Companies spanning the telecom, tech, and security industries announced a partnership on Tuesday that seeks to win a $6.5 billion contract to build a national emergency network. Their bid also contains a major economic twist that could, if successful, see the companies shake up how companies buy and sell precious wireless spectrum.
- PUB DATE: 6/8/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: fortune.com

Five Huntsville firefighters were injured Tuesday morning when a balcony collapsed from under them during a training exercise. The incident happened around 10:15 a.m. as Huntsville Fire & Rescue participated in the last day of fire training at one of three donated structures at 4020 Independence Drive.
- PUB DATE: 6/8/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: al.com

Yvonne Johnson was home in Silver Spring one afternoon last month when she got word her husband of 58 years had collapsed of a stroke. She ran across the street to a neighbor, who drove her to Sibley Memorial Hospital in Northwest Washington. By the time she arrived at the Johns Hopkins-affiliated hospital, Ramon Johnson, 77, was nearly alert, and doctors said he had an excellent chance of making a strong recovery.
- PUB DATE: 6/8/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: washington post

A firefighter was killed Monday during a search for a man who went missing on Lake Norman over the weekend. Two other divers were also injured. Officials have not said exactly what happened during the search, but confirmed that 28-year-old firefighter Bradley Long, who went into the water earlier Monday searching for a missing 29-year-old man, was killed.
- PUB DATE: 6/7/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WBTV-TV Channel 3

A former Round Rock fire chief has been named Dallas Fire-Rescue Chief, the city announced Monday. David Coatney has also served in the San Antonio Fire Department for more than 25 years. "We have an incredible group of leaders within Dallas Fire-Rescue and I'm confident that David Coatney's background of service will be a tremendous asset to the City of Dallas," Dallas City Manager A.
- PUB DATE: 6/7/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Fox 4 News

While others seeking to build a nationwide public-safety broadband network for FirstNet remain silent, the one publicly confirmed bidder today announced that its legal name will be Rivada Mercury and identified several key partners on its offeror team. Led by Rivada Networks, Rivada Mercury includes more than two dozen companies that will form a “first-rate” team that will be dedicated to the FirstNet project to build and maintain a nationwide public-safety broadband network in the United States, according to Rivada Networks CEO Declan Ganley.
- PUB DATE: 6/7/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: urgent communications

Long Island’s only two paid fire departments are trimming budgets by scaling back staff firefighters in favor of paramedics and volunteers. For many decades, Long Beach and Garden City have boasted departments staffed by professional firefighters. But elected officials have been gradually reducing the ranks of paid firefighters, eyeing the departments as a key source of savings.
- PUB DATE: 6/7/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: firehouse

Nearly three years after the I-Team exposed regular attacks on Chicago paramedics, a new city ordinance is finally in the works to protect them and all first responders. Under the proposed ordinance, city hate crime laws would be expanded to protect police, fire and EMS crews. Paramedics say that incidents that keep them from doing their jobs and endanger their lives happen roughly once a day.
- PUB DATE: 6/7/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WLS-TV ABC 7 Chicago

Retiring Escondido Fire Chief Mike Lowry remembers one traffic accident call back in 1992 that changed his life. Already with the city’s fire department for a decade, Lowry was the captain of a truck company that responded to a head-on collision on East Valley Parkway. A mother and her two twin little girls had been headed into town to buy things for the twin’s upcoming birthday party when an impaired driver crossed into their lane.
- PUB DATE: 6/6/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: san diegoo union tribune

A Tallahassee law firm has been tasked with investigating firefighter allegations that “a toxic work environment” exists within the Ocean City-Wright Fire Control District. The department review by the firm of Allen Norton & Blue was authorized Thursday by the district’s five-member governing board. It follows receipt of formal complaints lodged against Fire Chief Billy Lord and Assistant Chief Scott Funchess by at least four firefighters.
- PUB DATE: 6/6/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Northwest Florida Daily News

Eight-hundred feet in either direction, and Friday's oil train derailment outside the small Columbia River Gorge city of Mosier might've sent flaming tank cars into a lake in a National Scenic Area. A half-mile east, and the inferno would've burned a few feet beneath a block of modular homes. Another mile-and-a-half, and leaking tank cars would've landed on the bank of the Columbia River during peak spring chinook salmon migration.
- PUB DATE: 6/6/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: the oregonian

It's a major risk factor facing firefighters, work-related heart attacks. But a new study out of Beloit could help reduce that job hazard. It shows ramped-up tones keep heart-rates from climbing to extreme highs. "We looked at the startle response and we looked at ways to gently wake them as opposed to suddenly waking them," Dr.
- PUB DATE: 6/6/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WKOW-TV 27 ABC

The turf war between Advanced Medical Transport Inc. of Central Illinois and the Peoria Fire Department, dormant for many years, could be heating up again. Nearly a decade ago, the two sparred over which entity would provide paramedic service and patient transport within the city limits. AMT reached an agreement with the city in which it was to pay $85,000, adjusted annually for inflation, for exclusive patient transport in Peoria.
- PUB DATE: 6/6/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Journal Star

A federal judge has upheld a wrongful termination claim filed by Pike Road Volunteer Fire Protection Authority’s former chief. Mike Green, the plaintiff, brought charges in April 2015 against the Authority for disability discrimination and against Jane James, one of the Authority’s directors, for slander.
- PUB DATE: 6/3/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: montgomery advertiser

The eight career firefighters who lost their jobs when the village shifted to an all-volunteer fire department handed the village clerk an inches-thick petition to force a referendum on the abolishment of the paid fire department. Vinny Lyons, president of Port Chester's firefighters union, said the 485-page petition submitted to the village Wednesday morning contains 4,354 signatures, nearly double the amount required by New York State village law.
- PUB DATE: 6/3/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NY Journal News (Lohud.com)

In a matter of minutes Thursday, the state Senate overwhelmingly approved three bills in a four-bill package that would change pensions for newly hired New Orleans firefighters and end a decades-old feud with city government. Those three bills head to Gov. John Bel Edwards for his signature. An agreement on the fourth measure was reached late Wednesday night, said Sen.
- PUB DATE: 6/3/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: the new orleans advocate

A 69-year-old fisherman anchored his boat in the Susquehanna River near the Dock Street dam last week, hoping to reel in the big one. Instead, his small anchor broke loose from the silt and his boat was sucked into the backwash below the low-head dam, an area known as a drowning machine. Few people escape the violent underwater death trap created by the fast-moving water plunging over the dam.
- PUB DATE: 6/3/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Pennlive.com

With ambulance and fire calls on the rise, the FDNY is turning to new technology to improve its operations and efficiency when saving lives. There were more than 1.6 million ambulance runs in 2015, a 9 percent jump from the year before, and firefighters handled about 3,000 more fire emergencies in 2015 than in 2014, according to the department’s statistics.
- PUB DATE: 6/3/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: emergency management

An FDNY lieutenant who barreled into a burning Brooklyn building and pulled out a hulking man and unconscious woman was honored Wednesday with the department’s highest award. Brian Colleluori, of Ladder 174 in East Flatbush, was feted with the James Gordon Bennett Medal for his extraordinary act of bravery on Feb.
- PUB DATE: 6/2/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: new york daily news

When it comes to help, firefighters are often better at giving it than asking for it, said Cedar Rapids Fire Captain Eric Vandewater. But since the beginning of 2015, Vandewater and others at the fire department — with the assistance of Dr. Jim Coyle, a counselor with Cedar Memorial who specializes in sudden and unexpected life loss — are working to shift that way of thinking.
- PUB DATE: 6/2/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: the gazette