UK - When Julia Sbardella's chip pan caught fire, the last thing on her mind was marriage. Her only concern was for the safety of her young children as she tried to battle the flames until the fire brigade arrived. But it was an emergency which would lead to her walking down the aisle after she was quite literally swept off ...

JOPLIN, Mo. — The Jasper County prosecutor has charged one Kansas firefighter with stealing after the May 22 tornado. Prosecutor Dean Dankelson on Wednesday filed a misdemeanor charge of stealing against 25-year-old Matthew W. Page. Page was one of three Baxter Springs, Kan., firefighters dismissed in June for alleged misconduct while responding to the tornado. Fire Chief Les Page, the father ...

MARTINEZ, Calif. -- A Northern California man accused of posing as a firefighter to kidnap and rape a teenage girl will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars. Thirty-three-year-old Daniel Alfredo Flores of Brentwood has been sentenced to 80 years to life in prison. The Contra Costa County judge who issued the sentence on Friday said Flores had shown ...

Columbus, Ohio -- City residents caused headaches for firefighters when some opened fire hydrants to cool off amid midsummerlike temperatures on Tuesday. Firefighters shut off about 50 fire hydrants across the city, Battalion Chief Michael Fowler said. Open hydrants are a problem every summer, he said, but the situation came early this year as the high temperature on Tuesday hit 93 ...

PLATTSBURGH -- The pink firetruck has officially arrived. After months of waiting, members of the Guardians of the Ribbon cancer-support group are now waiting to get their themed truck decked out with graphics before it hits the streets in support of various causes. Jim Garrant, president of local Guardians Chapter 14, hopes the truck will be finished by the end of ...

VERSAILLES, Ohio - Authorities estimate that about 83,000 chickens were killed in a barn fire at a western Ohio egg farm. WHIO-TV says about 70 firefighters were called out shortly before 4 a.m. Tuesday to fight the fire near Versailles. The barn is on a farm owned by Kissinger Brothers Poultry and was fully engulfed when firefighters arrived. Fire officials say ...

HAMILTON, VA - It wasn't the most inconspicuous of vehicles to choose. But the lure of a fire engine apparently proved too much for a volunteer firefighter in Hamilton, Virginia, who allegedly took four colleagues on a drunken joyride at the weekend. Sean Swanson, 27, was arrested after he nearly crashed into a police patrol car as he sped down the ...

APOPKA, Fla. -- A central Florida firefighter has resigned after being charged with setting a co-worker on fire during a Christmas party last month. Apopka police say 44-year-old Jason Leblanc has been charged with arson and arson resulting in the injury of another. Police say Leblanc was at a Christmas party Dec. 18 when he poured lighter fluid on 25-year-old Jack ...

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – A retired firefighter from San Leandro won big when he visited a local casino this week. Dale Valentine was making one of his regular visits to Twin Pine Casino in Middletown on Tuesday when he hit a jackpot of approximately $8,430,301.44 on a statewide California Megabucks slot machine. “Our tribe has been committed to providing great success in ...

LAWTON, Okla. (AP) - A former firefighter has again received the death penalty for the 2003 fatal shooting of an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper. Comanche County District Judge Mark Smith announced the verdict Monday in the resentencing trial of Ricky Malone, who was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death for the Dec. 26, 2003, killing of Trooper Nik Green. ...

RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazilian authorities say criminals hijacked an ambulance and forced the driver to give them a ride to a slum in Rio de Janeiro before taking their patient to the hospital. Officials say armed men stopped the ambulance shortly after it picked up a mental patient in a shantytown in the city's north side. Carrying pistols and shotguns, ...

PIRU, Calif. — A bobcat climbing a power pole got electrocuted and sparked a five-acre brush fire in California's Ventura County. County fire Capt. Dan Preston told the Ventura County Star that the bobcat was apparently chasing an owl or another bird when it touched the power lines, caught fire and fell to the ground in a rural area near Piru. ...

PORTSMOUTH - A retired firefighter has won a $200,000 lottery prize. Raynor Britt won the Powerball prize with a ticket he purchased for the Aug. 21 drawing, according to a news release from the Virginia Lottery. Britt matched the first five numbers using the birth dates of his four grandchildren, the release says. The winning numbers were 7, 10, 12, 22 ...

BOULDER CREEK - A man on probation for arson, who allegedly tried to burn down the Mountain Store in Boulder Creek on Saturday, was arrested Tuesday after making seven prank calls to 911. Three unidentified young men spotted the fire just before midnight Saturday and extinguished the flames sparing the building from significant damage. By the time deputies and Boulder Creek ...

BERLIN (AP) - A 35-year-old man who walked around for five years with a bullet lodged in the back of his head says he suspected for a while something was there but only went to doctors after he started getting headaches. Robert Chojecki was partying on New Years Eve five years ago in the German town of Herne when he was ...

POLK COUNTY, FL - A 58-year-old man is in critical condition this morning at Orlando Regional Medical Center after his son doused him with gas in Polk County and set him on fire, officials say. Ronald W. Harris, Jr., 37, is accused of dousing his father with gasoline on Sunday and using a lighter to ignite the gas, the Polk County ...

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — A North Carolina family is thankful for their 17-month-old son's life after a gruesome household injury. Jessiah Jackson is free of any apparent brain damage after a neurosurgeon removed a metal part lodged two inches into the back of the boy's brain. According to the boy's grandfather, the toddler was standing on a chair outside their home ...

EAST WINDSOR, CT — A former volunteer firefighter in Connecticut has been charged with arson murder in a 1986 fire that killed a local couple. Police say 48-year-old Peter Waraksa set the fire that killed 59-year-old Orie Weeks and his 57-year-old wife, Assunta Weeks, on Oct. 7, 1986. Police Chief Edward DeMarco Jr. and prosecutors say the case file in the ...