The Auburn fire chief has chastised the Oxford town manager for allegedly prohibiting the use of any town emails or social media to distribute a retirement party flyer for the Oxford fire chief. A retirement party for Oxford Fire Chief Sheri R. Bemis is scheduled for 6 to 11 p.m. Saturday at the Auburn Elks Lodge, 754 Southbridge St.
- PUB DATE: 4/17/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Ed Hutchinson became Greensburg's fire chief when Harry Truman was president and retired 53 years later, and through those decades he was a community leader whose impact stretched far beyond the city's fire halls. “He was not only a fire chief, but a great community servant. I am stunned today,” Greensburg Mayor Robert Bell said Sunday of Hutchinson's death Sunday morning at age 96 at Excela Westmoreland Hospital in Greensburg.
- PUB DATE: 4/16/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

The controversial program that pays veteran Los Angeles police officers and firefighters nearly double for the last five years of their careers received a flood of new enrollees in February, records show. The rush to join the Deferred Retirement Option Plan, or DROP program, coincided with a Times investigation in February that found the program, which was created in 2002 to keep veteran officers and firefighters on the job, allows participants to file workers' compensation claims and then take extended injury leaves at nearly twice their usual pay.
- PUB DATE: 4/16/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Los Angeles Times

The FDNY’s “zero tolerance” for drug abuse has gone up in smoke. Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro has quietly abandoned the department’s once-trumpeted policy calling for the firing of anyone caught using illegal or prohibited substances, The Post has learned. In the last month, 26 firefighters who had tested positive on urine tests since 2016 were returned to full duty, insiders revealed.
- PUB DATE: 4/16/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Post

Two Arlington firefighters and a Arlington Water Utilities crew member were injured while responding to a gas leak that occurred Sunday afternoon in central Arlington. All three were transported to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. The extent of their injuries is not known. According to Arlington Fire Department spokesman Mike Joiner, Arlington Water Utilities crews were repairing a water line leak at the intersection of Ditto Avenue and Dugan Street.
- PUB DATE: 4/16/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Fort Worth Star-Teleram