In the latest volley involving a two-year contract dispute, the city and the firefighters’ union are squabbling over whether firefighters were forced to work on a new community garden located behind the South Massey Street fire station. The Watertown Professional Fire Fighters Association Local 191 filed an improper practice charge with the state Public Employees Relation Board against the city, claiming firefighters were told by the city that they must work on the vegetable garden behind the city’s Emma Flower Taylor Fire Station.
- PUB DATE: 7/21/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: watertown daily times

A Nashville district fire chief is in trouble after several of his Facebook posts were published on a local blog. District Chief Tim Lankford has been pulled from the field and is now doing administrative work while the Nashville Fire Department continues its investigation. In a letter to Lankford from Deputy Director Steve Holt, the department began investigating when the posts were published on the blog EastNashville.
- PUB DATE: 7/21/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WKRN-TV ABC 2 Nashville

A woman was seriously burned and a home was destroyed in the small desert community of Shelter Valley on Tuesday after it took firefighters roughly 30 minutes to respond because the local Cal Fire station was virtually unmanned. Residents say the Shelter Valley station has been mostly empty the past few weeks and they’ve been told the situation won’t change for a while because of staffing shortages.
- PUB DATE: 7/21/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: the san diego union-tribune

A driver fled on foot early Thursday after crashing a minivan on the Interstate 5 Bridge between Vancouver and Portland, Ore., abandoning a small child and two women who were inside the burning vehicle. Transportation crews who were working on the bridge came to the rescue of the women and child, busting out a window of the minivan to help them escape before the flames spread, officials said.
- PUB DATE: 7/21/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KOMO-TV ABC 4 and Radio 1000

Chapel Hill (TX) Fire Department, pumper. Metro Star cab and chassis; Cummins ISL 450-hp engine; Waterous CSU 1,500-gpm pump.