NYC Can't Remove Fire Alarm Boxes, Judge Rules

From the Associated Press, via the Wall Street Journal:

A federal judge has ruled against a New York City plan to deactivate 15,000 fire alarm boxes, saying it would discriminate against the deaf and hearing-impaired.

The fire department last year said the move would save the city $6 million in the first fiscal year. It also said cell phones had substantially reduced the use of alarm boxes and claimed that 85 percent of box calls were false alarms.

The city had proposed an alternate plan using public pay phones combined with a tapping system that would allow deaf callers to signal whether they needed emergency services.

In his ruling on Monday, Judge Robert Sweet said public pay phones were unreliable.

Read MORE.

FDNY Cut Bias Unit While Being Sued for Bias

From the New York Times:

The New York Fire Department office that handles discrimination complaints shrank during a period when the federal government was suing the agency on the grounds that its hiring tests were biased, an assistant fire commissioner testified in United States District Court on Monday.

Over the objections of the city, the assistant commissioner, Lyndelle Phillips, who leads the Equal Employment Opportunity Office in the department, was called to testify by Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis in Brooklyn. During more than two hours on the witness stand, she described how resources in her office had dwindled since 2006.

Read more HERE.

Insecticide Ignites, Causing Yonkers (NY) Apartment Fire

From lohud.com:

A man spraying insecticide in his apartment accidentally started a three-alarm fire that sent smoke and flames through two floors of a six-story Yonkers apartment building Tuesday, fire officials said.

The Red Cross said 13 people from five apartments in the building were homeless. The man whose apartment the fire started in suffered burns to his feet and was hospitalized. A woman who suffers from asthma was taken to the hospital for treatment.

The fire in the 42-unit apartment building at 26 Post St. was reported at 12:42 p.m. Sixty firefighters brought the blaze under control by 1:18 p.m., Fire Chief William Fitzpatrick said.

A flame of some type ignited the insecticide, and the man ended up with burns on his feet, Fitzpatrick said.

Fire and smoke were shooting out of the second and third floors of the brick building and up to the fourth floor when firefighters arrived, the fire chief said. Firefighters had to help 30 people get out of the building.

Read the full report and see photos HERE.

Responding Rochester (NY) Fire Apparatus Involved in Accident

From the Democrat and Chronicle:

A Rochester fire engine was involved in a car crash a half a block away from a northeast Rochester house that was on fire Sunday morning.

The crash occurred shortly before 9:30 a.m. as a fire engine rushed to the scene of a house fire on Lux Street.

The fire vehicle was headed east on Lux when it collided with a Lexus sedan traveling south on Portland Avenue.

The fire, just a half a block to the east, has left a family of seven homeless but safe.

Read more HERE.

Cornell Student Dies in Apartment Fire

Via democratandchronicle.com:

A Cornell University student who would have graduated at the end of this month died in an early morning fire Friday at an apartment building in Collegetown, an official with the Ithaca Fire Department said.

Brian Lo, 21, a senior from East Rockaway, died in the fire that is believed to have started by accident. Fire officials said unattended cooking in a communal first-floor kitchen is suspected to have caused the blaze at 107 Cook St.

The building is a three-story wood-frame house with eight apartments and 13 residents, all of whom are Cornell students, said Deputy Chief Tom Parsons at a Friday morning press conference. Lo's body was found in the rear of the building. He was apparently attempting to escape when he succumbed, Parsons said.

Read more HERE and get tips on campus fire safety from the Center for Campus Fire Safety HERE.

Man Gets Prison Time for Setting Fire that Killed Yonkers (NY) Firefighter

From the AP via The Wall Street Journal:

A man who set a blaze that killed a Yonkers firefighter has been sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.

Rafael Roldan previously pleaded guilty to murder and assault.

A 39-year-old firefighter, Patrick Joyce, was killed and two other firefighters were seriously injured in October 2009.

Read the rest HERE.

Nebraska Man Convicted of Fire Equipment Theft

A man from York, Nebraska has been convicted of stealing firefighting equipment from the scene of a house fire almost one year ago according to the York News-Times:

"On May 20, 2010, the York Fire Department was on the scene of a house fire on East Seventh Street. Providing traffic control at the scene was the York Police Department. York County Attorney Bill Sutter said that one of the police officers was contacted by a firefighter who said his helmet and face mask were missing. He had removed them while taking a break and when he went to put them back on, they were gone."

The man faced five years in prison for a felony theft charge since the value of the stolen property was between $500 and $1,500. A plea agreement reduced this charge to a misdemeanor which demands a one year sentence according to further reports.

Read the complete story HERE.

Brooklyn (NY) Fire Kills Dad, 2 Daughters

According to the New York Post:

A suspicious fire tore through a Brooklyn brownstone yesterday -- killing a father and two of his young daughters -- and sent at least one person jumping from a window to escape the flames.

The blaze broke out shortly before 5:30 p.m. on a stairwell between the second and third floors of the home on Putnam Avenue in Bushwick, and engulfed the rest of the structure.

A law-enforcement source said the fire was sparked by a child playing with matches.

Firefighters searching the top floor found the bodies of a 62-year-old man and his 14-year-old daughter.

His 3-year-old daughter was still alive, but later died at Woodhull Hospital.

Read more HERE.