A little more than three months after the deadly Ghost Ship fire and with the investigative report still pending, the city’s first African American female fire chief Teresa Deloach Reed filed retirement papers Tuesday, days after her city pension vested, the city administrator said. Reed, a 59-year-old Oakland resident, filed retirement paperwork Tuesday with an effective date of May 5, City Administrator Sabrina Landreth confirmed.
- PUB DATE: 3/15/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: East Bay Times

The city of Lexington will pay firefighters $17.7 million for back overtime and pension. The payment stems from a 2005 lawsuit filed by Lexington firefighters alleging that the city owed them money for overtime worked. The details of the settlement are being worked out and must be approved, city and firefighter union officials said.
- PUB DATE: 3/15/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Lexington Herald-Leader

To look around the Kingwood apartment of Robert Yarbrough is to know a man who found his calling. "If I could be back at the fire station, I'd be back tomorrow," he said. Yarbrough worked for the Houston Fire Department for 32 years, and he was there that fateful day in 2013 at the Southwest Inn on Rescue Truck 42.
- PUB DATE: 3/15/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KHOU-TV CBS 11 Houston

A company officer repeatedly makes inappropriate postings to social media. Another gets into a physical altercation with a firefighter at the station. Yet another actively supports hazing of new firefighters. And another is arrested after getting into an argument with a police officer after a traffic stop.
- PUB DATE: 3/15/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1

The Alaska House on Monday unanimously approved a bill to guarantee health coverage for family members of firefighters and law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. House Bill 23, sponsored by Anchorage Democratic Rep. Andy Josephson, is the latest attempt at passing such legislation, which died in the Senate during a special session last year.
- PUB DATE: 3/15/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Alaska Dispatch News