After a series of stinging defeats regarding the Watertown Fire Department, Mayor Joseph M. Butler Jr. insists he’s not going to back down. “It’s frustrating to see,” he said. “But I’m dedicated to fight the good fight I’ve been fighting. I can sleep at night knowing that I’ve been trying to do what I think is right for the taxpayers.
- PUB DATE: 4/23/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Watertown Daily Times

Huntington Fire Chief Jan Rader is being recognized on a national scale once again for her devotion to helping people. Now, she has been named one of TIME Magazine's Top 100 Influential People of 2018. In a statement to WSAZ reacting to the news, Rader was humble. "I am honored," Rader said. "I think that this is a result of the community coming together to work diligently on a difficult social issue.
- PUB DATE: 4/23/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WSAZ-TV NBC 3

Four adults and two children were killed Sunday morning in a house fire that Alcoa Fire Department Chief Roger Robinson called the worst tragedy he's seen in his 39-year career. Twenty-nine firefighters responded to the single-story home at 885 N. Wright Road after someone called E-911 to report the blaze at 5:24 a.
- PUB DATE: 4/23/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Knoxville News-Sentinel

On Tuesday the Kern County Board of Supervisors will give the Kern County Fire Department a $14 million dollar payday loan. Fire Chief Brian Marshall said he has more than $15 million in reimbursement money that hasn’t been paid by state and federal fire agencies to Kern County for staff and equipment used last year to fight fires and natural disasters.
- PUB DATE: 4/23/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Bakersfield.com

A life-sized statue was unveiled Saturday honoring 19 members of a firefighting team known as the Granite Mountain Hotshots who died in a 2013 Arizona wildfire. The statue was dedicated at a state memorial park established where all but one member of the team died in a canyon in mountains near Yarnell on June 30, 2013.
- PUB DATE: 4/23/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KASW-CW6 & KTVK-3TV