After recently going solar, an Ann Arbor fire station is set to undergo interior renovations.
City Council has OK’d a $208,400 contract with Allied Building Service Co. of Detroit for upgrades to Station 6 next to Briarwood Mall, including adding gender-neutral facilities. The station was constructed in the early 1980s when the fire service was made up of mostly male firefighters, officials said. - PUB DATE: 10/28/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Mlive.com
On Wednesday, October 23rd, the Wamsutter Volunteer Fire Department was working an accident scene of a single vehicle rollover off the north side, westbound Interstate 80 at mile marker 170. The pickup truck involved in that incident had just been towed away and the driver had escaped with minor injuries. - PUB DATE: 10/25/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: SweetWaterNow
A raging wildfire that forced massive evacuations in Northern California scorched thousands of acres in hours -- and is expected to keep growing.
The Kincade Fire ignited Wednesday night in Sonoma County, and burned 16,000 acres by Thursday night. It was fueled in part by high winds that had already prompted California electric utilities to intentionally cut power to thousands of residents. - PUB DATE: 10/25/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KTVZ-TV NewsChannel 21
VIDEO: Firefighters came face to face with a man holding a machete during an early Thursday morning house fire call.
Police said crews were called out around 3 a.m. for a fire at Crestview Terrace. Firefighters found 51-year-old Edwin Aviles outside the home carrying a knife and a machete.
According to police, the man seemed to be suffering from mental health issues, and refused to drop the weapons. - PUB DATE: 10/25/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WBZ-TV CBS 4 Boston
Directors of TEEX, Texas A&M Forest Service, and the governor of Luxembourg, Belgium, met in Aggieland Thursday to learn more about how to control forest fires in the province.
"We are hosting the Belgium, Luxembourg governor here to talk about emergency response fire schools and how we do it in Texas," said Texas A&M Forest Service Director Tom Boggus. - PUB DATE: 10/25/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KBTX-TV CBS 3 Bryan
More firefighters have died by suicide than in the line of duty over the past year, according to the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance.
The numbers are staggering. According to Jeff Dill, founder of FBHA, in the past seven days, eight firefighters across the United States have taken their own lives. - PUB DATE: 10/24/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WXIA-TV NBC 11 Atlanta
It was a hot, windy day in Southern California when a trash truck caught fire and the driver dumped the burning garbage on the side of the road. Minutes later, powerful winds blew the flames across a hillside and into a mobile home community, killing two people and destroying dozens of homes.
No California law governs how trash haulers respond to a fire in their truck, leaving it to the waste industry to provide guidance. - PUB DATE: 10/24/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KNBC-TV NBC 4 Los Angeles
The state House has voted to exempt volunteer fire departments from Pennsylvania’s Right to Know Law, which journalists and the general public can use to request information from public entities.
Supporters of the bill say it is a needed correction to a burdensome system, but opponents say it just makes the departments needlessly opaque. - PUB DATE: 10/24/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Essential Public Radio 90.5 WESA
A free specialized plate proposed for firefighters and emergency responders was intended to be free for the duration of an individual’s volunteer service, not just for the first year, according to an opinion just issued by Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem.
The opinion was sought by Senate Transportation Committee Member David Rust, R-Tioga, and House Transportation Committee Chairman Dan Ruby after questions were raised during the 2019 biennium related to implementing Measure 4, approved by voters in 2018. - PUB DATE: 10/24/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Williston Herald
EMS structure in urban areas varies to fit the need of the community. It is often part of the Fire Department – but may be a third service separate from police and fire – or follow a public utility model privately contracted to provide EMS services. In more suburban and rural areas EMS often follows a fourth model, with volunteers providing part or all of the EMS care in that county. - PUB DATE: 10/24/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: JEMS.com
A new state law increases benefits for family members of first responders killed on the job.
The legislation, signed into law Tuesday by Gov. Cuomo, increases the cost of living benefits by 3% for spouses of fallen police and firefighters.
