August 2009

DAVENPORT – Holding a heavy-duty rake in one hand, Cal Fire engineer Anthony Anderson watched the Lockheed Fire creep through thick underbrush toward Warnella Road on Friday afternoon. Anderson and three other firefighters from the Cal Fire Big Creek station actually stirred up the flames, trying to pull the fire to the edge of the [...]

Onlookers using hoses and shovels Tuesday helped keep an east Visalia grass fire in check until firefighters arrived. Construction workers Robert Zepeda, 29, and Abel Gonzales, 35, were remodeling a home in the 2800 block of Goshen Avenue near Lovers Lane when the fire broke out about 1:15 p.m. Zepeda stationed himself at the northeast [...]

Contract talks between Los Angeles negotiators and the city firefighters union are heating up, and not in a good way. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa today ripped into the city firefighters union, calling the labor leaders “irresponsible’’ for posting warning signs in neighborhoods where rescue unions and ambulances have been temporarily shut down as part of the [...]

A strike team of 22 firefighters from Cal Fire’s Madera-Mariposa-Merced Unit departed Thursday to help fight the Corral Fire in Alameda County, according to Karen Guillemin, Cal Fire spokeswoman. The strike team also included firefighters from Fresno County, Guillemin said. The 3,000-acre fire was reported Thursday around 3 p.m. east of Highway 205 and south [...]