Los Angeles County Fire Department

James Edward Dixon III, 47, an African American battalion chief who worked to erase discrimination in the Los Angeles County Fire Department. A native of Los Angeles, Dixon was educated at LaVerne College and served in the U.S. Army Reserve. He worked for the Los Angeles Police Department and then spent nearly 19 years as a county firefighter. He was one of only 10 African Americans among the department's 85 chiefs. Dixon was active in the Black Military Officers Assn.

Environmental officials reassured residents Saturday that radiation in Southern California's air remained below levels of concern as workers in Japan struggled to contain releases from a stricken nuclear power plant. Los Angeles County Fire Department officials also sought to debunk an e-mail hoax that predicted acid rain would result from Japan's nuclear accident. The fraudulent e-mail was issued in the fire agency's name and claimed that radioactive particles released in Japan could mix with rain and "cause burns, alopecia or even cancer.

In the 1986 TV movie "Firefighter," the first woman to join the Los Angeles County Fire Department blazes a gender-bending trail meant to light a fire under prospective female recruits. Even though in real life the subject of the film faced hazing that included a sanitary napkin dispenser being thrown at her feet (to which she responded, "That's not my brand," before stalking out), Cindy Barbee hoped her 1983 breakthrough would encourage other women to storm the firehouses.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department has scrapped a plan to use a fire station in Malibu as a temporary location to house inmate firefighters displaced by the massive Station fire. Faced with opposition from residents, Los Angeles County Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman informed the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in a letter that his staff would be looking elsewhere. Freeman did not specify why fire officials backed away from the proposal. But Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said that transforming the fire camp, now a workplace for 30 firefighters and staff, into housing for inmates did not make sense near a residential area.

In 2005, veteran Los Angeles County firefighter Crystal Golden-Jefferson died of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. At first her death was a mystery: The 41-year-old Inglewood mother had always prided herself on her fitness. But now Jefferson's parents believe long-term exposure to brominated chemicals used as flame retardants in household furniture foam caused their daughter's death. Studies show that when burned, such compounds convert to brominated dioxin. Firefighters inhale the fumes and are exposed through soot contact with the skin.

Two people died when fire destroyed a house in the 500 block of Hambledon Avenue in the City of Industry. Los Angeles County Fire Department spokesman Mike Moura said firefighters discovered the two bodies after putting out the fire. The identities of the victims was not immediately available. Cause of the fire was under investigation.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department's 157 fire stations on Tuesday were designated "safe havens" where people can surrender an infant without fear of prosecution. Hospital emergency rooms in the state already serve as safe havens. A parent must surrender the child within 72 hours of birth to avoid child abandonment charges.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department will appeal a judge's ruling that it is unconstitutional for the department to forbid firefighters to read Playboy magazine at work, a regulation meant to discourage sexism in firehouses. Les Tolnai, a senior deputy county counsel who last month unsuccessfully defended in court the Fire Department's right to enforce the ban, said he filed the notice of appeal Monday with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

An 8-month-old baby died Sunday after swallowing a balloon, police said. Responding to a call from the child's parents, police and Los Angeles County Fire Department paramedics arrived Sunday night at the family home on the 1000 block of Cambrin Road. The child, identified by Los Angeles County coroner's officials as Jonathan Gutierrez, was taken to Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center, where he died at 10:05 p.m. Pomona Police Sgt.

The city of Hawthorne, which was nearly bankrupt last year, will soon decide whether to transfer the city Fire Department to the Los Angeles County Fire Department. At their April 8 meeting, City Council members will discuss reopening talks with the county, City Clerk Daniel Juarez said. In a referendum Tuesday, 66% of voters in Hawthorne overwhelming endorsed transferring the city's fire and paramedic services to the county, which would save $6 million over five years.

U.S. Forest Service officials underestimated the threat posed by the deadly Station fire and scaled back their attack on the blaze the night before it began to rage out of control, records and interviews show. In response to Times inquiries, officials for the Forest Service and Los Angeles County Fire Department said they probably will change their procedures so that the two agencies immediately stage a joint assault on any fire in the lower Angeles National Forest. Angeles Forest Fire Chief David Conklin said his staff was confident that the Station fire had been "fairly well contained" on the first day, so it decided that evening to order just three water-dropping helicopters to hit the blaze shortly after dawn on its second day -- down from five on Day One -- and prepared to go into mop-up mode with fewer firefighters on the ground.

A Los Angeles County assistant fire chief accused of beating a neighbor's 6-month-old puppy with a rock, cracking her skull and damaging her eye, said Monday that he acted in self-defense after the animal bit his thumb with what he called a "vise-like grip." Speaking at a news conference at his attorney's office in Beverly Hills, Glynn Johnson, 54, said the top of his thumb had nearly been ripped off and had to be sutured back on because of the bite.

A lull in the fierce, desert-born Santa Ana winds that pushed three devastating wildfires through Southern California delivered the first major break in days to fire crews from Anaheim Hills to Santa Barbara on Sunday, although authorities warned that shifting winds could splinter off erratic blazes and threaten homes for at least another day.

As Helen Jo worked her way to the front of the room to receive her new badge last week, a stream of colleagues, family and friends crowded and cheered around the freshly promoted deputy chief -- the first woman and the first Asian American to achieve such a rank in the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Jo, who assumed her new position in April, joined the Fire Department in 1998 as a budget officer and became chief of the financial management division in 2002.

Don't be fooled by the red shorts, bronze tan and flip-flops. Tim Arnold is a serious guy with a life-or-death job. He's the training captain for the lifeguard division of the Los Angeles County Fire Department. It's up to Arnold to turn the "Baywatch" wannabes into bona fide rescue heroes. Today--at 40 and with the shoulders of an Olympic swimmer--he's in better shape than most of the twentysomethings who show up each September for the 1,000-meter ocean-swim tryout.

In 2005, veteran Los Angeles County firefighter Crystal Golden-Jefferson died of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. At first her death was a mystery: The 41-year-old Inglewood mother had always prided herself on her fitness. But now Jefferson's parents believe long-term exposure to brominated chemicals used as flame retardants in household furniture foam caused their daughter's death. Studies show that when burned, such compounds convert to brominated dioxin. Firefighters inhale the fumes and are exposed through soot contact with the skin.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department, in conjunction with the Alisa Ann Ruch California Burn Foundation, is sponsoring a toll-free information "hot line" in an effort to reduce the accidents and injuries caused by the use of illegal fireworks. The number, 1-800-934-FIRE, will be available June 28 through July 4 to provide locations of professional fireworks shows and other related information. The line will be staffed by volunteers from the burn foundation from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.

Firefighter Gonzalo Salgado is suing the Los Angeles County Fire Department, alleging retaliation and hostile treatment after he told colleagues to stop making derogatory conversation about another firefighter perceived to be gay. In the case scheduled to go to trial today, Salgado said that in 2000, after he confronted some of his co-workers at the Temple City fire station about their comments, fellow firefighters made Salgado a target of "ongoing and systematic" mistreatment.

A Mustang broadsided Kathy Schroeder's Hyundai sports coupe in a Palmdale intersection, knocking her unconscious. She woke up wedged against the console, covered with an oily film. "I just remember my eyes and face burning," she said, "like bacon sizzling." She recalled telling the Los Angeles County Fire Department rescuers at the scene, but said they didn't flush her eyes. After being rolled into a private ambulance, she told the attendants too.