DALLAS - The cash-strapped city of Dallas could owe the federal government $40 million or more if a whistle-blower lawsuit's allegations of fraud involving billing for ambulance services prove true. While the city says the specific amount it may owe the government has not been determined, it acknowledges that it is "fully cooperating" with federal authorities and will "move forward aggressively" ...

NEW YORK — A set of 354 narrow steps spirals all the way up to the Statue of Liberty's crown, and it's the only escape route for tourists in an emergency. On a recent summer day, one tourist put his hands on his knees and gasped for air as a few others funneled down the tightly twisting staircase to the statue's ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Officials in Michigan are seeking the return of hockey equipment taken while an off-duty firefighter was helping a woman trapped in a burning car. Ann Arbor battalion chief Robert Vogel says Monday that the bag of gear either was taken from the bed of John Maguire's truck or plucked from the ground nearby where it had fallen ...

SACRAMENTO, CA - Scott McKinney, one of four Sacramento firefighters injured when a home exploded in Oak Park on July 5, was released from the hospital Sunday. "I feel fantastic," McKinney told TV camera crews as he left UC Davis Medical Center. "The care was awesome. The hospital took really good care of me." McKinney spent six days in the hospital ...

The Somerville Board of Aldermen approved six new additions to the permanent firefighter reserve list at their Dec. 16 meeting. All full-time, active firefighters must be appointed to this reserve list to get a job with the Somerville Fire Department. Missing from the lineup, however, was the most prominent would-be Somerville firefighter: Iraq veteran Sean O'Brien. Over the summer, O'Brien successfully ...

HAVERHILL — State public health officials have suspended the licenses of 207 emergency medical technicians and paramedics across Massachusetts because they were involved in falsifying training records. That number includes 30 Haverhill firefighters and 35 Trinity EMS ambulance workers, the state said. The suspensions will take effect July 1. Most will be for nine months, but a smaller number will last ...

Last week, firefighters from Marion County Fire Rescue and the International Association of Firefighters Local 3169 conducted their annual Fill The Boot campaign for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. For three days, firefighters from 24 stations manned intersections across the county, offering their boots to be filled with cash and coins from passing motorists. According to Orlando MDA Executive Director, Brittany Lara, ...

BOSTON - Prosecutors this week dropped a reckless-conduct charge against a Salisbury man after what the police initially described as a powerful pipe bomb at his home turned out to be a "tire thumper" used to check the pressure of truck tires, his lawyer said. The misdemeanor charge against Walter Scott Jr., formerly a volunteer fireman, was dropped Tuesday, the day ...

BOSTON - Two instructors suspected of falsifying training records for more than 200 emergency medics across Massachusetts told state public health investigators that they were simply trying to help colleagues who did not have the time or money to take the medical refresher courses required to renew their licenses. State officials reported yesterday that one of the instructors, former Trinity Ambulance ...

CHESAPEAKE, VA - Tim Woodland does not believe the moon is a barometer of human behavior. He has been with the Chesapeake Fire Department for 30 years and can give you plenty of anecdotal evidence to back this up. He will not say he has seen it all, but he has seen enough to tell you that crazy can happen whether ...

DETROIT - A Detroit man has been charged in the arson fire that injured seven Detroit firefighters a week ago, according to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Samson Wright, 29, was charged today with intentionally damaging/destroying a commercial building by fire, the ATF reported in a news release. The charge carries a penalty of 5-20 years in ...

PITTSFIELD TOWNSHIP, MI - We all love fresh honey, but no one wants to be stung. A Pittsfield Township beekeeper is now recovering after bees attacked her in defense of their queen. "Person in distress. They told us had something to do with bees," said Pittsfield Township Fire Captain Jeff Foulke. A day later at the Pittsfield Township home and you'd ...

ANCHORAGE - Police on Wednesday identified the man killed in an apparently accidental shooting Tuesday as a 26-year-old Anchorage firefighter. Police say Elliott Taylor and a friend had just returned from shooting and were cleaning their weapons Tuesday evening when the friend's handgun fired a round that went through his hand and hit Taylor in the lower abdomen. Neighbor Kurt Spencer ...

CAMDEN — A new budget, set to be considered by the city council Tuesday, proposes the rehiring of 47 Camden police officers and 13 firefighters following increased taxation, according to a report on CourierPostOnline.com. The budget, created by Camden Mayor Dana Redd, contains an additional $3.3 million for the police department and $2.2 million for the fire department, after the state ...

BOSTON - Saturday night’s nine-alarm inferno that destroyed several abandoned buildings in Roxbury was sparked accidentally by fireworks, Boston Fire Lieutenant Hank Sheridan, the lead investigator, said last night. Witnesses reported seeing a group of men lighting fireworks from the roof of 31 Norfolk Ave., and some of those fireworks landed on the roof of a warehouse at 57 Norfolk Ave., ...

SWEET HOME — Many heads turned skyward as EMT/firefighter Alex Thompson carefully climbed to the top of the 105-foot ladder mounted to one of the community’s newer fire trucks Saturday morning during the third annual safety fair sponsored by the city. This event has been renamed the Jim Bean Memorial Safety Fair in honor of the longtime city councilman who died ...

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. ...

CHELSEA - There may not have been fire in a Chelsea apartment yesterday morning, but firefighters responding to a call of smoke found something else. Firefighters who arrived at a Lafayette Avenue apartment complex just after midnight yesterday came upon a home invasion in progress in the same apartment. Police responded, and one of the suspects was arrested and charged with ...

PELHAM, Ala. — The mayor of Pelham is backing away from plans to melt the city's main ice skating rink and replace it with a firefighter museum. Pelham Mayor Don Murphy says he received hundreds of calls and emails from residents who were angry about his plan to remove one of two ice rinks at the Pelham Civic Complex. The rink ...

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — A group of New York firefighters rolled into Fayetteville Thursday morning to bring Christmas cheer to wounded soldiers. About 30 firefighters from Long Island arrived at Womack Army Medical Center on Fort Bragg shortly before noon to distribute gifts they carried in a U-Haul truck, from laptop computers to iPods, to soldiers wounded in combat. The effort, ...