Since the America's Most Wanted All-Star program began in 2005, only first responders from law enforcement agencies have been voted as the Grand Prize winners.

The annual contest also is open to members of the fire service and EMS personnel. Despite this, the three finalists who have already been announced -- out of a pool that will eventually include eight nominees -- are with police departments or sheriff's offices.

Families of eight of the nine Charleston firefighters who died in the 2007 Sofa Super Store blaze have reached a partial settlement with several of the companies they claimed were negligent, according to The Post and Courier.

From a pool of some 30 companies, all but about four have agreed to settlements totaling more than $1.2 million, the report said. Larry Richter, an attorney for several of the families, told the newspaper that figure was closer to $1.5 million.

POMPANO BEACH, Fla. --

Four workers are safe after getting stuck on a drawbridge that went up unexpectedly in Florida

Pompano Beach city spokeswoman Sandra King says hydraulics failed on a bridge under reconstruction Wednesday morning, causing it to rise while Department of Transportation workers were still on it.

Three workers were brought down in harnesses. A fourth was left trapped in the air over the Intracoastal Waterway.

A Jefferson Township firefighter's home was destroyed by flames yesterday afternoon, according to The Elkhart Truth.

A firefighter battling the blaze was transported to Goshen General Hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation, Assistant Chief Jeremy Martin told the newspaper.

No one was in the home at the time of the fire and a small black dog was rescue from the residence.

The Hempstead Fire Department chief and a New York City firefighter were arrested and charged with frisking and menacing a man by holding him at gunpoint on a Hempstead street Sunday, police said.

A Fire Department of New York spokesman, Steve Ritea, said that Brian Schuck, 33, a nine-year veteran of the FDNY who works for Ladder 111 in Brooklyn and lives in Freeport, was suspended without pay for 30 days.

Facing a shrinking number of options to close a budget gap that could grow to $600 million in the next fiscal year, the Los Angeles City Council is weighing whether to deactivate 10 rescue ambulances at night.

Council members postponed a decision Tuesday amid confusion about how the proposal would affect response times and after listening to the tearful testimony of a man whose father recently died of a heart attack.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- As the investigation into the death of Stephanie Stephens continues, a top official at Children's National Medical Center has made his views about the case known. In a letter to the editor in The Washington Post, Dr. Joseph Wright said, "The decision not to immediately transport a 2-year-old with respiratory symptoms is inexcusable."

Fire Chief Seth A. Knipe said he takes full responsibility for problems that occurred in billing for the Fire Department ambulance service, but believes the problem could have been handled without a police investigation.

"I'm not hiding behind anything," he said. "As chief, the buck stops here.

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Mar. 9--SARATOGA SPRINGS -- A fire that ripped into a historic three-story building in Franklin Square and injured a city firefighter was likely started by an electrical malfunction in a second-floor laundry room, fire officials said Monday.

The smoky blaze in the late 19th-century Victorian mansion started minutes before midnight Friday, and was reported by a resident.

GREENFIELD, Ohio

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Thomas Coonrod would have celebrated his 4th birthday Sunday.

Instead, his family is mourning the Highland County boy and his 3-year-old brother, Stephen.

The boys were killed in a fire that started about 12:30 a.m. at their home at 150 A Lafayette St. in Greenfield, according to a spokesman for the Ohio state fire marshal.

Their father, 42-year-old Wesley Coonrod, was taken into custody early Sunday on child endangerment charges and remains jailed at the Highland County Jail.