New Orleans is getting $15.9 million from the federal government to hire 62 firefighters, city officials announced on Tuesday. The grant will pay the full cost of the new hires’ salary and benefits for three years, giving the city a way to expand the New Orleans Fire Department, which firefighters have said has been understaffed for years.
- PUB DATE: 9/9/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NOLA.com

Thirty-five years ago, on Labor Day in 1985, two Passaic boys unwittingly set a fire that would destroy an estimated 20% of the industrial base in a city already under considerable duress. In all, about 2.2 million square feet of industrial space burned down. The fire, known forever after as the Labor Day Fire, produced heat so intense it caused nearby buildings to combust before flames reached them.
- PUB DATE: 9/9/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NorthJersey.com

Ralph Gismondi knew he wasn't going to make it. The retired FDNY captain, who spent weeks on the smoldering wreckage of Ground Zero, only to find a second career as a JetBlue flight attendant, told his wife Ann in late March that he could no longer fight off the deadly coronavirus that had begun to ravage his 68-year-old body.
- PUB DATE: 9/9/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Newsday - Metered Site

PHOTOS: The Visalia Fire Department will have a step up in training thanks in partnership with California Water Service. Cal Water awarded VFD a grant worth $102,000, which allowed for the purchase of a 10-foot mobile pump pod for the fire agency. According to Cal Water administration analyst Chrissy Balderama, the new water-saving device is a self-contained unit that recirculates water that is used during firefighter training and pump testing.
- PUB DATE: 9/9/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Visalia Times Delta

The 300,000-plus acres that have burned in Washington state over the past 24 hours is more than double the total acreage that burned in the state last year. Hillary Franz, state commissioner of public lands, told Q13 News Tuesday morning that high winds in eastern Washington have grounded wildfire firefighting planes and helicopters - the backbone of the state's fire attack strategy.
- PUB DATE: 9/8/2020 11:00:41 AM - SOURCE: KCPQ-TV FOX 13