“I've always been one of those guys who liked helping out other people,” said Jacksonville resident Michael Griffitts.
Captain Griffitts is the Crew 3 shift commander, EMS coordinator and fire safety and prevention officer for the Jacksonville Fire Department. His 24-year career has allowed Griffitts to pursue his passion for helping other people while making the community a safer place. - PUB DATE: 1/3/2022 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: My Journal Courier
VIDEO: One small town in Massachusetts is coming to the aid of another in Kentucky after its fire department was devastated by a recent tornado.
The tornado that ripped through Kentucky on the night of Dec. 10 was on the ground for 235 miles, obliterating everything in its path. It hit the rural town of Cayce hard, tearing apart its all-volunteer fire department. - PUB DATE: 1/3/2022 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WCVB-TV ABC 5 Boston
PHOTOS: More than six years after then-Cumberland Fire Department Chief Donnie Dunn sounded the alarm for the need for a new ladder truck, city firefighters now have a 2021 Sutphen model to help in their firefighting mission.
“It’s been a lengthy process,” interim Chief W. Shannon Adams, Dunn’s successor, said Thursday, a few days after the new purchase arrived at CFD headquarters. - PUB DATE: 1/3/2022 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Cumberland Times-News
PHOTOS: A vacant house has been destroyed in a fire on the south side of Syracuse early Wednesday morning.
Emergency crews were dispatched at 3:00 a.m. to the house on Glenwood Avenue near Craddock Street. When firefighters arrived, the fire was already fully involved and it was too dangerous for firefighters to enter the house, according to the Syracuse Fire Department. - PUB DATE: 12/22/2021 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: CNY Central
When Mat Post asked himself, “What can we do as a community to help the tornado victims?” his fellow volunteer firefighters answered the call with enough donations of turn out gear, hoses and serviceable fire equipment to fill three trailers.
Along with the apparatus, the Clinton Township Volunteer Fire Company decided to donate an entire fire truck, Engine 12. - PUB DATE: 12/22/2021 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Sun Gazette
Atlanta firefighters had to perform a vertical rescue after a grate gave way and let a man fall down an air shaft, officials said. It happened around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at One Coca-Cola Plaza. Atlanta fire Rescue said the person had fallen about 15 to 20 feet into the air shaft from above.
Firefighters determined the best way to rescue the man was to pull him up back through the now open-air vent. - PUB DATE: 12/22/2021 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WAGA-TV FOX 5 Atlanta
KSHB 41 News first obtained a report that details what happened when a Kansas City, Kansas firefighter was injured in an accident on Dec. 12.
The Kansas City, Kansas Police Department provided the report. The fire department is still finishing up its own investigation, per a spokesperson. Pumper 17 was heading to a grocery store around 10:45 a. - PUB DATE: 12/22/2021 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KSHB-TV NBC 41 Kansas City
The dizzying speed of omicron's spread has left Americans questioning much of what they know about Covid-19, especially on the cusp of holiday travel.
"This is hitting us at a very inopportune time," said Dr. Katherine Poehling, an infectious disease specialist and vaccinologist at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist in North Carolina. - PUB DATE: 12/22/2021 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NBC News
PHOTOS: A bomb exploded on Nashville's historic Second Avenue in the early morning of Dec. 25, 2020.
The blast damaged 65 buildings and displaced dozens of businesses and residents in a city already weary from a year marred by the COVID-19 pandemic and deadly tornadoes.
After a year of investigation, painstaking demolition and community collaboration, the shells of the most-damaged buildings stand largely cleared of debris and ready for the 200-year-old street's next evolution. - PUB DATE: 12/21/2021 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Tennessean
VIDEO/PHOTOS: Ann Mulkey's son Louis was one of the Charleston 9 firefighters. When Powell Roofing got a call from Mulkey, they decided to team up with some local businesses to give her a free roof.
"Oh my gosh. I've never had anything like this happen to me, to this magnitude. And to do it because of Louis, you know, just made it that much more special," said Ann Mulkey. - PUB DATE: 12/21/2021 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WCIV-TV ABC 36 Charleston
Firefighting is in the blood of the Fanella family, stretching back four generations in Mount Carmel Township.
