City Fire Department

The Baltimore Fire Department has implemented a strict new social media policy outlining what firefighters can post on Twitter, Facebook and personal blogs — drawing criticism that the department is trampling on First Amendment rights. Under the policy, department personnel can be reprimanded for anything they write online about their jobs that doesn't adhere to conduct rules, which require "good judgment" and "courtesy and respect to the public and to fellow employees. " The policy also restricts them from sharing information about fire scenes.

Firefighters battling a blaze in a small rowhome in West Baltimore on Thursday evening discovered the body of a man in a second-floor bedroom, said Roman Clark, spokesman for the city Fire Department. The man has not yet been identified, and a neighbor said she had never seen anyone go in or out of the home at 615 Claymont Avenue. The homes flanking it were vacant and no other injuries were reported, Clark said. It has not yet been determined whether the man was a resident, and the cause of the fire is under investigation.

Two Baltimore-area health organizations have donated eight portable heart-monitoring units to the city Fire Department that will enable paramedics to relay data on a patient's heart function directly to a hospital's emergency room, fire officials said.Helix Health and Sinai Hospital donated the units, which fire officials said will greatly improve survival chances after heart attacks, the nation's leading cause of death.The monitoring units will enable paramedics to better assess a patient's condition and ensure that proper resources are at hand when the patient arrives at a hospital.

The Baltimore Fire Department has implemented a strict new social media policy outlining what firefighters can post on Twitter, Facebook and personal blogs — drawing criticism that the department is trampling on First Amendment rights. Under the policy, department personnel can be reprimanded for anything they write online about their jobs that doesn't adhere to conduct rules, which require "good judgment" and "courtesy and respect to the public and to fellow employees. " The policy also restricts them from sharing information about fire scenes.

AT THE AGE OF 80-plus years, Harrison Shipley has co-written his first book -- "Remem- brances of Passing Days: A Pictorial History of Ellicott City and Its Fire Department."He's the logical person to write this book.Shipley's father, B. H. Shipley Sr. and his wife, Mary, lived in an apartment above the fire station, which at that time served all of Howard County.Dad was the fire chief. Harrison Shipley was born and raised in that apartment on Main Street.When the telephone was installed in the 1920s, there was no 911. The phone was rigged to ring directly to the apartment in the event of a fire.

For the first time since it integrated 50 years ago, the Baltimore City Fire Department has hired an all-white class of recruits for its training academy. A group of retired black city firefighters, many of whom became pioneers when they integrated the Fire Department in the 1950s and 1960s, are accusing Chief William J. Goodwin Jr. of stamping on racial progress and violating the tenets of the Civil Rights Act. "The chief has set this department back 50 years with this group," said retired firefighter Alfred Boyd, referring to the 30 men and women in this year's recruiting class.

At the Baltimore City Fire Department, they call it "the anomaly." In 2004, the department hired an all-white class of recruits for its training academy, sparking outrage and demands for change in an outdated hiring model. Two years, two tests and two recruitment drives later, fire officials have turned around a public relations disaster. Today, the department's academy will graduate two classes in which minorities make up 61.9 percent and 47.4 percent. Since 2004, 60.4 percent of the students passing through the academy have been minorities.

Leonard John Haywood Jr., a World War II submariner and a retired deputy city Fire Department chief, died Sunday of cancer at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium. He was 81. Mr. Haywood, who was born in Baltimore and raised in Highlandtown, graduated from Patterson Park High School. "He tried to enlist in the Navy when he was 16, but they wouldn't take him because he was underage and needed his mother's permission," said a daughter, Carolynne H. Dorsey of Cockeysville. On his 17th birthday, he enlisted in the Navy because he wanted to "serve his country," said his son, Kirk Haywood, a retired city Fire Department captain.

Firefighters battling a blaze in a small rowhome in West Baltimore on Thursday evening discovered the body of a man in a second-floor bedroom, said Roman Clark, spokesman for the city Fire Department. The man has not yet been identified, and a neighbor said she had never seen anyone go in or out of the home at 615 Claymont Avenue. The homes flanking it were vacant and no other injuries were reported, Clark said. It has not yet been determined whether the man was a resident, and the cause of the fire is under investigation.

