$600,000 is on the line for the Benton County Fire District 4. Their emergency services now hanging in the balance. "We have proven that we have reduced ambulance response time by. An average of three minutes in our community," says chief Bill Whealan of the fire district. The levy would pay for staffing, and equipment for 24 hours, 7 days a week across two stations.
- PUB DATE: 7/13/2016 5:59:02 AM - SOURCE: KAPP-TV Yakima

Two men were killed when torrential rains flooded eight northern Wisconsin counties Monday night and Tuesday. In Iron County, the Sheriff's Department said Mitch Koski, 56, of Montreal, Wis., died in the flooding. Koski served as Montreal Assistant Fire Chief and was a former mayor of Montreal, a city of about 800 near Hurley.
- PUB DATE: 7/13/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The San Francisco city attorney’s office agreed to pay nearly $5 million to a motorcyclist who was badly injured in 2013 when he was struck by a fire truck driven by a city firefighter suspected of being drunk on the job, officials said Tuesday. The motorcyclist, 53-year-old Jack Frazier, sued the city on Oct.
- PUB DATE: 7/13/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: sfgate.com - metered site

Leaders of the city's fire department feel they're playing a game of Russian Roulette when choosing which engine companies should be taken out of service during staff shortages, Fire Chief Darren Rivers said. Rivers' rare public admonishment of the administration was joined by Freeholder Bill O'Dea at a public safety meeting at the Mary McLeod Bethune Life Center on Monday night, where Rivers said he went to "address the issue of closing firehouses.
- PUB DATE: 7/13/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Newark Star-Ledger/NJ.com

Today’s burning question: Can we delete comments that we find offensive on our fire department’s Facebook page? Answer: That question is actually a heck of a lot more complicated than you might imagine… just ask the City of Beech Grove, Indiana. The city is facing a federal lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Indiana on behalf of two women who claim that their posts on the Beech Grove Police Department’s Facebook page as well as the city’s Facebook page have been deleted and the women blocked from making further posts.
- PUB DATE: 7/13/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Curt Varone fire law blog