Free Republic

A FIREFIGHTER wearing a woman's wig and a string bikini has been charged with taking a drunken afternoon romp through a park. Steven S. Cole, a 46-year-old volunteer firefighter, told an officer he was on his way to a Dayton bar to perform as a woman in a contest offering a $10,000 prize, the arrest report said. In a photo released by the Mason City Police Department Steven S. Cole is shown dressed in the bikini and wig. Cole, 46, a Wayne Township volunteer firefighter has been charged with drunken driving, public indecency and disorderly conduct after being arrested, Tuesday,...

Eleven New York firefighters put their lives on hold this week and paid their way to Jerusalem, where they have been volunteering in a number of understaffed stations. Because of rocket-caused fires in the North, fire stations elsewhere started sending units to help, leaving places like Jerusalem in need of more personnel. "It's a good feeling to know somebody's thinking about you," said Arik Nisimov, a firefighter at the Giva station. "That here are guys that will come and help, no matter how far we are between countries." Nathan Rothschild, commissioner of the Monsey fire district in New York's Rockland...

Fire forced a women to climb out of a window on the 25th floor of an apartment building. As she dangled 250 feet in the air, her husband and firefighters struggled to pull her to safety. It happened at 1700 Bedford Avenue in the Crown Heights, section of Brooklyn. That's where we find Eyewitness News reporter Stacey Sager, live with the story. It is not a time when you want to look down, that's for sure. In fact it's hard to believe anyone could stay clam when they're hanging off the roof of a high rise building. There's no doubt...

A suspect in the 2003 killings of two elderly women in a Suitland flower shop was a D.C. firefighter who had graduated from a recently suspended federally funded cadet program that gives jobs to at-risk youth. Adam I. Neal, 24, no longer works for the fire department, but fire officials would not say when or why he left or whether he was working for the department at the time of the slayings. Mr. Neal graduated from the cadet program in June 2002. His former colleagues said he was stationed at Engine 22 Fire House, at 5760 Georgia Avenue NW, before...

SALISBURY, Md. Authorities say the 36-year-old Virginia man arrested last night after a series of arsons in Salisbury is a firefighter in the Tidewater area. The Norfolk Fire and Rescue department says it has suspended David Parks of Onancock, Virginia, without pay after the arrest. He's been charged with two counts of attempted murder, one count of first-degree arson and four counts of second-degree arson for four fires. They caused nearly 250-thousand dollars damage. The Maryland state fire marshal's office says the fires were set between 9:30 p-m and 11:30 p-m in a car near an antiques store and a...

It had the makings of a Halloween prank: a small fire set in a stairwell, a man dressed up as a firefighter and a knock at the front door. But police say the fake fireman was an armed predator who used the ploy to get a 34-year-old woman to let him into her Manhattan apartment, where he bound and molested her for more than 12 hours. Police were searching on Wednesday for the man amid a simultaneous investigation by fire officials. ``There was a clear indication of arson,'' said Fire Department spokesman Frank Gribbon. Authorities believe that at about 6...

CROWLEY, La. (AP) - A 26-year-old firefighter with the Crowley Fire Department was arrested and booked by special agents with state attorney general's office on charges of computer-aided sexual solicitation of a minor and pornography involving juveniles. Scotty Lavergne, who lives in Church Point, was arrested at the Central Fire Station in Crowley. Lavergne's arrest is the result of an ongoing Internet undercover operation performed by agents at the attorney general's office. Lavergne is a captain with the Crowley Fire Department. Lavergne allegedly established an unlawful Internet relationship with a person who he believed was a 14-year-old female. Lavergne was...

ABOARD USS BOXER, Aug. 1, 2005 —Two USS Boxer firemen earned medals for their actions to stop a potentially dangerous steam leak July 12 aboard the San Diego-based amphibious assault ship. With 900-degree steam running through the heart of Boxer at 720 pounds per square inch, Machinist’s Mate Fireman Patrick Clark, from Raleigh, N.C., and Machinist’s Mate Fireman Nicholas Shaw, from Coshocton, Ohio, prevented a major accident when they stopped the leak in Boxer’s aft main machinery room. “I wasn’t expecting something like this just for doing my job. I was only looking out for my safety and the safety...

Author of Books About Chicago Fires Charged With Arson The Associated Press Published: Jun 13, 2005 CHICAGO (AP) - A former firefighter and author of "Great Chicago Fires: Historic Blazes That Shaped a City" has been charged with setting a storage shed outside a church on fire, police said Monday. David Cowan, 41, faces one count of arson for allegedly starting the fire on St. Benedict Church property on the city's North Side, police spokeswoman JoAnn Taylor said. Cowan, a former suburban firefighter, was arrested Thursday hours after witnesses saw him fleeing the scene of the fire. No one was...

