"Excellent dad, the best. They don't come any better than him," says Kalina Shouse when asked about her husband Erik. The couple have two beautiful, intelligent, active little girls but Kalina Shouse no longer has the man who helped make them; Erik Shouse died last year at just 40, suddenly and unexpectedly.
- PUB DATE: 9/18/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KIRO-TV CBS 7 Seattle

Since East St. Louis was freed of oversight from the Illinois Financial Authority in 2013, the city has fallen nearly $2.3 million short in mandated payments to the fund that supports firefighters and their families in retirement, according to an audit. The East St. Louis Fire Pension Board on Monday voted unanimously to recover those contributions from the city through an “intercept procedure,” in which it would petition Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza’s office to seize state payments to the city and deposit them directly to the pension funds.
- PUB DATE: 9/18/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Belleville News-Democrat

Responding to a medical call in a rural area outside of town, emergency responders pause for a moment to figure out how they can access a property. By the way, it’s the middle of a moonless night. “We used to do that with our old manual map books and open it up,” Capt. Rich Saalsaa, Philomath Fire & Rescue’s fire and life safety officer remembered.
- PUB DATE: 9/18/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Corvallis Gazette-Times

During a late night of emergency calls last year, Dallas firefighter and paramedic Paul Clarke decided he was sick of drinking bad coffee to keep him alert during shifts. He wanted to create a better brew for himself and his fellow first responders. But before he could, Clarke—an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Reserve—was deployed to Iraq for nine months.
- PUB DATE: 9/18/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: D Magazine

The body of the Captain Michael Bell who died Monday in the explosion in Farmington will return home Tuesday morning. Fire Capt. Michael Bell, 68, was a 30-year-member of the Farmington Fire Rescue and died in the powerful, apparent gas-related blast at LEAP Inc., that leveled the building, killing Bell and injuring seven others.
- PUB DATE: 9/17/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NewsCenterMaine.com

Twenty Prince George's County firefighters have scabies, a highly contagious condition in which tiny mites burrow under the skin and cause severe itching and rashes, fire and health officials announced Monday. Prince George's County Fire Chief Ben Barksdale said 205 employees of the department were tested.
- PUB DATE: 9/17/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WRC-TV NBC 4

The U.S. Honor Flag came back through Utah, making several stops along the Wasatch Front. It travels the country honoring first responders who have given their lives for the community. It has made its way 7 million miles in the last 18 years, starting as a way to honor the hero’s of Sept. 11, 2001.
- PUB DATE: 9/17/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KUTV CBS 2 Salt Lake City

Firefighters have approved a contract that gives them an 11 percent wage increase over the course of the 6-year agreement, but also boosts the employee pension contribution and limits the number of retirees in a given year. The document between the city and Local 825, IAFF, AFL-CIO has been sent to the Board of Alders, which must act on it by Oct.
- PUB DATE: 9/17/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New Haven Register

An interdisciplinary team of scientists at the University of California, Irvine has developed a new technique for predicting the final size of a wildfire from the moment of ignition. Built around a machine learning algorithm, the model can help in forecasting whether a blaze is going to be small, medium or large by the time it has run its course – knowledge useful to those in charge of allocating scarce firefighting resources.
- PUB DATE: 9/17/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: UCI News

VIDEO: A firefighter has been killed in an explosion at a building on Route 2 in Farmington Monday morning, a member of the board of selectmen said. H. Scott Landry told WMTW News 8 that an unnamed firefighter was killed and six others were taken to hospitals. The injured include five firefighters and one civilian, Landry said.
- PUB DATE: 9/16/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WMTW-TV ABC 8

A veteran captain with the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department was seriously injured Sunday morning when the fire engine he was driving crashed and overturned on Interstate 10 near Lenox Avenue, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. Troopers said the truck was heading east about 9 a.m. when the driver lost control of the truck, which caused it to veer off the highway and hit the guardrail, going through it and onto the grass shoulder, where it flipped on its side.
- PUB DATE: 9/16/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WJXT-TV 4 Jacksonville

A group of female firefighters trained together in Spanaway over the weekend during an event that was meant to both mentor and empower them. The event brought together more than 40 female firefighters from California and Washington. They covered live fire training, worked with power tools and practiced auto extrication.
- PUB DATE: 9/16/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KING-TV NBC 5 Seattle

As the condition of aging bridges, roadways, transportation resources, and grids across the U.S. has increasingly become the focus of discussion, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has issued Renovations Needs of the U.S. Fire Service, a new report on the fire service’s aging infrastructure.
- PUB DATE: 9/16/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Evening Tribune

The Sheriff’s Office, Burlington police and county Health Department all recently began using the Overdose Detection Mapping Application Program. ODMAP allows agencies in both law enforcement and public health to input, monitor and track overdose data using times, dates and locations, as well as record information about fatalities and drug administration.
- PUB DATE: 9/16/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Burlington Times-News

The Bella Vista Fire and EMS Department continues to pave the way in emergency medicine in Arkansas, and now in the nation. This week the department launched cerebral oximetry machines in two ambulances. This is the first time an EMS service in the U.S. has provided this technology in an ambulance.
- PUB DATE: 9/13/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KFSM-TV CBS 5 Fort Smith

Voters will decide in November whether to spend $28 million on a new radio system for the 911 dispatch center and first responders. The measure would cost 9 cents per $1,000 of assessed value — or $18 per year for the owner of a home assessed at $200,000. Located near the Medford airport, Emergency Communications of Southern Oregon, or ECSO, answers 911 calls for all of Jackson County and Crater Lake National Park.
- PUB DATE: 9/13/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KTVL-TV Channel 10

Eight percent of first responders in Virginia had recent thoughts of suicide, according to a survey conducted by the Fairfax Coalition of Police. FCOP surveyed 26 different first responder agencies across the state of Virginia. For comparison, the estimated rate of suicidal thoughts among the general U.
- PUB DATE: 9/13/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WCYB-TV NBC 5

VIDEO: Firefighters with Pinellas Suncoast Fire Rescue have been spent the last week scrambling to get their finances in order after a payroll company made unauthorized withdrawals from their bank accounts. Some of the firefighters say their checking accounts were totally depleted, creating a slew of problems with bills, rent, and other payments due at the beginning of the month.
- PUB DATE: 9/13/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WFLA-TV NBC 8 Tampa

An arbitrator has determined the Lockport Fire Department's six man shifts are unsafe and is requiring the City of Lockport to restore minimum staffing levels of nine firefighters. In 2014, former Mayor Anne McCaffrey had dropped the fire department's ambulance service amid the city's financial distress and cut the department's minimum staffing levels from nine to six members per shift.
- PUB DATE: 9/13/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Lockport Union-Sun & Journal

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signed legislation on September 11 to help ensure first responders and public sector officers and employees who developed a qualifying health condition as a result of their heroic response to 9/11 rescue, recovery and clean-up efforts at World Trade Center sites receive the pension and health benefits they deserve.
- PUB DATE: 9/12/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The National Herald