Weeks after Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said the city was not pursuing liens against the survivors of firefighters killed in the 2013 Southwest Inn fire, the families’ attorney says the city has refused to waive claims to $1.4 million it paid in benefits to the families. Mayoral spokesman Alan Bernstein disputed that, reiterating Turner’s assertion that the city was not pursuing claims on the money, and said it had offered to waive its right to the money — provided all the money goes to the families of the fallen firefighters, not their lawyer.
- PUB DATE: 8/31/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Houston Chronicle

Firefighter Bryce Gutierrez of the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) is the winner of the 2017 Firehouse Michael O. McNamee Award of Valor. Firehouse Editor-in-Chief Tim Sendelbach and Worcester, MA, District Chief (ret.) Mike McNamee will present the award to Gutierrez during the Oct. 18 opening ceremonies of Firehouse Expo in Nashville, TN.
- PUB DATE: 8/31/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse

Four respected FDNY officers may get caught in the fallout from the brutal bare-knuckled Bronx brawl earlier this summer that got eight firefighters suspended. All four officers attended a Medal Day celebration at Billy's Bar near Yankee Stadium on June 6. They were captured on surveillance videotape outside the establishment, where a racial slur sparked a boozy beat down among the Bravest.
- PUB DATE: 8/31/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Daily News

Former Guyton Interim Public Safety Director Stacy Strickland is now facing a criminal investigation. This comes after a separate investigation revealed he helped create a highly inappropriate fake Facebook profile about one of his firefighters. We got our hands on the report Wednesday, in which there are scanned copies of the profile before it was deleted.
- PUB DATE: 8/31/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WTOC-TV CBS 11 Savannah

After a successful 35 years in a career he has loved, Deputy Fire Chief David Salot has decided to hang up his helmet and follow a new dream. He will be retiring from the department on Oct. 1 and pursuing a new career track — with NASCAR. Over the past few weeks, Salot has been juggling working for the fire department with a part-time job with NASCAR as a competition technology technician.
- PUB DATE: 8/31/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Progress-Index