A fight for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder coverage years in the making has ended with a win for Cleveland paramedics, EMTs and dispatchers.
A union contract for Cleveland EMS just passed, including about $3.7 million in back pay for employees and mental health language, addressing PTSD.
CARE has been negotiating their contract since March of 2016. - PUB DATE: 7/13/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WOIO-TV CBS 19 Cleveland
There are many statistics available regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, although they aren’t necessarily well coordinated at the national level.
With so many numbers being available, it can be difficult to understand what they mean, how they work together, and how to apply them.
However, experts say a more unified, national approach is essential in getting the pandemic under control. - PUB DATE: 7/13/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Healthline
San Antonio firefighters handled a crash of their own on Sunday.
One of the department’s fire trucks rolled down the street with no one inside and firefighters chased it down in hot pursuit. The incident happened on Stafford Street near Fire Station 5.
A fire official said they’d parked the truck at New Braunfels and Stafford when the truck started rolling down Stafford. - PUB DATE: 7/13/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KSAT-TV ABC 12 San Antonio
VIDEO: Wildlife officers and firefighters managed to come up with a solution after a bear fell asleep in a tree after being tranquilized. Colorado Parks and Wildlife first responded to a home on Alameda Parkway and Bear Creek Road at 9 a.m. on Saturday for a call about a bear in a tree. Twelve hours later, the 350 lb. - PUB DATE: 7/13/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KCNC-TV CBS 4 Denver
VIDEO: Two workers were pulled from scaffolding that was dangling from the side of an apartment building in Boston's Chinatown on Thursday morning.
The incident happened 13 stories in the air at Tai Tung Village, a housing and business complex.
Witness Andres Mateo told NBC10 Boston he saw the scaffolding drop. - PUB DATE: 7/10/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WBTS-TV NBC 10 Boston
As coronavirus cases surge in much of the country, issues with testing availability and access have once again arisen in nearly every aspect of the testing supply chain, local officials and hospital leaders in several states told ABC News -- a troubling echo of the shortages that plagued the nation's initial response to the virus months ago. - PUB DATE: 7/10/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: ABC News
A 100-year-old technique is still being used by firefighters to save lives in St. Bernard Parish.
Firefighters at the St. Bernard Fire Department say they are incorporating the use of tourniquets when responding to emergencies. "How are you going to help somebody with a gunshot wound," said Mark Caruso, with the St. - PUB DATE: 7/10/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WDSU-TV NBC 6 New Orleans
Survivors of the Camp Fire can get an online sneak peek of the Ron Howard documentary Rebuilding Paradise this weekend.
The original plan of the filmmaker to have it first shown in the Paradise Performing Arts Center.
This couldn't happen, however, due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Instead, the film's debut was at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, which was attended by former Paradise mayor Woody Culleton, who was one of several survivors featured in the documentary. - PUB DATE: 7/10/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KRCR-TV ABC 7 Redding
Frustration continues for a group of Central Florida firefighters being forced to use personal time to self-isolate.
This follows a weekend of positive coronavirus tests among some of the Reedy Creek firefighters.
The firefighter WESH 2’s Bob Hazen spoke to says he worries he’s going to run out of sick days soon. - PUB DATE: 7/9/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WESH-TV NBC 2 Orlando
PHOTOS: Village police are asking the public for help in finding the vandals who cut down a flagpole at the center of a 9/11 memorial that honors five firefighters from the area who died in the World Trade Center collapse.
The severed pole was discovered and reported early Wednesday morning. Washingtonville Police Chief Brian Zaccaro said the culprits used a tool to cut through the composite material at about four to five feet from the base, and scrawled a message in marker on the part of the pole that remained standing. - PUB DATE: 7/9/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Times Herald-Record
Michigan Treasurer Rachael Eubanks on Wednesday announced two new grant programs offering a total of $300 million in hazard pay to first responders for working during the coronavirus pandemic.
