Texas A&M University researchers have developed a flood prediction tool that can improve emergency response during hurricanes. The almost real-time device uses an algorithm to determine the flow of water with the help of information about a city’s architecture, drainage systems and flood gauges, according to a Texas A&M Engineering website news release.
- PUB DATE: 3/12/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Eagle

The Eugene Springfield Fire Department received Tuesday the first in a new line of locally built electric trikes the vehicle manufacturer hopes will change the way first responders reach people in need of emergency help. Arcimoto, which last year launched its three-wheel Fun Utility Vehicle after a dozen years of redesign and development, now has delivered the first Rapid Responder model to the local fire department.
- PUB DATE: 3/12/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse

Kolby Adams is a tenacious 7-year-old with a lot of big ideas, and he’s not letting his tender age stand in his way of shaking things up. The Swartz Creek youngster’s latest venture is his vlog, the theme of which might come as a surprise to some people. “When he first said he wanted to be a vlogger, I thought that the last thing I wanted to do was a vlog about worms and G.
- PUB DATE: 3/12/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Swartz Creek View

PHOTOS:Four Arkansas firefighters were hospitalized after an accident on Interstate 55 near Marion on Monday. The Marion Fire Department was clearing the scene of an unrelated accident at the 24-mile marker of Interstate 55 when the department was “involved in an accident with a semi truck.” According to a Facebook post, four fire department personnel were transported to the hospital with minor injuries.
- PUB DATE: 3/11/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KNWA-TV NBC 51 Rogers

The Chicago Fire Department is swapping out coloring books for virtual reality headsets as its preferred educational tool to instill fire safety basics in the minds of elementary and middle schoolers. Fire Commissioner Richard Ford unveiled the technology Tuesday during a demonstration at St. Sabina Academy with a group of 5th and 6th graders who strapped on the headsets to find themselves getting out of bed to the sound of a beeping smoke detector.
- PUB DATE: 3/11/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Chicago Sun Times

PHOTOS: San Bernardino County Fire Department search teams staged a daring and complex rescue of a man trapped in a remote mine over the weekend, authorities say. Early Sunday morning, County Fire officials received a call from an unidentified explorer in a rural, unincorporated area of Twentynine Palms who had recently left a mine and reported that a partner was still inside and unable to get out.
- PUB DATE: 3/11/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Daily Press

A bill is being discussed in a Kansas Senate committee Tuesday that would give fire investigators law enforcement powers in the state. This means, if an investigator encounters a crime in progress, they would have the legal right to pull-over, detain, and even arrest someone. The Kansas Fire Marshal, Doug Jorgensen, made clear during his testimony in favor of the bill that investigators would not be conducting traffic stops.
- PUB DATE: 3/11/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KSNT-TV NBC 27 Topeka

A few Upstate ambulances are now carrying a cooler that can save lives. The No. 1 cause of preventable deaths that ambulances deal with is loss of blood, said Aaron Dix, Prisma Health's executive director of emergency medical services. If someone has a severe gunshot wound or hemorrhaging or has been in a severe accident, they could lose blood faster than an ambulance can get them to a hospital, Dix said.
- PUB DATE: 3/11/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Greenville News

VIDEO: A new partnership hopes to increase the number of people in Indiana who can donate tissue after they die. The partnership is between Carmel Fire Department and Indiana Donor Network. The changes that this partnership brings could impact thousands of people a year. Organs cannot be donated from people who die outside of a hospital.
- PUB DATE: 3/10/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WISH-TV CW 8 Indianapolis

“This is - ‘Follow me, follow me, follow me.’ Left, right, upstairs, basement, ‘Show me your basement.’ That’s a good question - ‘Where’s your bedroom?’ You would want to know ‘Is the baby in the bedroom?’’’ Cindy Hanzes, of Connellsville, demonstrated words in American Sign Language to firefighters attending a special class at the Morrell Volunteer Fire Company.
- PUB DATE: 3/10/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Herald-Standard - Metered Site

