A San Antonio firefighter died while battling a blaze in the Spartan Gym last year after the Fire Department failed to safely search the building, keep track of fellow rescuers and adequately ventilate the smoke-filled structure, a federal report released Thursday states. The review by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, an agency that seeks to improve workplace safety, concluded that some of the San Antonio Fire Department’s tactics actually made conditions worse inside the gym where firefighter Scott Deem, 31, died after he became lost.
- PUB DATE: 10/12/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: San Antonio Express News

VIDEO - A fire in a vacant home in Fresno almost killed a homeless man but firefighters arrived in time to cut a hole in the side of the building and pull him to safety. The dramatic rescue was captured on a video camera attached to a firefighter’s helmet. Fire Chief Kerri Donis praised the heroism of those who saved the homeless man but said the rescue simply underscores the larger problem of too many vacant buildings in Fresno catching fire.
- PUB DATE: 10/12/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse

Federal investigators probing the deadly natural gas explosions that rocked three northern Massachusetts towns last month are blaming faulty work orders given to the work crews by the local utility. The investigators say Columbia Gas failed to instruct the workers to deactivate pressure sensors when taking an old cast-iron gas main out of service.
- PUB DATE: 10/12/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: USA Today

Four public safety officers are being moved to full-time positions at the fire department, and the Cedar Falls Firefighters Association says the transfer violates state civil service law. Scott Dix, Cedar Falls Fire Local 1366 president, announced the move in a press release Wednesday. Dix said the union will legally challenge the move.
- PUB DATE: 10/12/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier

Firefighters battling a two-alarm blaze at an Oakley tire company early Wednesday were nearly hit by a speeding freight train on tracks they thought had been closed off. The train tracks are only a few feet from the back of the auto shop that the fire began in. The East Contra Costa County Fire District requested for train traffic to be stopped while they fought the fire.
- PUB DATE: 10/11/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KPIX-TV CBS 5 San Francisco