The assistant chief of the Van Wyck fire department in Lancaster County was killed Tuesday while directing traffic at a wreck scene, police and coroner officials said. Dennis Straight, 59, of Lancaster died around 8 p.m. at Springs Memorial Hospital, said Lancaster County Deputy Coroner Jennifer Collins.
- PUB DATE: 11/8/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The State

Twelve people including a police officer were killed by a gunman at a crowded bar in Thousand Oaks, California, late Wednesday, officials said. Several hundred people were inside the venue, which was hosting a "college country night" for students, police said. Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean described the incident at the Borderline Bar and Grill as a "tragic, tragic situation.
- PUB DATE: 11/8/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NBC News

The president of Utica’s firefighters union is threatening legal action against the city as to how the Utica Fire Department’s assistant chief, once retired, was reinstated to his former job. A few months after Asst. Chief George Clark retired in April, Mayor Robert Palmieri requested his reinstatement by the Utica Civil Service Commission as he named Scott Ingersoll — Clark’s successor — the department’s new fire chief.
- PUB DATE: 11/8/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Utica Observer-Dispatch

One day after Houston voters approved a sweeping pay raise for the city’s firefighters, union officials called for an end to “divisive politics” and a return to collective bargaining, even as Mayor Sylvester Turner said the ballot initiative’s passage would force him to downsize the Houston Fire Department, cause response times to rise and endanger public safety.
- PUB DATE: 11/8/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Houston Chronicle

VIDEO - Picture everything in your building blowing sky high, the ceiling caving in, and everything landing in a jumbled pile. Now, imagine digging through that pile, perhaps multiple stories of debris, to find a gravely injured colleague. Welcome to the world of collapse rescue, which firefighters and paramedics may face at a moment’s notice.
- PUB DATE: 11/8/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NBC Chicago