“Police and firefighters who lose their lives in the line of duty are mothers, fathers, husbands and wives – and the family members they leave behind must be properly cared for,” Cuomo said. - PUB DATE: 10/23/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Daily News
Newport Fire Chief William Darin says the department made nearly 5,000 runs in 2018; that includes fire and medical responses.
Darin says less than 1 percent of those are for big structural fires. Newport Fire Union President Jake Silvati says the department is understaffed.
"We feel that it's not a matter of if something bad happens, it's a matter of when something that happens and we're very concerned about that or concerned about the safety of the citizens and the firefighters," Silvati said. - PUB DATE: 10/23/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WKRC-TV 12
When a medical call came in on June 24, 2015, to assist an intoxicated man at a trolley station, San Diego firefighter Ben Vernon thought it would be a routine situation.
He had been on this type of call several times in the past, so he was not too worried.
Arriving on the scene, however, tensions started to rise between a bystander and several security guards, and a fight broke out. - PUB DATE: 10/23/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Bakersfield.com
An Atlanta firefighter who lost his leg after getting struck by a vehicle while responding to a call on I-85 said he wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for the quick-thinking actions of his colleagues.
Sgt. Darrow Harden was hit by a car in May while responding to a wreck near Cleveland Avenue in the interstate’s northbound lanes. - PUB DATE: 10/23/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Atlanta Journal Constitution
An East Tennessee landmark is now completely gone after a fire late Tuesday night.
Cumberland County Fire Rescue responded to a fire at Minister’s Treehouse in Crossville around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday. We’re told the entire building burned to the ground in about 15 minutes.
No injuries have been reported. - PUB DATE: 10/23/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WJHL-TV CBS/ABC 11 Johnson City
Mayor Bill de Blasio is being asked to do more to protect first responders in the wake of an attack on a 20-year-old emergency medical technician as he was transporting an emotional disturbed person to the hospital.
The ambulance EMT Nicholas Cody used to transport an emotionally disturbed person on Friday night sat parked outside the emergency room at Lincoln Hospital on Monday, the decal warning that it’s a felony to attack a first responder, apparently not much of a deterrent in a city where the number of of mental health 911 calls have nearly doubled in the last decade. - PUB DATE: 10/22/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WLNY-TV 55 Riverhead
Pennsylvania’s growing shortage of volunteer and career firefighters and EMS providers has reached a point where state lawmakers are calling for action to avert a crisis like the one Rep. Stephen Barrar described at a Monday news conference.
“How would you feel if you had a fire or an accident or a life-threatening emergency and when you dialed 911, no one responded? These type of doomsday scenarios are not far-fetched,” said Barrar, R-Delaware County, who chairs the House Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee. - PUB DATE: 10/22/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: PennLive
On the same day that a package of bills was introduced at the State Capitol to help Pennsylvania’s fire and EMS workers, one midstate community is applauding the decision.
The Middletown Fire Department is 100% volunteer, so for about two years now, they’ve been offering a live-in program for young firefighters. - PUB DATE: 10/22/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WHTM-TV ABC 27 Harrisburg
Gov. Kate Brown has appointed a financial oversight team and will hire an independent contractor to address a cash flow crisis caused by the Oregon Department of Forestry’s failure to promptly bill and collect money it is owed for wildfire costs.
The 13-member team, chaired by the governor’s chief of staff, is tasked with identifying the structural changes needed to expedite and standardize how the agency processes financial transactions related to wildfires. - PUB DATE: 10/22/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Portland Oregonian, Hillsboro Argus, Oregon Live.com
Officials are urging residents throughout the San Diego region’s most fire-prone areas to prepare for this year’s peak wildfire season.
The county is slated to mail out its “personal disaster plan” to roughly 200,000 homes and businesses starting next week. The recently updated 16-page document will be sent to those living in areas designated by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection as “very-high fire severity zones. - PUB DATE: 10/22/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The San Diego Union Tribune - Metered Site
