Lawrence Goncalves stood inside the large bay doors of the Spokane Fire Department’s Station 1 and looked around. Somehow, even 30 years after his departure, things looked remarkably similar. “Back there was the kitchen,” he said last week. And the bunk beds, just behind that wall. Those doors, where the engines would race through before turning onto Riverside Avenue, as big then as now.
- PUB DATE: 5/24/2018 2:05:23 AM - SOURCE: Spokane Spokesman-Review

A new professional standards program at Cal Fire is giving the department a mechanism to hand down discipline in a consistent manner across the state for the first time in its history. It’s racking up pay reductions, suspensions and dismissals at a rate that rivals scandal-plagued 2014 – the year when an instructor at its fire academy murdered his mistress and brought intense scrutiny on the department.
- PUB DATE: 5/24/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Sacramento Bee

In its first federal sexual harassment complaint of the Me Too movement, the ACLU has filed charges against the Fairfax County and the fire department. The charges are being filed on behalf of two of the highest-ranking women in the Fairfax County Fire Department. The national civil rights organization is accusing Fairfax County leadership of retaliation over sexual harassment complaints.
- PUB DATE: 5/24/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WUSA-TV 9 DC

A two-year-old is alive after a near drowning at an Upstate swimming pool. And it's thanks in large part to an area fire chief, who was the first to arrive on the scene. The emergency unfolded at the Hartwell Villas pool Tuesday around 5 p.m. But luckily, that was the same time a hero happened to be nearby and heard the call for help.
- PUB DATE: 5/24/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WCSC-TV Charleston Live 5 News

A months-long probe into abuse of sick leave within the fire department concluded this week with the resignation of a deputy chief and the release of an internal review. The city paid $93,816 in unearned or unauthorized sick time, benefits and incentives over the past five years, according to the review.
- PUB DATE: 5/24/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Tampa Tribune and TBO.com (Tampa Bay Online)