JOPLIN, Mo. — Rod Pace, manager of the Med Flight helicopter service at St. John's Regional Medical Center, had just finished payroll paperwork Sunday evening when he decided to stay an extra 15 to 20 minutes to let the menacing weather pass. From the second floor, he watched the storm approach from the southwest, just like so many other systems. The ...

MUNCIE -- Seven days after the critically injured Brian Buck arrived at Ball Memorial Hospital in an ambulance, he left Wednesday in good spirits in a Liberty Township fire truck. Buck was one of two Liberty Township firefighters injured in a well accident that killed an Anderson plumber and critically injured the plumber's 19-year-old assistant. Buck's colleague, Rick Compton Sr., was ...

SHELTON, Conn. (AP) — A veteran Bridgeport firefighter charged with dumping poison acid onto his neighbor's water line has been fired. Fire Chief Brian Rooney says Edward Voccola "brought discredit" to the department and was fired for violating the city's ethics code as well as city rules. The Connecticut Post reports that the 52-year-old Voccola, a 22-year veteran, was placed on ...

NAPLES, FL — When it comes to paint, they've got it covered. But, money is a different story. Members of the Gulf Coast Retired Firefighters Association gave the Freedom Memorial a coat of primer and paint Wednesday at Freedom Park in Naples. The Freedom Memorial Task Force raised $450,000 to erect the concrete American flag in Fall 2009, but still needs ...

The body of a veteran climber who fell 1,500ft into the crater of Mount St. Helens volcano has been recovered today after he spent more than a day in the snow. High winds and low cloud had hampered efforts to reach Joseph Bohlig, 52, who was posing for a picture on the rim of the dormant crater when a snow overhang ...

BRIDGEPORT -- A city firefighter was arrested after police said they caught him injecting heroin while in uniform. Michael Arthur, 34, of Danbury, a 10-year fire department veteran, was charged with possession of narcotics and use of drug paraphernalia. He was released after posting $500 bond. He was off duty at the time of his arrest, fire officials said, and it ...

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 ...

CHELSEA - There may not have been fire in a Chelsea apartment yesterday morning, but firefighters responding to a call of smoke found something else. Firefighters who arrived at a Lafayette Avenue apartment complex just after midnight yesterday came upon a home invasion in progress in the same apartment. Police responded, and one of the suspects was arrested and charged with ...

SOUTH BRANCH TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Authorities say 12 homes were destroyed and two damaged by the inferno that blasted across Michigan's northern Lower Peninsula after a resident lost control of a brush fire. The fire in Crawford County has covered roughly 8,800 acres. The fire is considered 80 percent contained, or secure enough that flames were unlikely to jump a line ...

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 ...

LOUISVILLE - Hoping to ease crowded emergency rooms and trim ambulance runs, Louisville Metro Emergency Medical Services (EMS) has launched a program that aims to screen low-priority calls and divert patients from hospitals into more appropriate health care. Under the program, which started April 19, a small number of the lowest priority calls — such as those for an earache or ...

BOCA RATON, FL - You can take the man out of firefighting but, apparently, you can't take firefighting out of the man. During Wednesday night's deadly car accident on Interstate 95 in Boca Raton, a retired EMS supervisor helped control the flames in the burning SUV while a police officer shot out a window and rescued the trapped passenger. "I'll be ...

YORK, PA - The York Area Firefighter Combat Challenge Team won 21 gold, silver and bronze medals at the 2010 Can-Am Police-Fire Games, held last week in Dublin, Ohio. Team founder Mike Anderson, a York City Fire/Rescue Services firefighter, said he won five medals; Diane Keith, a volunteer EMT with York Area United Fire and Rescue, won one; and YAUFR firefighters ...

WASHINGTON — Three people are seriously hurt after a crash involving a fire truck in downtown Washington. D.C. fire department spokesman Pete Piringer says a fire truck responding to a fire at a library at George Washington University was involved in a crash with two other vehicles at about 7:30 a.m. on Friday. Three people in the two cars were ...

BOSTON - The investigation began with an anonymous phone tip to the Department of Public Health: The caller claimed an EMT-paramedic for Salem-based Cataldo Atlantic Ambulance Service had received a recertification card without actually attending a mandatory advanced cardiac life-support training class. State investigators requested documentation for the class, purportedly taught on Feb. 21 at the Burlington Police Department to five ...

St. Joseph fire officials said a South Side man pulled his neighbor from a house fire Friday morning in his bare feet. Fire inspector Steve Henrichson said both men had injuries but the Good Samaritan declined medical treatment. The resident of the burned trailer near Lake Contrary was taken by ambulance to Heartland Regional Medical Center with second- and third-degree burns ...

NORFOLK, UK - Heroic firefighters - commended for their efforts in saving a young woman from near certain death in a Norwich bedsit - have relived the dramatic rescue. Norfolk fire service's Green Watch were praised by a judge last week as rogue landlord Michael Billings' was jailed for ignoring safety laws at a block of bedsits he owned in Magdalen ...

Residents will be able to get a firefighter with their pizza Oct. 6 and 7. The Somerset Volunteer Fire Department is teaming up with Pizza Hut in Somerset during Fire Prevention Week to check the smoke alarms of people who order pizza on those days. Pizza Hut owner Erik Bittner said he was happy to help fire department members reach people’s ...

It's a mistake that could have cost the city a four million dollar hole in the budget, but today Mayor Linda Thompson says she has a solution. Firefighters jobs are saved. Thanks to an idea to sell parcels of land that several parking garages sit on. The mayor says the money from the sale will solve the firefighter problem and the ...

SEATTLE - The father who was killed in a New Year's morning blaze was training to become a firefighter and had recently passed his initial firefighting tests, says the manager of the apartments where he died. David Thompson, 32, who was killed in the apartment fire along with his four sons, also worked as a maintenance assistant at the apartment complex ...