Firefighters

Alma and Angel Arroya get food for Christmas from firefighters at the Norris Square Community Center. Fire Commissioner Roger M. Ulshafer and other Philadelphia firefighters distributed meals to 200 low-income families as part of the Fire Department's Outreach Program. Dinners included roasting chicken, vegetables, stuffing, cranberry sauce, potatoes and dessert.

Firefighters from the Merion Fire Company of Ardmore move garment racks up Greenfield Avenue to their new station house. The company had been quartered in a tent.

Five firefighters were hospitalized after suffering electrical shocks while fighting a blaze in South Philadelphia Thursday afternoon, Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers said. The rowhouse fire occurred near the corner of Garnet and McKean Streets around 5 p.m., Ayers said. Three firefighters were transported to Hahnemann University Hospital and the other two were taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Ayers said the firefighters would be kept overnight for observation as a precaution.

After years of debate, Willingboro will be hiring two professional firefighters to add to its volunteer staff of approximately 70. Township manager Sadie Johnson said the firefighters, who are to drive trucks to daytime calls, were expected to begin work before the end of August, as soon as they passed their physical exams. Each firefighter will receive $26,374 a year, the same starting salary as for a township police officer. That the township hire professional firefighters was "the recommendation of the fire company commissioners who came in at budget time and talked to us about the problems they were having with daytime calls," Mayor Doreatha Campbell said.

Two years ago, a Camden firefighter pulled a charred man from a Liberty Street fire, leaving blood on the firefighter's hands and face. The firefighter, who now suffers from Hepatitis B, suspects he may have contracted the disease from the victim's body fluids and blood. But, because the fire victim died, there is no way to prove that the firefighter contracted the disease on the job. And the firefighter, who declined to be identified, still has relapses of the disease, becoming jaundiced and weak.

Five firefighters were hospitalized after their vehicle overturned Wednesday night in Burlington County, authorities said. Their injuries were not life-threatening. The accident occurred at 7:33 p.m. at Route 38 and Smithville Road in Lumberton, authorities said. The vehicle was identified as Engine 1311 of Lumberton Fire Company No. 1. The firefighters were transported to Virtua Memorial Hospital in Mount Holly and Lourdes Medical Center in Willingboro. There was no immediate word on the cause of the accident.

The days of fire poles, dalmations and clanging bells are over. Today's firefighters could soon be banned from riding on the backs of the hook and ladders. In response to a federal government recommendation, West Chester's Goodwill Fire Company has bought a former ambulance and will convert it into a "firefighter transporter. " David Smiley of the Goodwill Fire Company said he expects the recommendation to be passed into a law that would require all firefighters to be wearing seat belts to and from fires.

I am a City of Philadelphia firefighter. I am writing this letter in regard to Mayor Rendell's proposal to City Council and the PICA board that all city workers take a pay freeze for four years and accept cuts in their health and holiday benefits. This letter is not the view of the Fire Department nor its employees. It is not my intention to express the department's views on this proposal, but to give a personal opinion. Why do city employees have to make the biggest sacrifices?

Four firefighters and a battalion chief were rushed to the hospital after they were shocked, likely by downed electrical wires, as they were fighting a three-alarm blaze in West Philadelphia early yesterday. Two of the injured were admitted for overnight treatment. The other three were treated and released, Executive Fire Chief Daniel Williams said. Authorities ruled out lightning as the cause and said they believed the shock was caused by live wires that had fallen during the fire and came in contact with a ladder truck.

THE NUTTER administration switched gears and has now set aside $31 million to pay for a portion of the firefighters' arbitration award that it is appealing - again. Despite concerns raised by City Council, the city controller and the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, the city's fiscal watchdog, Nutter's budget proposal had not included the costs of the award if the appeal was unsuccessful. The issue has been a major sticking point during this year's budget debate in addition to the longstanding contract disputes with the city's blue- and white-collar unions.

A Camden County jury awarded $596,000 to two Hispanic firefighters who said they were passed over for promotions because of discrimination and their persistent and public complaints about discrimination against minorities within the Camden Fire Department. Andres Nieves, 48, of Medford Lakes, and Samuel Munoz, 34, of Camden, said they were unfairly turned aside for promotion to captain in 2009. On Thursday the jury found the men also faced a hostile work environment and retaliation.

