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 ...

HAVERHILL -- Former firefighter Kevin Thompson walked out of a retirement board meeting this week with $3,474.04 in monthly benefits and lifetime health insurance. Thompson, 52, quit his job and filed for retirement benefits rather than answer questions about his secret four-month incarceration in a New Hampshire jail and whether he ever drove a city firetruck without a license. City Solicitor ...

DETROIT - The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and the SAE International will be co-sponsoring the U.S. National Electric Vehicles Safety Standards Summit on October 19-20, 2010, at the Cobo Convention Center in Detroit, Michigan. The purpose of the U.S. National Electric Vehicles Safety Standards Summit is to support the rapid implementation of electrical and hybrid-electric vehicles in the United States, ...

TOWN OF WALLKILL — A City of Middletown firetruck and a Pocatello Fire Department firetruck collided at the intersection of County Route 78 and Wawayanda Avenue on Monday afternoon. The crash sent at least three firefighters to the hospital with what authorities said were non-life-threatening injuries. Both trucks sustained significant damage and were taken out of commission. [photo:156972] The trucks were ...

TOPEKA - Those who attend church with Topeka firefighter Drew Culberth said they believed that his group of Baptist missionaries had the best of intentions when it tried to take children out of quake-ravaged Haiti. In fact, said the Rev. James Keller, pastor of Topeka’s Bethel Baptist Church, the group had tried to get the correct paperwork. In an e-mail from ...

HOUSTON, TX - Overtime pay for police and firefighters cost Houston taxpayers $67 million last year, including 714 employees who each earned $20,000 or more, and four officers who pulled down more than $100,000. A Houston Chronicle analysis shows that most of the money — $50 million — went to the Houston Police Department, long bedeviled by staffing shortages while trying ...

ROCKVILLE, Md. - A Montgomery County judge Monday dismissed a lawsuit seeking to stop county firefighters from campaigning for ambulance fees. Without a 'Yes' vote on 'Question A' -- the ballot measure that would institute ambulance fees -- Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett says he'll have to cut more than 80 firefighter positions and take 11 ambulances out of service. Leggett ...

SOUTH YARMOUTH - Eleven firefighters are being recognized for their rescue of a 40-year-old West Yarmouth man trapped in a burning house. A ceremony will be held at tonight’s selectmen’s meeting, beginning at 7 p.m. in Yarmouth town hall. The rescue happened on May 2 when firefighters were called to a blaze at 108 Sullivan Road and found a man trapped ...

SALISBURY, N.H. -- Police said a volunteer firefighter in Salisbury is facing a criminal charge for mishandling a pipe bomb. Police said on March 16, Walter Scott Jr. called them about a suspicious device he claimed to have found in Franklin and then brought back to a garage at his property on Old Turnpike Road. The state police bomb squad used ...

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 ...

NEW YORK CITY (AP) - A teenager identified through photos taken of him at a house party over the July 4 weekend was arrested Tuesday in the stabbing death of an emergency medical technician on the street outside, police said. Alexander Hernandez, 19, was arrested on charges of murder and criminal possession of a weapon, police said. Someone who took photos ...

HAVERHILL, Mass. — Prosecutors have charged a 10-year-old Massachusetts boy with involuntary manslaughter for allegedly starting a fire that killed two relatives, including a 6-year-old boy. A not guilty plea was entered for the boy Monday in Lawrence Juvenile Court. His name was not released because of his age. Prosecutors say the boy used a lighter to start the fire in ...

ATLANTA — More bystanders are willing to attempt CPR if an emergency dispatcher gives them firm and direct instructions — especially if they can just press on the chest and skip the mouth-to-mouth, according to new research. The two new studies conclude that "hands-only" chest compression is enough to save a life. They are the largest and most rigorous yet to ...

GREELEY, CO - The Weld County district attorney's office has charged a Greeley firefighter with one count of official misconduct after he gave out tests to firefighters preparing for a certification exam. Lt. Roger Moore, 46, was issued a summons for the Class 2 misdemeanor, according to Jennifer Finch, the district attorney's spokeswoman. No date has been set for a court ...

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 ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Firefighters spent a portion of their Sunday shutting hydrants that were apparently opened by people looking to get relief from the hot weather. At the corner of South Ohio Avenue and Siebert Street, a fire hydrant was opened at least four times on Sunday, it was reported. One firefighter said that he has responded to 15 reports of ...

TRENTON - A law reducing pension and health care benefits for police and firefighters will go into effect today after a state judge Thursday refused to block it. Unions representing police and firefighters argued that the changes improperly infringe upon the collective bargaining process. They also said the requirement to contribute 1.5 percent of their salary to health care constitutes a ...

London, England - Fire crews have extinguished a fire at a nuclear weapons base west of London, the British Ministry of Defence said Wednesday. The fire broke out late Tuesday in "a building within the conventional non-nuclear explosives area" of Atomic Weapons Establishment in Aldermaston, Berkshire, about 45 miles west of the British capital, the Ministry of Defence said. The base ...