County Firefighters

Carroll County firefighters fared well with honors at last month's Maryland State Firemen's Association convention in Ocean City.William Luebberman received the Fire Instructor of the Year Award from the Chesapeake Instructors Society.John Korman, Carroll County Volunteer Firemen's Association first vice president, was inducted into the Maryland State Firemen's Hall of Fame in recognition of his service.The Mayberry Gates Award for service of 50 years or more went to three county volunteer firefighters: Charles Walter and Baird Bollinger from Hampstead, and Clyde Kreitzer from Manchester.

A Baltimore City police officer was taken to a local hospital for smoke inhalation after he attempted to alert residents about a two-alarm fire in the Bolton Hill neighborhood Saturday afternoon. Fire department spokesman Capt. Roman Clark said the officer suffered minor injuries. He was treated at the scene and transported to the hospital as a precautionary measure. The blaze in the 1800 block of Eutaw Place began around 2:30 p.m. and was placed under control about two hours later, he said.

Baltimore County firefighters overwhelmingly ratified a one-year labor agreement last night that will improve pension benefits and some working conditions, according to union officials. The contract will not increase wages of the county's 1,000 firefighters and paramedics or cost-of-living adjustments, although base salaries will rise in a trade-off that eliminates other payments they receive. County Executive James T. Smith Jr. had said in his budget address last month that the county couldn't afford pay raises for any employees this year.

Howard County firefighters battled two Sunday night blazes in Ellicott City, including one that required assistance from Baltimore County fire officials to get under control, Howard County fire officials said. Around 10 p.m., firefighter responded to a report of fire coming from the roof of a two-story, single-family home on the 3000 block of Mullineaux Lane. Fire officials said that three residents were in the home; two evacuated when alerted by smoke detectors and another evacuated after firefighters entered the home, officials said.

Anne Arundel County is on its way to finalizing the contracts of its largest unions, quietly resolving a potentially contentious piece of next year's budget. The president of the county firefighters union, Bob Stevens, confirmed Friday that its more than 800 members have reached a tentative multiyear deal with Anne Arundel officials but would not release the terms. That news came about three weeks after the 560-member police union ratified a two-year agreement with 3 percent annual raises.

Fifty trips to New York to honor some of the 343 firefighters who died in the aftermath of 9/11 helped ignite an idea in the mind of Howard County Assistant Fire Chief J. Mark Richards, resulting in a mission he is carrying out today. Standing at attention several dozen different times while listening to bagpipers play as pallbearers carried the caskets of those New York firefighters, he knew what he wanted to do: Help form a pipe band back in Maryland. Richards made those trips a decade ago with other county firefighters during off-duty hours to Staten Island and Manhattan to attend funeral and memorial services held in the vicinity of the World Trade Center's twin towers.

County officials say they will appeal an Anne Arundel Circuit judge's ruling ordering them to hold off notifying government employees about the county's new health care plan.The injunction, granted May 12 by Judge Warren B. Duckett Jr. in response to a suit by the county firefighters union, threatens efforts to implement a revised health care plan for the county's 4,000 employees by July 1, officials say.County Attorney Judson P. Garrett said he has filed a request asking Judge Duckett to modify or rescind the week-old order.

When an alarm sounded recently for a house fire in Reisterstown, three veteran members of the Liberty Road volunteers sat helplessly in their firehouse as other companies responded without them.The three men had little choice -- they are among approximately 200 career firefighters and paramedics prohibited by Baltimore County from riding fire engines and ambulances as volunteers."It's frustrating. We've got to sit here and watch others go up the road," said Robert Van Vugt, 38, a career paramedic and driver who was in the station that recent day, when there was no qualified driver and too few volunteers to get out of the door within the three-minute limit required by the Baltimore County Fire Department.

Charles A. Dutch Ruppersberger III, the Democratic front-runner in the race for Baltimore County executive, gained two more significant endorsements this week -- from the county firefighters union and from House delegation Chairman E. Farrell Maddox of Essex.The county councilman from Cockeysville has the united support of police, teachers, blue-collar and fire unions. The Maddox endorsement also is likely to help him on the critical east side, which has no candidate of its own in this year's Democratic primary.

After 16 months of frustration, hundreds of paid Baltimore County firefighters can again fight fires as members of volunteer companies in their home county, under a new directive from the county executive's office."

A former volunteer firefighter who worked with youths at the Lansdowne department pleaded guilty Monday to sexually abusing a teenage boy he mentored in a training program at the station. Anthony Maurice Cottle, 23, who appeared Monday in Baltimore County Circuit Court, also faces federal charges. Cottle, a resident of Owings Mills, was also a paid firefighter with the Baltimore County Fire Department. He has been suspended without pay from that department since being charged in October.

