President Joe Biden awarded the Medal of Valor to 15 public safety officers Monday at the White House, including two officers who died in the line of duty. The Medal of Valor is the highest award a president can bestow on a public safety officer. In an East Room ceremony, Biden called the honorees "the heart and soul and very spine of this country," saying they were "the ones who ran in to help when everyone else ran away.
- PUB DATE: 5/17/2022 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: PBS News Hour

PHOTOS: Crewmen doused a mattress fire on the steamboat White Cloud, moored on the north end of the city's landing. They aired the bedding on deck, then dragged it back into a cabin. They must have missed an ember. About 10 p.m., flames burst from the passenger deck. Watchmen along the crowded landing clanged bells of alarm.
- PUB DATE: 5/17/2022 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: St. Louis Post-Dispatch - Metered Site

New Jersey will use $10 million in federal coronavirus relief funds to help provide fire departments with more safety and sanitary equipment, officials announced Monday. The state’s Firefighter Grant Program will allow local and regional fire departments to apply for the taxpayer money from the American Rescue Plan, which Congress passed to provide stimulus funds in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- PUB DATE: 5/17/2022 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: MSN.com

Stevens County Fire District 2 is facing a huge setback after one of the brush trucks was stolen and a second truck stripped of equipment and left unusable. Fire Chief Rick Anderson explained he was on his way to a meeting on the morning of May 16 when he saw the rollup door was open as he drove by.
- PUB DATE: 5/17/2022 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KHQ-TV NBC 6 Spokane

Gracie Reynolds said she could just make out the two people standing on a balcony of an apartment building downtown, waving their hands as a thick column of smoke billowed out a nearby window. It was just before 10:30 a.m. on Sunday. Reynolds and her girlfriend, Kendal Sprague, live in an apartment across Interstate 5, and they immediately dialed 911 and drove to the scene to give a precise location.
- PUB DATE: 5/17/2022 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Seattle Times - Metered Site