fire fighters

Highway 395 south of Gardnerville has been cleared by the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) and is now safe for motorists to travel.

The Carson City Fire Department is on scene near the Fox on Carson Street, and traffic is facing a slight delay, but there’s no accident. Instead, the delays are being caused by local residents slowing to give what they can to the firefighters raising money for “Climbing for a Cure,” a rigorous nation-wide stair climb in Seattle, which raises money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

GARDNERVILLE — Just in time for more cold and snowy weather this weekend, East Fork Professional Firefighters IAFF Local 3726 donated 150 brand new coats to kids at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Western Nevada Carson Valley Clubhouse and Douglas County School District this week, through the Operation Warm Coats for Kids Foundation.

Local community heroes gathered together Wednesday morning for the annual “Holiday with a Hero” event in which members of law enforcement, fire fighters, military personnel, and more, join together with Walmart to take local children on Christmas shopping trips to fill their wish lists.

Live stage music played simultaneously Saturday evening from the Minnesota Street Stage at the Brewery Arts Center on West King Street to Living the Good Life Nightclub-Bistro-Lounge at Adams and North Carson Street.

Enjoy music by Grammy nominee Ty Herndon, Elvis Tribute Artist Clint Ingbretson, Canyon White, Wabuska Yachting Club, and Fate Awaits with our Master of Ceremonies KBUL 98.1's JJ Christy at during The Last Response Memorial Fund Inaugural Music Festival for Heroes Saturday, Aug. 25 at Living the Good Life in Carson City.

Grammy-nominated country singer Ty Herndon, who rose to fame as a finalist in the television show “Star Search” will perform Aug. 25 at Living the Good Life in Carson City as a part of the Last Response Memorial Fund music festival.

Summer fun is heating up! Let the kids burn off some energy at the Kids Triathlon at Mills Park. You’ll find all the colors of the rainbow, plus great music and fun times, at the Festival of Unity and Community: Sassabration. Get your grub on at the annual Nevada Honor Flight Chili Cook-off at Glen Eagles, and make sure to check out the craft vendors. The Brewery Arts Center free Concert Series continues tonight with Remember Jones on the stage; bring the family and your friends for a good time had by all. Read on for even more hot summer fun.

SATURDAY:

Central Lyon Fire responded to a structure fire on Grosh Avenue in Dayton at 10:31 Thursday morning. First units arrived on scene at 10:37 a.m. to a fully involved fire in a single family residence.

Mother Natures Naturals.com is a Veteran owned ecommerce startup company in Carson City that is focused on the hundreds of thousands of Veterans with PTSD.

We also provide support for first responders, Fire Fighters and police who also suffer this traumatic mental health issue. National Studies on PTSD state that at any given time the United States has up to 10,000,000 people suffering from PTSD.

People impacted include rape victims, battered women, abused children, terrorism victims and Natural disaster victims.

Sunny days are here again, and Carson City gives you plenty of ways to enjoy it. It’s the boys in blue versus the fire fighters in today’s Battle of the Badge Blood Drive. Bikers won’t want to miss the weekly party at Battle Born Harley with house band, the Smoken Rabbits; all vehicles are welcome to join in the fun and get some grub from the Rollin Pizza Pie food truck. The whole family will enjoy tonight’s Twilight Concert with the Sextones at the Dangberg Home Historic Ranch. Learn about Virginia City ghosts with authors Sandie LaNae and Arlene Laferry at the haunted Gold Hill Hotel.

GARDNERVILLE, Nev. – East Fork Professional Firefighters IAFF Local 3726 collected $3,436 from its members, including an individual donation of $1,000, to purchase 204 new, warm winter coats as part of the Operation Warm Coats for Kids Foundation. Coats will be distributed to school district officials Tuesday, Dec. 20.

The first drop-off is at C.C. Meneley Elementary School in Gardnerville at 9 a.m. and continues throughout the day at Douglas County Schools.

GARDNERVILLE, Nev. – East Fork Fire and Paramedic District Battalion Chief Scott Fraser and Captains John Brawley and Tracy Connelly returned home tired and happy to see their loved ones last week after spending two weeks fighting raging blazes in the heavily forested mountains of North Carolina.

A firefighting operations orientation training program was held Friday at the Carson City Training Center, behind Carson City Fire Department (CCFD) Station 52, located at 2400 East College Parkway, and next to the Carson City Municipal Airport.

Hello fellow anglers, many have been asking, where is the Naw report? I have been fishing in Oregon for the last couple weeks and did quit well. We caught green and blue ling cod and a few black sea bass out of Brooking's.

Honor guard processions were held Wednesday for two U.S. Bureau of Land Management firefighters who died Sunday in a rollover crash. A procession was held for Will Hawkins, 22 of Reno and Jacob M. O’Malley, 27, of Zephyr Cove which began in Reno and went to Walton's Chapel of the Valley in Carson City.

