As a firefighter prepared to enter a burning home in Modesto's airport neighborhood, flames burst through the window he stood next to. A flash of white fire hit him and embers whirled around his face. The firefighter didn't know at the time what caused the surge, but when he returned, uninjured, to the station after the incident, he reviewed the video from his helmet camera.
- PUB DATE: 10/31/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse

When Paul Pokorski was diagnosed with leukemia in 2008, his wife couldn’t help but wonder if the 34 years he spent working as a firefighter might have led to it. “I’m a nurse and I kind of knew it was a possibility,” Ann Pokorski said. “But even the oncologists were iffy as to whether it had anything to do with it.
- PUB DATE: 10/31/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Virginian-Pilot

A former Cleveland, Tenn., firefighter who was unlawfully fired can't collect on lost pay because he didn't try hard enough to find another job, a Bradley County chancellor says. "This court is left with this case in a strange posture," Chancellor Jerri Bryant wrote in her Oct. 11 ruling against Joshua Keller.
- PUB DATE: 10/31/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Times Free Press

Elk Park Volunteer Fire Department, Avery County, NC, pumper-tanker. Spartan Metro Star X cab and chassis; Cummins ISL 450-hp engine; Advanced Protection System in cab; Hale Qmax 1,500-gpm pump; UPF Poly 1,000-gallon tanK.

A mother is being credited with saving her three children from their burning home near Spokane Valley, but the mother and oldest child both remain in critical condition. The Spokesman-Review reports that the woman suffered third-degree burns and collapsed in the front doorway after getting the children out of the house as the fire burned late Friday night.
- PUB DATE: 10/30/2016 1:44:19 PM - SOURCE: KIRO-TV CBS 7