Easton is closing in on $1 million in overtime in 2019 for its fire department, increasing the likelihood that it will bring in part-time personnel in 2020.
Despite adding three new full-timers earlier this year, the city has already eclipsed the $850,000 in overtime pay it expended in 2018, Finance Director Mark Lysynecky said during the city council meeting Tuesday. - PUB DATE: 11/27/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Morning Call - Metered Site
The Portland City Council took what might look like a baby step last week toward more efficient handling of non-emergency 911 calls.
In a break from current practice, in which uniformed, armed police officers in squad cars or a truckload of firefighters respond, commissioners approved a pilot project in which a new "third branch" of the first-responder system, staffed by a specially trained firefighter and a contracted crisis worker, would respond to some non-emergency situations. - PUB DATE: 11/27/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Willamette Week
Sarah Mackin runs a cotton swab around the inside of a tiny plastic baggie that appears to be empty. She spreads whatever residue the swab picked up onto a test strip that resembles a Band-Aid, then slides the strip into a buzzing machine about the size of a boxed, take-home pie. Then she waits, hoping for information that she can share with Boston's community of opioid users. - PUB DATE: 11/27/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WBUR-FM 90.9
You rely on their rapid "first response" to an emergency medical call to 9-1-1. You rely on their training, knowledge, and experience in first aid and ability to stabilize a patient -- possibly a love one -- to rush them to a hospital for more precise care. But how much do paramedics make?
Paramedics' salaries vary depending on their state, their training, employer, and a host of other factors. - PUB DATE: 11/27/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Street Inc.
Even though Boston’s Cocoanut Grove fire happened long before she was born, Michele Shapiro learned all about the disaster when she was a girl.
Her grandfather, Frank Shapiro, was at a nearby theater with his wife the night of Nov. 28, 1942, when a blaze tore through the swanky Cocoanut Grove nightclub, killing 492 people. - PUB DATE: 11/27/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: U.S. News & World Report
Making 911 as "smart" as your cellphone.
That's the goal of first responders meeting Monday to learn more about Next Gen 911.
This new system is already online in parts of three counties, Kittitas, Snohomish and King counties.
It's called RAADAR, Real time Agency Activity Display and Reporting.
What that means is from right here, NORCOM can see what police and fire are doing in those three counties. - PUB DATE: 11/26/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KIRO-TV CBS 7 Seattle
The Greenwood City Council is considering a new food and beverage tax to bolster staffing levels at city departments, specifically the police and fire departments.
The plan for a 1% food and beverage tax was made possible earlier this year when state lawmakers passed a bill that authorizes Greenwood and several other communities to impose such a tax. - PUB DATE: 11/26/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WXIN-TV FOX 59 Indianapolis
The Brighton Fire District in the Town of Tonawanda is being called out by the state Comptroller's Office, for improper use of taxpayer money. A new audit says money was wrongly used on trips for members of the fire company and spouses.
The Brighton Fire District protects roughly 7 square miles within the Town of Tonawanda and charges a fire tax on residents who live within the district. - PUB DATE: 11/26/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WGRZ-TV NBC 2 Buffalo
The story begins in 1736, when Benjamin Franklin founded the Union Fire company.
By 1871, a Union Fire Company was launched in Centreville, Illinois with 32 members.
This is where the story gets a bit confusing, because the town 10 miles south of Centreville also named themselves Centreville.
Incredibly, this went on for about 50 years before the southern Centreville realized they had a problem, so in 1890 they changed their name to Millstadt, and the Centreville Fire Department eventually evolved into the Millstadt Union Fire Company. - PUB DATE: 11/26/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KMOV-TV CBS 4 St. Louis
The Eureka Fire Protection District is testing technology designed to keep drivers and emergency responders safe. Division Chief Scott Barthelmass said his department sees dangerous driving nearly every time they respond to a call.
“A vehicle approaching at 60-70 miles per hour when there’s an emergency ahead is dangerous,” he said. - PUB DATE: 11/26/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KTVI-TV FOX 2 St. Louis
The FDNY-Uniformed Firefighter Association is criticizing the decision to shut down streets around Rockefeller Center for pedestrians during the holidays.
