SPRINGFIELD - As the Springfield Fire Department prepares to fill some positions that have been frozen for a year, it is changing eligibility requirements to broaden the pool of candidates. Applicants for this summer's Fire Training Academy are now eligible if they meet one of the following qualifications: • Emergency Medical Technician-B certification; • Firefighter I and II certification; • 36 ...

CHEYENNE -- One of the county's largest grass fires in recent memory burned southwest of town Wednesday afternoon behind commercial explosive producer Dyno Nobel Inc. Fire officials said the area burned was approximately 700 acres. Laramie County Fire District 2 public information officer Lew Simpson said the fire reignited from a blaze that crews extinguished early Wednesday morning. The first fire ...

SUMMERFIELD, Ill. - The little dogs -- Zipper and Molly -- barked their heads off. Ruby Widicus looked out her kitchen window in the rainy darkness at 5 a.m. recently and could just make out several fire trucks. The firefighters were parked at the end of the quarter-mile-long driveway to a farmhouse off St. Jacob/Summerfield Road where she and her husband ...

NEW YORK - Five men charged with roughing up a cop, a firefighter and a Port Authority police officer in a wild Brooklyn bar brawl are furious cops have not also arrested the off-duty service members. The accused men - including Dan Golden, 23, nephew of Brooklyn state Sen. Marty Golden - claim they were tossed out of The Kettle Black ...

HONOLULU -- A Honolulu firefighter is hospitalized in serious condition after falling through a warehouse roof. The Capt. Dwayne Lee, 43, stepped on a panel and fell about30 feet while investigating smoke coming from a Kalihi warehouse Monday night about 10 p.m., Honolulu Fire Department Capt. Terry Seelig said. The warehouse was on Republican Street in Kalihi. Firefighters responded to a ...

DETROIT - No one was injured and there were no reports of significant damage from an electrical fire at a Detroit auto show exhibit that shut the event down for a few hours today, officials said. The fire, which spread smoke throughout Cobo Center and forced the evacuation of the main showroom, began in scaffolding and high-powered lights in the ceiling ...

LOS ANGELES -- A training exercise became a real life emergency Tuesday when veteran firefighter nearly drowned during a simulated rescue. "Everything worked ," said firefighter Dave Danielson, 40, outside a nearby hospital two hours after the mishap. Danielson was portraying a drowning person for trainees at the Los Angeles Aqueduct, when he went under for about 30 seconds, "I hit ...

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 ...

EMMITSBURG, MD-- USFA and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) are partnering on a study to examine the potential for increased risk of cancer among firefighters due to exposures from smoke, soot, and other contaminants in the line of duty. This will be a formal epidemiological study with medical oversight. The primary objective of the project is to ...

[gate] ATLANTIC CITY — Next year, the city’s skyline will grow taller with the completion of Revel’s 710-foot casino — 200 feet higher than Harrah’s, which is now the city’s tallest building. Only the 781-foot Goldman Sachs Building in Jersey City will be taller in the state. The towering plans raise the question: Can the city’s fire department handle a blaze ...

LOS ANGELES - A group of former U.S. Forest Service officials is calling for a new and independent investigation into the agency's handling of last year's devastating Station fire, with many contending that an internal inquiry completed in November ignored critical missteps. That probe by the Forest Service's Washington, D.C., headquarters found no tactical errors in the initial attack on the ...

Firefighters in Arizona and New Mexico worked Monday to subdue large wildfires while blazes in Texas were mostly under control, officials said. Arizona forestry officials said the Horseshoe Two Fire near Portal had scorched about 26,500 acres and was only 20 percent contained despite the efforts of about 630 firefighters backed by 24 fire engines, 16 water tenders and nine helicopters. ...

VALLEJO — A three-alarm fire scorched a shuttered Vallejo auto dealership often frequented by the homeless, authorities said. Vallejo firefighters responded about 7 a.m. to the former Bill Lang's Cadillac Pontiac at 4301 Sonoma Blvd. The call escalated to three alarms before crews from Vallejo, Crockett, American Canyon, Benicia and Cal Fire had the blaze under control about an hour later. ...

CONCEPCION, Chile (AP) - When their 13th-floor apartment began to shake, Alberto Rozas pulled his 7-year-old daughter into the bathroom doorway and waited for it to stop. Instead, they fell. Plummeting as their brand-new apartment building toppled like a felled tree, they hugged each other all the way down. Rozas had no idea which way was up until he looked through ...

Everyone knows that firefighters are brave men and women that rescue people from fires and various emergencies. What some people don't know is that firefighters are EXTREMELY FUNNY. FireLink has compiled a list of the top 30 Firefighter jokes to keep everyone laughing through the weekend. Next Firefighter Joke-> [page] Hunting Three firefighter went out on a hunting trip. There ...

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 ...

HONG KONG - Officials yesterday unveiled increased safety features in new breathing apparatus supplied to firefighters in the wake of a Cheung Sha Wan blaze that claimed a senior fireman's life. The high-tech apparatus features blinking masks and beeping alarms that help track a fireman in distress as well as a device that tracks the amount of air supply left. About ...

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. No ...