The Fire Department no longer will be able to have firefighters fill in for colleagues who call in sick, a move that City Manager Sharon A. Addison admits violates the union contract. Ms. Addison directed Fire Chief Dale C. Herman on Wednesday morning that firefighters cannot be called into work to fill in for their colleagues who are absent because of illness.
- PUB DATE: 11/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Watertown Daily Times

After a weekslong investigation, Anchorage fire officials still can't say for sure what caused a firefighter to fall more than 70 feet from a fire truck ladder in June. No one, not even security cameras, saw the fall that left 29-year-old Anchorage firefighter and paramedic Ben Schultz hospitalized with a traumatic brain injury.
- PUB DATE: 11/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Alaska Dispatch News

An infant was left in a Michigan City Safe Haven Baby Box late Tuesday night. Emergency responders were dispatched to the Coolspring Township Volunteer Fire Department at 10:24 p.m. after receiving an alert from the box. Coolspring Fire Chief Mick Pawlik arrived at the station within five minutes and found the newborn infant.
- PUB DATE: 11/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WNDU-TV NBC 16 South Bend

A former Travis County firefighter who sought employment with the Austin Fire Department is now suing the city of Austin and Austin Fire Chief Rhoda Mae Kerr, arguing that he wasn’t hired because of his role in negotiations to expand AFD’s jurisdiction. Andrew Garcia, the former union president for the Travis County Emergency Services District 4, claims in his lawsuit he was discriminated against because of his input in Austin City Council discussions regarding a possible merger between ESD 4 and the Austin Fire Department.
- PUB DATE: 11/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Austin American-Statesman

VIDEO - When Terry Sanders saw the glow on the horizon on Oct. 8, and felt the heavy wind in his face, he knew there was trouble. But the Santa Rosa resident and Oakland firefighter didn’t realize the magnitude until he headed a few hundred feet down the road from his home to talk to the only man left at Fire Station 5.
- PUB DATE: 11/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1