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced last week that the city would expand pedestrian space in the area and close streets to traffic, saying the increasing number of people in the area is “creating a real safety issue. - PUB DATE: 11/25/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WLNY-TV 55 Riverhead
In view of the Nov. 13 house fire that claimed the life of 39-year-old Lt. Jason Menard, the department’s second line-of-duty death in less than a year, City Manager Edward M. Augustus, Jr. Friday announced his intention to name a task force to look at firefighter safety.
The task force will do its work alongside the typically yearlong federal review the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health conducts as a matter of course after a firefighter dies on duty. - PUB DATE: 11/25/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Worcester Telegram & Gazette
When buildings and vehicles are set ablaze, toxic chemicals are released into the air. Those chemicals can last by hanging on to firefighters' gear, even taken back to the station after fires are put out -- causing troubling consequences for health and safety to those in duty.
According to a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health study, firefighters are twice as likely to get skin and testicular cancer and mesothelioma. - PUB DATE: 11/25/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WUSA-TV CBS 9
Fast food chain In-N-Out was responsible for a 2017 grass fire in rural Arroyo Grande, a lawsuit filed by Cal Fire in San Luis Obispo Superior Court alleges.
According to the lawsuit, a wildfire sparked Sept. 20, 2017 on a property owned by In-N-Out at 9815 Huasna Road in Arroyo Grande.
The fire was caused by a tractor mowing grass on the property, Cal Fire says in the suit — noting that the property was covered in “dry annual grasses and scattered brush, which created a receptive bed of flammable vegetation. - PUB DATE: 11/25/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: San Luis Obispo Tribune - Metered Site
Use an ambulance, don't pay the bill and face criminal charges. That is what's happening in one Westmoreland County community.
EMS companies all over the area are facing huge debts. Rescue 14 in Adamsburg in Westmoreland County is no different. But the district attorney has signed off on its new groundbreaking method of bill collecting. - PUB DATE: 11/25/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WPXI-TV NBC 11 Pittsburgh
The Newburgh City Council on Thursday night approved its 2020 financial plan that includes steep layoffs to public safety and a tax increase for non-homestead payers after an emotionally-charged meeting at the Activity Center.
The $46.8 million budget plan calls for the elimination of 35 public-safety positions, six of which are funded-vacancies; meaning 15 uniformed police positions and 14 uniformed firefighters will be cut. - PUB DATE: 11/22/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Record Online
Local firefighters and first responders participated in special training on Wednesday aimed at learning how to identify someone with dementia.
Carmel and Noblesville fire departments are working to become the first departments in the state to require the training.
With an increasing regularity, firefighters are responding to patients suffering some form of dementia. - PUB DATE: 11/22/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WISH-TV News 8
A hot oiler truck and a frack tank offloading product were the cause of an explosion Thursday on Fairgrounds Road in southeast Midland.
Chief Charles Blumenauer of the Midland Fire Department said a fire engine responding to the scene also caught fire after the initial incident. A hose disconnected from the hot oiler and spilled fluid, causing a rolling fire under MFD Engine 3, he said. - PUB DATE: 11/22/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Midland Reporter-Telegram
A prestigious firefighter training event is coming to Tulsa for the first time.
The Oklahoma Smoke Diver Program will be held at the Tulsa Fire Training Center next March and is expected to have a $200,000 economic impact on the community.The program is only available in a handful of states. Oklahoma firefighters began work on bringing it to the state about five years ago. - PUB DATE: 11/22/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Fox 23 News
Three men were killed when flames tore through an abandoned home overnight in Queens.
Police sources told CBS2 the cause is believed to be suspicious. Firefighters were called shortly after midnight to Farmers Boulevard near 111th Avenue in the St. Albans section.
When crews arrived, they found the men – believed to be squatters – already dead inside the house. - PUB DATE: 11/22/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York CBS Local
