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A Colorado fire truck was used Sunday for an unusual rescue.

A 200 pound bear was up a tree in Aubrey Adkins’ Colorado Springs yard, KOAA.com reported.

Wildlife Officer Tonya Sharp told KOAA.com once tranquillized, officials usually just let the bears fall from a tree, but this female bear was higher up and through thick branches.

From KOAA.com:

“First time ever for me, you don’t really train to get a black bear out of a tree,” said Lt. Mike Smaldino. “Just kind of treated it like any other kind of rescue that we have, we just have, we have systems that we can setup if it were a person and so we just kind of did that around a bear.”

A fire engine ladder was raised to the top of the tree and fire fighters and wildlife officers wrapped ropes and harnesses around the sedated bear and tied them to the end of the ladder. Then, slowly and gently, the bear was pulled out of the tree and lowered to the ground.

Wildlife experts made sure the bear was ok then transported her out of the area.

KOAA.com’s full story is here.

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A driver in the United Kingdom did the right thing — he pulled to another lane for fire trucks responding to a call. Then, he received a ticket for the effort.

Cameras placed along the Bristol highway captured 67-year-old Ian Pemble pulling in the lane designated for buses, the Daily Mail reported. A few seconds later, two rigs passed Pemble.

“I paid my fine. But I was so annoyed with them, and I know my rights, so I asked for more evidence,” Pemble told the Daily Mail. “And it was lucky I did because when they sent through the video, it clearly shows me moving out of the way of two fire engines.”

Pemble will get his money back as well as an apology.

A council spokeswoman told the Daily Mail that while the video is typically reviewed before tickets are sent out to watch for these instances, that didn’t happen in this case.

The Daily Mail’s full story is here.  Another story, from Metro, is here.

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A Connecticut fire station was damaged when a rig’s tool tray wasn’t closed and hit the building as the truck pulled out.

It will cost about $10,000 to fix the Collinsville building, including part of the brick on the outside, Ken Byron of the Hartford Courant reported.

The fire truck, which also had minor damage, was headed to a call for a car into a house on May 8 when the incident happened, Byron wrote.

“The tray was left open and when the truck drove out it essentially took out part of the wall of the building,” Town Chief Administrative Officer Robert Skinner told the Courant.

The incident is under investigation.

Read the Hartford Courant’s full story here.

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A fire truck en route from Florida to Canada caught fire Tuesday in South Dakota.

Officials with the Highway Patrol told ArgusLeader.com the driver pulled over after smelling smoke, then saw flames under the rig.

Two South Dakota fire departments helped put the fire out.

ArgusLeader.com’s full story is here.

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Click image above for WPXI’s video.

One Pennsylvania borough council is expressing its feelings with the fire chief after he used a fire truck “as a prom limousine,” TribLive.com’s Joe Napsha reported.

Back in April, West Newton chief Craig Sanner’s son and prom date were driven to the high school on a department rig.

“If true, we feel this is an inappropriate use of public monies,” said the council’s resolution, and the councilman who brought the issue to the meeting said there was a potential public safety problem if that rig had been needed for a call, Napsha wrote.

Chief Sanner spoke with Napsha from the station after the meeting:

Sanner said the fire truck was never “out of service” and never outside the area where it responds to calls under mutual aid agreements with Herminie and Lowber.

The fire truck would have responded to a fire call if an emergency had occurred en route to the high school, Sanner said. His wife was driving a car behind the fire truck and she would have picked up the couple in the event the fire truck had to be used in an emergency, Sanner said.

Sanner told Napsha the truck returned to West Newton not long after dropping the teens off.

Joe Napsha’s full story on TribLive.com is here. A video report from KDKA is here.

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An Ohio man who police said stole and crashed a tanker Friday died.

Brentley Montgomery was ejected from the rig which hit a guardrail and rolled over, Dispatch.com reported. The 19-year-old was airlifted to Ohio State Medical Center.

From Dispatch.com early Tuesday:

Franklin County Coroner Jan Gorniak confirmed yesterday evening that Montgomery had died. He had not been formally charged in connection with the theft and the wreck.

10TV.com reported surveillance video shows a man getting into the fire station by breaking a window.

The 2,200 gallon Harrison Township Fire Department tanker was insured and will cost between $190,000 and $250,000 to replace, according to Dispatch.com.

Harrison Township trustees declared an emergency, which “paves the way for a temporary replacement truck until their insurance comes through,” 10TV.com reported.

“We have low money and low budget, and this is going to hurt a lot,” said Harrison Township Fire Chief Bryon Thornton.

FireTruckBlog.com’s original story is here, Dispatch.com’s story is here, and click here and here for 10TV.com’s reports. 10TV.com’s photo gallery from the crash is here.

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A Houston fire captain was injured Saturday night after a pickup crashed into a fire truck en route to an emergency call.

Police told KHOU-TV the pickup’s driver, who was charged with driving while intoxicated, “failed to yield the right of way.”

The injured fire captain was in stable condition at Memorial Hermann Hospital, KHOU-TV said.

KHOU-TV’s full story is here.

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Monday, a new fire engine hearse will carry the body of Michigan firefighter Brian Woehlke, who died in the line of duty last week.

From DeadlineDetroit.com:

The hearse is a lovingly restored engine, commonly known as a pumper, that was created out of two rigs from the 1930s. The basic vehicle is a 1937 Seagraves Safety Sedan that answered alarms until 1967 as Detroit’s Engine Co. 13, which was based on E. Milwaukee.

It’s the first time the rig, which needed a new chassis and engine, among other restorations, will be used for a firefighter’s funeral, DeadlineDetroit.com’s Bill McGraw reported.

Detroit firefighters raised the money needed for the renovations, and they expect it to be used in Michigan and southwestern Ontario, McGraw wrote.

Woehlke, 29-years-old and a member of the Wayne-Westland Fire Department, was killed when part of a building collapsed during a fire, MyFoxDetroit.com reported.

DeadlineDetroit.com’s full story is here and MyFoxDetroit.com’s is here.

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A man was critically injured after the fire truck he allegedly stole overturned early Friday morning, Ohio police said.

From Dispatch.com:

A man broke into the Harrison Township fire station through a window, apparently located the keys to a 2003 Kenworth fire truck and took off down Charleston Pike east of Chillicothe, authorities said.

The rig hit a guardrail and overturned, 10TV.com reported. The suspect was ejected and had to be airlifted to Ohio State Medical Center.

Lt. J.M. Moore of Ohio State Highway Patrol told Dispatch.com the man, who did not have identification, was in critical condition and not conscious at the hospital.

“Alcohol and/or drugs of impairment are suspected,” according to WBEX.com.

See more photos at WBEX.com. 10tv.com’s full story is here, and Dispatch.com’s story is here.

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Meriden residents hoping to save fire truck

Could budget cuts cost a section of Meriden, Connecticut a fire truck?

Residents are concerned it could happen if the town council considers alternatives to the budget, WTNH.com reported.

The council has voted and on paper the money is there to keep both the firehouse and engine three operating. However, the same council wants to review alternatives, which could mean engine three is in fact cut.

Resident Gary Kafka told WTNH.com he’s concerned about the time it would take for a rig from another location to get to his neighborhood.

City Manager Lawrence Kendzior said other options are being considered for coverage for medical emergencies, such as a having firefighters staff a medical van at the station.

Read WTNH.com’s full story here.

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