Under the gaze of some 300 enthusiastic hairy and hairless-lipped onlookers, an Orlando, Fla.-area firefighter who founded a mustache-based charity was crowned with this year's "Robert Goulet Memorial Mustached American of the Year" award. The firefighter, Brian Sheets, managed to capture about 110,000 of more than a half million votes cast online, to win the title and his stately $3 crown ...

WATERTOWN, MA - Six Watertown firefighters are asking the town to compensate them for pay they say they earned while undergoing military training, according to town and union officials. The town says its investigation shows that four of the firefighters are owed pay, and it has promised to rectify the situation quickly. One of the firefighters, Brian Rand, completed training to ...

PORT AUTHORITY - A JetBlue flight attendant left his job in dramatic fashion yesterday, allegedly cursing out passengers on his flight before exiting via the plane's emergency exit -- beer in hand -- and eventually driving off in a car he had parked at the airport. As you might expect, the story has become the talk of the industry, generating headlines ...

NORTHCUMBERLAND COUNTY, VA - The former president of an ambulance service in Northumberland County was charged earlier this month with stealing from the organization. Now some in his community say this is becoming far too common. Investigators said Regan Yoder used his position and the borough credit card to buy personal items and now he faces theft charges. Yoder, 32, is ...

FAIRFAX, Va. - If you threw a buck or two into the boots of Fairfax County firefighters over the weekend, you'll want to know just how successful those firefighters were in their aggressive efforts to collect cash for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department firefighters and public safety workers collected more donations than any fire service organization ...

TORONTO - Finding ways to cut spending and save money will almost certainly top the to-do list for Toronto’s next mayor. If elected, Councillor Rob Ford has vowed to pursue drastic measures such as reducing the size of city council and shrinking the municipal work force. But it’s a pledge by mayoral candidate George Smitherman that may be the most contentious. ...

WASHINGTON -- Police and fire officials are still investigating an accident in Southeast Monday morning that left a car engulfed in flames, killing a Washington lobbyist, mother and wife of a senior White House advisor. Ashley Westbrook Turton, director of congressional affairs for Progress Energy, Inc. and mother of three young children, died around 5 a.m. Monday morning outside her home ...

NEW YORK - Kings County Hospital officials were forced to shut down and fumigate part of the emergency room Monday after finding a single bedbug, authorities said. "There was a patient in an ambulance that came in last night, and in the ambulance there was a bedbug," hospital spokeswoman Hope Mason said yesterday. "As a precaution, the room the patient was ...

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 ...

TAMPA — The two young paramedics called out to a man covered in bees Friday morning, asking him to come closer to their ambulance and hoping all the bees wouldn't. "They were swarming," said Sophia Cardenas, a firefighter with Tampa Fire Rescue. "He had a look of desperation on his face." The 47-year-old man had been cutting grass at 1224 E ...

NEW YORK - Honor denied - again. Mayor Bloomberg said Tuesday the city won't back down from its refusal to put a retired fire captain's name on a tribute to firefighters who died on 9/11. Bloomberg vowed a challenge to a Queens judge's ruling that ordered Capt. James Corrigan's name to be listed on a memorial to be unveiled next year ...

ATLANTA — When Kelvin Cochran was approached in mid-2009 by President Barack Obama to become the U.S. fire administrator, he made three phone calls. Atlanta was in the midst of a heated mayoral election and Mayor Shirley Franklin, who had hired him as the chief of the Department of Fire Rescue, was vacating the office. As an appointed official, that left ...

ROCKVILLE, Md. - The Montgomery County Council approved a proposal in May to charge ambulance fees, but the Montgomery County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association has submitted more than 50,000 signatures to add a referendum on the November ballot. However, some of the signatures submitted were rejected by the county Board of Elections, and there's a chance the referendum would not ...

ROCKVILLE, Md.-- Four firefighters were rushed to the hospital after a roof collapsed on their heads while they were cleaning up after a fire on Wilmart Street in Rockville Wednesday night. The fire broke out on the 1700 block of Wilmart Street at around 7:25 p.m., according to Montgomery County Fire spokesperson Beth Anne Nesselt. "Three of the four firefighters will ...

PHILADELPHIA - There were moments when Upper Darby Police Officer Raymond Blohm thought about quitting his dream job and never returning to the streets again. "I had doubts and, yes, a lot of sleepless nights at first," he said of a shooting this year that left him injured and struggling with questions about his career. Blohm was among 39 police officers ...

Quincy firefighters get a 10 percent boost in pay if they earn a master’s degree in business administration. Plymouth firefighters can trade a week of vacation for a week of pay. And Norwell firefighters can work out — situps and pushups, for instance — only if the exercise doesn’t exhaust them so much that they can’t work. The benefits, and quirks, ...

NEW YORK - Police across the city have been warned that "detergent suicides" - which use household cleaners to create poisonous gas - can also kill cops and other first responders, the Daily News has learned. A recent internal order says people who kill themselves in this way often post warning signs, such as "Hydrogen Sulfide Suicide," so relatives and cops ...

SEATTLE, WA - More than 1,000 fireworks-related injuries and fires were reported to the state fire marshal's office in 2009, according to the Washington State Patrol. It found there were 1,236 reports received last year, mostly on July 4. They included 1,036 fires and 200 injuries. Most were caused by children ages 8 to 14, according to the State Patrol. Specifically, ...

DOVER, N.H.—A former New Hampshire firefighter is going to prison for at least three years after pleading guilty to setting a series of fires. Forty-four-year-old Stark Liedtke of Alton had pleaded guilty to three charges that he set fires on Berry Road in New Durham in 2006 and 2007. He also pleaded guilty to eight other arson-related charges. In court Tuesday, ...

GREENSBORO, N.C. — Two interstate highways were temporarily closed after lightning struck a large gasoline tank early yesterday in North Carolina, officials said. The closed sections of interstates 40 and 73 through Greensboro were reopened within hours, the North Carolina Department of Transportation said. The tank’s owner, Colonial Pipeline Co., said the burning gasoline was extinguished by firefighters using special foam, ...