ANNAPOLIS, MD - Eight people were sent to local hospitals for non-life-threatening injuries after a car and an ambulance transporting a patient collided in Annapolis, a fire department spokesman said. The crash occurred around 7 p.m. at the intersection of northbound Route 2 and the westbound off-ramp of U.S. 50, near Anne Arundel Medical Center, said Battalion Chief Steve Thompson with ...

NEW YORK - A 9/11 hero-turned-tax-cheat pleaded guilty Wednesday to stealing more than $1.3 million in business taxes from the government. Ex-firefighter Thomas Casatelli, who runs The Kettle Black in Bay Ridge, admitted to swindling the city and state out of five years worth of taxes by filing false returns and paying most of his employees off-the-books. He will serve 90 ...

AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AP) — Firefighters from Colorado and elsewhere are expected to compete in the "Rumble in the Rockies" contest at the Air Force Academy this weekend. The event Saturday and Sunday is one of a series called the Firefighter Combat Challenge. Vail is scheduled to hold a competition in August. Firefighters compete in five events designed to test ...

BERLIN — A 650-foot ferry was ablaze in the Baltic Sea on Saturday after an explosion on the upper deck, officials said. Firefighting ships stopped spraying the vessel, fearing that it would capsize and spill around 170 tons of fuel. There were 204 passengers and 32 crew members who were rescued by six ships that moved in to help after the ...

The debate over diversity in the FDNY has focused on one statistic - 91% of the Bravest are white. But in the shadow of the legal battle to bring more blacks and Hispanics into the department lurks another number: 31. That's how many female firefighters are employed by the FDNY, the nation's largest department with about 11,500 members, records show. It's ...

BALTIMORE - Holding signs that said "City Hall Has Turned Their Backs on Police and Firefighters," about two dozen police and firefighters union members protested the City Council's passage of a pension bill that took effect Thursday. The union members wore shirts saying, "We Protect You. Help Protect Us," and yelled as local city and business leaders entered a fundraising event ...

UK - A retained firefighter who was injured in a fire at a fireworks factory in which two of his colleagues died is suing East Sussex fire service. Timothy Austin, from Barcombe fire station, is also seeking damages from factory owners Alpha Fireworks. Firemen Geoff Wicker, 49, and Brian Wembridge, 63, were killed in the fire at Marlie Farm in Shortgate, ...

APPLETON — The Madison Middle School woodshop has been humming lately with the sound of saws, sanders and drills as 50 seventh- and eighth-graders learning the craft of woodworking turned out toy sailboats and puzzles. But the boys and girls kicking up all that sawdust in summer school have also tackled a much bigger project — two picnic tables bound for ...

SAN BRUNO, CA -- With a thunderous roar heard for miles, a natural gas line explosion ripped through a San Bruno neighborhood Thursday evening, sending up a geyser of fire that killed at least one person and injured more than 20 others, and igniting a blaze that destroyed 53 homes and damaged 120 more, authorities said. The wind-whipped blaze leaped from ...

LEXINGTON, KY - Lexington police officer Jackie Newman is supposed to keep the peace. But she couldn't help but stir up a little trouble when it came to picking out a T-shirt to wear to Sunday's sixth annual charity softball game between Lexington police and fire departments. "God made police so firemen would have heroes," read the officer's specially made T-shirt. ...

WHATRON, TX - The transgender widow at the center of a court battle focusing on her late firefighter husband's estate apologized Tuesday for her appearance on a tabloid talk show 15 years ago during which she surprised a man who once kissed her with the news that she was born a boy. Nikki Araguz, 35, expressed deep regret for not telling ...

WASHINGTON, DC - Thirteen years after firefighter John Carter perished in a Northwest Washington blaze, ravaging both a family and a fire department, Carter's son was in a D.C. fire station on Wednesday, shaking hands with his father's former colleagues. It took Brian Carter more than a decade before he felt ready to speak publicly about his father's death. He was ...

SHERMAN COUNTY, OR - A Sherman County firefighter was badly burned as he tried to fix an antique fire engine earlier this week, the South Sherman Fire District reported. Josh Higgins was helping fellow firefighters move the engine from a fire substation in Kent to the main station in Grass Valley, where it was to be restored, said Assistant Chief Glenn ...

ROTONDA, FL - Englewood firefighter Derek Kemerer's confidence has risen sharply after emerging from a training exercise that put his life in danger. His performance, and that of his teammates, earned special recognition from the Englewood Area Fire Control District Wednesday. The exercise, called a "confidence test," occurred June 3 at the conclusion of a 48-hour Confined Space Rescue Class. Kemerer, ...

The National Highway Traffic Safety administration has opened a preliminary investigation of about 3 million 1993-2004 Jeep Grand Cherokees after a petition from safety advocacy group Center for Auto Safety. The CAS alleges in its petition that the placement of the Jeep's plastic gas tank behind the rear axle and below the rear bumper make it a fire risk in a ...

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 ...

NEW YORK - A surfer was clinging to life Friday night after firefighters pulled him from the choppy waters of the Rockaways. The 20-year-old victim got tangled in a jetty off the boardwalk near Beach 92nd St. about 4:15p.m., officials and witnesses said. Fellow surfers swam to help the distressed man, whose ankle tether - a line that ties the board ...

PORT ORANGE, FL - A Port Orange firefighter-paramedic charged with sneaking into the homes of patients to steal their prescriptions has been fired, city officials said. Michael Michaud, 38, an 11-year-veteran with Port Orange Fire and Rescue, was terminated Friday after an internal affairs investigation found he violated several departmental policies, in addition to several felonies. Among them are burglary of ...

BOSTON - Unmarked white box trucks arrived without warning outside three Boston firehouses yesterday, as the Fire Department began random drug and alcohol testing, a quiet ending to what had become a bitter and protracted labor dispute. A total of 20 firefighters stepped inside the customized trucks with private bathrooms and running water, submitting to instant-read breathalyzers for alcohol and to ...

STATEN ISLAND - He's lucky to be alive. A man who collapsed at a Staten Island health club was saved when an off-duty firefighter, off-duty EMT and a retired FDNY lieutenant all pitched in and came to the rescue. FDNY Firefighter Ken Labarbera, EMT James Manti and retired Lt. Fred Capetta were exercising at the New York Sports Club on the ...