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

VIDEO: The Appleton Fire Department says the firefighter who was shot Wednesday night has died. The firefighter's name has not been released, but the statement says the firefighter had been with the department for 14 years. Funeral arrangements are pending. Fire Chief Jeremy Hansen and Mayor Hanna will make a statement to the media on Thursday at the Appleton Police Department.
- PUB DATE: 5/16/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WBAY-TV ABC 2

VIDEO: A quick CPR lesson and an app could be all it takes to save a nearby person's life. Wake County EMS District Chief M. Wells demonstrated chest compressions a person would use on someone whose heart has stopped. He reminded people that even if they think they're not strong enough or are afraid of hurting the person, it's still worth it to perform CPR.
- PUB DATE: 5/16/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WNCN-TV CBS 17

Gary Fire Chief Paul Bradley was just 18 years old and a recent graduate of Lew Wallace High School when he applied for a job with the city’s Fire Department, his lifelong employer. But if Bradley were coming along today, he wouldn’t be able to apply. He’d be regarded as too young, even though he doesn’t think the extra years would make much of a difference in his on-the-job abilities.
- PUB DATE: 5/16/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Chicago Tribune - Metered Site

Fire Departments and EMS in Santa Rosa County will observe the Fifth Annual “We Remember” Night, sponsored by the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance, Friday, May 17, 2019, at 9 p.m. The event will be demonstrated by pulling fire apparatus and ambulances onto the apron in front of their stations while activating emergency lights for one minute to remember brothers and sisters in the fire and EMS service who have taken their own lives.
- PUB DATE: 5/16/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WKRG-TV CBS 5

Dramatic new body camera video shows police engaging in a gun battle with a man inside a San Diego condo complex, resulting in two officers being struck by bullets and the suspect taking his own life. The suspect, 28-year-old Joe Darwish, was wearing a bulletproof vest and was armed with a homemade assault weapon and a homemade 9 mm semi-automatic pistol, according to the San Diego County District Attorney's Office.
- PUB DATE: 5/16/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KABC-TV ABC 7

Sometimes fighting a fire takes more than water. Firefighters across New Jersey — particularly those working on military bases and at airports — use a special type of foam which smothers fires that water would be otherwise ineffective against. The foam is called aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF). Not all AFFF products are the same, but for decades many of them were made with toxic chemicals known as PFOS and PFOA (perfluorooctane sulfonic acid and perfluorooctanoic acid) that today are being found in drinking water systems across the Garden State.
- PUB DATE: 5/15/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NJ.com

When Marion Fire Station No. 2 went into service in 1991, firefighter Deb Krebill spent the first night there. Back then, Marion was a town of roughly 20,000, served by two fire stations. Today, the city has doubled in population — and Krebill is now the fire chief — but it still is served by those same two locations.
- PUB DATE: 5/15/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Gazette

VIDEO: On Tuesday, a well-known R&B singer thanked the people who saved his life. Peabo Bryson had a heart attack April 27. He had no pulse and was not breathing. Only 13% of victims found in this condition survive the ordeal. Bryson did and made it his priority to visit the local fire station to hug and thank those who helped save him.
- PUB DATE: 5/15/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WSB-TV ABC 2 Atlanta

The Washington County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to put Smithsburg EMS on probation after the ambulance company notified the county last week it needed immediate financial help. Smithsburg EMS previously warned the county of its dire financial situation, anticipating it could close its doors by September without assistance.
- PUB DATE: 5/15/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Herald-Mail Media

After years of mechanical problems plaguing the District’s emergency response vehicles, the D.C. Council is moving to fund $65 million in fixes. The Council’s Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety wants the District to replace old and broken down ambulances, fire engines, and ladder trucks with the funds, as well as build a new repair shop.
- PUB DATE: 5/15/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: DCist

So much of Lower Manhattan has transformed since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks: 1 World Trade Center has risen again to help fill a glaring gap in New York City’s skyline. Closer to earth, thousands each day pass through the Oculus, the photogenic transit hub and shopping mall that is adjacent to a site of the attacks.
- PUB DATE: 5/14/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The New York Times - Metered Site

Firefighters from all over southeast Iowa came out to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Mt. Pleasant Fire Department and 50th anniversary of the Henry County Fire Department on Saturday, May 11, with an open house and training session. The department brought in a simulation and training trailer from the Fire Service Training Bureau to train firefighters and inform the public about the kinds of training the firefighters have to do.
- PUB DATE: 5/14/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Mt. Pleasant News