A former employee with the state's Fire Training Safety Bureau was arrested Tuesday after investigators determined that more than 2,000 fire safety certifications had been improperly issued between 2012 and 2016, according to a news release by the Iowa Department of Public Safety. John McPhee was charged with felonious misconduct in office, a Class D felony, and tampering with records, an aggravated misdemeanor.
- PUB DATE: 1/25/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Des Moines Register

Federal prosecutors filed a civil complaint Monday naming EMSA and its director, Stephen Williamson, in an alleged kickback scheme regarding a lucrative ambulance services provider contract. The complaint, filed in federal court in the eastern district of Texas, claims that a Texas hospital and ambulance provider, Paramedics Plus LLC, entered into a kickback scheme to obtain and retain a lucrative public ambulance services contract awarded by Williamson and the Emergency Medical Services Authority, a public trust that administers the ambulance service in the Tulsa and Oklahoma City metro areas.
- PUB DATE: 1/25/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Tulsa World

Murrieta Fire Department engineer Mike Macalinao and captains Sean DeGrave and Todd Bradstreet are certified swiftwater rescue technicians who each have trained for the risky missions for more than 10 years. They all have performed water rescues. But none, they said, matched the situation they encountered Sunday, Jan.
- PUB DATE: 1/25/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: San Bernardino County Sun

One person was killed during a crash involving a fire truck and a van on I-90 in Rocky River, which also ultimately resulted in the hit-skip death of a Cleveland police officer. The fire truck was on scene assisting in a single-vehicle accident when a white van crashed into the back of the truck. The driver of the van, 29-year-old Artem Vytiegov of San Francisco, was pronounced dead on scene.
- PUB DATE: 1/25/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Cleveland CBS 19

Federal workers scrambled on Tuesday to interpret how President Donald Trump’s hiring freeze of civilian employees might affect seasonal firefighters and other part-time employees. Trump’s order, issued Monday, stated “no vacant positions existing at noon on January 22, 2017, may be filled and no new positions may be created, except in limited circumstances.
- PUB DATE: 1/25/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Billings Gazette