July 2009

California cancels contract for state’s largest firefighting tool

July 30, 2009

The budget Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Tuesday canceled the contract for California’s largest firefighting tool, a DC-10 jet, to save $7 million. But the long-term cost to taxpayers could far exceed the savings. Depending on the severity of this fire season, California could potentially spend millions more for aerial firefighting, already one of the most [...]

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Vegas firefighters ratify contract

July 30, 2009

LAS VEGAS—Las Vegas firefighters have ratified a contract that would eliminate a cost-of-living raise in this budget year in exchange for more city contributions to employees’ retirement and medical benefits. Union head Dean Fletcher says that in voting on Monday and Tuesday, members of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1285 approved the new [...]

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San Bernardino City FD to Reorganize Staff Positions

July 30, 2009

San Bernardino Fire Chief Michael Conrad said that when a city has reached the point of cutting emergency services such as fire and police, you know it’s bad. Conrad was asked on March 31 to look at his fire department and make changes that would save money. The plan that he created would cut a [...]

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Labor dispute between Menlo Park firefighters, district boils over

July 28, 2009

A year-plus dispute over salary increases for firefighters in the Menlo Park Fire Protection District has boiled over, with the district board declaring negotiations to be at an “impasse,” and the union filing a complaint with state officials. As a result of the stalled talks, more than 90 firefighters represented by San Mateo County Firefighters [...]

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Firefighters Continue To Battle Knight Fire

July 28, 2009

Tuolumne County, CA — The Knight Fire is still estimated to be 600 plus acres. Forest Service Spokesperson Pat Kaunert says a top priority has been to protect the homes and summer cabins in the Mt. Knight Subdivision. Up to this point there have been no mandatory evacuations. A Black Hawk helicopter from the National [...]

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Second large blaze in 2 days for Visalia Firefighters

July 28, 2009

A Monday morning fire ravaged a two-story apartment complex in the 600 block of North Garden Street, destroying four units, two cars and a travel-trailer. An estimated 18 people escaped the fire, which broke out about 5 a.m. Those on the second floor jumped from a ledge on the side of the building to avoid [...]

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Firefighters rescue life-like doll from East Palo Alto building

July 28, 2009

Firefighters from around the Bay Area practiced rescuing a dummy dangling from an East Palo Alto building near Highway 101 in a weeklong exercise that ended Saturday. As part of a Federal Emergency Management Agency training program, the firefighters lowered a 185-pound doll by rope from the Howrey law firm building at 1950 University Ave., [...]

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Visalia Firefighters battle Blaze that destroys 3 duplexes

July 27, 2009

Fire Sunday struck a cluster of one-story duplexes just west of Visalia’s Sequoia Mall, destroying the interiors of three units and damaging at least a half-dozen others. Dozens of people were evacuated without apparent injury, though firefighters did have a smoke-inhalation-treatment unit on site. The fire broke out in the 2500 block of West Mission [...]

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Questions raised about firefighting helicopters’ safety

July 26, 2009

Timothy Ingalsbee says he owes his life to a firefighting helicopter. In 1990, when he was a scout perched on a house-sized boulder overlooking a blaze in Washington’s North Cascades National Park, a shift in wind pushed wildfire uphill to him. Encircled in flames, he radioed for a helicopter to drop 2,000 gallons of water [...]

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Firefighters contain five-acre Moraga fire

July 26, 2009

A 5-acre grass fire behind the Rheem Valley Shopping Center was contained about 5 p.m. Sunday, about an hour after it was first reported near Moraga Road and Ascot Drive. The smoke caught the attention of shopping center patrons and passers-by. Crews from as far as Marin came to help fight the blaze in the [...]

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