CHICAGO - Chicago firefighters and paramedics will get $94 million in back pay dating back to June 30, 2007 — bankrolled by debt likened to “borrowing to pay for last year’s groceries” — thanks to a contract ratified Monday. “We’re very concerned. It’s enormously expensive to borrow to pay for operating costs. Future taxpayers are gonna have to pay, not only ...

D.C. police have opened a criminal investigation into the death of a 2-year-old girl who was not immediately taken to the hospital by emergency responders. The investigation will be handled by the homicide division's special victims unit, which looks into the death of any child younger than 13. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said investigators would "determine if there's any potential ...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. (AP) - Police say they have identified at least two people suspected of jumping out of a van and beat two visiting Canadian firefighters outside an upstate New York bar. Police in Saratoga Springs say the two firefighters from Ontario were talking to two women in a minivan stopped at a downtown intersection outside an Irish pub early ...

Federal regulators warned the Tennessee Valley Authority on Thursday about "apparent violations" involving fire safety at the utility's Browns Ferry nuclear plant in north Alabama. Officials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the findings don't pose an immediate safety risk but are urging TVA to fix the three-reactor plant, which suffered a nearly disastrous fire in 1975 and later had to ...

HARTFORD — - The fire lieutenant who led the initial attack on the ferocious blaze that consumed William Beckerman's 3,200-square-foot West Hartford home last February was the first witness called Wednesday in Beckerman's trial on charges that he set the fire. Lt. Chris Gordon, who retired from the West Hartford Fire Department in July, described being confronted with blinding smoke as ...

MOUNT LAUREL, PA - Every Sept. 11 since the world changed, the firefighters of Station 362 in Mount Laurel have gathered by their flagpole to observe a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m., when the first hijacked plane struck the World Trade Center. They bow their heads and fold their hands in memory of the 343 firefighters and nearly 2,500 other ...

TRENTON — The chairman of a state pension board publicly denounced a former Harrison firefighter as a cheat and a fraud Monday for collecting a $2,500-per-month disability pension from New Jersey while working as a full-time firefighter in North Carolina. As Herman Ellis looked on impassively during a hearing in Trenton, the board voted to refer the case to the state ...

MASON — Investigators at the home of Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Antwan Odom said a fire that started just before 3 a.m. Tuesday morning destroyed the house. Continuing past dawn, plumes of white smoke billowed westward from the home, which is a “total loss,” said Mason Deputy Fire Chief Craig Bryant. No one was inside at the time of the fire. ...

GREAT BARRINGTON, MA -- State and town officials, current and former firemen and supporters of the new fire station were on hand Sunday afternoon to observe the official dedication of the building. The guest of honor and main speaker, Mort T. Cavanaugh, fire chief in town for more than 40 years, told the audience of about 150 that "being a fireman ...

TOPEKA | The Kansas Firefighters Museum is looking for candidates for its first calendar. The Kansas Firefighter Calendar, 2011 edition, needs firefighters to pose for photos. Proceeds from the calendar will support the organization's Coats for Kids Project and the museum's expansion in Wichita. Any Kansas fireman — active duty, volunteer or retired — is encouraged to submit a photo calendar ...

A wildfire near scenic Parker Canyon Lake has grown to more than 10,000 acres. The lake and a campground there have been closed to the public. The human-caused blaze -- called the Arlene Fire -- started Monday morning and is spreading quickly in dry grass and brush southeast of Sonoita, said Marylee Peterson, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service. The ...

SAN JOSE - The San Jose Fire Department is set to close the Communications Hill Fire Station on Aug. 1 and make Station 30 on Auzerais Avenue a "posting station," fire leaders said. The moves are part of a new program to spread firefighters more efficiently throughout the city. Because of city budget cuts and stalled union negotiations, the department is ...

HOUSTON, TX - Houston's acting fire chief has fired three firefighters, saying they were each culpable in an incident where a racial epithet was entered on an EMS report using an ambulance computer terminal. The head of the firefighters union called the firings a "travesty“ and said the department failed to determine who actually was responsible. A spokesman for Acting Fire ...

HOLLYWOOD, FL - Two south Florida men who family members said were traveling on business were killed in a twin-engine plane crash Saturday night in a far west Chicago suburb. The pilot, Gary Bradford Jr., 37, of Hollywood, Fla., and his passenger, Drago Strahija, 32, of Lake Worth, Fla., had come from Texas, spent a night in west suburban Aurora and ...

NORTHWOODS — By the time Quincy Harris learned there had been a fire early Tuesday at his godmother's house, the firefighters were long gone. Left behind, though, was Harris' godmother, Gloria Banks, 80. Her body later was found in a bathtub where she may have sought refuge from the flames. Firefighters responded to the fire at 7115 Groveland Drive about 3 ...

PHOENIX - It started with months of debate over firefighter layoffs, the fear of lengthier response times and the potential for tragedy. In the end, the Phoenix Fire Department avoided losing any first-responder jobs. The budget process began late last year when the Fire Department anticipated cutting as much as $25.8 million, or 144 firefighter positions. The proposal would have eliminated ...

NEW YORK - ABC's "Good Morning America" this week will focus on members of the staff working elsewhere. No, not those who went to another network. Rather, for a series on jobs, the "GMA" hosts and reporters will walk in the shoes of average Americans. More than a thousand viewers applied to show the "GMA" team what their jobs are like. ...

WAYCROSS, Ga. -- Firefighters battling a wildfire in south Georgia discovered 339 sticks of dynamite, and a U.S. Army bomb squad was called to detonate the explosives. The dynamite was found Monday in a bunker-like structure at Okefenokee Swamp Park about eight miles south of Waycross, Ga. Park manager Martin Bell said it was left over from the construction of the ...

ST. LOUIS — An off-duty firefighter is being hailed as a hero for rescuing a man whose pickup truck veered into St. Louis' River Des Peres. Authorities say firefighter Steve Nienhaus saw the vehicle enter the river Sunday morning, then quickly swam into the water to save the driver who was slumped over inside the truck. St. Louis Fire Department Capt. ...

FORT EDWARD, NY - As a lethal fire intensified, one woman shoved an air conditioner out a window and then threw a 5-year-old boy out after it to safety, even as the blaze devoured a two-story house, killing six children. Two other adults tried in vain to rescue the children trapped inside the blazing building in a faded mill town along ...