Hillsborough County firefighters just agreed to a new three-year contract, and part of that deal also calls for new random drug testing. For years, Hillsborough firefighters knew when it was coming. Every six months, there was a round of hundreds of drug tests that a small handful would likely prepare for by laying off drugs or alcohol long enough to pass the test.
- PUB DATE: 11/14/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WTSP-TV 10 News

Mayor Sylvester Turner’s administration is moving forward with plans for hundreds of layoffs following last week’s voter approval of Prop B despite questions about whether jobs could be saved through renewed negotiations with the city’s firefighters union. The pay parity referendum, which passed decisively after a bitter campaign that pitted Turner and the city’s police union against Houston firefighters, adds an estimated $100 million a year to the $500 million annual budget of the Houston Fire Department to bring firefighter salaries in line with those paid to police of corresponding rank and seniority.
- PUB DATE: 11/14/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Houston Chronicle

Fairfield City Council rejected a fact finder’s recommendation on proposed wage increases for two years of the firefighter union’s three-year contract. The fact finder suggested the city pay members of the International Association of Firefighters Local 4010 a 2.5 percent increase in 2018 (retroactive to April 1) and 2019.
- PUB DATE: 11/14/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Hamilton Journal-News

Fueled by blustery winds and parched vegetation, two massive fires burning in California both grew overnight, leaving thousands of exhausted firefighter battling to stretch containment lines around the raging blazes that have killed at least 44 people and destroyed thousands of homes. Adding to the turmoil were two new fires that broke out within five minutes of each other Monday morning near the massive Woolsey Fire burning in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
- PUB DATE: 11/13/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: ABC News

Casey Peck had never prayed so hard. His fire engine was trapped with dozens of cars and panicked people as an inferno roared through the Sierra Nevada foothills town of Paradise on Thursday, hot enough to peel the firetruck’s paint and melt its hoses, blowing relief valves designed to withstand 900 degrees and immolating nearby vehicles.
- PUB DATE: 11/13/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Associated Press