Firefighters

The Best Buy store on Garland Groh Boulevard was evacuated Wednesday night after an odor of gas was noticed at the store, according to emergency officials. Firefighters responded to the store about 8 p.m. and discovered a natural gas leak from a heating and air conditioning unit on the roof of the store, said Capt. Adam Hopkins of the Hagerstown Fire Department. Firefighters were able to stop the leak, said Hopkins. The store reopened and firefighters left the scene at 8:36 p.m., officials said.

An early-morning fire destroyed a rancher-style house Monday in Quincy Township, Pa. The fire at 9456 Masters Road was reported at 1:22 a.m., Waynesboro (Pa.) Fire Chief Dave Martin said. “When we got there, the house was fully involved” in flames, Martin said. Although initially reported as a fire with entrapment, firefighters quickly determined the person believed to be inside was in Chambersburg, Pa., Martin said. A neighbor heard popping and saw the fire, then called 911, the fire chief said.

The Washington County Commissioners included $150,000 in the 2012-13 budget to pay for volunteer firefighter physicals and on Tuesday approved a method for paying the bill. The board voted unanimously to reimburse the Washington County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association for the bills it receives for volunteers' physicals performed by Health@Work, an affiliate of Meritus Health, which has contracted to perform the physicals at a cost of $317 each. There will be a lot of physicals, especially for firefighters over 40 years of age who will get annual operational physicals to ensure they are fit for duty.

Hagerstown Professional Firefighters IAFF Local 1605 will host a voter-registration drive to assist registering voters for the upcoming general election. The event will be Saturday, Sept. 8, from 8 to 10 a.m. at Potomac Towers, 11 W. Baltimore St. in Hagerstown. The event is open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.

An agreement that allows for paid firefighters to be stationed at a third volunteer fire department in Berkeley County was formally approved Thursday by the Berkeley County Council. Council members voted unanimously to authorize Council President William L. “Bill” Stubblefield to sign the proposed memorandum of understanding between the county, the Berkeley County Fire Board, Berkeley County Fire & Rescue Association and the South Berkeley Volunteer Fire Co. Roger Williams, a longtime South Berkeley volunteer firefighter who attended Thursday's council meeting, hailed the success of the new partnership, which he said volunteers have accepted.

A Wednesday morning fire caused extensive heat and smoke damage to a two-story house at 152 Fairfax St. in the east end of Martinsburg, a fire official said. Martinsburg Fire Capt. Jerry Gray said Wednesday that the rear of the house was engulfed in flames shortly after firefighters received the call at about 4:20 a.m. “(The fire) spread to the upstairs and there was pretty extensive heat and smoke damage,” Gray said. He said investigators were at the scene as of 8:30 a.m. trying to determine the cause.

It might be hard to believe that teens would trade a week of their summer vacation, hand over their cell phones, lug around heavy fire hoses and camp out on a local gymnasium floor just to learn more about fire service. But that's exactly what 25 junior firefighters who are participating in the seventh annual Franklin County Junior Firefighters Academy, which runs from Sunday to Saturday at the Franklin County Public Safety Training Center in Chambersburg, are doing. Academy Administrator John Petrarca said there are 25 participants, 11 from Franklin County, in the weeklong program sponsored by the Franklin County Fire Chiefs Association.

The Chambersburg Borough Council this week terminated the employment of one firefighter and issued a warning to another, according to Sam Wiser, an attorney for Salzmann Hughes, the borough's solicitor. Wiser said the council voted Monday to terminate Scott McNew's employment for “engaging in conduct unbecoming an officer and neglect of an official duty.” The council issued a written reprimand to Patrick R. Martin with a “last-chance warning” for similar reasons. The council determined Martin “failed to exercise proper supervision and leadership over a subordinate firefighter,” Wiser said.

Firefighters responded to a fire at a log home Saturday afternoon in the 500 block of Zig Zag Lane, a Berkeley County 911 dispatcher said. The fire was reported at 5:15 p.m., and the last units cleared the scene at about 7:45 p.m., the dispatcher said. The South Berkeley Fire Co. could not be reached for further details Saturday night.

A $1.6 million federal grant announced Wednesday will save eight firefighters' jobs for the next two years in the Borough of Chambersburg, according to municipal officials. The borough was awarded a Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response, or SAFER, grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., said in a news release. Chambersburg Borough Council President William McLaughlin said he experienced “a sense of relief” when he heard the news.