It's a mistake that could have cost the city a four million dollar hole in the budget, but today Mayor Linda Thompson says she has a solution. Firefighters jobs are saved. Thanks to an idea to sell parcels of land that several parking garages sit on. The mayor says the money from the sale will solve the firefighter problem and the ...

BODEGA, Calif.—Sonoma County Fire officials say a firefighter remains in critical but stable condition at a San Francisco hospital after he either touched or stepped on a downed power line. Fire Marshal Robert MacIntryre identified the injured man Monday as Ben Hakala, a longtime volunteer with the Bodega Volunteer Fire Department. Chief Ron Albini tells the San Francisco Chronicle that the ...

TULSA - The differences in how the police and firefighter budget negotiations played out in recent weeks could not be more stark. While firefighters and their leaders appeared open all along to working out a compromise beneficial to all, the police union leaders seemed hell-bent on getting their way, no matter the cost. By the weekend deadline, firefighters by an overwhelming ...

KEENE – Two people were injured when an ambulance transporting a patient slid off of Route 12 yesterday morning. Police did not say whether anyone was seriously injured, but Keene fire Capt. Ron Leslie said everyone was "up and walking around after the crash." He said they were taken to the hospital for evaluation. The Golden Cross ambulance, based out of ...

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — A woman has third degree burns after her boyfriend lit a cigarette next to her as she was pumping gas at a Chattanooga service station. Twenty-year-old Samantha Lawrence suffered second and third-degree burns to about 30 percent of her body, mostly her torso and arms, according to a news release from the Chattanooga Fire Department. Investigators ruled ...

NEW YORK (AP) - A stubborn blaze at a one-story commercial building in New York City took more than 10 hours to bring under control and injured seven firefighters, one seriously. Rich Viglione of the New York Fire Department says the blaze began at about 6 p.m. Monday inside a large metal-works warehouse in Queens. Crews brought it under control early ...

The bloated Mississippi River and several other major water arteries have swamped huge swaths of farmland in the American South and Midwest over the past couple weeks, creating massive flooding from Minnesota to Louisiana. Meteorologists warn heavy rains will continue to trigger flooding until early June. AP: The rising waters of Lake Ferguson flood the Greenville Yacht Club in the ...

HARTFORD, CT - The Hartford Fire Department's latest class of 30 recruits began training Monday, along with $460,000 of new protective firefighting gear for the city's fire force, officials say. The new "bunker gear" consists of a coat made of fire-resistant fabric, pants and suspenders, waterproof boots, a strong helmet with eye protection, gloves, an integrated harness and self contained breathing ...

As budget cuts threaten to shut fire departments -- it’s important to get the best bang for your buck. And there’s no question about it — when it comes to value, not every U.S. city is created equally for Firefighters. Why chase a great salary if your rent swallows most of it, unemployment is skyrocketing at nearby departments and you spend ...

BALTIMORE - When you cheat, they tell kids in school, you only cheat yourself, but in Baltimore, we've recently learned that's not always true. Sometimes you also cheat the students you're supposed to be teaching when you change the answers on their state standardized tests, and even worse, sometimes you cheat victims of heart attacks, strokes or traumas when you get ...

VIGO COUNTY, IN - Brandon Hoopingarner said he was fighting a barn fire when a 55 gallon drum of paint thinner near him exploded. "Got up and I thought I was OK and I looked down and I was just on fire," Hoopingarner said. He told us the gear he was using saved his life, and minimized his injuries. Doctors treated ...

BROOKLYN - Two firefighters were arrested Thursday on riot and assault charges stemming from a bloody Brooklyn bar brawl, officials said. Firefighters Ryan Warnock and Michael Reilly turned themselves in to the Brooklyn district attorney. They were arraigned Thursday night and released on their own recognizance. They could face up to four years in prison if convicted of first-degree riot, a ...

CAMBRIDGESHIRE, UK - A firefighter is in a stable condition in hospital after being injured while attending an incident in Cambridgeshire earlier. More than 30 firefighters were called to Eco Aegis Services Ltd plastics yard in Hook Lane, Wimblington. It involved about 50 tonnes of plastic and spread to a heavy goods vehicle. It was extinguished by about 1320 GMT. Cambridgeshire ...

MISSOULA, Mont. — A Missoula firefighter has won a stairclimbing competition in Seattle for the third straight year. The Missoulian reports Missoula Rural Fire's Kory Burgess won the Scott Firefighter Stairclimb Sunday by running up 69 flights of stairs in 10 minutes, 53.78 seconds, breaking the record he set two years ago. About 1,500 firefighters competed in the event, in which ...

LORTON, Va. - Three people -- two children and an adult -- are dead in Lorton townhouse fire, Fairfax County Fire and Rescue tells WTOP. Another three children and an adult were taken to Washington Hospital's Burn Center. Firefighters are still on the scene of the fire in the 9600 block of Hagel Circle. "We're still controlling this fire. It did ...

Fire officials say a three-alarm fire that destroyed a garage and four vehicles at a northern Vanderburgh County property Sunday morning started as a grass fire. Homeowner Thomas Wilson, 69, is the only person who lives at 9301 Old State Road, about a half-mile north of East Mount Pleasant Road, and he was not injured in the blaze. The fire was ...

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 ...

REDLANDS, Calif. -- The Fire Department is investigating two separate arson cases and is reaching out to the public for help. Investigators are hoping someone will come forward with information that could help solve two unrelated series of fires, one in the area of Post Street in north Redlands, and one at an apartment complex on Barton Road. "Someone may have ...