The Providence City Council has hired one of the state’s most prominent attorneys to be its eyes and ears when it comes the ongoing dispute between the Elorza administration and the city’s firefighters. Max Wistow, who is currently representing the state of Rhode Island in its high-profile lawsuit against former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling and other key players from the failed 38 Studios deal, will earn $250 per hour to advise the council on how settlement negotiations between the city and firefighters’ union are progressing, according to Council President Luis Aponte.
- PUB DATE: 7/18/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WPRI-TV Providence 12

A Rostraver man refused to leave his burning home Thursday and fought with firefighters, tossing one of their helmets from a second-floor balcony and pulling the oxygen masks off others, according to police. A township police officer had to go inside the burning Indian Hill Road home and arrest homeowner Donald Panepinto Jr.
- PUB DATE: 7/18/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Troubling allegations of hazing and even racist abuse at the San Francisco Fire Academy have emerged as the city is shelling out $100,000 a day in overtime to account for a significant shortage of firefighters, NBC Bay Area has learned. Currently, some 54 firefighter recruits are undergoing training at the Division of Training to join the ranks of 1,500 firefighters in the city – 250 firefighters short of the department’s authorized strength.
- PUB DATE: 7/18/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KNTV-TV NBC 11 Bay Area

Kenneth Patterson and Tony Masga were in the car Saturday morning when they saw flames shooting out of an apartment building on Wycoff Ave. The heat from the fire so intense, glass was breaking and smoke was everywhere. "I just jumped out the car without the crutches…and I went hobbling I went hobbling over here,” said Patterson.
- PUB DATE: 7/17/2016 10:39:22 PM - SOURCE: KCPQ-TV FOX 13

Ray (ND) Fire Department, pumper. Commander 3000 cab and chassis; Cummins ISL 450-hp engine; Hale DSD 1,500-gpm pump; UPF Poly 1,000-gallon tank.