DALLAS - The cash-strapped city of Dallas could owe the federal government $40 million or more if a whistle-blower lawsuit's allegations of fraud involving billing for ambulance services prove true. While the city says the specific amount it may owe the government has not been determined, it acknowledges that it is "fully cooperating" with federal authorities and will "move forward aggressively" ...

AFFTON, Mo. (AP) — Four firefighters are recovering after they were hurt battling a blaze in south St. Louis County. The fire broke out Monday afternoon in Affton. KMOX-TV reports that two firefighters were hospitalized and two others treated at the scene. Firefighters thought the elderly homeowner was inside and went in to get him. In fact, Good Samaritans had already ...

HAVERHILL — State public health officials have suspended the licenses of 207 emergency medical technicians and paramedics across Massachusetts because they were involved in falsifying training records. That number includes 30 Haverhill firefighters and 35 Trinity EMS ambulance workers, the state said. The suspensions will take effect July 1. Most will be for nine months, but a smaller number will last ...

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 ...

BROOKLYN - Several firefighters are likely to be charged after a boozy brawl at a Brooklyn bar that sent a college soccer coach to the hospital with a busted eye, police sources said. Sinan Selmani, who works at St. Francis College, was clutching his broken eye socket as he was dragged by firefighters to a bathroom at the Salty Dog in ...

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 ...

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 ...

CLINTON — Firefighter Dean S. Weeks was on duty last night when the call came in that his restaurant, Tailgaters Grille, just 300 yards from the fire station on Main Street, was on fire. Firefighters at the station this morning were saddened over the loss of what they called Mr. Weeks' dream and passion. “We're heartbroken,” said Firefighter John W. Kobus. ...

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 ...

The first frantic call for help as a wildfire gathered momentum in the foothills west of Boulder came from a longtime firefighter who was helpless as flames burst across his wooded property, devouring trees and torching a propane tank. His breathless descriptions — captured on a dispatch tape — detailed the fury of a blaze that, by Wednesday evening, had charred ...

SAN BRUNO, CA -- With a thunderous roar heard for miles, a natural gas line explosion ripped through a San Bruno neighborhood Thursday evening, sending up a geyser of fire that killed at least one person and injured more than 20 others, and igniting a blaze that destroyed 53 homes and damaged 120 more, authorities said. The wind-whipped blaze leaped from ...

HAVERHILL — Police have issued former firefighter Kevin Thompson a citation through Haverhill District Court for driving a firetruck without a license, Mayor James Fiorentini said. If the city wins a criminal conviction against Thompson on the driving charge, Fiorentini said yesterday he will ask the Haverhill Retirement Board to revoke Thompson's pension. The board earlier this week awarded Thompson, 52, ...

SEATTLE - With the first floor of her home in flames, Helen Gebregiorgis rushed upstairs to alert her sister and five young children as the smoke alarm blared. Gebregiorgis grabbed her 5-year-old niece, Samarah Smith, and dashed downstairs, believing the others were behind her. They weren't. Driven back by the heat and flames, her sons Joseph Gebregiorgis, 13, and Yaseen Shamam, ...

FORT LEE, N.J. — Two people who'd moved into a northern New Jersey town house a day earlier have died in a fire that started in their kitchen and spread upstairs. Police say 52-year-old Eliot C. Nisenbaum and 55-year-old Ronald Sandberg were found Saturday night in the second-floor master bedroom of their home in Fort Lee, overlooking the Hudson River. Firefighters ...

ASHLAND, Ore. — Families looked for valuables, pets and mementoes Wednesday in the ashes of 11 homes destroyed by a fast-moving wildfire while a homeless man accused of starting the blaze sat in jail. John Thiry, 40, was arrested at 3 a.m. under a freeway ramp and charged with 11 counts of reckless endangerment and 11 counts of reckless burning, authorities ...

WALTHAM - A 21-year-old auxiliary firefighter from Waltham died Nov. 21 of injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident in Lexington. Jonathan R. Lindsay was a lifelong resident of Waltham and worked as an EMT for LifeLine and Cataldo ambulance services. He had been a Waltham Auxiliary Firefighter since age 16. Mr. Lindsay joined the Waltham Auxiliary Fire Department in February 2006 ...

NEW YORK — A manhole fire blamed on underground electrical cables shot flames 10 feet into the air Monday afternoon near Times Square, startling passers-by and closing a street just blocks from where a failed bomb was found over the weekend. No injuries were reported, but acrid smoke still filled the air an hour-and-a-half later, and Fire Chief Mike Meyers said ...

KING COUNTY, WA - A King County judge said Friday that the "mental picture" she envisioned of a Seattle firefighter awarded $12.75 million for injuries he suffered in an on-duty fall didn't square with secretly shot video later showing him chopping wood and performing other activities. But Superior Court Judge Susan Craighead also sharply questioned a request by attorneys for the ...

SPRING HILL, FL — Spring Hill Fire Rescue Chief Mike Rampino said Thursday that he's looking into allegations that on-duty firefighters attended parties where alcohol was served earlier this year and that intoxicated women were allowed on fire station property. The allegations were made at Wednesday's district fire board meeting by Ridge Manor resident Rob Rogoski, who presented commissioners with about ...

BROWNSVILLE, TN. - A medical helicopter crashed in stormy weather over western Tennessee early Thursday, killing its crew of three, around the same time another helicopter company had declined to go on a flight in the area because of the weather conditions. No patients were on board the helicopter operated by Hospital Wing when it crashed in a field about 55 ...