WESTMONT, IL - A Westmont police officer and firefighter scoffed at being called heroes Tuesday despite diving into a frigid retention pond to save an elderly couple whose car plunged into the water. "I didn't think about what I was doing; I just did it," Officer Jennifer Muska said. "In a situation like that your adrenaline kicks in." Added firefighter Brendan ...

NEW HAVEN — With due deference to rank, city Firefighter Rick Conte believed his deputy chief and longtime friend was crazy. After all, the odds of actually seeing 65-year-old video footage of Conte’s late father, a U.S. Army MP, during a TV documentary on World War II was about one in 8 million, the number of Army soldiers who served in ...

LAUREL -- Jones County's volunteer fire departments responded to 51 calls ranging from brush and structure fires to medical emergencies during the Memorial Day weekend. "That's an extremely high number of incidents for this time frame," said Jones County Fire Council Public Information Officer Lance Chancellor. "Volunteer firefighters responded to 15 woods or brush fires, four structure fires, 25 medical first ...

NEW HARMONY, UT - Twelve-year-old Cory Arnett was on a midday drive Monday with a neighbor and three preschoolers when he started feeling nervous about how fast they were traveling on the poorly maintained dirt canyon road. Beth Donnelly, 23, was driving the 2003 Ford Explorer on Pace Canyon Road. In the backseat were her 2-year-old daughter, Berlin, another 2-year-old girl ...

MODESTO, CA - Last month, Modesto firefighter J.D. Clevenger said he was eager to return to active duty. "I can't wait to cut another hole in a roof," the 32-year-old said during an interview with The Bee. "The smell of a two-stroke (chain saw) engine will get me over this." He could get that opportunity as early as today, when he ...

NEW YORK - Roy Chelsen, a heroic 9/11 first responder, died yesterday after a long battle with cancer. He was 51. On 9/11, Chelsen, of Engine 28 in Manhattan, rushed a group of firefighters out of the World Trade Center's north tower moments before it collapsed, saving their lives. Then he stayed on at Ground Zero, spending weeks digging through the ...

SOMERSET, UK - A Somerset paramedic is heading to Afghanistan to help children born with a limb disability. Nich Woolf will be working with Sandy Gall's Afghanistan Appeal (SGAA) to help youngsters who have developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH). Children in Afghanistan run a higher risk than normal of having the condition, which can mean they need braces to enable ...

HOUSTON - One year ago, a Cy-Fair volunteer firefighter's life was changed forever. Thomas Shuster lost both of his legs at the hands of a suspected drunken driver. And now, he's telling us about the journey he's taken the past year and his hope for the future. Success comes in the small victories for Shuster. "I've realized that my life changed ...

LANCASHIRE, UK - Hero firefighter Steve Morris has spoken in detail for the first time about the six minutes that changed his life forever. Three years after being permanently disabled in a house fire which killed a grandmother and her four-year-old granddaughter, Mr Morris has given his support to a disability hate crime campaign to be launched next week. The blaze, ...

BOSTON - A quick-thinking student EMT who tried to save a Bolton high school senior who died Monday after collapsing at track practice said yesterday he struggled mightily to rescue his friend. “I did what I needed to do,” Brad Lewis, a Nashoba Regional High School student EMT, told reporters. “I wasn’t treating symptoms, I was treating my friend. It was ...

BOSTON - A decade after he died as an iconic American hero, Jerry Dewan remains a public servant, providing educational and medical opportunities to kids through a fund established in his name. It’s called the Gerard Dewan Memorial Fund. In addition to offering a scholarship at Sacred Heart School in Roslindale, which he attended, and endowing a family resource room at ...

GOSHEN — Glen Arden's oldest resident, S. Delvalle Goldsmith, was honored recently with a surprise 104th birthday party that included a dozen members of the Patterson Fire Department, where Del served as department chaplain and fire policeman for 50 years. Arrangements for the party were made by Lt. John Bodor, under whom Del served while with the department. Along with many ...

ATLANTIC CITY — No one ever denied that Leo Hinton was a hero. But on June 25, nearly four decades after his death, he finally received the recognition so many insisted he deserved. Forty-two years ago, the off-duty firefighter walked into a blaze at a hotel in Atlantic City. Dressed in civilian clothes and armed only with a fire extinguisher, he ...

SAN DIEGO — Hours before he was fatally struck by a car while setting up flares around a highway traffic accident, emergency medical technician Esteban Bahena made this post to his Facebook account: “Just transported a patient coming off a jet plane. Love my job.” Bahena, 24, died about 8:30 a.m. Thursday after getting hit on state Route 163 south of ...

QUEENS, NY - For ladder 163 in Woodside, Queens, the third weekend in June is always laden with emotion and remembrance as the fire company pays tribute to three firefighters killed in a blaze on Father's Day, 2001. This year, the memory of the dead was honored in the most fitting way: Ladder 163 Firefighter Thomas Adams rescued a man from ...

POUGHKEEPSIE - More than 60 years after his father died of a heart attack after fighting two fires in the City of Poughkeepsie, a former city man has persuaded state authorities to include his dad's name on a monument honoring firefighters who died in the line of duty. "I'm just thrilled with the news," said Jake Miller, who now lives in ...

WEST ORANGE, NJ — Richard Brattole, a Clark firefighter, and Steven Moncur, a Linden fire captain, live a few houses away from each other on School Street in Clark. Both were both off-duty last Dec. 28, relaxing in their homes with their families, when neighbors told them that a house on their block was on fire and a 74-year-old woman was ...

TORONTO - A Toronto paramedic who cracked TIME Magazine‘s 2010 list of the “100 most influential people in the world” is on his way to a star-studded gala in New York city next Tuesday held in honour of nominees including the likes of President Barack Obama, Steve Jobs, Conan O’Brien and Lady Gaga. Rahul Singh, a 20-year veteran paramedic, said he ...

AMITYVILLE, NY - William End wanted to become a firefighter because of friendship. Sunday he got his wish -- but the swearing-in took place in a hospital bed where he lay recovering from a crash that killed one of his good friends in the department. End barely had the strength to lift his new Amityville Fire Department badge, and he choked ...