A City Council advisory committee thinks Eugene should establish a new payroll tax to raise $22.8 million to help pay for police, fire and other services. The proposed tax would phase in over 6 years, to be paid by employers and employees. The idea traces its origins to last fall, when Councilors signed off on $9 million for the Eugene Police to hire 10 more officers to improve response times to calls for service.
- PUB DATE: 2/14/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KVAL-TV CBS 13

Assemblyman Phil Palmesano is reminding volunteer firefighters and the community about a tuition reimbursement opportunity through the Fireman's Association of the State of New York (FASNY). FASNY has developed the Higher Education Learning Plan, or FASNY HELP, as an incentive to recruit and retain members of volunteer fire departments.
- PUB DATE: 2/14/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WENY-TV ABC, CBS, CW2

Purdue University researchers are developing firefighters that look more like R2-D2 than anyone in an Indianapolis Fire Department uniform. Purdue researchers have been working on firefighting robots since 2011. In 2015, they rolled out significant improvements, with a robot that had better optics and was nearly indestructible.
- PUB DATE: 2/14/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: IBJ.com - Metered Site

To help celebrate Valentine’s Day, the Chester County Fire Chiefs Association is paying special tribute to couples who keep the spark of romance alive by saving lives together as volunteer firefighters. Malvern Battalion Fire Chief Neil Vaughn came to Andrea’s rescue after she was in a car accident during slippery winter conditions.
- PUB DATE: 2/14/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Coatesville Daily Local News

As 2020 looms on the horizon, a request to extend the fire chief’s tenure has surfaced. Fire Chief Ed Bradley turns 64 on April 12, and figured he would be shown the door a year later, per state law that mandates police and fire chiefs’ retirement at age 65. He said Town Manager Melissa Arrighi asked him to stay on for another two years to help facilitate a seamless transition to a new fire chief.
- PUB DATE: 2/13/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Wicked Local Plymouth

James Bulerin III has dreamt of following in his father’s footprints and becoming a city firefighter. But city officials have dashed those dreams because Bulerin has a medical marijuana card and tested positive for the drug. “The city has disqualified him from being a firefighter which is a clear violation of the state law,” said Bulerin’s lawyer, Thomas Bucci, who this week filed a discrimination lawsuit against the city on his client’s behalf.
- PUB DATE: 2/13/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Connecticut Post

VIDEO: Firefighters work to save our lives every day. Now, they need help fighting for theirs as they battle more than just fires. According to Dr. Arny Ferrando, a professor at UAMS, firefighters are nearly five times more likely to develop cancer than the average American. The area around their throat where they wear protective hoods, is a breeding spot for carcinogens.
- PUB DATE: 2/13/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KTHV-TV 11

Stanislaus County will seek competitive proposals from ambulance providers for the county’s exclusive response zones, and that could change the landscape of emergency medical response for years. The ambulance company with the winning bid will be expected to partner with city and rural fire departments, which often arrive at the scenes of medical emergencies and start treatment for patients before an ambulance arrives.
- PUB DATE: 2/13/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Modesto Bee

Once in a blue moon, the little guys get a break. Like what happened last week when a Lake County judge sided with the family of a deceased Buffalo Grove firefighter, upholding his full pension benefits. The downside to Judge Diane Winter’s ruling is that Buffalo Grove officials may appeal her decision under the guise of their “fiduciary responsibilities” to residents whose taxes help fund the village’s public employee pension fund.
- PUB DATE: 2/13/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Chicago Tribune - Metered Site

Legislators in Texas are mulling a bill that would make illegal to “impair or degrade” mobile data in any declared disaster zone, in an apparent response to telecom giant Verizon’s decision last year to tell California firefighters busy tackling the deadly Mendocino Complex fire they needed to upgrade their plan or continue to suffer slow speeds.
- PUB DATE: 2/12/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Gizmodo.com

