SEATTLE — A blaze tore through a Seattle apartment Saturday and killed five people, including a number of children, fire officials said. The fire was reported just after 10 a.m. in what authorities described as a two-story apartment unit in the city's Fremont neighborhood north of downtown. The first engine to respond had a problem with a pump that prevented it ...

BAYFIELD, UK - Thieves who made off with the possessions of volunteer firefighters in Bayfield while they battled a small boat blaze showed unbelievable nerve and disrespect, a firefighter says. The firefighter, who asked not to be named, said his flashing green dashboard light that lets motorists know he’s responding to a call was stolen while his car was at the ...

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (AP) - A Los Alamos firefighter has been charged with indecent exposure after an incident in Albuquerque on Sunday afternoon. The Los Alamos Monitor says a Bernalillo County Sheriff's deputy responded to a call about a man exposing himself about 1:30 p.m. Sunday near a bridge on Alameda Boulevard. The victim, a woman, was walking and saw a ...

CHICAGO - Mayor Daley’s appointment of third-generation firefighter Robert Hoff to replace ousted Fire Commissioner John Brooks sailed through a City Council committee on Monday — with a promise from Hoff to embrace older black applicants bypassed by the city’s discriminatory handling of a 1995 firefighters exam. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month that African-American applicants did not wait too ...

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — A Cedar Rapids mail carrier has been honored for putting out a fire in an apartment building on her route. Angie Martin was presented a certificate by Cedar Rapids Fire Chief Stephen Reid Monday. Reid says Martin prevented the fire from spreading and calls her actions "monumental." The Gazette says the 35-year-old Martin was delivering mail Nov. ...

SAN MARCOS, Calif. (AP) — A San Diego County house where a man was operating a virtual bomb factory is so full of dangerous explosive material that it must be burned down, authorities said at a town hall meeting Tuesday night. "There is no viable method to render the property safe," Sheriff Bill Gore told about 300 residents gathered at a ...

CHESAPEAKE, VA - Tim Woodland does not believe the moon is a barometer of human behavior. He has been with the Chesapeake Fire Department for 30 years and can give you plenty of anecdotal evidence to back this up. He will not say he has seen it all, but he has seen enough to tell you that crazy can happen whether ...

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, ...

UK - A man has been charged in connection with a road crash in Essex in which a paramedic was seriously injured. A quad bike struck two parked vehicles on Western Esplanade in Southend-on-Sea on Sunday, injuring the paramedic at the scene of a previous crash. James Lewis, 28, of Broomfield Street, Poplar, is charged with causing grievous bodily harm, five ...

SYRACUSE, NY -- Nearly 200 people, half of them in uniform, gathered for a memorial service for fallen firefighters and Onondaga County Sheriff's deputies. The service included the reading of the names of all firefighters, auxiliary members and sheriff's deputies who died this year. Also read was a list of county firefighters who died in the line of duty. They stretched ...

SPOTSYLVANIA COUNTY, VA -It was a night of unwanted sexual taunting and touching in the place where she volunteers: The Station 1 firehouse with the Spotsylvania Fire and Rescue Department. "If you don't get hold of it and follow it up with criminal charges and prosecution it's just going to run rampant," says Lt. Col. Michael Timm with the Spotsylvania County ...

LOS ANGELES - A firefighter is recovering from several stab wounds after being attacked while responding to a medical emergency. The knife wielding attacker remains at large. Charles MacDougal was recently named paramedic of the year. He was set to receive that honor Thursday at the very hospital where he was rushed today. Tuesday, MacDougal came to the emergency room as ...

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 ...

PITTSFIELD TOWNSHIP, MI - We all love fresh honey, but no one wants to be stung. A Pittsfield Township beekeeper is now recovering after bees attacked her in defense of their queen. "Person in distress. They told us had something to do with bees," said Pittsfield Township Fire Captain Jeff Foulke. A day later at the Pittsfield Township home and you'd ...

TULSA, OK – Now that Tulsa's laid-off police officers may be coming back, some are wondering about the sacrifices Tulsa firefighters made to keep the city's budget balanced. Tulsa police lost officers, while the fire department lost pay. City leaders say it doesn't have to be a competition between Tulsa's finest and Tulsa's bravest. If the police department gets more money ...

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. — A 14-year-old boy who allegedly told deputies he dropped a lighter as he was trying to smoke pot in a field Sunday sparked a 40-acre blaze that briefly threatened some 50 homes and forced evacuations before it was contained, authorities said. The boy from Saugus, one of four people detained in connection with the blaze, was booked ...

INDIANAPOLIS — Authorities say a man alerted a family that included three deaf people about a fire in the attic of their Indianapolis home. Fire Capt. Rita Burris says the fire was reported just after midnight Tuesday and that all four residents safely escaped. Firefighters were able to get the blaze under control in about 15 minutes despite the closest fire ...

SOMERVILLE, MA - A hysterical woman, trapped by fast-moving fire and heavy smoke in her third-floor Somerville apartment last night, was rescued by jakes who climbed a ladder to her window and rushed her out to a hospital. Somerville Fire Deputy Jack Memory, one of the first firefighters on Glenwood Street for the triple-decker, three-alarm blaze, said he saw the woman ...

Stockton firefighters could soon see fewer people on a shift. A report on minimum staffing levels for the Stockton Fire Department by the San Joaquin County 2010-2011 Civil Grand Jury released Monday recommends the city reduce its staff on fire engines to three firefighters and staff and fire trucks to four. The grand jury also recommends the department create a relief ...