One Harford County firefighter suffered burns and another became ill while combating a house fire Saturday night in the 1700 block of Harbinger Trail, Edgewood. The incident was reported at about 8 p.m. at a two-story, single family home, according to fire officials. Initial response came from the Joppa-Magnolia Volunteer Fire Company, along with the Abingdon Fire Company, Kingsville Volunteer Fire Company and the Aberdeen Proving Ground Fire Department. Fire officials thought there may have have been one person inside, so firefighters entered the house with hoses and began extinguishing fire on both floors.

Damp from sweat, soot smeared beneath his eye, Anne Arundel County Council Chairman Derek Fink tried to regain his composure as smoke poured from a burning building at the county's fire training center. "I knew it was going to be tough, but this is 10 times harder than I thought," Fink said. Moments earlier, Fink and Councilman Peter I. Smith were each outfitted with 55 pounds of fire gear, crawling on their hands and knees beneath black smoke, searching for a dummy hidden among the flames.

Anne Arundel County police officers and firefighters have made themselves clear: They don't believe the county's leadership can help their departments solve staffing and technological problems that they say pose a threat to public safety. The county firefighters union's vote this week of no confidence in Fire Chief John Robert Ray is the latest expression of discontent by public safety workers. Following the lead of three police unions that called on County Executive John R. Leopold to step down, the firefighters union has scheduled its own no-confidence vote on Leopold for Tuesday.

Two Prince George's County firefighters, who were seriously injured while fighting a house fire in Riverdale, remained in critical but stable condition Sunday, according to their families. Bladensburg volunteer firefighter Ethan Sorrell, 21, remained intubated but was conscious at the Washington Hospital Center's burn unit. He suffered burns to his airway. Kevin O'Toole, 22, also a Bladensburg volunteer firefighter, had burns over 40 percent of his body and was expected to remain in the hospital's burn unit for at least six weeks, according to fire officials, citing O'Toole's father, Jeff.

Fifty trips to New York to honor some of the 343 firefighters who died in the aftermath of 9/11 helped ignite an idea in the mind of Howard County Assistant Fire Chief J. Mark Richards, resulting in a mission he is carrying out today. Standing at attention several dozen different times while listening to bagpipers play as pallbearers carried the caskets of those New York firefighters, he knew what he wanted to do: Help form a pipe band back in Maryland. Richards made those trips a decade ago with other county firefighters during off-duty hours to Staten Island and Manhattan to attend funeral and memorial services held in the vicinity of the World Trade Center's twin towers.

For county firefighters Richard Meise and Keith Hamilton, it's been a busy day at the red-brick firehouse on Broadview Boulevard.In the first five hours of their 24-hour shift at Ferndale Volunteer Fire Department, they have answered five ambulance calls -- a fractured ankle, an allergic reaction to medication, someone with dizziness, car accident victims.Because most of the volunteer firefighters work other jobs, many of the calls, especially during the day, are handled by paid county firefighters assigned to Engine Company 34. And Meise and Hamilton were the only ones on duty last Thursday.

Baltimore County is moving to beef up its ambulance services as volunteer fire companies struggle to come to grips with the sudden loss of members who also work as paid county firefighters.Additional reserve medic units are being assigned to the Westview, Randallstown, Essex and Towson fire stations starting next week. The idea is to have more help on hand during peak periods if volunteers have trouble responding to calls, said Battalion Chief Mark Hubbard, the department's spokesman.The move comes amid a dispute between county officials and paid firefighters.

Dozens of Anne Arundel County firefighters worked Sunday to contain remaining pockets of a huge blaze that broke out in a remote area south of Odenton early Saturday, said Capt. James Rostek, spokesman for the Fire Department. High winds that drove the flames on Saturday — when the blaze reached five alarms — had died down Sunday, but firefighters were still putting out hot spots with more than 50 pieces of equipment, including bulldozers and brush units, which hauled water from a fire hydrant five miles away.

William H. Falkenhan Sr., a retired Baltimore County firefighter and decorated World War II veteran, died Jan. 11 of complications from Alzheimer's disease at his Dundalk home. He was 91. Mr. Falkenhan was born and raised in East Baltimore. He was a vocational school graduate. During World War II, he served with an Army infantry unit in Europe, where he earned two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star. From 1954 until his retirement in 1984, Mr. Falkenhan was a Baltimore County firefighter and spent the bulk of his career assigned to the Dundalk fire station.