The First Responder Hazard Pay Premiums and the Public Safety and Public Health Pay Roll Reimbursement programs are aimed at helping first responders receive premium hazard pay and reimbursing local governments for payroll costs incurred due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a July 8 state news release. - PUB DATE: 7/9/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: MLive.com
Screening based on conventional COVID-19 symptoms may not be sensitive enough to identify which 911 patients should be tested for infection, a retrospective cohort study published today in JAMA Network Open found.
In the study, researchers in Seattle evaluated data from surveillance systems and the electronic medical records of 124 patients with COVID-19 seeking 911 emergency medical services (EMS) in King County, Washington, from Feb 1 to Mar 18. - PUB DATE: 7/9/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy
PHOTOS: Smokey, a 1935 Ford pumper truck, is back on the road thanks to Easton fire Lt. Jason Healey and resident Chuck Hurley.
Smokey began its career as an Easton fire engine. During the 1970s, it was used as a brush truck and then for school visits and parades.
“It was sitting in the back bay of the fire station for a long time, broken and collecting dust,” Fire Chief Kevin Partridge said. - PUB DATE: 7/9/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Wicked Local Easton - Metered Site
VIDEO: A three-alarm fire broke out in an office building on Columbia Road in Hanover around 2 a.m. Wednesday.
The fire has since been extinguished, but fire crews are still on scene at the three-story building, which houses the Jack Conway Realtor's office and other businesses. The fire appears to have started at the back of the building, which is believed to be a total loss. - PUB DATE: 7/8/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WBTS-TV NBC 10 Boston
Rhode Island firefighters are counting on state lawmakers to guarantee higher-paying, tax-free disability pensions to firefighters who get any form of cancer.
And it looks like they made a winning case to the Democratic leaders in the House and Senate.
Both the House and Senate Labor Committees have scheduled votes on Wednesday, during the lead up to next week’s special summer session, on bills that say: “Any type of cancer found in a firefighter is conclusively presumed to be an occupational cancer. - PUB DATE: 7/8/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Providence Journal
VIDEO: Water rescues near dams can be particularly harrowing as the churning waters known as "the boil" can pull in people and rescuers.
The Elgin Fire Department is painfully familiar with that, after two of its own died in 1974 during a rescue near the city's dam in the Fox River. The department now has a new tool expected to enhance safety, a Waterwog 3 rescue boat made by Creature Craft that works well near low-head dams, fire officials said. - PUB DATE: 7/8/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Daily Herald - Metered Site
PHOTOS: On April 30, 2016, a United States Post Office letter carrier in Fall River, Massachusetts, left his truck to do a 20-minute loop by foot to deliver some mail. When he got back to the truck, the dashboard was on fire.
The next day, on the other side of the country, a letter carrier in Chandler, Arizona loaded his truck with the day’s mail. - PUB DATE: 7/8/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: VICE Media
Talk to federal disaster preparedness and response agencies like FEMA, the U.S. Coast Guard, the National Guard and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration about training, and one thing comes to the surface repeatedly: Experiential training is the gold standard.
To prepare their employees to do the work of saving lives in a disaster response situation, these first responders emphasize exercises that put their employees through their paces. - PUB DATE: 7/8/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Federal News Network
VIDEO: Twenty-six years ago, 14 firefighters were killed on Storm King Mountain, near Glenwood Springs. To honor the memory of those heroes, about a dozen members of the Craig hotshots crew hiked up the Storm King Memorial Trail on Monday.
The Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center shared photos of the hotshots at the memorial. - PUB DATE: 7/7/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KCNC-TV CBS 4 Denver
PHOTOS: Extreme midday heat made work very difficult for Indianapolis firefighters as they battled a house fire on the city's southeast side. One firefighter was seriously injured.
According to Indianapolis Fire Department Public Information Officer Rita Reith, thick black smoke from the fire at the house on Timberfield Lane could be seen one mile away. - PUB DATE: 7/7/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WRTV ABC 6 Indianapolis
