Dozens of tornadoes spawned by a powerful storm system wiped out entire towns across a wide swath of the South, killing at least 194 people, and officials expect the death toll to rise. President Barack Obama has requested emergency federal assistance for the affected areas. See the destruction the storms left behind. Next → [page] AP: An American flag flies atop ...

PHOENIX - It started with months of debate over firefighter layoffs, the fear of lengthier response times and the potential for tragedy. In the end, the Phoenix Fire Department avoided losing any first-responder jobs. The budget process began late last year when the Fire Department anticipated cutting as much as $25.8 million, or 144 firefighter positions. The proposal would have eliminated ...

LOS ANGELES - Testimony has begun in the case of a former Los Angeles County assistant fire chief who prosecutor alleged mortally wounded his neighbors' 6-month-old dog because it ran onto his property. The case in Riverside County has received national attention and is being closely watch by animal rights activists. [widget:news__featured_career_fire_captain] The defendant, Glynn Johnson, is accused of beating the ...

Firefighters are gaining control of the Race Pond Fire that has threatened for days to jump into the Okefenokee Swamp, officials said. At last measure, the fire had burned 7,852 acres, counting burnouts, and was 40 percent contained, said Mark Wiles, a Georgia Forestry Commission senior forester working with a joint information team. "We thinking the burnout we attempted over the ...

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 ...

NEW YORK - A Long Island town's fire chief and a New York City firefighter were arrested Tuesday for brandishing guns while threatening a pedestrian, officials said. Michael Charles, the Hempstead fire chief, held a handgun on his hip while Brian Schuck, an eight-year-FDNY veteran, toted a shotgun when they harassed a man walking down a Hempstead street Sunday afternoon, Nassau ...

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 ...

NEW YORK - The call was coming from inside the van. In a surprise twist to a controversial New Jersey Turnpike traffic stop, police Monday arrested a Queens teen they say made a hoax 911 call from inside the van they pulled over. Rodney Tanzymore, 19, was one of a group of 11 black and Hispanic Queens students on an overnight ...

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 ...

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 ...

ELGIN, IL - Two Elgin firefighters and a police officer were taken to area hospitals Monday night after each became ill at the scene of a hazardous materials call at an apartment building. Emergency crews were called to investigate the hazmat call at a six-flat apartment building on the 1100 block of Birch Drive at about 5:20 p.m., officials said. The ...

LOUISA, KY - A Kentucky firefighter is recovering in the hospital after he was swept under water during a fire school training Sunday afternoon. Mark Hammond, Regional Training Coordinator for Kentucky Fire Commission, said it happened at about 1:30 p.m. Hammond said the Northeast Kentucky Fire School was conducting a swift water rescue training at Yatesville Lake in Louisa. The firefighter ...

When EMS members responded to a call for two cars on the side of the road, they might have assumed there was a minor accident. But instead, there's a woman with no pulse, a burn victim and a hostage that pops out of the trunk of one car. It's not necessarily a typical day on the job. The good news? It's ...

FAIRFIELD, CT -- Maureen Janda was waiting until the collection box in the lobby at Fairfield police headquarters was full to make a delivery to Give2TheTroops. About a week and a half ago, Janda, secretary to the deputy chief, walked in and saw that the box not only was full, but overflowing. Turns out that Fairfield firefighters had done some shopping ...

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 ...

BOSTON - Residents heard the fire alarms just before 2 p.m., but thought little of them as they made their way down the stairs of their 10-story condominium building in the Back Bay. But the alarm turned out to be the largest firefighting operation the city has seen in recent years — flames roared out the seventh-floor windows, and smoke billowed ...

Predictions of an early and vicious fire season are coming true, especially in a swath of the Southwest where extreme drought and a killing freeze this winter combined to desiccate grass and shrubs. Fire restrictions are in place on most state and federal lands throughout Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. Dangerous fires break out daily. Southeastern Arizona, including the Tucson area, ...