A motor home that caught fire on a downtown street Thursday morning sent a man to the hospital with minor injuries and resulted in a total loss of the vehicle. Firefighters with the Bellingham Fire Department responded to the fire along the 1300 block of Cornwall Avenue at about 8:30 a.m., said Assistant Chief Bill Hewett.
- PUB DATE: 12/16/2016 1:47:34 AM - SOURCE: Bellingham Herald

Because of yet another mix-up with bioterror pathogens, a federal terrorism response training center in Alabama says it mistakenly exposed more than 9,600 firefighters, paramedics and other students to a deadly toxin over the past five years. The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Center for Domestic Preparedness blames an outside laboratory for a series of shipping errors since 2011 that resulted in the first-responder training center using in its classes a potentially lethal form of ricin powder.
- PUB DATE: 12/16/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: USA Today

As Oakland firefighters pulled up to the burning Ghost Ship warehouse the night of Dec. 2, they weren’t exactly sure what they were dealing with — whether anyone was trapped or what they would encounter inside — but they didn’t assume it was a vacant building. Public safety officials in Oakland have long been aware that people live and party in warehouses — some firefighters say they can tell whether one is inhabited just by looking at its exterior.
- PUB DATE: 12/16/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle

Acting United States Attorney Beth Drake today announced that a Charleston Grand Jury has returned a two-count indictment charging St. Paul’s Fire District Chief Doc McNeil Matthews, 47, of Hollywood; Assistant Chief Charles Riddle, 44, of Goose Creek; and Mary Jo Thomas-Delaney, 67, of Summerville, with fraud and embezzlement from a federally funded organization.
- PUB DATE: 12/16/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WCBD-TV Charleston 2

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) released the latest edition of its “U.S. Firefighter Injuries” report, which highlights data on injuries sustained by firefighters on duty in 2015. The statistics were collected from fire departments responding to NFPA’s annual U.S. Fire Experience survey.
- PUB DATE: 12/16/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: National Fire Protection Association