Firefighter Joyce Craig made five “Mayday” distress transmissions as she became trapped in the dining room of a burning West Oak Lane home on Dec. 9, 2014. “Engine 73 can’t breathe, I can’t breathe,” Craig, 37, said in her final transmission. Nine minutes later, Craig – the first female Philadelphia firefighter to die in the line of duty – was found by her comrades with her left hand still near the nozzle of her fire hose, according to a report released Monday by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
- PUB DATE: 4/18/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Philly.com

After Elkhart Mayor Mike Gordon wrote a letter to the public explaining why the city council decided to sever ties with its fire department, Elkhart Volunteer Fire Chief Randy McCoy responded. McCoy disagrees with Gordon, who said the city was spending a tremendous amount of money paying for the volunteer fire department's insurance and utilities, and the history of oversight and accountability demands placed on city officials, as well as the city’s staff, were costly and time consuming.
- PUB DATE: 4/18/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Palestine Herald

A construction worker frantically woke residents of a two-story home in Cambridge, alerting the three people upstairs to escape as flames swept through the second floor, grateful renters said this morning. Dozens of firefighters responded to the multi-alarm blaze. Ladder trucks poured water into the second floor, shattering windows.
- PUB DATE: 4/18/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Boston Herald

Modesto has paid $80,000 to settle allegations that one of its firefighters tripped and fell on a third-grader and broke her arm during a Fire Department safety event called the Clown Program, in which firefighters dress up as clowns to teach schoolchildren such basics as when to call 911 and how to get out of a burning house.
- PUB DATE: 4/18/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Modesto Bee

A state appellate court on Monday ruled that a borough volunteer firefighter can not receive workers' compensation for a serious head injury suffered in a parking lot altercation with another firefighter. Jamie Benimadho suffered a skull fracture, hemorrhages and traumatic brain injury when his head hit the pavement in a fall during an incident that began with horseplay between two other volunteer firefighters.
- PUB DATE: 4/18/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NJ.com