QUINCY — A Quincy firefighter is on leave after being arrested in a Braintree drug raid. It’s the second time Patrick J. Ryan, 45, has been disciplined for facing criminal charges. Ryan has been a city firefighter since 1995. He is charged with conspiracy to violate drug laws. Police raided a house on East Division Street in Braintree Saturday that they ...

ARLINGTON, TX -- In anticipation of what he calls a "retirement bubble," Fire Chief Don Crowson has removed the requirement that prospective firefighters already be trained in emergency medical procedures. Nearly 40 percent of the city's sworn firefighters are eligible for retirement. So to open the doors to more applicants, the department has dropped all certification prerequisites for the first time ...

Iowa Governor Chet Culver said Saturday night the immediate danger near Lake Delhi had passed after a "catastrophic" dam breach sent water spilling downstream and hundreds of people fleeing for safety, The Des Moines Register reported. Culver praised the quick action of emergency personnel in response to the dam break which sent water downstream from the Maquoketa River into the streets ...

MANCHESTER CITY, UK - "Getting verbally abused is the norm but this was no way near normal - in my 26 years as a paramedic I have never been subjected to an attack like this." Ann Sumner had much of her hair pulled out of her head, she was punched and scratched and left with a form of whiplash in her ...

JOHNSTOWN — Richard Picciotto, the highest ranking firefighter to survive the collapse of the World Trade Center during the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, spoke Thursday night in Richland Township about how the events that day brought America closer together. Picciotto spoke to about 400 people during a fundraising dinner at Pitt-Johns-town for the benefit of the Richland Township Fire Department ...

NAPA, CA - Firefighters at the Napa Fire Department have begun to use a pair of new cutters to extricate crash victims from crushed vehicles more quickly. The shears, shaped like a giant lobster claw, were purchased this spring with a $5,481 grant from the Fireman’s Fund, an insurance company, through Malloy Imrie and Vasconi Insurance Services LLC of Napa. The ...

HOUSTON - Houston firefighter Lanard Lane, 12-0 (7 KOs), takes on the toughest challenge of his boxing career when he faces "The Silent Assassin" Mike Dallas, 14-0-1 (5 KOs), of Bakersfield, CA, Friday, July 16. The showdown between the two undefeated welterweights at the DeSoto Civic Center in Memphis, Tenn., will be aired live on Showtime. It will be Lane's debut ...

DETROIT - Detroit firefighters had to battle strong winds, hot and dry conditions, downed power lines and a lack of equipment and manpower at the same time they fought about 85 fires that erupted in four hours Tuesday afternoon. No fatalities or serious injuries were reported, though dozens of homes were destroyed -- including 18 vacant houses, two occupied homes and ...

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 ...

WASHINGTON - A D.C. fire engine crashed into a Metro bus in Northwest D.C. Wednesday, injuring 22 people - including four firefighters. The fire truck was on its way to help a pedestrian who had been hit by a car on 13th Street and Madison Street, when it struck the Metro bus on 14th Street just after 10:15 a.m. Eighteen people ...

BANGOR, ME — Capt. John Prentiss, a 23-year Bangor Fire Department veteran, says he hangs out with angels. Those angels are the four medically trained firefighters who worked with him on Sunday and brought him back from the dead. “I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for those four guardian angels,” Prentiss, 55, said Wednesday while sitting in his Dedham ...

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 ...

LONG BEACH - It's a little late, but compensation data on city of Long Beach employees is now online at the state controller's website. The information, which is available at www.sco.ca.gov, lists the pay ranges for each city position, how much each worker actually earned in 2009, pension details and the cost of other benefits. Among the Long Beach managers who ...

ST. CLOUD, FL - An Osceola County firefighter was hurt today at a demonstration for children at a summer camp. The man, whose name was not released, was putting equipment into a ladder truck when he came into contact with part of the apparatus as another firefighter raised the ladder, said Danny McAvoy, Osceola County deputy fire chief. The aluminum ladder ...

FAIRFAX, VA - Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department spokesman Dan Schmidt says a captain responding to the crash as EMS 401 was behind the wheel of the SUV. Engine 404 and Medic 404 from Herndon were already on the scene. The EMS 401 vehicle was described as moving slowly through the area when the collision occurred. [widget:news__wtop] The incident took ...

NEW YORK, NY - Ralph Gullickson never found his firefighter brother's remains after 9/11. All he has is a street sign honoring him - and now a city atheist group wants to take it away. The Manhattan-based NYC Atheists are demanding the city change the name of a Brooklyn block christened "Seven in Heaven Way" in honor of seven area firefighters ...

BARTLETT, IL — The Bartlett Fire Protection District is placing new signs on ITS fire engines and ladder truck that say “Paramedics,” indicating that even these vehicles designed for firefighting now carry advanced life support capabilities. Fire Chief Michael Falese said these vehicles have the obvious fire suppression capabilities that most people are aware of, but they also have carried fully ...

ROBESON, PA - Birdsboro and Robeson Township police departments received a shared crime scene vehicle that they hope will help increase efficiency. The 1991 Ford F-350, a former ambulance, was donated by Muhlenberg Township. Birdsboro Chief Theodore R. Roth said their methods of crime scene processing and emergency response were inefficient: Officers would pack whatever equipment they thought they might need ...

TULSA - A paramedic had to be taken to the hospital herself after being hit by a Jeep while responding to an accident near 51st and Harvard. It happened early Friday morning. It started with an accident in the intersection in which the driver of a car t-boned a minivan. While investigators were attempting to move the car and minivan out ...

SACRAMENTO - For five minutes, it was like the hundreds of gas-leak calls before it. Then in a flash of blue, it turned into one of the worst calls in recent Sacramento Fire Department history. In an interview Friday with The Bee, Sacramento firefighter Dave Storck described how a routine call turned into a chaotic scene at an Oak Park home ...