Sacramento’s city and county governments confronted grim budget situations throughout 2010. The city faced a $43 million budget gap, while the county struggled with a $181 million hole. Local government employees felt the pain of budget cuts: Sacramento County laid off about 380 employees during the summer. The county also slashed 29 positions in its engineering department in September. The county will no longer hire engineers for those spots. City officials laid off 12 workers represented by Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 447, city spokeswoman Amy Williams said in September. The layoffs occurred after talks between the city and the union failed. However, the city’s job loss situation

It’s not often that bruises and beat-downs have anything positive associated with them. But that’s exactly what will take place Aug. 28 at the seventh annual “Battle of the Badges” charity boxing fundraiser. Police officers, correctional officers, and firefighters from throughout Northern California will step into the ring at Memorial Auditorium to duke it out all in the name of a good cause. The event was founded in 2003 by correctional officers Israel Montes Jr. and Yvonne Vasquez of California State Prison-Sacramento before a third officer, Pablo Vasquez, joined the team. Vasquez passed away in 2007. The annual tradition began as a small-scale event held at the Boys & Girls Club in

Sunday, around 51 young burn survivors will trade in doctors, hospital visits, and burn treatments for a week of fun in the mountains. Campers will swim, boat, hike, fish, rock-climb, and raft during the day. During the evenings, they will participate in campfire skits and songs, dancing, and a be able to catch a wild animal show. Aug. 8 kicks offs opening day of the Firefighters Burn Institute’s (FFBI) Firefighter Kids Camp at Camp Concord in South Lake Tahoe. Established in the early 1990s, this year marks the camp’s 17th year. Newly appointed FFBI Executive Director, Jim Doucette, said the best thing about the camp is that it “allows children to be amongst their peers. Burn injuries

 All his life, Sacramento Fire Department Capt. Jim Doucette wanted to be a police officer. Until he got a job as a firefighter. Doucette said he was initially afraid of being a firefighter, knowing he would see more traumatic injuries than a police officer, but once he got involved with the fire department, he fell in love with the job. After more than 30 years in the fire service, Doucette announced his retirement last week. The official date is Aug. 24, after which he will take a vacation to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and spend some time in Boise, Ida., to visit family. “It has been a very long career, and one that I will surely miss,” Doucette wrote in a post on The Sacramento Press.

Sacramento, CA- Were you listening to Disney Radio Wednesday and wondered why all of a sudden it dropped off? At about 11:51 A.M. Wednesday morning, Sac Fire received a call for a vegetation fire in the wild land are off of Commerce Circle and Lathrop Way. This area is located between Discovery Park and the Cal Expo area, just west of The Radisson Hotel and bordered by the bike trail on the south side of the levee. Firefighters arrived to find difficult terrain to access off the levee, but were able to attack the fire within ten minutes of the call. In this wild land area were three radio towers over 200 feet high belonging to ABC Radio. One of the tower's collapsed and a witness stated

Tony Pineea and his four sons got a big shock when a deer landed in their windshield. Tony Pineea was traveling North on Highway 160 out of downtown Sacramento Tuesday morning with his four sons when a deer emerged from the light rail area adjacent to the highway and jumped in front of their pickup truck at the Del Paso exit. The deer hit so hard in the windshield area that the windshield broke through and collapsed in. The driver only sustained very minor injuries and refused transport to the hospital. Per Pineea, his sons were seatbelted and uninjured. The deer did attempt to run off, however it was too severely injured. An on scene CHP officer had to euthanize the deer on site to end

  Sacramento, CA- Early Thursday after noon, a small blaze broke out off of Hing Avenue, near Franklin and 47th. The fire was contained to the dry field area between the homes and railroad tracks.   Light Rail service was minimally impacted. Trains were briefly delayed during the high part of the blaze then permitted to move through at a reduced speed due to limited visibility resulting from heavy smoke, per on scene RT rail worker. Several structure firefighting engines were in place to protect the homes along the field, while brush rigs and crews moved through the field to attack the fire and bring it under control. Per Captain Doucette, the cause of the fire is unknown.  

Sacramento Midtown apartments were threatened earlier this morning when a dumpster fire spread to the large all wood garage surrounded by the apartments. Firefighters were called to the rear of 1015 26th in the alley for a "dumpster fire" Engine four arrived on scene quickly, just five minutes from the time the call came in to 911. When they arrived the garage was well involved with fire. The two dumpsters on fire were pulled away from the garage and after gaining access the firefighters made an aggressive attack, knocking down the blaze. While the major part of the fire was immediately taken care of, some fire remained in the eves and roofing. Due to remodels and several layers of sidin

Two homes caught fire Thursday around 2:51 p.m. As firefighters arrived, the fence between the two homes was completely on fire and the side of the two story home on the left was well involved. The second home (one story), caught fire and burned into the attic. There was an initial report that victims may have been in the home. The first in engine crew executed a search of the home and no one was found. In the end, the two story home experienced a partial roof collapse while firefighters were inside. Firefighters pulled out and went into defensive mode to save the one story home and protect other surrounding exposures. The two story was a total loss and the one story home had fire damage

At 2:54 p.m., Thursday afternoon, Sacramento City Firefighters responded to a report of a structure fire. When they arrived they found a two story home well involved. Per Capt. Jim Doucette, the occupants were out of the house when firefighters arrived, however the family dog was not located. The fire started on the ground level, per Doucette, and the occupants did not know how the fire started. Doucette did mention that the fire is under investigation and that the occupants would not be able to occupy the home. There were no injuries and surrounding structures were not threatened.