On Monday night, firefighters rushed to rescue a family stranded on a highway before a tractor-trailer smashed into their vehicles causing an explosion. In a bizarre incident later that night, the passenger of a car who drove through the barricade during clean-up waved a gun and ran into a firefighter.
- PUB DATE: 12/12/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WECT-TV Channel 6

A Connecticut Superior Court judge has ruled in favor of a local firefighters union saying it effectively disaffiliated in 2016 from the Uniformed Professional Firefighters Association of Connecticut. The city firefighters’ union, Local 825, filed a four-count lawsuit in March alleging a breach of fiduciary duty against the UPFFA, which represents the state’s fire departments.
- PUB DATE: 12/12/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Greenwich Time

The International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) today announced the participants accepted into the seventh-year of the prestigious Fire Service Executive Development Institute (FSEDI). FSEDI is a yearlong leadership-development program developed by the IAFC to provide new and aspiring chiefs with the tools they need to have successful and productive tenures.
- PUB DATE: 12/12/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: International Association of Fire Chiefs

The Magical Butter Botanical Extractor is a mechanical device which looks similar to a coffee thermos and is marketed as a tool to infuse food with your favorite herbs. Sheriff's officials say a Hillsborough County firefighter used one to create homemade cannabis oil. Deputies were called Monday afternoon to Hillsborough Fire Station 26, a small public safety house at 5302 Thonotosassa Road, after someone found a Magical Butter machine in the workout room with marijuana in it.
- PUB DATE: 12/12/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Tampa Bay Times and Tampa Bay.com

California's increasingly deadly and destructive wildfires have become so unpredictable that government officials should consider banning home construction in vulnerable areas, the state's top firefighter says. Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Director Ken Pimlott will leave his job Friday after 30 years with the agency.
- PUB DATE: 12/12/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Santa Rosa Press Democrat