Vashon’s fire department is facing a leadership transition as Assistant Chief George Brown announced his retirement last week, and Chief Hank Lipe said he, too, plans to the leave the district soon. Brown, 53, has served Vashon Island Fire & Rescue (VIFR) for the last six years and will depart later this month, taking advantage of the fact that Washington fire service personnel are able to retire at his age and receive their full pension.
- PUB DATE: 3/9/2016 1:11:19 PM - SOURCE: Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber

A natural gas explosion rocked a Seattle neighborhood early Wednesday, sending nine firefighters to the hospital and reducing businesses to rubble. Crews were responding to reports of a natural gas leak when the explosion happened along the main thoroughfare of the city's Greenwood neighborhood, just north of downtown, Seattle Fire Department spokeswoman Corey Orvold said.
- PUB DATE: 3/9/2016 5:26:34 AM - SOURCE: KOMO-TV ABC 4 and Radio 1000

A natural gas explosion rocked a Seattle neighborhood early Wednesday, sending nine firefighters to the hospital and reducing businesses to rubble. Crews were responding to reports of a natural gas leak when the explosion happened along the main thoroughfare of the city's Greenwood neighborhood, just north of downtown, Seattle Fire Department spokeswoman Corey Orvold said.
- PUB DATE: 3/9/2016 5:26:34 AM - SOURCE: KOMO-TV ABC 4 and Radio 1000

Preston Hoffman saw the man first, face down in the water 40 feet below. His friends — girlfriend Marisa Fernandez and roommate Jake Schipper — heard the thud and splash, too, as the group strung up a hammock on a drizzly Saturday, March 5, at an outcropping that overlooks Wildcat Cove at Larrabee State Park.
- PUB DATE: 3/9/2016 1:55:03 AM - SOURCE: Bellingham Herald