During his early days as a firefighter, Stan Morse sometimes battled flames without a breathing apparatus, choking down the smoke. Over his 40-year career, he also cleaned the underside of firetrucks with a toxic chemical that has since been taken off the market. Morse also breathed in diesel engine fumes powerful enough to blacken the fire station walls.
- PUB DATE: 2/12/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Virginian-Pilot

VIDEO: When first responders arrive at a scene, sometimes what they encounter is so horrific the incident has lasting psychological impacts. Other states are taking action to address mental health issues these heroes sustain on the job and there is a push in Idaho to follow suit. On Sunday, a town hall was held in Meridian to discuss why the Gem State needs to act now.
- PUB DATE: 2/12/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KTVB.com

VIDEO: More than a decade of neglect put thousands of San Diego firefighters at risk for a serious, and sometimes deadly disease. Those firefighters were repeatedly exposed to asbestos and lead in the floors, walls, and ceilings of buildings used to train San Diego firefighters. Documents obtained by NBC 7 Investigates reveal in past years, the city minimized the danger and failed to act quickly to protect first responders training at San Diego’s Fire Academy.
- PUB DATE: 2/12/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KNSD-TV NBC San Diego

A Clark County fire chief who warned lawmakers months before a 2017 mass shooting at a music festival that Nevada should bolster its emergency management planning says he wants to bypass state lawmakers to get changes made. Six months before the Oct. 1, 2017, shooting on the Las Vegas Strip that killed 58 and left hundreds injured, Clark County Fire Department Chief Greg Cassell testified before state legislators in favor of a bill that would have required more coordination of emergency medical resources ahead of such a large event.
- PUB DATE: 2/12/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: News3LV.com

Young cadets Queen Anunay and Kishia Clemencia stood out in their class at the D.C. fire academy as being among the few women in a male-dominated field. Of the department’s 1,550 members at the time, 35 were women. Fast forward nearly three decades, and Anunay and Clemencia are the ones in charge. The two women were appointed in recent months to battalion chief posts at the department — promotions that made them the third and fourth women to hold the positions in the 135-year-old department’s history.
- PUB DATE: 2/11/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Washington Post - Metered Site

Convinced that Buffalo's hiring practices discriminated against minorities and women, U.S. District Judge John T. Curtin ordered the city to desegregate its fire department. Forty years later, Curtin's landmark order is coming to an end. In a decision earlier this week, the federal judge now handling the civil rights case found the city in compliance and dissolved Curtin's 1979 order.
- PUB DATE: 2/11/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Buffalo News

The health study on people exposed to PFAS chemicals at the former Pease Air Force Base is still scheduled to start no later than August. Dr. Frank Bove, the senior epidemiologist for the Agency For Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, said the study may even start sooner. “I don’t see why it would be any later than August,” Bove said in response to a question from Portsmouth activist Andrea Amico.
- PUB DATE: 2/11/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Seacoastonline.com

Detroit has seen a dramatic decline in the number of fires over the last five years, which fire department officials credit to the city's aggressive blight elimination, bolstered arson investigations and community education efforts. According to the Detroit Fire Department's data, the average number of structure fires annually in the city has dropped by 42 percent since 2014, the Detroit News reported.
- PUB DATE: 2/11/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WXYZ-TV ABC Detroit

VIDEO: A special event was held on Saturday to provide free wills for firefighters, police and all other first responders. The Pro Bono Committee of the Cincinnati Paralegal Association held “Remember: Wills For First Responders," an event where volunteer lawyers and paralegals came together to provide wills, living wills, and health care proxies to first responders and their spouses free of charge.
- PUB DATE: 2/11/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WXIX-TV FOX 19 Cincinnati

Outgoing Franklin County Auditor Clarence Mingo is renewing his call for a change in state law to provide a property tax break to the spouses of first responders who die in the line of duty. "These families still carry on, they still have to manage through life, and property tax relief is one form of comfort that the government can provide," Mingo said Wednesday, the same day a public memorial service was held for the three-person crew killed in a medical helicopter crash in southeastern Ohio.
- PUB DATE: 2/8/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Columbus Dispatch - Metered Site