Vancouver Fire Chief Joe Molina is retiring from his post after steering the department through a tumultuous decade, one that saw gutting Recession-era cutbacks, a slow recovery and major changes in how firefighters do their jobs. Well, technically he’s retiring. He announced his retirement a year ago, and he won’t actually leave his post for another four months.
- PUB DATE: 2/18/2020 6:42:19 AM - SOURCE: Vancouver Columbian - Metered Site

Three miles from his house near Mount Rainier’s Mowich entrance, Dan Peterson was taking photos of the washout where Fairfax Forest Reserve Road used to be when a car came speeding around the corner. The car dodged puddles as it headed toward the place where a landslide had taken out a lane and left an approximately 15-foot-deep crater.
- PUB DATE: 2/18/2020 5:51:29 AM - SOURCE: Crosscut

VIDEO: Authorities in Tacoma on Monday rescued a man and two dogs stuck on the side of a steep hill at Point Defiance Park, officials said. It was not immediately clear when the trio scaled the hill but the Tacoma Fire Department was dispatched to the area shortly before 3:30 p.m. for a rescue call, spokesman Joe Meinecke said.
- PUB DATE: 2/18/2020 2:57:38 AM - SOURCE: KOMO-TV ABC 4 Seattle

The owners of a Rochester home that caught fire early Monday morning were able to escape unharmed with their three dogs, according to the West Thurston Fire Authority. The blaze at a two-story home in the 8100 block of 173rd Avenue Southwest broke out at about 3:50 a.m. “The fire spread rapidly from the area of the woodstove and traveled into the attic space,” the fire authority wrote on social media.
- PUB DATE: 2/18/2020 2:39:56 AM - SOURCE: Nisqually Valley News

It’s a sign of our era — when countless Americans distrust government — that firefighters in one of Michigan’s most affluent communities worry about a millage vote next month. If most voters in Bloomfield Township vote no, as they did for a police-and-fire measure with a bigger price tag last year, a projected 22 firefighter/paramedics could lose their jobs, Fire Chief Mike Morin says.
- PUB DATE: 2/18/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Detroit Free Press