The Carson City Firefighters Association purchased 235 brand new coats for Carson City students in transition between permanent homes through Operation Warm after raising almost $7,500, nearly double the amount raised in last year’s drive.

Firefighters on Wednesday began distributing coats to children selected by the Carson City School District at Fritsch Elementary School, which is the first stop on the distribution tour of district schools.

Carson City’s firefighters are collecting funds to purchase new coats for Carson City students in transition between permanent homes through Operation Warm. Supported by the International Association of Fire Fighters and Rotary Clubs across the country, Operation Warm has donated more than 1.7 million coats nationally since its inception in 1998.

The U.S. Forest Service and cooperating fire agencies will escort fallen U.S. Forest Service wildland firefighter Michael “Mikey” Hallenbeck from South Lake Tahoe, Calif., to his final resting place on Thursday, August 13, 2015.
Hallenbeck died of injuries sustained when a tree fell on him during efforts to suppress the Sierra Fire on Saturday, Aug. 8.

As I have done for many years, my last article of the year, each year, is to present the Don Q Awards for a number of different reasons. Those reasons include such assorted things as: Outstanding, memorable, good, not so good, questionable, bad, serious, funny, dumb, head-scratching, are-you-kidding, etc.

These awards are presented to all kinds of people or places or things for what has occurred throughout the year.
It’s a fun way to end the year for yours truly.

So, without further ado, here are the 2014 Don Q Award winners:
Best Birthday Present:

*Friday, Nov. 14 at 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. | Admission $35 *Early Bird Special
Friday, Nov. 14 at 5:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. | Admission $12 Adult; $6 Children 6-12 (5 and under are free)
Saturday, Nov. 15 at 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. | Admission $7 Adult; $4 Children 6-12 (5 and under are free)
Sunday, Nov. 16 at 10:00 to 3:00 p.m. | Admission $5 Adult; $3 Children 6-12 (5 and under are free) | FREE with ID for: military, police, fire fighters, ambulance, Nevada students and WCSD employees

UPDATE: Air quality monitors in Carson City and Gardnerville are reporting levels of particulate matter in the unhealthy range due to smoke from the King fire in California, according to Nevada environmental health officials.

People with heart or lung disease, older adults, and children should consider moving activities indoors and avoid prolonged or heavy exertion. Everyone else should reduce prolonged or heavy exertion.

With 80 percent containment, the mop-up and line rehab process has begun on the Bison Fire burning east of Gardnerville, fire officials report Friday morning. As the containment percent rises firefighters and equipment will be released from the Bison Fire and made available for other fires.

Fire officials report progress on the Bison Fire overnight, with plans Thursday to do continued work on hot spots and to begin the rehabbing process.

Voluntary evacuations for 78 homes were lifted Wednesday at around 6:30 p.m. The fire is 65 percent contained as of Thursday morning with the size of it being reduced to 24,136 acres at this time, said Lisa Ross, spokeswoman for the Bureau of Land Management.

Below is the Thursday morning press briefing from the BLM:

Voluntary evacuations of a Smith Valley subdivision are underway as firefighters held flames along a ridge above to stop them from spreading into homes, the Bureau of Land Management reports this morning. Firefighters overnight were able to reinforce the line, with the day shift continuing its efforts today.

More than 1,060 firefighters continued efforts Tuesday battling the Bison Fire in the Pine Nut Mountains east of Gardnerville, which has prompted a voluntary evacuation of the Pipeline Canyon area in Lyon County. As of early Tuesday evening, the fire has burned 25,733 acres and is 25 percent contained.

The Bison Fire burning in Douglas County grew to 25,733 acres by early Tuesday morning, with 25 percent containment and Douglas County declaring a state of emergency to allow for more resources. More than 700 personnel are assigned to the fire.

Overnight the fire burned actively from the north side until about 3 a.m. the on the northeast and southeast sides. The night crews were able to make significant progress, said Lisa Ross, spokeswoman for the Bureau of Land Management.

Great Basin Management Type 2 Team, operating under Incident Commander Mike Whalen, reports fire fighters made progress today even though the fire increased in size to 21,337 acres, with almost all of the acreage increase on the north side of the incident. The fire is now 25-percent contained with a revised full containment target date of July 15.

The Bison Fire burning in southeast Douglas County is between 1,200 to 1,300 acres in size with 15 percent containment as of Friday morning, according to the Douglas County Sheriff's Office and Sierra Front Interagency Dispatch.

CARSON CITY – The long-term unfunded liability of Nevada’s public employee retirement plan improved slightly in fiscal year 2012, up to 71 percent fully funded from 70.2 percent in the previous year, a state official said today.

The plan saw the modest improvement even though the return on investment for the fiscal year was only 2.9 percent. The small gain came after a record 21 percent investment gain in 2011.