AN ELDERLY MAN found dead inside his burning home yesterday morning in Southwest Philadelphia had been shot to death, police said. Authorities are investigating Grover Edwards' death as a murder and arson, said Officer Christine O'Brien, a police spokeswoman. Edwards, 74, appeared to have been shot in the head, O'Brien said. Investigators had not found a motive or suspects yesterday. The blaze was reported at 7:30 a.m. in Edwards' rowhouse on Springfield Avenue near 59th Street, said Lt. Bernard Gilliam, a Fire Department spokesman.

WEST, Texas - First Baptist Church in the tiny Texas town where a fertilizer plant exploded is still off-limits, so the Rev. John Crowder put folding chairs in a hay pasture and improvised a pulpit on a truck flatbed. At the elementary school, an official carted extra desks and chairs into the only public school campus that's left. This was Sunday in West. Four days after the blast that killed 14 people and injured 200 others, residents prayed for comfort and got ready for the week ahead, some of them still waiting to find out when - or if - they will be able to go back home.

WEST, Texas - Rescuers searched the smoking remnants of a Texas farm town Thursday for survivors of a thunderous fertilizer plant explosion, gingerly checking smashed houses and apartments for anyone trapped in debris while the community awaited word on the number of dead. Initial reports put the fatalities as high as 15, but later in the day, authorities backed away from any estimate and refused to elaborate. More than 160 people were hurt. A breathtaking band of destruction extended for blocks around the West Fertilizer Co. in the small community of West.

IT WAS QUIET, except for the breeze that ruffled the honor guard's flags, as Elizabeth Goodwin sat in a wheelchair outside St. Michael's Lutheran Church, waiting for her son. After a few moments, red-eyed mourners began pouring out of the Kensington church in droves. The quiet was finally interrupted by the mournful sounds of bagpipes as Philadelphia fire Capt. Michael Goodwin's flag-draped casket was moved carefully down the sidewalk. Elizabeth Goodwin lowered her head and sobbed as her son's coffin slowly passed by. Her tears were but a few that were shed Thursday as hundreds of firefighters, family members and friends came together to remember Goodwin, 53, the commander of South Philly's Ladder 27 who died battling a blaze Saturday in Queen Village.

SO, PHILLY loses another firefighter, after which Mayor Nutter states, "We must never forget the grave risks that these heroic public servants take every day at a moment's notice on behalf of us all. " Now living in Nashville, I read the Daily News every day on my Kindle and I find Mayor Nutter's statement somewhat ironic. As someone who used to live one block from where Capt. Michael Goodwin died protecting my old neighborhood, I urge Michael Nutter to never forget the words of his statement above when he tries to fight the salary arbitration case against the firefighters, or refers to the noble police force of my hometown.

The three members of the Black Flag Family gang - including a former volunteer firefighter - knew exactly what they were doing when they allegedly tried to burn down a 237-year-old piece of Bucks County history, police said Tuesday. Fortunately, they didn't succeed. While the interior of the unique Croydon Lodge - once home to a Revolutionary War-era British officer - is damaged, the outside of the structure is still sound, said Bob Pritz, president of Holland Enterprises, a developer.

In a brief, searing, and politically charged ceremony outside City Hall on Tuesday afternoon, grieving families, heartsick friends, city officials, and union leaders gathered to mourn the deaths of three firefighters. Under the heat and glare of an intense sun, the crowd gathered for half an hour, sharing sorrow and indignation. Initially, the event was organized to mark the first anniversary of a warehouse fire in Kensington that killed Lt. Robert Neary and firefighter Daniel Sweeney.

TEARS OF sorrow and anger flowed Tuesday, as the families, friends and comrades of three fallen firefighters gathered outside City Hall to mark their passing and press the city for support. Capt. Michael Goodwin was killed Saturday while fighting flames at Jack B. Fabrics at 4th and Fitzwater streets. His death came nearly a year to the day after Lt. Robert Neary and Firefighter Daniel Sweeney lost their lives battling a blaze at the site of the former Buck Hosiery factory in Kensington.