The D.C. Fire and EMS Department is making another attempt to enforce a grooming policy on facial hair that a federal judge in 2001 ruled was a violation of firefighters' First Amendment rights. The enforcement will begin with a test scheduled for tomorrow, during which fire officials will test firefighters to make sure the face masks on their breathing gear have a proper fit. According to a special order issued May 25 by Chief Adrian H. Thompson, all firefighters must be beardless at the time of the test because facial hair can interfere with the mask's ability to seal to...

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- A firefighter brain-damaged in a 1995 roof collapse had an "amazing" weekend, recognizing and speaking with his four sons and other family and friends for the first time in years, a family spokesman said Monday. "I want to talk to my wife," Donald Herbert said out of the blue Saturday at the skilled nursing facility where he has lived for more than seven years. Staff members put Linda Herbert on the telephone. It was the first of many conversations he had during a 14-hour stretch, Herbert's uncle, Simon Manka said. "How long have I been away?"...

A Chicago Fire Department lieutenant has been charged with arson after allegedly setting four fires earlier this week, including one that damaged a computer room at a Catholic school, police officials said. Jeffrey Boyle, 46, was charged today with four counts of arson in connection with fires set within a one-mile radius on the city's Far Northwest Side Sunday and Monday, said police spokeswoman Amina Greer.

A New York fireman involved in the rescue effort following the September 11 attacks on the Twin Towers was among passengers on a plane diverted to London after a bomb alert. Robert Santandrea, 33, from Queens, told how the alert on the plane flying from Athens to New York on Sunday brought back memories of 9/11. "I was praying. I was a little nervous but everyone was very calm," said Mr Santandrea as he arrived at a hotel at Stansted airport with other passengers. Mr Santandrea was a member of Engine 45 in the Bronx on September 11 and is...

KNOXVILLE - Since 1995, Bob Parker has sent nearly 2,000 honorary medallions to survivors of soldiers, police officers and firefighters killed in the line of duty. Parker and his nonprofit organization Fallen Friend has 17 more medallions to give, including one for Pat Tillman, the football player who quit the NFL to become an Army Ranger and was killed in April in Afghanistan. But Tillman's family and others won't receive their medallions. The Army has stopped helping Parker and Fallen Friend distribute the medals because there is a reference to a Bible verse on the back, according to two letters...

St. Patrick's Day is right around the corner. Here is an opportunity to get into the spirit by singing the song that was written for fireman Mike Moran to honor his FReeper brother, Battalion Commander John Moran (he was BCM on FR) and other men and women who lost their lives in the cowardly terrorist attack. Mike posts as royalIA. For those knew to FR, this song was written after Mike Moran stood on the stage at the Concert for New York and told Osama bin Laden to "kiss my royal Irish ass." DOWNLOAD HERE. If you would like to...

Firefighters set drug house on fire 06/11/2003 By MARK BOONE / 6NEWS A known drug house in north Charlotte goes up in flames and it's no accident. Firefighters set the fire at a house near Statesville Avenue and I-85 Wednesday morning. Police say the house has been a haven for drug dealers and prostitutes. The problem is so bad, the owner of the rental house agreed to let the city burn the building down. Neighbors say the house has been a nuisance for several years, attracting all kinds of criminal activity. The demolition is also a training exercise for Charlotte's...

I managed to get done what I needed to get done today and this evening. Mike Moran and I will be chugging a beer at the Old Town Tavern -- on 18th between 5th and Broadway. If any of you can make it at 7 PM, we would love to see you there.

Five people died and the home of a striking firefighter was hit by a suspected arson attack as firefighters continued thier national walkout Saturday. Soldiers manned antiquated firetrucks and firefighters stood on picket lines as politicians and union leaders traded blame for the strike that has hobbled Britiain's fire service. Troops and their outdated "Green Goddess" engines were called to several serious blazes, filling in for 50,000 firefighters who walked off the job Friday morning. A 27 year old man died in a house fire in Eccles, south of London, in the first fatal fire during the strike. A military...

Today Sean Hannity played "The Ballad of Mike Moran" a.k.a. "The Fireman Song" For those who don't remember it, the song's authors, 'Doug from Upland' and 'Vetnet' met right here on Free Republic and publicly penned the song and got it produced with the encouragement of many of their fellow Freepers. The website for the song is at www.firemansong.com To hear an MP3 of the song, please email me and I'll send you download instructions. (for Freepers only) Sean also played Toby Keith's terrific song, "Courtesy of the Red White and Blue"

HE LET HIS BEERS DO THE TALKING The best brewers in America are more accomplished than they are famous. Gordon Knight was one of those. Knight, 52, died on Tuesday after his helicopter crashed while he was fighting a fire near Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. He was trying to drop water on hot spots in a 4,400-acre blaze. Knight, flying a 32-year-old French helicopter, radioed in about 6:30 p.m. and calmly reported, "I'm going down," a Forest Service spokeswoman, Ellen Hodges, said. Unless you drank beer along Colorado's Front Range in the 1990s you probably never tasted one...