As the photos of burn victims filled the screen in front of him, Patrick Lawhorne stared intently and realized just how lucky he was. The Orlando teenager's fascination with fire came to a head recently when he used gasoline to ignite a blaze. "I burned a hole in my neighbor's fence," 16-year-old Patrick said. After attending a Juvenile Firesetters program at ...

WORCESTER — District Chief Geoffrey Gardell gets a little laugh when the Fire Department’s morning roll call is broadcast. His name is announced, then his brother’s — Capt. Timothy Gardell, who is an acting district chief. “I giggle every time I hear it,” Geoffrey said recently, standing outside the Franklin Street Fire Station. For the Gardell brothers, their lives are a ...

PHILADELPHIA - Capt. Troy K. Gore, an officer detailed to the Philadelphia Fire Department's recruitment team, was placed on paid leave yesterday over allegations that he proposed a scheme to bring in more minority candidates by doctoring the city's computerized application process. Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers announced the move and said he was opening an investigation into an e-mail sent last ...

DAYTONA BEACH -- A city firefighter has been offered a deal that would give her more than $500,000 over the next three years, and she would never once have to show up for work. At their meeting Wednesday night, city commissioners agreed to the deal that would put the firefighter on paid leave until she retires. The firefighter, Kristine Gray, signed ...

WASHINGTON, DC - Sometimes history seems to repeat itself at the Supreme Court, and apparently settled issues reemerge in slightly different forms. And so there will be a feeling of deja vu at the court Monday morning when the justices turn their attention to an especially familiar-sounding issue: whether minority firefighter applicants in Chicago waited too long to sue when the ...

TALLAHASSEE — Two forest rangers trapped by shifting flames died while fighting a wildfire that also injured two others near Jasper in north Florida, officials said yesterday. The rangers were working Monday to stop a rekindled blaze called the Blue Ribbon Fire in Hamilton County on the Georgia line, one of more than 400 wildfires burning around Florida in one of ...

NEW YORK - Supreme Court Justice Paul Feinman dismissed a suit filed by Firefighter Timothy Brown with the backing of the American Center for Law & Justice, a Washington conservative group. Feinman ruled that Brown didn't have a leg to stand on legally in his suit that challenged the city's refusal to grant landmark status to 45-47 Park Place, a building ...

PORTSMOUTH, VA - The Portsmouth Fire Department set out to raise money for one of their own who is fighting cancer while raising three small children by selling $5 fire helmet decals and $10 vehicle decals. The effort is helping Sarah and Matthew Fox pay their bills while Sarah, a 38-year-old paramedic and firefighter, battles cancer, which has spread from her ...

WOODSBORO, Md. --The Frederick County Fire Marshal's Office determined the spontaneous combustion of tightly compacted hay bales caused a barn fire Sunday in the 10200 block of Oak Hill Road. Marc McNeal, chief fire marshal at the Frederick County Division of Fire and Rescue Services, said a worker in the 75- by 400-foot barn was moving some hay bales when a ...

SHELTON, Conn. (AP) — A veteran Bridgeport firefighter charged with dumping poison acid onto his neighbor's water line has been fired. Fire Chief Brian Rooney says Edward Voccola "brought discredit" to the department and was fired for violating the city's ethics code as well as city rules. The Connecticut Post reports that the 52-year-old Voccola, a 22-year veteran, was placed on ...

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 ...

NEW YORK — A woman who lost seven children and her husband in a 1978 arson at their home near Albany was questioned again this week as investigators put renewed effort into solving the case. No one was ever charged for setting the fire 32 years ago in Cohoes. Detectives traveled to Okanogan, Wash., and spent several hours Wednesday questioning Virginia ...

Residents affected by the wildfires are finally able to return to their homes to see what, if anything, can be salvaged. Hundreds of firefighters from across the nation have helped fights dozens of blazes burning in the drought-stricken state. Since Jan. 1, wildfires have scorched more than 1.4 million acres in the state and led to the deaths of two ...

Edinburg house fire 'suspicious,' chief says Source: The Monitor (McAllen, Texas) Publication date: 2011-05-19 McAllen, Texas -- No one was home when a house caught fire in two separate places Wednesday night, officials said. Edinburg firefighters responded to the blaze on the 7700 block of North Doolittle Road shortly after 10 p.m. Wednesday. Firefighters in at least seven fire engines at ...

SPRINGFIELD - A 26-year-old Springfield man was arrested late Tuesday in connection with a fire that led to the deaths of three children. Shortly before 11 p.m. Greene County Jail officials confirmed a man was booked on a 24-hour hold pending the filing of formal charges. He was arrested by Springfield police officers on suspicion of first-degree arson, according to online ...

The resignation the Coatesville, Chester County, fire chief monday came after a blistering independent report that chastised the department as ineptly led and dysfunctional. The evaluation was sought by the city after a Sept. 10 apartment fire resulted in injuries to seven firefighters, some of whom required hospitalization. The Inquirer has obtained a copy of the report which has yet to ...

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- The commute along Interstate 270 is always grueling, but a massive gasoline fire on Montrose Road Thursday morning made it worse than normal. So how bad has the commute been? "On a scale of one to 10 for Montgomery County, I'm going to give it a nine," says WTOP Traffic Reporter Lisa Baden. The huge fire on Montrose ...