Growing up in rural West Virginia, Benjamin M. Barksdale remembers hearing the siren blow from the neighboring fire station and asking his mother about the commotion. Barksdale’s mother explained to him, then a boy of about 6, that the siren signaled volunteer firefighters would soon launch out of the station to help people in the community.
- PUB DATE: 6/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Washington Post

A Bronx grand jury handed up manslaughter indictments against two men whose marijuana grow house exploded, killing a firefighter who responded to a report of leaking gas. Michael Fahy, 44, battalion chief of the 19th division, was killed by falling debris as he and his crew evacuated a house at W. 234th St.
- PUB DATE: 6/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Daily News

The first responders on the front line in the battle against the national opioid epidemic got a new guideline Tuesday from the Drug Enforcement Agency on how handle the incredibly deadly drug fentanyl. It's called “Fentanyl: A Brief Guide for First Responders.” And Acting DEA chief Chuck Rosenberg said it should be required reading.
- PUB DATE: 6/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NBC News

The National Fire Protection Association has released its annual report on firefighter fatalities in the United States, and a leading cause of on-duty deaths in the fire service remains cardiac issues despite those deaths hitting an all-time low in 2016. Last year's total of 69 on-duty deaths marked the fifth time in six years that the number was below 70, according to the NFPA's 2016 Report.
- PUB DATE: 6/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse

Matt McFarland, a local firefighter with Humboldt Bay Fire, has filed a grievance through his union after being asked by his boss, Humboldt Bay Fire Chief Bill Gillespie, to stop wearing a “Black Lives Matter” lapel pin on his uniform. McFarland argues that the pin represents an important message about inclusive justice and that it conforms to his department’s uniform policy, which allows lapel pins provided they are “fire service related and in good taste.
- PUB DATE: 6/7/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Lost Coast Outpost