The Miami Valley Fire District, responsible for the Dayton Mall and Austin Landing commercial areas, as well as dense residential development, recently passed a five-year review period and was made permanent through votes by the Miami Twp. Board of Trustees and Miamisburg City Council.

Key issues to be solved involve the merging of departments with different contracts and skill levels and leveling of the millages levied against property owners to pay for the services.

For fire and EMS service, property owners in the Massie service area currently pay 5 mills of property tax, Chester Twp. 4.5 mills.

A joint district can provide superior service or save tax dollars by sharing resources and staff, Alexander said.

Crews smelled smoke at Lakeside (CA) Fire District's (LFD) station in the 14000 block of Highway 8 Business at about 1 p.m., LFD Division Chief John Hisaw said. Firefighters went outside and found one of their fire trucks in flames.

A full response was called to fight the fire, including four fire trucks, two chiefs, a medic and several San Diego County Sheriff's (SDSO) deputies. 

The fire was stopped before it could spread to the firehouse and no one was injured, but the 5-year-old truck was destroyed. 

While encircling the blaze with water using a Bell Buckle brush truck the truck got stuck in the mud. After using manpower to try to get the truck moving, they employed a pickup with a chain but that also wasn't enough.

The driver claimed the Model S was operating with Tesla's AutoPilot functionality turned on, according to a tweet sent by a firefighters union that had members at the scene of the incident.

A fire truck, with emergency lights activated, had blocked the carpool and left emergency lanes to protect the first responders on the scene.

If any of the crew members had been behind the fire truck, the incident “probably would not have been a very good outcome,” said Culver City Fire Department battalion chief Ken Powell.

Without any equivocation, city council members agreed in early January that replacing the cramped fire station was a higher priority than expanding the Highland Park Public Library or renovating the Highland Park Country Club facility to serve as a senior center.

Williams Architects, which conducted the needs assessment for all three facilities, put the cost of a new fire station at $7.5 million and the cost of a modest library expansion at $13 to $15 million.