It was an accident that changed policy and the way firefighters protect us. Four Cincinnati firefighters were putting out a fire 28 years ago, when all of a sudden the ladder they were on snapped. Almost three decades later, for the first time, one of those firefighters is talking about that day and the changes that followed.
- PUB DATE: 5/23/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WLWT-TV NBC 5 Cincinnati

VIDEO: Legislation passed the New York State Senate Monday that would allow law enforcement and firefighters to carry EpiPens to help save lives. Under current law, they’re not allowed to carry or administer EpiPens. “There are a certain number of individuals who are identified in the law, which says you can carry an EpiPen and they weren't on the list unfortunately,” said Senator Jim Tedisco (R).
- PUB DATE: 5/22/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WNYT-TV NBC 13 Albany

The Phoenix Fire Department is mourning the loss of a 31-year-old Phoenix firefighter who lost his battle to occupational cancer on Sunday morning. Brian Beck Jr., a third-generation firefighter, was an eight-year veteran with the Phoenix Fire Department, while mostly working at Fire Station 33 in north Phoenix, according to the United Phoenix Firefighters, a nonprofit organization.
- PUB DATE: 5/22/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: AZ Central - Metered Site

VIDEO: The Ankeny Fire Department is hosting its first Special Needs open house for people with disabilities. The idea to have a separate night for families with disabilities came when community members saw a need for it. Ankeny Fire Department Public Education Coordinator and Firefighter Karen Peters said, “They really are a high-risk group as far as fire and fire safety.
- PUB DATE: 5/22/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WHO-TV NBC 13 Des Moines

Less than 700 feet from Millvale’s Ethel M. Taylor Academy, a Cincinnati public elementary school, bombs have been going off for years and a building is often on fire. Don’t call emergency responders. They already know. For years, the Cincinnati Fire Department has been setting cars and a specially-designed $3 million building alight to train fire recruits at 1898 Mill Creek Road.
- PUB DATE: 5/22/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: CityBeat

VIDEO: The Navarre Beach Fire Department wants to become a state-recognized fire district. Right now, they're privately owned. Fire Chief Danny Fureigh is asking the county to approve a non-binding referendum on the county's special election ballot in August to gauge how voters feel. Fureigh said state lawmakers want to know they have the community's support before they ask the legislature to make the Navarre Beach Fire Department state-recognized.
- PUB DATE: 5/22/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WEAR-TV ABC 3 Pensacola

VIDEO: Fargo police officer and president of the city's police organization Mike Clower "absolutely" thinks action taken Monday night, May 20, to raise salaries for most police officers and firefighters in the city will help attract and retain employees. Clower, interviewed after a 4-1 favorable Fargo City Commission meeting vote, said he believes officers will be "quite pleased" with the decision to increase step pay for workers in the two departments with increases starting in the second year and continuing until they reach a maximum salary after about eight years.
- PUB DATE: 5/21/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: INFORUM

Jacksonville Beach city leaders met Monday night and voted in favor of a plan to merge the city’s fire department with the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department. The City of Jacksonville still has to vote. If the merger happens, JFRD would provide services to people living in Jacksonville Beach. The proposal has been faced with opposition.
- PUB DATE: 5/21/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: News 4 JAX

A Minnesota woman has given a kidney to a firefighter who once answered her call for help. Becca Bundy spotted Bill Cox tending bar last fall. The Bearville volunteer firefighter was wearing a T-shirt on which he wrote a plea for a donor. “I couldn't get it out of my head,” Becca said. “I just said, ‘I'm the one and I know it.
- PUB DATE: 5/21/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KARE 11

VIDEO: A bill in the New York State legislature aims to help volunteer first responders out with their bills. EMTs and firefighters often put themselves in dangerous situations to keep others safe. “I love comforting people. I love being there for people, saving people. I feel like it's what I'm meant to do,” Emily Evans, volunteer firefighter & EMT, said.
- PUB DATE: 5/21/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: ABC News 10

Manpower and resources are at a premium inside the Tucson Fire Department. The city is looking to minimize the high call volume firefighters face. “We are doing this for firefighter safety,” interim Tucson Fire Chief Joe Gulotta said. “It’s having an impact on their health. We’re seeing higher levels of sick leave, we’re seeing increase response times because crews are out of service in different areas all over town.
- PUB DATE: 5/20/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KVOA-TV 4 Tucson

Officials in California are crying foul over a Trump administration plan to slash firefighting assistance payments to the state, which could amount to millions of dollars in lost income for fire departments. The U.S. Forest Service, in turn, is accusing the local fire departments in the state of over-billing the federal government as part of a federal-state partnership, the California Fire Assistance Agreement (CFAA), that was inked in 2015 and expires in 2020.
- PUB DATE: 5/20/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Tribune

There’s controversy over a bill that restores worker’s compensation for post-traumatic stress disorder for police and firefighters. The bill, as it stands now, does not include the state’s EMTs, and they’d like that to change. They say they want to be included in the PTSD legislation. When tragedies occur in any community, whether it be a mass casualty incident, a deadly fire, or a vehicle wreck, many see police and fire fighters as first responders.
- PUB DATE: 5/20/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WFSB-TV CBS 3

The job of paramedic conjures up the image of a someone rushing to an emergency in an ambulance, lights flashing and siren blaring — not Shelly Brown. She's a certified community paramedic with Regions Hospital in St. Paul who drives a Volkswagen Beetle, stops at red lights and leisurely enters clients' homes for check-ins.
- PUB DATE: 5/20/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: MPR News

Pueblo Fire Departments crews will soon be getting new technology to help them navigate through situations where fires create limited or no visibility at all. The city has set aside $30,000 from a public safety grant match fund to purchase thermal imaging cameras that will attach to firefighters’ self-contained breathing apparatuses.
- PUB DATE: 5/20/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Pueblo Chieftain

A state district court judge has ruled the proposition to match firefighter's pay with police officers unconstitutional. Judge Tanya Garrison ruled the city can't pass a law that goes against the state's existing collective bargaining law. Mayor Turner shared the news during the middle of Wednesday's city council meeting.
- PUB DATE: 5/17/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KHOU-TV CBS 11

The Sampson County Fire Marshal’s Office has a game-changing piece of aerial technology that allows for more efficient fire suppression and improved safety for those attacking flames from the ground. Sampson County Office of Emergency Management has been the beneficiary of grants from local electric membership corporations, specifically South River EMC and Four County EMC, that were used to purchase state-of-the-art drones.
- PUB DATE: 5/17/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Sampson Independent

An effort to develop a better fire shelter following the deaths of 19 wildland firefighters in Arizona six years ago has failed. Officials at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise in a decision on Wednesday said the current fire shelter developed in 2002 will remain in use. The Arizona firefighters had deployed that same type of shelter in 2013, but still died in the blaze.
- PUB DATE: 5/17/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KTVA-TV CBS 11

In 1974, President Gerald Ford authorized EMS Week to celebrate EMS practitioners and the important work they do in our nation's communities. NAEMT partners with the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) to lead annual EMS Week activities. Together, NAEMT and ACEP are working to ensure that the important contributions of EMS practitioners in safeguarding the health, safety and wellbeing of their communities are fully celebrated and recognized.
- PUB DATE: 5/17/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NAEMT

VIDEO: The Town of Waterford is making firefighters in town decide whether they want to work part-time and get paid or fight fires as a volunteer. Currently the town has overlap between part-time and volunteer firefighters. First Selectman Dan Steward said the issue was raised after a local part-time firefighter requested to be paid for decades of volunteer service, citing a potential violation of an old federal labor law.
- PUB DATE: 5/17/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WVIT-TV NBC 30