Firehouse.com

EL PASO - A 24-year-old man allegedly posing as an El Paso Fire Department investigator was arrested Thursday morning at Bel Air High School, department officials said.

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Mar. 11--KNOXVILLE -- The Knoxville Fire Department today extinguished a fire in a large petroleum tank in the 5200 block of Middlebrook Pike.

Westbound traffic in the immediate vicinity was temporarily rerouted following the 10:10 a.m. call. The fire was under control by about 11:15, KFD Capt. D.J. Corcoran said. Traffic is now back to normal.

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Mar. 11--A Farmingville man was pulled from a burning car after a crash Wednesday morning on Route 25 in Coram, police said.

The crash occurred at 11:20 a.m. near Winfield Davis Drive, police said. A 1995 Toyota Camry driven by Cassandra Lehman, 21, of Farmingville, struck a small school bus that had no students on board, then crashed into a telephone pole, police said.

Lehman escaped with her daughter, 1, but Steven Scuderi, 19, who suffered a broken femur, was trapped, police said.

EVERETT, Mass.

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Fire officials are saying a carelessly flicked cigarette likely ignited the blaze that killed an elderly bedridden Everett woman and her brother early Thursday.

National City, Calif.

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The man hired to replace National City's retiring fire chief has no fire experience, the 10News I-Team learned.

Frank Parra has been a National City councilman for eight years and has worked as an emergency medical technician for over 20 years. However, he is not a fireman.

Chris Zapata, National City's city manager who hired Parra told the I-Team, the new hire doesn't need fire experience.

LONG BEACH, Calif. --

A woman whose car plunged off a bridge into the murky Los Angeles River was fighting for her life Thursday after being submerged for nearly a half-hour, officials said.

The 23-year-old woman was in a sport utility vehicle that smashed through a guardrail and plunged about 40 feet off off the northbound Interstate 710 bridge at Seventh Street around 7:30 a.m., fire Battalion Chief Frank Hayes said.

The woman was responding to treatment at a hospital with her family by her side, Hayes said.

FARMINGTON, N.M. -- A San Juan County volunteer firefighter accused of setting his truck on fire to collect insurance money waived his right to a preliminary hearing Wednesday in Farmington Magistrate Court. His case will be heard in district court.

Jonathan Ziemer, 23, was charged with third-degree felony arson to collect insurance money and third-degree felony false insurance application, Farmington Police Lt. Steve Birch said.

Spotsylvania County Fire and Rescue Chief Chris Eudailey is launching an internal investigation of a fatal house fire in which the victim pleaded for help over the phone as rescuers searched other areas of the house.

The investigation comes more than a month after the Feb. 5 fire on Spotswood Furnace Road and two weeks after The Free Lance-Star requested recordings of radio dispatches and 911 calls from the scene.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- DC Fire & EMS Department officials confirm an EMS crew has been disciplined for failing to take a woman with trouble breathing to the hospital after she called 911 on December 22. Kimberly Kelsey of the 900 block of Rhode Island Avenue, NW was transported to a hospital only after she called 911 a second time, about 56 minutes after her first call.