Some interesting News

STATION FIRE - ARSON - HOMICIDE

Investigators had determined that the Station Fire in Los Angeles County was started by arson. No other facts have been released. The fact that two firefighters died in an incendiary fire makes this act of arson a homicide. Because the fire Started in the Angeles National Forest, look for the USFS to lead the investigation, joined by CalFire and LACoFD. Because a homicide has occurred, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has primary jurisdiction.

164,000 acres burned, 38% containment

Fifteen-days for chief who slept through call: A Chicago battalion chief has received his punishment or sleeping through what became a two-alarm fire. Click here.

Firefighters shot at as they respond to house fire. Rigs hit. Suspect dead. Police officer wounded.

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The images on this page come from KVBC-TV. Click here for the station's video.

Firefighters responding to a house fire in West Las Vegas just after noon on Wednesday were met by a man with a shotgun. That man opened fire striking two fire engines and narrowly missing the firefighters. Police exchanged gunfire with the man, killing him. A police officer was wounded.

Investigators say the fire was deliberately set in the bedroom of the home. The fire destroyed the home as firefighters were forced to keep their distance.

The rigs struck were Engine 3 and Engine 203. The most detailed account comes from Billy Goldfeder at FirefighterCloseCalls.com. Here are excerpts from his report:

As Engine 3 pulled up in front of the house, flames and smoke was showing. As the captain radioed in his report, a male adult came from around the house with a gun and fired two times at the engine hitting it, one shot broke out the right rear cab window where two firefighters sit. The captain ordered the engine to take off and leave the area and he radioed that the crew was being shot at. At the same time Engine 203 pulled up and saw the man with a gun and proceeded to leave the area behind Engine 3, but not before that engine was also shot. It was hit just under the captain’s door window and once in a window on the right rear where the two firefighters sit. Windows in both cabs were shot out. The two engines left the scene, no one was injured.

Still going at 91: Check out this interesting story Allentown, PA's The Morning Call. It is about Firefighter Anthony DiPierro who was at the 100th anniversary of Roseto's Columbia Fire Company No. 1. It begins this way - He is 91, has been a firefighter for 72 years and has driven and maintained every vehicle the department has ever owned. In his house is a framed series of photographs demonstrating this, including a black-and-white snapshot from 1959 when the department celebrated its 50th anniversary and DiPierro led the way behind the wheel of a 1928 Hahn truck.