The city of Charleston has a plan in the works to create a new Department of Public Safety to oversee the police and fire departments, and Police Chief Greg Mullen could be promoted to lead it. The concept was announced in a written release Friday. Next week, Tecklenburg plans to ask the City Council's Public Safety Committee to study the feasibility of such a department.
- PUB DATE: 3/27/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Post and Courier

The treasurer of the Akron firefighters union has been charged with felony theft and is in jail in North Carolina, arrested as he fled Akron after the charges were filed on Thursday. Joe Ruhlin, 40, treasurer of Local 330, is accused of stealing perhaps as much as $100,000 from the union. The exact figure has not been determined because the union and investigators have just begun combing the books.
- PUB DATE: 3/27/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Akron Beacon Journal

The city has agreed to a $250,000 settlement in a lawsuit by a volunteer firefighter accusing Lynden and its assistant fire chief of discrimination and creating a hostile work environment. Damon Winters, a volunteer firefighter, filed the lawsuit against the city and Assistant Chief Robert Spinner in U.
- PUB DATE: 3/27/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Bellingham Herald

A fire on Sunday morning destroyed a three-story building that was home to a diner and apartments in Butler. Emergency dispatchers said the fire was reported shortly after 9 a.m. at a building on Center Avenue that houses Hutch's diner and two floors of apartments. One firefighter was reported caught in a flashover by the rapidly spreading flames and exited through a window and onto the roof of a neighboring building, where other firefighters helped him to safety.
- PUB DATE: 3/27/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WTAE-TV ABC 4 Pittsburgh

Firefighters at Fort Bragg’s Fire Station No. 7 have been complaining for years that their building is deplorable — even sickening. The roof leaks. Exhaust from the engine trucks wafts into sleeping quarters. Carpets are soaked with water when it rains. Holes in walls are covered by steel sheets. The problems have been documented by building inspectors, federal occupational safety regulators and Fort Bragg leaders since at least 2014, yet the building continues to fall into disrepair.
- PUB DATE: 3/27/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Fayetteville Observer