AUTONEWSCAST: Porsche Delivers Cayenne Emergency Medical Vehicles to Stuttgart’s Fire Service

Stuttgart. The City of Stuttgart has taken delivery of two new Porsche Cayenne emergency medical vehicles for the municipal fire department’s Emergency Medical Service. Today both vehicles, which have the radio identification names “Florian Stuttgart 5/82-1” and “5/82-2” were handed over in Zuffenhausen to Dr. Martin Schairer, Stuttgart’s Deputy Mayor in charge of law, public safety and order, by Thomas Edig, Porsche AG’s Executive Board Member responsible for Human Resources and Welfare.

MSNBC: Howard County EMA employees fired over 'dumb mistake'

Kokomo - There's trouble for two Howard County EMA officers after they were caught with a county vehicle in a place the EMA director says they shouldn't have been.

"Everybody makes mistakes, but this was a dumb mistake," said Larry Smith, the director of the Howard County Emergency Management Agency.

Smith says on Monday he received pictures of one of the county's EMA vehicles parked outside an adult novelty store in Muncie, Delaware County.

"I wasn't real happy when I saw 'em," said Smith.

"Our rules state that you don't leave Howard County in an emergency vehicle or in a squad car unless I know about it, I've advised that they can or one of my staff officers advised that they can," added Smith.

Smith says the pictures were taken last weekend and ended up in his hands. Smith says he tracked down the person who had permission to use the county car for the weekend and asked him to sign a written statement saying he had the car the entire time.

"When he got all done, I showed him the pictures," said Smith.

Another clue was a discrepancy between the mileage that the employee wrote down and the actual mileage that had been put on the vehicle over the weekend.

According to Smith, that employee wasn't alone. Another EMA employee went with him. Smith says he hopes this incident doesn't reflect poorly on the department. Both of the men have been let go. Smith says they won't be back.

BOSTON HERALD: 3 more fire trucks out of service

The Boston Fire Department pulled three more trucks from service yesterday, raising serious questions about the safety of the fleet on the day they buried one of their own, who was lost in a crash being blamed on apparent brake failure.

Ladder 6, Engine 18 and Engine 21 - all located in Dorchester - were grounded yesterday after an independent inspection by respected fire apparatus expert Ralph Craven, who was hired by the firefighters union.

Local 718 has blamed Friday’s death of Lt. Kevin M. Kelley on a failure to replace antiquated trucks.

BOSTON GLOBE: Union links firefighter's death to city's inaction on vehicles

The Boston Firefighters Union yesterday blamed the death of a veteran lieutenant Friday on the fire department's failure to replace aging vehicles and called on the state to inspect the city's fleet of ladder trucks and engines.

Local 718 president Edward Kelly said at an news conference that a ladder truck crashed into a parked car outside fire department headquarters yesterday morning, the third time a Boston firefighter has lost control of a vehicle and crashed in less than two weeks.

BOSTON HERALD: Fire commish not confident in fleet

Three days after a hero jake lost his life to what investigators believe were faulty brakes, the Boston fire commissioner says he can’t rule out another tragedy on the aging department trucks while the union lays the blame on Mayor Thomas M. Menino.

“Under the Menino administration, changes were made in how we replace apparatus,” Boston Firefighters Local 718 President Edward Kelly told the press yesterday, “and quite frankly we feel it was that detriment to public safety that killed Lt. (Kevin M.) Kelley.”

Reached by phone and asked whether he was confident in the safety of his fleet and that another similar tragedy would not occur, Commissioner Roderick J. Fraser Jr. told the Herald, “No, I can’t be confident in that.”