Fire Captain

A Los Angeles County fire captain pleaded not guilty Monday to charges that he plotted to have his ex-wife killed after a nasty divorce battle that included a mysterious house fire. Gary L. Sizemore, 43, who is charged with one count of soliciting murder, made a brief appearance in Citrus Municipal Court. He is being held on $1-million bail pending a preliminary hearing April 23.

A private school run by a Los Angeles city fire captain to tutor firemen for key department promotional tests has come under attack following an investigation into allegations that he may have leaked questions on a recent Civil Service exam to his students. While a city investigation has concluded that there is no evidence of wrongdoing, the city Personnel Department has recommended throwing out the essay portion of the exam and giving it again.

When a runaway firestorm swept through Laguna Canyon in October 1993, Dan Young knew this was the fire he had wanted to fight his entire life. It was the big one, the fire he had both feared and anticipated since age 16 when he began fighting fires as a summer recruit in El Toro, a job that required a note from his parents.

The day after a man and woman were found shot in a parking lot at the City of Hope National Medical Center, investigators said Wednesday that they believed the victims were a Monrovia fire captain who shot and killed his wife, then committed suicide. Los Angeles County sheriff's investigators theorized that Fernando Rodriguez, 41, arranged to meet his wife, Katherine, 33, in the parking lot of the Duarte hospital in an effort to resolve ongoing marital difficulties, Sheriff's Capt.

Two fire captains supervising a firefighting camp for youth inmates were physically assaulted in separate incidents within the last six weeks, prompting officials to shut down the program. Officials made the decision to suspend four camps in the California Youth Authority program after the assaults as well as several recent escape attempts, said Karen Terrill, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Tim Robbins has returned to the stage of the Actors Gang theater in Hollywood with a full wind of relevance at his back. Paired with Helen Hunt in the topical two-character play "The Guys," by Anne Nelson, about the aftermath of Sept. 11, Robbins honors New York City's fallen firefighters with a quietly commanding performance as a fire department captain struggling to compose eulogies for eight men his company lost in the collapse of the twin towers.

A former state fire captain was convicted Friday in the 1984 slaying of a restaurant manager stabbed during a botched late-night robbery at a Kentucky Fried Chicken in Torrance. William Charles Marshall, now 46, had worked at the eatery as an assistant manager but was accused of stealing from the restaurant safe and was fired four days before the killing. During a monthlong trial, prosecutors argued that Marshall returned after the restaurant closed on Oct.

For 4-year-old Kenny Mounts, who was badly burned when his shirt caught fire while he was playing with a lighter in June, the hospital had become a cold and lonely place. Then he met Capt. Mike Rodriguez. The Los Angeles Fire Department captain was healing, like Kenny, at the Sherman Oaks Hospital Burn Center, recovering from injuries he suffered when he stepped on a red-hot nail while battling the Altadena fire.

In the latest bizarre court case involving the Los Angeles Fire Department, a jury has awarded $3.75 million to a male fire captain who said he was retaliated against for not making training exercises easier for women. Fire Capt. Frank Lima alleged in his lawsuit against the city that he was told by superiors that he shouldn't hold women to the same standards as men. The reason: The Fire Department was under pressure from City Hall to increase the number of women within its ranks.

A Los Angeles County Fire Department captain on his way to work got an unexpectedly early start Saturday when he pulled over to aid victims at an accident and ended up rescuing a man trapped in a burning car. Capt. Dave Thies was westbound on the San Bernardino Freeway about 6 a.m. when he saw an accident near Holt Avenue. He had just stopped to ask if he could be of assistance when several other cars, apparently unable to avoid the first accident, plowed into one another.