The chief of the Burbank-Paradise Fire District was fired Wednesday night following a unanimous vote by the district’s board. Mike Hillar, 55, who had been with the district for 26 years and chief for seven, had been on unpaid leave since June 23. In March, Scotty Douglass, the executive director of Stanislaus Regional 911, which dispatches for the district, sent Hillar a memo regarding “deprecating tone and language” he used with a dispatcher on a call the week before.
- PUB DATE: 7/14/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Modesto Bee

Now that Gov. Rick Snyder has signed major changes to retirement benefits for new teachers into law, another contentious battle is on the horizon for the fall when legislators hope to extend those changes to other public employees. Those affected would include police officers and firefighters, as well as other municipal employees.
- PUB DATE: 7/14/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Detroit Free Press

Court documents in a lawsuit filed against the city of Conway and Conway Fire Department reflect one man’s struggle to be promoted in the fire service after a former co-worker, who now serves as chief, mentioned he was “defiant” in the past. That description cost him a promotion, Larry Carter says in a second lawsuit against his former employer that alleges the department breached a settlement agreement that required he get a “neutral employment reference.
- PUB DATE: 7/14/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: MyrtleBeachOnline.com

Brandon Visyak used a stolen state firefighter badge in a ploy to rob a woman the first time he got caught impersonating a public safety officer. Two years later, he again claimed to be a Cal Fire firefighter while he tried to get out of a traffic arrest. Both incidents led to criminal convictions on charges that he illegally impersonated a California public safety officer.
- PUB DATE: 7/14/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse

PHOTO - In a scene straight out of your nightmares, a truck full of "slime eels" lost its load Thursday on U.S. 101, causing a five-car crash, dousing sedans with goo and sending sea creatures slithering across vehicles and the highway. Technically, the fish were not eels, but hagfish, which have a skull but no jaw or spine and they secrete slime when distressed, earning them the nickname "slime eels.
- PUB DATE: 7/14/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Portland Oregonian, Hillsboro Argus, Oregon Live.com