A group of five teenagers reportedly broke into and ransacked a D.C. firehouse while firefighters were on a call Tuesday morning. more ›

D.C. Fire and EMS responded to a call about a possible explosion at Union Station at about 11:45 a.m. FEMS units are on scene investigating, but have yet to determine whether an explosion took place. more ›

A fire broke out in a second floor classroom at Anacostia Senior High School, located at 1601 16th Street SE, this morning. more ›

So sayeth City Paper's Jason Cherkis, who first broke this now kinda funny story on Sunday. From the D.C. FEMS press release:

The District of Columbia Fire and EMS Department met with the Washington Nationals to identify additional measures to ensure spectator safety during pyrotechnic activities at Nationals Park. These new measures will be put in place to serve as an additional layer of protection to reduce debris when fireworks are used during the National Anthem, when the team takes the field, and during the Nationals’ homeruns and victories. Normal pyrotechnic activities will resume for the next home game.

In case you missed it over the weekend, yesterday City Desk reported the bizarre news that D.C. Fire Chief Dennis Rubin went to the Nats game and subsequently shut down the ballpark's long-running fireworks display for the foreseeable future. The ballpark reportedly has the correct permits and nothing unusual happened at Sunday's game, so what's the deal? Apparently, some bits of debris fell on the chief himself:

Fire Department spokesperson Alan Etter confirmed the basic account via e-mail. more ›

We've got to link to John Pekkanen's disturbing investigative piece in this month's Washingtonian magazine revealing utter dysfunction inside the District's emergency medical services agency. It's a very long story, but worth reading all the way through as it really rams home the point that fatal breakdowns within the fire department-led FEMS have resulted in undertrained and demoralized EMTs. The circumstances that led to the death of David Rosenbaum, it seems, were hardly aberrations. The report is also especially disturbing in light of the recent allegations reported by blogger Carlos in DC that the recent death of Jose Sanchez in Columbia Heights was not the result of indifferent neighbors but a failure of EMS response. Photo by yonas more ›