The state Department of Natural Resources mistakenly overpaid a private contractor to help fight last year’s Carlton Complex fire in North-Central Washington, according to a state accountability audit released Thursday. While the amount the state overpaid — about $9,000 — was subsequently repaid by the private contractor, the audit finding highlights the pressure on the state’s largest wildland firefighting agency to respond quickly to fires while also ensuring that all proper procedures are followed.
- PUB DATE: 10/5/2015 3:35:10 AM - SOURCE: Tacoma News Tribune

Brenda Pridgen dabbed away another tear as she composed herself to meet President Barack Obama, an encounter that elicited a rush of conflicting emotions for the widow of Baltimore firefighter James E. Bethea. "My husband would have loved this," Pridgen said of Sunday's memorial service at Mount St. Mary's University for 87 firefighters — including Bethea and Baltimore County firefighter Robert W.
- PUB DATE: 10/5/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: baltimore sun

Bob Harvey, the former chief of the Black Forest Fire Rescue Protection District, has sued the fire district for $1 million on the grounds of defamation, emotional harm and that he was wrongfully terminated in 2014. The beleaguered chief's departure in June 2014 was mysterious. By Harvey's account last summer, he resigned after a prolonged sick leave due to post-traumatic stress disorder after the Black Forest Fire in 2013.
- PUB DATE: 10/5/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: the gazette

A firefighter is in the hospital after a fire truck pinned him to another truck Saturday afternoon. Chief Lynn Blake with the Wynne Fire Department said the department was paged to help the Parkin Fire Department on a fire call when the incident happened. Firefighter Rick Wimberley arrived on the scene in his personal truck, waiting for crews to come.
- PUB DATE: 10/5/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WREG-TV Memphis Channel 3

Firefighter Daniel Lyon is about halfway through his initial treatment for the severe burns he sustained in the Twisp River Fire, according to his father, Dan Lyon. Based on physicians’ projections for the healing process from this type of injury, Daniel could be released from Harborview Medical Center in about six weeks.
- PUB DATE: 10/5/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: methow valley news