Robert B. Fanella died at age 88 in 2014. His son Robert "Bob" Joseph Fanella, 63, his grandson Robert "Bobby" James Fanella, 40, and his great-grandson Ethan Robert Fanella, 19, are volunteer firefighters for the Atlas Fire Company and Natalie Fire Company in Mount Carmel Township. - PUB DATE: 12/21/2021 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Daily Item
In 2020, San Francisco fire stations revived a tradition from grandma and granddad’s day, after a report from the Chronicle sounded the siren to bring back the SF fire station holiday decorations contest. That contest was scuttled in 1951 over some prudish backlash that the fire departments were spending more than their allotted $50 per station on decorations, but the Chronicle’s report mustered up enough holiday cheer that the SF Fire Department decided to pull all the St. - PUB DATE: 12/21/2021 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: SFist
The highly transmissible Omicron variant is now dominant in the United States, according to new data released by the CDC on Monday. The variant now makes up more than 73% of new infections, a nearly six-fold increase compared to the week before.
Omicron makes up the highest share of new cases in the South, Central Midwest, Pacific Northwest, and the New York area. - PUB DATE: 12/21/2021 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: CBS News
VIDEO/PHOTOS: Firefighters were still responding to hot spots and smoke on Monday leftover from a deadly weekend fire at the QVC distribution facility in Rocky Mount.
The Edgecombe County Sheriff's Office said search and rescue members located a body on the outbound side of the loading dock at the distribution facility on Sunday morning. - PUB DATE: 12/20/2021 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WRAL-TV NBC 5 Raleigh
VIDEO: As a devastating tornado rolled through Rudd Wednesday night, a local resident went above and beyond to protect his neighbors from what was to come.
With heavy winds and rain bearing down on the town, Volunteer Firefighter Tyler Hicks answered the call when asked to sound Rudd's tornado siren system by hand. - PUB DATE: 12/20/2021 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KIMT-TV CBS 3 Mason City
Bruce Sams is no stranger to fighting for his life and fighting to save others’ lives. As a McMinnville firefighter, it’s right there in his job description.
But the North Albany resident didn’t expect to be fighting for his own life against one nasty case of COVID-19. Fortunately, for Sams, 55, landing in the intensive care unit of Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center meant being admitted to one of the few hospitals in the country using a brand new treatment. - PUB DATE: 12/20/2021 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Albany Democrat-Herald - Metered Site
VIDEO: You can find a lot of things at Faneuil Hall. From Keytar Bear to Ned Devine’s and even John Legend.
The past few years, you may have even caught Buddy the Elf. And while the notable Christmas character is known for spinning around turnstiles and eating already chewed gum off railings in New York City, this Boston-based Christmas elf has one goal in mind: pillow fights. - PUB DATE: 12/20/2021 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Boston.com
Quinlan Roe remembers his first lecture in Missoula College’s new paramedic program. He said it was from the director of the program, Dave McEvoy, who shared a story about being handed a newborn baby struggling for breath. McEvoy told his students he still remembers the fear and trust in the mother’s eyes. - PUB DATE: 12/20/2021 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KSEN-AM 1150 Shelby
Thick, black smoke from an eight-alarm fire coated a Boston neighborhood Friday morning, significantly cutting down visibility, and forcing firefighters to enlist the help of a drone to spot flames spreading inside the building.
The fire began early Friday at 185 Corey Road in Boston, just north of Brookline’s Washington Square, the Boston Fire Department said. - PUB DATE: 12/17/2021 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Mass Live
The City of Seattle announced Thursday that it will expand a unique program that pairs firefighters with social workers.
Mayor Jenny Durkan says it will play an important role in the fight against homelessness. Seattle Firefighter Roger Webber has decades of experience on a ladder truck but the Health One mobile unit he is assigned to is far from a typical fire engine. - PUB DATE: 12/17/2021 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KCPQ-TV FOX 13 Seattle
