Six former employees of the Florida State Fire College and two of their spouses have filed a class-action lawsuit against manufacturers of firefighting suppressants used at the college, which they claim led them to develop various cancers and diseases from exposure. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, alleges the companies were negligent and purposefully hid findings of studies that showed chemicals in the suppressants were carcinogenic and dangerous to the environment.
- PUB DATE: 12/26/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Daily Commercial

Niagara Falls is looking for new police and fire chiefs, after both incumbents resigned to take demotions that could prove more lucrative. Police Superintendent E. Bryan DalPorto will step down Dec. 31 and resume his old rank as a patrol captain. Fire Chief Thomas Colangelo quit in November and resumed his former rank as a battalion chief.
- PUB DATE: 12/26/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Buffalo News

When the chiefs of the three volunteer fire squads serving Upper Merion came to the township’s board of supervisors, they were desperate. We need some help, they said. Scraping together enough members to respond to emergencies was becoming difficult, especially during the day. The Montgomery County township’s population continues to grow and, with it, the number of calls to the all-volunteer companies based in Swedeland, King of Prussia, and Swedesburg.
- PUB DATE: 12/26/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Philadelphia Inquirer

Six years have passed since a gunman set fire to his Webster home and ambushed first responders as they arrived on scene. Michael Chiapperini, 43, and Tomasz Kaczowka, 19, were killed that morning as they stepped out of their vehicles on Lake Road, in an otherwise quiet neighborhood along the Lake Ontario shoreline.
- PUB DATE: 12/26/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Democrat & Chronicle

A criminal investigation into who was responsible for a massive explosion that leveled several buildings and killed a volunteer firefighter last July has concluded that no crime was committed, Sun Prairie Police Chief Patrick Anhalt said Thursday. Instead, police said, a broken chain of communication between utility contractors and subcontractors resulted in the location of a gas line being improperly marked prior to the July 10 explosion.
- PUB DATE: 12/21/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Journal Times