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Dropped Patient Gets $200k Settlement from Orange County Fire Rescue
Orange County, Florida has settled a two year old lawsuit over a dropped patient. Orange County Fire-Rescue personnel dropped 52 year old Astolfo Lugo back in July, 2006, when the wooden chair they were carrying him on, broke. Lugo, a diabetic, suffered a broken hip, two broken shoulders, and a fractured spine in the fall. Suit was filed in 2007, and was settled this month for the sum of $200,000. Paramedics apparently opted to transport Lugo on the wooden kitchen chair that they found him sitting on, conscious but unresponsive. After the incident, the department implemented a policy requiring patients…
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Lake Delta FD Stops Responding When City Denies Comp Coverage
The Lake Delta Fire Department from Rome, New York closed its doors yesterday, after the City of Rome announced it would no longer pay for workers compensation benefits for the volunteer firefighters. The city had previously picked up the tab which is said to be about $40,000 (which incidentally sounds pretty high for a department that covers a population of 3,200 addresses). Here's the local news coverage:
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Final Lawsuits Filed in Charleston Sofa Super Store Fire
Two more lawsuits were filed last week over the Charleston Sofa Super Store fire on the last day before the statute of limitations closed the incident to further civil litigation. The fire resulted in the deaths of nine Charleston firefighters. The two new suits bring the total of known suits arising out of the incident to 19. South Carolina Code of Laws, Section 15-3-530 provides for a 3 year statute of limitations for suits alleging personal injury or wrongful death. The fire occurred on June 18, 2007, making the final day to file suit June 18, 2010, which was last…
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Haverhill Firefighter Is Paid While In jail…. For Four Months
Firefighters are renowned for their ability to adapt and overcome – at emergency scenes as well as through the trials and tribulations of life. A Haverhill, Massachusetts firefighter reaffirmed that reputation by serving a four month jail sentence in New Hampshire, keeping the incarceration a secret from the Haverhill Fire Department, and continuing to collect his regular paycheck the entire time. Firefighter Kevin Thompson, received a six-month sentence after pleading guilty on January 28, 2010 to driving on a suspended license while being a habitual offender. He was released on May 27, 2010. Remarkably, Thompson’s license had been suspended by…
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Club Valiants Settle Discrimination Suit With Philadelphia
The Club Valiants, an association of Black Philadelphia firefighters, have settled their discrimination lawsuit against the City of Philadelphia. Last November, the Club Valiants and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) filed a discrimination suit in Federal court against the City of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Firefighters Association, IAFF Local 22, and another organization named the Concerned American Fire Fighters Association (CAFFA), alleging discrimination. CAFFA, previously known as the Caucasian American Fire Fighters Association, was dropped as a defendant from the lawsuit in April 2010. The main contention against the City was that fire department computers were…
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Texas Firefighter’s Family Sues E-One and Fire Department for Aerial Training Death
The mother of a 28 year old firefighter who died last year, has sued the City of Kilgore, Texas, along with E-One, Inc., and Hall-Mark Apparatus. Regina Galloway, mother of Kilgore firefighter Cory Galloway, filed suit in District Court for Clegg County, Texas. FF Galloway was training with a new E-One aerial platform on January 25, 2009 at an eight-story dormitory at Kilgore College. During the course of the training exercise the aerial platform got stuck on a concrete parapet wall on the roof of the building. When firefighters attempted to free the aerial platform, the platform violently sprang back from…
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Councilman Files Lawsuit Seeking Reinstatement of Firefighter Pension.
Scranton City Councilman John Loscombe volunteered to serve on the council to finish the remainder of a four year term for a councilman who was elected tax collector. As a retired Scranton firefighter Loscombe received a pension of about $22,000 per year. As a councilman he receives a stipend of $12,500. Like many pension systems, Scranton has ordinances that provide that a retired firefighter's pension "shall be suspended during his term of service" to the city, and resumed on request of the pensioner "upon termination of such compensated service." Shortly after taking office in February of this year, his pension…
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Fresno Sex Discrimination Suit Settled
Michelle Maher’s sexual discrimination suit against the Frenso Fire Department has been settled. The single mom who claims she was forced out of the 2005 training academy, won her gender discrimination case last year, and the case had been on appeal. The city agreed to pay $3,350,000 to settle the case, including $900,000 in legal fees.
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Conflict Seen Between 2 Deals For 9/11 Responders – News Story – KFOX El Paso
Conflict Seen Between 2 Deals For 9/11 Responders – News Story – KFOX El Paso.
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Four more fire fighters file lawsuits in Charleston Sofa Super Store fire
As the third anniversary of Charleston Sofa Super Store fire approaches, four additional firefighters have joined the growing ranks of litigants suing the Sofa Super Store, its owners and other associated companies. The June 18, 2007 fire killed 9 Charleston firefighters, making it one of the worst LODD incidents in US after the World Trade Center attack which killed 343 firefighters. In addition to wrongful death lawsuits filed by the families of the deceased firefighters, four firefighters (Edward Clinton Jones, Gary Taylor, Matthew Roberts and Eric Croft.) filed suits in January, 2010 against the owners accusing the businesses of negligence and…
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Widow Instrumental in Passage of Florida Law to Extend Line of Duty Death Benefits To Firefighters Killed During Training
An important piece of legislation was passed in Florida last month, and signed into law on June 1, 2010 to close a loophole in Florida law that treated the death of a firefighter during training as not “in the line of duty”. This issue came into prominence in 2007 when Volusia County Firefighter John Curry died during a wildland fire training exercise. Personnel were cutting a tree that fell in an unexpected direction, landing on FF Curry, who was 30 years old at the time. His wife and young son were ineligible for state death benefits and her health benefits were…
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Another Twist in the FDNY Discrimination Case
There has been another abrupt change in the FDNY discrimination litigation. On June 1, 2010 Judge Nicholas Garaufis announced that Mary Jo White, a former Federal prosecutor, would take over the role of special master from Robert Morgenthau, who decided to withdraw. Judge Garaufis appointed Morgenthau to serve as special master on May 26, 2010, but the decision came under heavy criticism immediately by the Bloomberg administration. In a letter to the judge, Morgenthau wrote "the city’s Law Department has now objected to my service, claiming I will be perceived as biased against the current administration…[I] request that the Court relieve me of the duties…
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