A one-alarm fire Wednesday night caused property damage estimated at $40,000 to the Mount Washington Food Market in the 1600 block of Kelly Ave.Capt. Calvin Johnson, city Fire Department spokesman, said the fire started in an electrical outlet behind an ice cream cooler on the first floor of the two-story brick building.The fire was confined to the first floor.No one was injured in the fire, which was reported at 10:22 p.m.

Dispatched to a one-story brick warehouse in flames on Baylis Street in Canton last month, firefighters did not know it contained 8,000 gallons of corrosive chemicals. But not because it wasn't known to the Baltimore City Fire Department. Its hazardous materials permit database included the warehouse and chemicals, but is so arcane that it's impossible to point and click through it using a computer mouse. The chemicals also were disclosed by the owner on an annual hazmat form required under a federal law inspired when a chemical gas leak killed 5,000 people in India in 1984.

Monsignor Richard E. Parks, pastor of Sacred Heart of Mary Roman Catholic Church in Graceland Park for 25 years who was also a city Fire Department chaplain, died of cancer Feb. 19 at Stella Maris Hospice. He was 80. Monsignor Parks was remembered by friends for his caring personality and the lasting friendships he established wherever he went. "He never thought of himself," said the Rev. George Gannon, current pastor of Sacred Heart of Mary. "He was generous with his time and had an ability to ascertain just what people needed.

Paul L. "Sarge" Hartsock Sr., a retired Baltimore Fire Department communications lineman and a Korean War veteran, died March 8 of heart failure at Manor Care Ruxton. The Dundalk resident was 81. The son of a steelworker and a homemaker, Mr. Hartsock was born at home on East Hoffman Street, 45 minutes after midnight on Jan. 1, 1930. The family later moved to North Washington Street. Mr. Hartsock attended city public schools and left to enlist in the Navy when he was 16. "When they found out, they let him go. He later enlisted in the Marine Corps," said a son, Paul L. Hartsock Jr. of Edgemere.

A four-alarm blaze on the west side of downtown was declared under control Sunday morning, more than five hours after city firefighters were called to the scene at a seven-story vacant building, according to fire officials. One person was injured during the fire in the 300 block of N. Howard St., according to Captain Roman Clark, when a firefighter was hit in the helmet with a sledgehammer. The firefighter was sent to Shock Trauma as a precaution, though Clark described the injuries as minor.

Two firetrucks collided with each other while heading to a fire in West Baltimore Tuesday afternoon, sending four firefighters to area hospitals, authorities say. A spokesman for the city fire department said the engines were responding to a blaze in the 1200 block of Mosher St. at about 12:30 p.m. when they crashed into each other at the intersection of N. Fulton and Edmondson avenues. The injuries are not believed to be life-threatening, officials said. Police have blocked off the intersection and are investigating the accident.

Two men killed in separate city incidents Two men were fatally shot over the weekend in separate and apparently unrelated incidents, police said. No arrests had been made in either slaying. The first incident was reported at 6:30 p.m. Saturday in the 800 block of N. Milton Ave. in the Milton-Montford neighborhood. Eastern District police responding to shots fired found the victim, later identified as William Jones, 26, a resident of the street, bleeding from at least one bullet wound, said Detective Nicole Monroe, a police spokeswoman.

Western High School, 4600 Falls Road, was closed today after a deliberately set fire sent heavy smoke through the building.Capt. Patrick P. Flynn, spokesman for the city Fire Department, said the fire, ruled an arson, broke out in the basement janitorial supply room about 5:20 a.m.Wooden shelves and janitorial supplies, including cardboard boxes, were burned. Flynn said fire damage, which was confined to the supply room, was estimated at $15,000. The fire was declared under control about 6 a.m.

Nine apartments were damaged in a two-alarm fire at the Windsor Forest apartment complex in West Baltimore yesterday morning, according to Capt. Roman Clark, a spokesman for the city Fire Department. The blaze, on the second and third floors of a garden apartment building in the 5000 block of Corley Road, was reported about 3 a.m., Clark said. The American Red Cross of Central Maryland is putting up the nine people the fire displaced in local hotels, organization spokeswoman Linnea Anderson said.