State to join Ulster County probe of Kingston Fire Department   
The state Comptroller’s Office has agreed to work with the Ulster County District Attorney’s Office to investigate the Kingston Fire Department. District Attorney Holley Carnright said he spoke directly with state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli in requesting the assistance and that DiNapoli agreed to assign a state auditor to the case.The investigation comes in the wake of Kingston Mayor Shayne Gallo announcing within the last month that he had asked Carnright’s office to investigate the city’s two most recent fire chiefs — Chris Rea and Richard Salzmann — over “time in attendance” issues.
Kingston Daily Freeman

Saratoga Springs City Council in favor of public safety drug-testing policy   
Public Safety Commissioner Christian Mathiesen says he will investigate instituting random drug-testing policies in the city’s police and fire departments. During Tuesday night’s City Council meeting Mathiesen said he personally does not believe random drug testing is necessary in either department, but if the community at large would feel safer with random drug testing of both departments, “it’s certainly something we can look into.” The commissioner said he is not in favor of a random drug-testing policy in Public Safety because he thinks it is “an overreaction” to the recent arrest of a city firefighter for allegedly possessing crack cocaine. “It is an isolated incident,” he said.
Saratoga Springs Saratogian

Manorhaven House Fire Kills Man, Injures Wife   
A deadly early morning house fire on Sintsink Drive West in Manorhaven killed an elderly man and injured his wife, Nassau County police said Tuesday. Port Washington Fire Department officials declined requests for comment, however police officials confirmed that the fire was reported around 7:25 AM Tuesday morning. The man was identified as Albert Rosen, 73. Police said the 70-year-old female homeowner was able to flee the home, but her husband suffered cardiac arrest and later died at St. Francis Hospital.
Port Washington Patch

Man Admits To Lying About Being New York City Firefighter On 9-11   
Just months after participating in a remembrance ceremony marking the 10 year anniversary of 9-11, a man who claimed to be a New York City firefighter on that fateful day has admitted to being a fraud. Jordan Liflander admitted to 7 On Your Side's Tom Crabtree that he lied about being a member of the Fire Department New York. Liflander wore a firefighters dress uniform and displayed a F-D-N-Y firefighter's helmet during a ceremony at Wofford College last September 11 to commemorate the 10 year anniversary of the terrorist attack.
wspa.com

Blaze guts New City home   
Flames that authorities suspect originated from a cigarette butt and set off some bushes destroyed a two-story house on Pepperill Court, leaving a family homeless Monday night.The fire engulfed the front side of the house and rose quickly into the second-floor attic by the time dozens of volunteer firefighters arrived at the single-family house off Laurel Road, fire officials said Tuesday.
NY Journal News (Lohud.com)

Investigation continues in Rochester house fire that killed four  
Investigators from the Rochester Fire Department, the Rochester Police Department and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives spent 12 hours gathering evidence in a still-smoldering duplex at 82 Grape St. Fire Chief John Caufield said he could not not say where in the house the fire began and whether it was started accidentally or by an act of arson. “We have theories, but need to further investigate to determine what happened,” Caufield said. “We don’t want to speculate.”
democratandchronicle.com

Bronx Volunteer Fire Squad Ordered to Stop Responding to Emergencies  
Members monitor a police scanner and respond to emergency calls, uninvited by city authorities. Such was the case until recently, when the struggling department was ordered to stop operating by the city’s fire commissioner, Salvatore J. Cassano, who notified the unit that it was “operating without the proper training, equipment and authorizations,” and putting the public and city firefighters at risk.
nytimes.com

Buffalo fire truck collides with SUV  
One of the Buffalo Fire Department's rigs is temporarily out of commission, after colliding with an SUV Saturday evening. Ladder 7 was responding to a 911 call on Kensington Avenue at around 7:16 PM, when the accident occurred near the intersection of East Amherst Street and Parkridge Avenue. The fire commissioner himself was called to the scene.
WIVB-TV Buffalo

Four-Alarm Brooklyn Fire Sends Nine Bravest To Hospital  
Nine city firefighters were taken to the hospital Monday after battling a four-alarm fire in a Brooklyn auto shop. The New York City Fire Department says it started around 10:30 a.m. inside an Auto Zone located at 561 Utica Avenue in East Flatbush and quickly spread."We had a lot of fire in the store in the front and also on the left hand side. As soon as we opened the roll down gates there was fire. Our units operated inside for at least 10 minutes but the amount of fire was just too much. We pulled them out for their own safety, part of the ceiling started to come down," said one fire chief on the scene.
NY1-TV

Firefighters in Yonkers hope to win a new kitchen  
For decades, the firefighters of Engine Company 306 had to cook in a kitchen with faulty appliances, no cabinets, walls full of holes and frequent rodent infestations. Then one night in October, their ramshackle cooking space went from being a headache to a stove. Today, there are still unfinished walls and exposed wires.
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

FDNY hire halt hikes OT to $200M  
The FDNY is expected to shell out a record $200 million in overtime this year to its uniformed personnel because a bruising federal court fight has blocked the hiring of new firefighters, The Post has learned. Records show that OT payments to firefighters and officers, which dropped to a four-year low of $128 million in fiscal 2009, spiked after Brooklyn federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis ruled that the 2007 firefighter exam was biased against minorities and hiring came to an abrupt halt.
nypost.com