The Baltimore City Fire Department’s (BCFD) new response reduction policy, which lowers the number of vehicles and battalion chiefs responding to initial fire alarms, went into effect on Sunday, September 1. Barely a day passed before an incident that the city’s rank-and-file firefighters’ union said shows the policy’s critical weaknesses.
- PUB DATE: 9/3/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Captial Gazette

Mount Sinai Fire District officials unnecessarily raised taxes more than 4 percent over a four-year period after overestimating expenditures by more than $300,000, state auditors said in a report released last week. The district, which runs business operations for the fire department, also failed to seek bids for about $27,000 worth of purchases, the office of state Comptroller Thomas P.
- PUB DATE: 9/3/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Newsday

Poisonous chemicals killed one woman in an apparent suicide and sickened eight people, prompting the evacuation of three floors of the Hotel Fairmont in San Jose Saturday, fire officials said. About 10 a.m., firefighters were dispatched to the hotel on a report of an attempted suicide on the 19th floor using chemicals.
- PUB DATE: 9/3/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: San Francisco CBS Local

An assistant fire chief has been severely burned while fighting a fire in Okanogan County that began over the weekend. The Spring Coulee Fire was sparked Sunday afternoon south of the town of Okanogan, county emergency officials said. The fire spread quickly to the north. During the fire fight, Assistant Chief Christian Johnson with Okanogan County Fire District No.
- PUB DATE: 9/3/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KOMO-TV ABC 4 and Radio 1000

Graham Fire and Rescue in Pierce County just added 20 new firefighters, saying it should help them save lives with quicker response times. “It’s awesome,” said newly hired firefighter Matt Lester. “It is an awesome place to be and it is an awesome profession.” Lester and the others were brought on board after voters in the area approved resuming the fire department levy, Prop One, and after getting a few words of encouragement from off-duty firefighters who went door-to-door.
- PUB DATE: 9/3/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KOMO-TV ABC 4 and Radio 1000