More residents of Southern California were urged to leave their homes Sunday despite calming winds that allowed a major aerial attack on wildfires that have destroyed hundreds of homes and blanketed the region in smoke. ...more

November 17, 2008

The state Fire Marshal's Office is investigating six intentionally set fires in downtown Sebring, near and in the vicinity of Sebring Middle School, located in the southeast quadrant of the city. ...more

November 13, 2008

Lawrence D'Acunto did little to set the record straight on the subject of Spring Hill Fire Rescue District independence as he purported in the Oct. 23 edition of Hernando Today. I will take his points separately. ...more

October 25, 2008

Polk deputies are investigating three arson cases at Ridge Middle School in Dundee. ...more

October 24, 2008

It took nearly four hours to contain a blaze that destroyed a 56-foot wooden boat at Demen's Landing, said Lt. Joel Granata of St. Petersburg Fire and Rescue. ...more

October 20, 2008

Tampa firefighters ignited a blaze this morning in a new $200,000 training building – a series of seven red shipping containers with metal stairs, doors, windows and vents. ...more

September 26, 2008

To borrow a line we once heard attributed to the late Rich Litowchak, a former publisher of this newspaper, "The fact that you've been doing a job 30 years doesn't mean you've been doing that job well." On all the available evidence, that line can't be used to describe Daniel Azzariti's tenure with the New Port Richey Fire Department. ...more

September 20, 2008

President Bush got a firsthand look Tuesday at the fury that Hurricane Ike unleashed on the Gulf Coast. He was greeted by a virtual ghost town in Galveston, where Ike made landfall. Bush urged frustrated storm evacuees to keep it that way until local officials say it is safe to return. ...more

September 17, 2008

Water management officials will set controlled burns in the Jack Creek area north of Lake June during the next two months, according to a press release from the Southwest Florida Water Management District. ...more

August 30, 2008

Tarpon Springs City Commission members want a status report on staffing levels at the Fire Department. At their meeting Tuesday night commissioners asked interim City Manager Mark LeCouris to have a report responding to complaints that Fire Department personnel are under stress as a result of understaffing at the department by their next meeting, Aug. 19. ...more

August 14, 2008