The man who would become Patient Zero for the new coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. appeared to do everything right. He arrived Jan. 19 at an urgent-care clinic in a suburb north of Seattle with a slightly elevated temperature and a cough he’d developed soon after returning four days earlier from a visit with family in Wuhan, China.
- PUB DATE: 3/10/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Bloomberg Businessweek

A fire lieutenant used bad judgment when he tried to make a training exercise more realistic and ended up starting a blaze that injured a fellow firefighter, Fire Chief John Oates said Monday. Lt. Doug McKeon, a 21-year department veteran, was suspended without pay for 14 days in January and February, according to a disciplinary letter released after a Freedom of Information request.
- PUB DATE: 3/10/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Hartford Courant

The Cumberland County Coroner’s Office has released the names of the two people killed Monday morning in a fire in Monroe Township. Jerome Guise, 34, of Boiling Springs, was a firefighter with the Mount Holly Springs fire department, Coroner Charley Hall said. Guise was killed when the front porch of the home on the 1500 block of Boiling Springs Road collapsed while he was fighting the fire.
- PUB DATE: 3/9/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: PennLive Patriot-News

They’re not the Bravest when it comes to the coronavirus. The FDNY won’t dispatch its firefighters to potential coronavirus patients, leaving its paramedics and EMTs to handle them alone, The Post has learned. The department issued an order Friday temporarily relieving firefighters from responding to calls of the second highest priority for patients with fever, coughing, difficulty breathing or even those who are unconscious.
- PUB DATE: 3/9/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Post

When the Jaws of Life don’t work and a man is dying, a little ingenuity and a big engine could prove to be the best combination. West Springfield and Westfield firefighters pulled a crashed vehicle apart with a fire truck to extricate a seriously injured driver Wednesday, said West Springfield Lt. Andrew Lyne.
- PUB DATE: 3/9/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Republican - MassLive

Some residents in northeast Albemarle County are concerned about a proposal to move daytime fire-rescue staff farther away from their area. As part of County Executive Jeff Richardson’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2021, Albemarle County Fire Rescue would reallocate weekday, daytime fire-rescue staff from Stony Point Volunteer Fire Company and East Rivanna Volunteer Fire Company to the Crozet Volunteer Fire Department and Pantops Public Safety Station to meet system-wide response time standards and call volume.
- PUB DATE: 3/9/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Daily Progress

Florida lawmakers were on the verge of sending Gov. Ron DeSantis legislation Friday that requires panic buttons at every school, the latest security measure being implemented on campuses after the Parkland school shooting two years ago that killed 17. The measure, known as “Alyssa's Law,” would establish an electronic link between schools and law enforcement — and reduce the confusion that became so apparent as a gunman roamed the grounds of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine's Day 2018.
- PUB DATE: 3/9/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: ABC News

As first responders get more and more calls about coronavirus, there are serious concerns among the ranks on how they respond. “We are very very concerned,” said Patrick Morrison of the IAFF. Morrison said they’re telling fire departments across the country to take inventory of their gear. “What we are hearing from our members around the country is we do not have enough supplies," Morrison said.
- PUB DATE: 3/6/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WPXI-TV NBC 11 Pittsburgh

A glitch in Pittsburgh’s new payroll system triggered overpayments totaling about $400,000 for nearly half of the city’s 600 firefighters, officials said. The city is now asking for the money back. The problem occurred in late December after arbitrators provided a new five-year contract to the International Association of Firefighters Local 1, officials said.
- PUB DATE: 3/6/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

If people need to get in from outside in the event of an emergency in downtown Bloomington, the fire department wants to let people know with specific voice directions in addition to the blare of a siren. The Bloomington Fire Department wants to install an outdoor warning siren with public address capability on the roof of the Government Center, 115 E.
- PUB DATE: 3/6/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Bloomington Pantagraph