in Palm Bay, Fla., said he could not make a big financial contribution. But he ...

HARTFORD — - The fire lieutenant who led the initial attack on the ferocious blaze that consumed William Beckerman's 3,200-square-foot West Hartford home last February was the first witness called Wednesday in Beckerman's trial on charges that he set the fire. Lt. Chris Gordon, who retired from the West Hartford Fire Department in July, described being confronted with blinding smoke as ...

ROCKFORD, Ill. (AP) — A veteran Rockford firefighter accused of stealing more than $15,000 from the department by falsifying time sheets has resigned. Rockford fire lieutenant Brian Watkins stepped down Saturday during a hearing to decide whether he would keep his job. He'd been with the department for nearly 20 years. [widget:flywheel_links] Watkins told supporters at the Rockford Board of Fire ...

HOLLYWOOD, FL - Two south Florida men who family members said were traveling on business were killed in a twin-engine plane crash Saturday night in a far west Chicago suburb. The pilot, Gary Bradford Jr., 37, of Hollywood, Fla., and his passenger, Drago Strahija, 32, of Lake Worth, Fla., had come from Texas, spent a night in west suburban Aurora and ...

After more than 40 years in the FDNY, new Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano knows the job's glories - and its risks. A "firefighter's firefighter" with five citations for bravery, Cassano's voice still trembles when he describes losing a colleague in a blaze. He has made it his mission to prevent others from making that supreme sacrifice. "If you're going to send ...

NEW YORK CITY - A Mississippi tourist's first trip to New York will include all the regular attractions, plus an unusual stop at the downtown Brooklyn home of the city's Bravest. He's going off the beaten track to say thanks to a man he's never met. Gary Williams, 55, received a lifesaving donation of bone marrow, and Monday he'll get a ...

Federal regulators warned the Tennessee Valley Authority on Thursday about "apparent violations" involving fire safety at the utility's Browns Ferry nuclear plant in north Alabama. Officials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the findings don't pose an immediate safety risk but are urging TVA to fix the three-reactor plant, which suffered a nearly disastrous fire in 1975 and later had to ...

BALTIMORE - Five firefighters battling a house fire in Lothian on Wednesday afternoon fell into the basement of the two-story house in the 5800 block of Little Road when the first floor collapsed, a county Fire Department spokesman said. [widget:news__edu_and_gear] Three got out on their own without injuries, but two had to be rescued and were taken by ambulances to area ...

DETROIT - No one was injured and there were no reports of significant damage from an electrical fire at a Detroit auto show exhibit that shut the event down for a few hours today, officials said. The fire, which spread smoke throughout Cobo Center and forced the evacuation of the main showroom, began in scaffolding and high-powered lights in the ceiling ...

NORTH BELFAST, UK - A man accused of stabbing a teenage boy to death also threatened an off-duty firefighter as he left the scene of the attack, it has been alleged in court. Testifying at the Thomas Devlin murder trial, witness Laurence Kelly said two men walked past him on a road, moments before he found the dying boy. Mr Kelly ...

KEENE – Two people were injured when an ambulance transporting a patient slid off of Route 12 yesterday morning. Police did not say whether anyone was seriously injured, but Keene fire Capt. Ron Leslie said everyone was "up and walking around after the crash." He said they were taken to the hospital for evaluation. The Golden Cross ambulance, based out of ...

Members of Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue conduct a rescue operation at the Montana Hotel in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The all volunteer service partnered with U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and multi-national relief agencies to support the massive relief efforts needed in the aftermath of Tuesday's earthquake. Eight personnel, including 7 Americans, have been rescued from the rubble of ...

The Detroit Fire Department has suspended a 10-year veteran firefighter, who's expected to be charged today with creating a false fire department report after leaving the scene of a hit-and-run accident. Jonathan Britt, 30, of Detroit was put on leave without pay last week when the department learned a warrant had been signed Jan. 6, Fire Commissioner James Mack said Thursday. ...

HOUSTON - On the day that Houston firefighter Jane Draycott returned to Station 54 for the first time after accusing her colleagues of harassment, she was met by the fire chief, his command staff, a psychologist and at least a dozen coworkers for what the chief dubbed a “team building” session. Instead, according to Draycott, it turned into an “insulting” and ...

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The distance between life and death narrowed in this flattened city Thursday, with survival depending on the luck of being freed from under rubble, on treating the thousands of wounded, and on speeding the flow of emergency food and water. Two days after a huge earthquake struck the capital, the international Red Cross estimated the number of deaths ...