PUYALLUP, Wash. -- A fire official says an off-duty firefighter pulled over Tuesday when he spotted a Puyallup house fire and rescued the wheelchair-bound woman inside. Central Pierce Fire Assistant Chief Randy Stephens tells The News Tribune that the unidentified woman suffered minor smoke inhalation but was otherwise unhurt. Stephens says the Graham, Wash., firefighter was driving by after picking his ...

SOMERVILLE, MA - An off-duty Somerville firefighter braved a raging flash flood to pull a woman off the roof of her floating car and drag her to safety as a pounding rainstorm hit the Boston area yesterday afternoon. “He saved my life,” said Christine Broderick, 45, of Somerville, who wore a soaked “I’m Purrfect” T-shirt with a picture of a cat. ...

MODESTO - After 24 years of fighting fires, Jim Adams had become an expert with the hook. So on New Year's night, with fire raging in the garage of a home on Modesto's Coston Avenue, the 46-year-old Modesto fire engineer climbed onto the roof and began prodding away. He used the rakelike tool to confirm structural stability, looking for the best ...

UNITED KINGDOM - Newborn Sophie Thomlinson weighed 1lb 15oz and desperately needed to go into an incubator to survive but the equipment is too bulky to be kept in his ambulance. With time running out, Rob helped stabilize the premature child by wrapping her in a yellow clinical waste bag normally used for binning hazardous medical supplies. The paramedic then cocooned ...

WASHINGTON - A group of sweaty and red-faced runners from Australia and the U.S. arrived on foot at a D.C. fire station Tuesday afternoon as part of a 4,600 mile cross-country journey. The 36 emergency responders are running cross country to honor firefighters, police and EMT's who died in the terror attacks of September 11th. They began their run in Santa ...

COLUMBUS, OH - The construction worker who showed up at the Hilltop fire station was nonchalant. He thought an underground gas pipe had been punctured on W. Broad Street and asked firefighters to take a look. Firefighters respond to gas leaks every day, and most don't amount to much. But this one, less than a block from Fire Station 17, was ...

LONG BEACH - David Kean had already chosen an adventurous, life-saving career. So what could have motivated the Long Beach firefighter to join an even more unpredictable career more than 20 years ago? "When I first became a firefighter, pretty much everybody at that station with me, with the exception of one guy, had been Vietnam vets," Kean said. "They talked ...

NORWALK, Calif. (AP) - A 7-year-old boy who called 911 from a locked bathroom while armed robbers threatened his parents hugged and high-fived on Wednesday the sheriff's dispatcher who took his call. The boy, identified only as Carlos, told reporters at a news conference that he remained calm during the ordeal because his mother used to make him practice dialing 911 ...

ARLINGTON, Va. – Ray Vivier had been an adventurer, a Marine veteran who explored the country from South Carolina to Alaska, the father of five children. The 61-year-old also was a man starting to get his life back together after living for years in a shanty beneath a Cleveland bridge. He had struggled with alcoholism, but by November he had a ...

SACRAMENTO — Fifty-three days after being pulled from a burning home, Modesto fire engineer James Adams walked triumphantly Tuesday through the doors of the University of California Medical Center. He raised his bandaged hands and smiled broadly while greeting many of the 80 or so who came to welcome him back to the outside world. Adams' life was in peril just ...

SOUTH WALES, UK - A firefighter who donated his bone marrow to a total stranger has received transatlantic news that he helped save the life of a US family man. Jeff Samuel underwent one and a half hours of surgery to harvest bone marrow from his pelvis and had to take a week’s leave from his job as watch manager at ...

COLLINSVILLE, MO - Collinsville Assistant Fire Chief John Nichols will hang up his fire helmet after 33 years on the job in March. Not only will it be his last day on the job, it will be the first time in about 100 years that a Nichols family member will not be working for the department. His father, Alvin Nichols, served ...