The romance was born of necessity. Before air-conditioning, fire escapes offered New Yorkers a refuge from tenements in the summer heat. They read there. They drank there. At night, they slept there. Introduced in the mid-1800s, the iron Z’s that still cling to thousands of city apartment buildings became so synonymous with New York life that they made cameos in “West Side Story,” “Rear Window” and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
- PUB DATE: 8/31/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: new york times

Former Van Alstyne Fire Chief Landon Smith isn’t taking the things the city said about him to the media back in July mildly. He has sued the city for defamation and wrongful termination. The city of Van Alstyne has yet to file an answer to the suit but sent out a news release Thursday about the suit that was filed on Aug.
- PUB DATE: 8/31/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: herald democrat

Homeowners frantically asked for help as a swiftly moving wildfire headed toward their houses, 911 audio calls show, and dispatchers tried to clear up confusion over injured firefighters from a blaze in Washington state that ultimately killed three firefighters. The Aug. 19 fire near Twisp, Washington, also injured four firefighters — one critically.
- PUB DATE: 8/31/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: u.s. news & world report

Deep inside the smoky and pitch-black third floor of the Sandone Tire warehouse on Wyoming Avenue, shortly before the smoldering building would become a fireball that would shine like a torch Wednesday night, Scranton firefighter Lt. Kelly Hopkins and three others ran dangerously low on air. They were lost.
- PUB DATE: 8/31/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: scranton times-tribune

Austin Fire Chief Rhoda Mae Kerr, a fourth-generation firefighter, was installed today as president and chair of the board of the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC). Pledging to focus on reducing firefighter deaths and related firefighter safety and health issues, she becomes the first women to lead the IAFC in its 142-year history.
- PUB DATE: 8/31/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: International Association of Fire Chiefs