Brad Austin was drinking coffee and getting ready for work Friday morning when he heard a strange popping sound, like metal in a clothes dryer. The Juneau resident caught sight of an orange glow through a window. He poked his head out a side door and saw his front porch on fire. As he made a hurried call to 911, a fire extinguisher and garden hose got involved. After firefighters arrived, they found the fire's cause: A pair of dead ducks hanging from his porch light. Austin's 26-year-old son, Lyman, is an avid duck hunter and frequently brings his catch back home for drying and butchering. But last year, the family painted their home, and at that time, they pulled the nails where Lyman usually hung his ducks. With the nails gone, he started hanging them from the porch light fixture using a nylon strap.  

A City of Newburgh Fire Department union leader is denouncing what he described as a new structure for the impending layoffs of first responders on Dec. 31, but City Manager Joe Donat contends this method is the fair and right way to do business. The 2020 city budget calls for 14 firefighters to lose their jobs at the end of the year. Brendan Hogan, president of the city's fire union, said they were delivered layoff lists the day after Thanksgiving. Instead of having one list that ranks all firefighters by seniority, Hogan said he was given two lists of who would be laid off: one with firefighters who took the Spanish-speaking fire service exam and another list with those who didn't take the test. Firefighter Max Carrero, a fluent Spanish-speaking city resident who has worked at the NFD since 2014, is on the Spanish-speaking list of layoffs, but Hogan said if all firefighters were ranked only by seniority, Carrero's job would be safe.  

Easton's Fire Department is going gender-neutral, at least in the ordinance that governs operations. Easton City Council's Public Safety Committee reviewed ordinance changes Tuesday that include converting "men" in the ordinance to "firefighters," and "he" will become "the Fire Chief." For example, the current language, "When answering an alarm of fire, he shall be in complete charge of all officers, men and apparatus'' will be "When answering an alarm of fire, the Fire Chief will have complete charge of all officers, firefighters …." Only 4% of professional firefighters in the U.S. are women, the Harvard Business Review reported last year. The gender term changes were not an issue at the meeting. The committee and City Administrator Luis Campos agreed to look at other revisions later, and no action was taken on the fire ordinance.  

In 2016, Denton (Texas) Fire/Rescue (DFR) Department Firefighter Gary Weiland had knee surgery, and for two years, everything seemed fine. Then, in 2018, while playing football in the yard with his family and friends on Thanksgiving Day, his entire life changed without warning. "I was literally running around the field, throwing a ball, and my knee started to swell up," Weiland said. "Then, I couldn't feel my foot." His family rushed him to the hospital, where surgeons spent 15 hours attempting to restore blood flow to his foot, before telling Weiland they needed to amputate his leg. The absurdity of the situation stunned him. "My first thought was, ‘I need my turkey,'" he said. "This is Thanksgiving, what are you talking about, cutting my leg off. I haven't even had Thanksgiving dinner yet."  

Fire Chief Harold Schapelhouman asks "why does an All-Electric Fire Engine make sense for a municipal Fire Agency like ours?" Some answers: Typically, Fire Engines only travel short distances before returning to their home base, or Fire Station, so electric motors make perfect sense. Most emergencies only last 30 minutes or less and this Engine can be shut down once it arrives at the incident, so an electric motor is very practical, efficient and environmentally responsible. Over 90% of all emergencies are short duration incidents, like medical incidents, vehicle accidents, alarm soundings and other calls, so demand on the power supply and battery is minimal. Diesel is currently used to power most Fire Engines, but it is a carcinogen which is bad for the health of the public, our first responders and our responsible stewardship of the air we all breath.  

The financial future of the family of a 51-year-old Buffalo Grove firefighter who died of colon cancer will soon be decided by a trio of appellate court judges who on Tuesday began considering a decision to award his widow and their four children her late husband's full pension benefits. The case involves the village of Buffalo Grove's appeal to the Second District Appellate Court to overturn a 100% line of duty death pension benefit award to the family of late firefighter Kevin Hauber. The move to award full pension benefits was approved by the village's Firefighters' Pension Board in 2018 and upheld earlier this year by a Lake County Circuit Court judge. On Tuesday, the appellate court justices heard impassioned pleas from several attorneys, including the village's attorney, William Nichols. He acknowledged that the Hauber case concerns "a sad and unfortunate situation."