Almost 300 state firefighters whose promotions were suspended after Cal Fire discovered suspected cheating on a November 2016 exam can move up the ranks as long their individual results are vetted one more time, according to a Thursday decision from the State Personnel Board. The board voted to allow Cal Fire to promote from an exam that it dismissed last month when it reported that it found “irregularities” on a test that captains must pass before advancing to battalion chief.
- PUB DATE: 6/2/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Sacramento Bee

PHOTOS - Sixty people are without a home today after a seven-alarm blaze tore through a Reading condo complex, where about 100 firefighters were called to help contain the fire. Abby Brennan, who lives on the fourth floor, said she heard a fire alarm go off, opened her door and made her way down through the smoke with her 4-year-old son.
- PUB DATE: 6/2/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Boston Herald

Lower Saucon Fire-Rescue, Lower Saucon Township, PA, pumper. Metro Star cab and chassis; Cummins ISL9 450-hp engine; Hale DSD 1,500-gpm pump; Pro Poly 1,000-gallon polypropylene tank.

While sentencing a Vancouver man to 18 years in prison for what he described as two car bombings, Judge David Gregerson told the defendant his case is disturbing and hard to forget. “This was … you spinning out of control,” Gregerson said to Pedro Franco-Gonzalez during his hearing Thursday in Clark County Superior Court.
- PUB DATE: 6/1/2017 8:02:16 PM - SOURCE: Vancouver Columbian