City Secretary Anna Russell has one week to finish verifying a petition Houston firefighters submitted last summer seeking pay parity with police or risk being hauled into court, a state district judge said Friday. Judge Dan Hinde had given Russell until Friday at 5 p.m. to verify whether the firefighters had reached the minimum threshold of 20,000 signatures needed for the item to appear before voters.
- PUB DATE: 4/30/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Houston Chronicle

It's been nearly 16 years since cleanup work officially ended at New York City's ground zero, but the health effects for rescue and recovery workers are still making themselves known. Two studies published Thursday in the journal JAMA Oncology suggest that the firefighters who came to lower Manhattan after the Sept.
- PUB DATE: 4/30/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Los Angeles Times

The only injury from a house fire in Ballard on Sunday morning was a singed paw. The fire started just after 7 a.m. along Northwest 64th Street. Everyone got out safely, including a cat named "Bonito" who was rescued, then ran back into the fire and had to be pulled out again. Bonito's owner wasn't home at the time, however his roommate says he had his headphones on and didn't even notice the fire at first.
- PUB DATE: 4/29/2018 9:43:56 PM - SOURCE: seattlepi.com

Residents of Skagit Valley Mobile Manor received free smoke alarms Saturday as part of the American Red Cross campaign Sound the Alarm. The nationwide campaign, which kicked off Saturday, has a goal of installing 100,000 alarms in communities at high risk of fires in 16 days. “Smoke alarms save lives,” Red Cross Northwest Region CEO Alex Dieffenback said in a news release.
- PUB DATE: 4/29/2018 6:04:32 AM - SOURCE: Skagit Valley Herald (GoSkagit.com)

For any kind of volunteer organization, putting in 1,000 hours of work is considered good, according to Phil Slagle, a member of the Cowlitz County Search and Rescue Team. Last year, his team put in almost 13,000 hours. The Cowlitz team is made up of more than 60 members, all volunteers. It’s also always growing.
- PUB DATE: 4/28/2018 9:11:46 PM - SOURCE: Longview Daily News