For 3 1/2 hours on July 18, when somebody called 911 in Cincinnati, they couldn't reach a dispatcher. Police, firefighters and paramedics don't know how many people needed help but didn't get it. It was the worst failure in years for the city's 911 emergency system. But it wasn't the only one. Since the middle of 2016, the system that residents count on to get help quickly for life and death emergencies has suffered a series of blackouts and breakdowns.
- PUB DATE: 8/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Cincinnati Enquirer & Cincinnati.com

Firefighters are always looking out for each other, even if they haven’t answered an alarm in more than three decades. A 90-year-old retired FDNY firefighter who had been missing for 36 hours was safely returned home early Saturday after a keen-eyed smoke eater — 63-years his junior — saw him wandering down a Bronx street.
- PUB DATE: 8/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Daily News

Firefighters and national chemical safety groups are praising Maine's new law banning flame retardants in furniture. Maine lawmakers this week overrode Republican Gov. Paul LePage's veto of a law that supporters said would reduce firefighters' exposure to carcinogens. Starting in 2019, a person can't sell upholstered furniture whose materials contain more than one percent of a flame-retardant chemical.
- PUB DATE: 8/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: MainePublic.org

A large fire at an apartment complex in North Seattle Saturday has been ruled accidental. Fire investigators determined the cause was from faulty electrical equipment in a kitchen on the second floor of the north side of the building. Heavy smoke on a hot Saturday afternoon made for extra tough conditions battling a three alarm fire at the Park Meridian Apartments in North Seattle.
- PUB DATE: 8/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: q13fox.com