VIDEO: N95 masks are ideally single-use, which contributes to the shortage felt by first responders amid the COVID-19 pandemic. That's why one southern Colorado fire department sought out a way to extend the life of each mask. South Fork Fire Rescue in the San Luis Valley says it's developed a way to safely reuse a mask up to 10 times.
- PUB DATE: 4/1/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KRDO-TV ABC 13 Colorado Springs

A partnership between FEMA and New York City is aiming to bring aid to an overburdened FDNY EMS system that has received an “unprecedented” influx of calls due to the coronavirus (COVID-19). Mayor Bill de Blasio, FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro, NYC Emergency Management Commissioner Deanne Criswell and FEMA Region II Administrator Tom Van Essen announced the partnership, which will bring more than 250 ambulances and approximately 500 more EMTs to the city.
- PUB DATE: 4/1/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: SILive.com

The police and fire departments have gone full Star Wars on battling the coronavirus. Cops and firefighters are using electrostatic guns to disinfect cruisers, cells, fire apparatus and equipment. “It looks like something out of Star Wars,” Police Chief Brian Clark said Tuesday, adding that the gun quickly and evenly coats a surface with a chlorine solution.
- PUB DATE: 4/1/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Sun Chronicle

As lawmakers prepare a fourth round of stimulus relief in response to the coronavirus pandemic, a Michigan lawmaker plans to introduce a bill this week calling for a federal income tax holiday for doctors, nurses and first responders. Rep. Bill Huizenga, a Zeeland Republican, said the proposed tax holiday for three months is modeled after how the federal government excludes income taxes from members of the military serving on the front lines in combat zones.
- PUB DATE: 4/1/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Detroit News

VIDEO: A group of first responders in Palmdale expressed their appreciation to those on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic Monday night. The salute to doctors, nurses and medical staff at Palmdale Regional Medical Center took place around 7:30 p.m., coinciding with the setting sun, according to a post on the Palmdale sheriff’s staton’s Facebook page.
- PUB DATE: 4/1/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KTLA-TV WB 5 Los Angeles

The three largest public safety agencies in Franklin County will no longer release the number of personnel who have tested positive for the new coronavirus, the agencies said Monday. The Columbus Divisions of Fire and Police and the Franklin County sheriff’s office all cited consultations with legal counsel.
- PUB DATE: 3/31/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Columbus Dispatch

If you go outside at sunset, listen in the distance and you may hear something you don’t hear too often. Each night at dusk, bagpipes and drums will echo through neighborhoods across the country. "You should listen at sunset -- there are pipers and drummers all across the area," Thomas Johnson, a captain with Aurora Fire Department told FOX31.
- PUB DATE: 3/31/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KDVR-TV FOX 31 Denver

Sometimes miracles happen because every little thing goes right. And people involved are smart and creative and fearless. This is the story of a hairstylist, a team of automotive prototype designers and a massive global company that in just a few days went from creating high-tech cars guided by artificial intelligence with the use of robots to old-fashioned built-by-hand assembly the way things were done back in the 1900s.
- PUB DATE: 3/31/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: USA Today

In a joint letter, members of Staten Island’s political delegation today called on Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio to work with relevant pension boards to ensure that first responders and other essential employees who die as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) be guaranteed contractual line-of-duty death benefit and payments.
- PUB DATE: 3/31/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: SILive.com

After the recent signing of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act by President Donald J. Trump, International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) President, Fire Chief Gary Ludwig, expressed mixed emotions about the stimulus package. “While I am pleased that Congress and the President took action to help those who are suffering economically by allocating federal money for hospitals, law enforcement, educational institutions, airlines, and drug companies, I am extremely disappointed that federal funding desperately needed by the American fire and emergency medical services was largely overlooked,” Chief Ludwig said.
- PUB DATE: 3/31/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: IAFC.org

The Rowlett Fire Department has a long history of providing innovative solutions to complex issues. Continuing that legacy of care and commitment to our community, the Rowlett Fire Department has implemented a TeleMedic program in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. TeleMedic embraces current technology and allows the online one-on-one video assessment of non-critical patients to reduce the risk of provider- or patient-borne exposure to contagions.
- PUB DATE: 3/30/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Rowlett Lakeshore Times

At exactly 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday evening, thousands of New Yorkers in quarantine stood on their porches and near their windows to applaud first responders and health care workers on the frontlines of the coronavirus outbreak. This powerful act of solidarity, which lasted several minutes, came about after a call on social media to #clapbecausewecare.
- PUB DATE: 3/30/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WABC-TV ABC 7 New York

The Laurel County Fire Department has launched a new phone app this week that includes two sections pertaining to COVID-19. "To our knowledge it's one of the first ones in the area," said Laurel County Fire Chief Terry Wattenbarger. "We're the first emergency service to actually have a mobile app like that.
- PUB DATE: 3/30/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Times-Tribune

Chief Diana Matty has heard the cries of doctors across the country: They need ventilators. As Palm Beach County braces for a potential spike in coronavirus cases, the West Palm Beach fire chief has coordinated efforts with the county’s 10 other fire departments to let hospitals know they are poised to loan ventilators, should the need arise.
- PUB DATE: 3/30/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Palm Beach Post

A program conducting home visits with vulnerable patients after they have been checked out of the hospital is doing its best to go online, both for the sake of the paramedics and patients. Racine’s Mobile Integrated Health program went into a trial phase in the fall of 2018 and was fully implemented in 2019.
- PUB DATE: 3/30/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Journal Times

To ensure uninterrupted service during the coronavirus pandemic, 18 fire departments in San Bernardino County have joined under a regional management team, an action usually reserved for fighting large wildfires. “COVID-19 has the possibility of affecting a significant portion of the fire and EMS workforce,” the San Bernardino County Fire Chiefs Association said Thursday, March 26, in announcing formation of the agencies that will cooperate with the San Bernardino County Fire Protection District Incident Management Team.
- PUB DATE: 3/27/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: San Bernardino County Sun

VIDEO: The staff at the Tybee Island Fire Department have been hard at work since Wednesday making masks for those that need them most. The dedicated team is one of several groups working to fill the nationwide mask shortage triggered by frightened Americans concerned about their respiratory health amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
- PUB DATE: 3/27/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WSAV-TV NBC/CW+ 3 Savannah

With 16% of its workers in self-isolation due to exposure to the coronavirus, New Orleans Emergency Medical Services will run ambulances to situations that are not life-threatening staffed solely with emergency medical technicians and not the more highly trained paramedics who are now required to be on board.
- PUB DATE: 3/27/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NOLA.com

The Senate approved more than $163 billion designated to assist local fire and EMS departments as part of an economic stimulus package to safeguard the U.S. economy and help the nation respond effectively to the 2019 novel coronavirus and its resulting illness, COVID-19. The House is expected to pass the $2 trillion stimulus bill on Friday.
- PUB DATE: 3/27/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: IAFC.org

Calls to New York City’s 911 medical services hit their highest levels since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to emergency workers’ unions, stretching staffs that have already seen their own ranks thinned by coronavirus infections. Medical emergency calls are up 40% to about 6,500 a day, according to Oren Barzilay, president of Local 2507, a union that represents emergency medical technicians, paramedics, fire inspectors and dispatchers.
- PUB DATE: 3/27/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Bloomberg