Public safety should retain control of its 50 MHz of 4.9 GHz spectrum—airwaves that the FCC is considering for at least some commercial use—through an allocation to the FirstNet Authority, according to the newly formed Public Safety Spectrum Alliance (PSSA). “We’re concerned that public safety is going to lose spectrum that we might need,” Jeff Johnson, CEO of the Western Fire Chiefs Association and former vice chairman of the FirstNet Authority, said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications.
- PUB DATE: 8/6/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: IWCE's Urgent Communications

Using anonymous cell phone data, University of South Florida researchers are pinpointing how and where people in the Bay area move to try to predict how the coronavirus will spread and impact our hospitals. The data is collected by a third-party vendor from devices on which users have enabled location services.
- PUB DATE: 8/6/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WTSP-TV CBS 10 Tampa

This summer’s pandemic-altered traffic configuration in downtown Hyannis has led the village Fire Department to adapt, too. And for now, at least, two wheels could be better than eight to ensure rapid emergency response in the downtown area. Last week, the department initiated bicycle patrols on Main, North and South streets and on Ocean Street near the harbor.
- PUB DATE: 8/5/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Cape Cod Times

The first fallen Columbus Firefighter is finally receiving a headstone at his gravesite after 150 years. Mark B. Newman was a Columbus firefighter in the 1800s, he also worked as a police officer. Newman was recognized as the first Columbus firefighter to die in the line of duty more than a century ago.
- PUB DATE: 8/5/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WSYX-TV ABC 6 Columbus

VIDEO: The Midland Fire Department responded to a tank battery fire southeast the city at S. County Road 1173 and E. County Road 113. The fire department says that the department is making significant progress in controlling the fire and no injuries have been reported. The Midland Fire Department and other volunteer crews on the scene are focusing on ensuring that the fire doesn't spread to any other tanks, they plan to let the fire burn off overnight.
- PUB DATE: 8/5/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KWES-TV NBC 9 Odessa

The Elba Fire Department is now home to a $65,000 airboat. In December 2015, flood waters breached the dam and sent water rushing through the Pea River. Now, five years later, the river struggles to stay at 2.5 feet. This has led to people getting stuck and sometimes stranded while trying to enjoy a day on the water.
- PUB DATE: 8/5/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WDHN-TV ABC 18 Dothan

PHOTOS: A massive fire burned in downtown St. Paul early Tuesday morning, apparently destroying a hotel under construction across from the Xcel Energy Center. The flames were more than 40 feet high at one point and visible on freeway traffic cameras nearby. Fire officials said shortly after 5 a.m. that a substantial part of the blaze had been knocked down.
- PUB DATE: 8/4/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Minnesota Public Radio News

According to the UC Davis Fire Department, nearly 25% of its firefighters are wearing gear that doesn’t fit them. UC Davis Fire Chief Nathan Trauernicht told FOX40 Monday that he is calling on uniform manufacturers to do better. “They need to have maximum range of motion, and at critical times, they have to be able to make critical movements, and if that doesn’t happen, it puts all of us in danger,” Trauernicht explained.
- PUB DATE: 8/4/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KTXL-TV FOX 40 Sacramento

The bad news: COVID-19 appears to be filling hospitals throughout the South and the Southwest with patients with a deadly, highly contagious disease. The good news: The federal government is now publishing a COVID-19 hospital bed occupancy map that looks terrible. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been trying to track COVID-19 with a weekly collection of maps, tables and charts based largely on the data sources and methods used to track influenza.
- PUB DATE: 8/4/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Think Advisor

City Council has tabled a proposal to hire, for the first time, part-time firefighters to beef up the Fire Department staff, instead opting to seek a tax increase that would pay for additional full-time firefighters. The Strongsville Fire Fighters Association, the union representing firefighters here, opposed hiring the part-timers, saying it would undermine the professionalism of their department.
- PUB DATE: 8/4/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Cleveland.com

Firefighters with the Orlando Fire Department who have recovered from COVID-19 are donating plasma. The Orlando Fire Department and OneBlood have teamed up for a plasma drive where firefighters and their family members who've recovered from COVID-19 can donate plasma. "As the cases surge throughout our service area, the need for convalescent plasma has reached new heights," said Susan Forbes, with OneBlood.
- PUB DATE: 8/4/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WOFL-TV FOX 35 Orlando

VIDEO: A cavalry of firefighters and response crews had to go into defensive mode as they battled a massive fire at a southwest Houston business that went to three alarms and destroyed an HFD ladder truck. Explosions continued to erupt hours after the fire broke out some time before 10:30 a.m. Friday in the 7800 block of Westpark Drive near Hillcroft.
- PUB DATE: 8/3/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KTRK-TV ABC 14 Houston

Josie Harris Robinson and her husband are both front-line shift workers in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. She's a nurse and her husband, Aaron Robinson, is a Wilmington firefighter. They both had to scramble, with just six days notice, to figure out a new way of life when a required shift change took effect for firefighters on July 1.
- PUB DATE: 8/3/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WDEL 1150AM & WDEL.com

A smartphone app that tracks COVID-19 symptoms has collected information from more than 4 million people worldwide, and is giving doctors a closer look at the different symptoms patients are experiencing. The variety of different symptoms people are exhibiting with COVID-19 is startling. "I've seen more varied presentations of COVID that anything I can think of in my career so far," said Dr.
- PUB DATE: 8/3/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KGO-TV ABC 7 San Francisco

The FDNY has formally prohibited the use fire hoses to disperse unruly crowds, following several weeks of civil rights protests and rioting across the city that left several police officers and civilians injured. “While the vast majority of these (protests) in NYC have not involved the response of the FDNY, there is the potential for civil unrest, or acts of violence causing immediate danger to our members,” reads an order obtained recently by the New York Post.
- PUB DATE: 8/3/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Staten Island Live

VIDEO: The Duxbury Fire Department has become the first in the country to have its firefighters wear biometric rings. The rings can monitor vital signs, including pulse, temperature and sleep cycles. They could help detect early warning signs of coronavirus. They are also designed to withstand the rigors of a tough job.
- PUB DATE: 8/3/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WBZ-TV CBS 4 Boston

VIDEO: Flames jumped from unit to unit as a fire engulfed a North Coventry Township, Pennsylvania, apartment building, displacing 100 residents and leaving at least seven people, including three firefighters, hurt. The three-alarm fire started at the Ashwood Apartments on 782 Worth Boulevard shortly after 7 p.
- PUB DATE: 7/31/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WCAU-TV NBC 10 Philadelphia

First responders with the Reedy Creek Improvement District have launched a legal battle to collect workers compensation benefits after being tested and diagnosed with COVID-19. Michael Grant, a paramedic with Reedy Creek since 2018, tested positive with the virus “on the job” on July 3 and quarantined at home for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended 14 days.
- PUB DATE: 7/31/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WKMG-TV CBS 6 Orlando

Four years into his budding career as a firefighter, Glenn Ericksen was used to putting out routine fires in apartments, single-family homes and small businesses in Arlington Heights. Then in the early morning hours of July 31, 1985, he and his co-workers at the firehouse got the call they'll never forget: A fire had broken out in the Horseman's Lounge at Arlington Park.
- PUB DATE: 7/31/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Daily Herald - Metered Site

For over a month Tony winner Brian Stokes Mitchell serenaded the streets of Manhattan from the window of his Upper West Side apartment to honor frontline workers who were fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic. The cause, meaningful to the 62-year-old as he was diagnosed with coronavirus in late March but has since recovered.
- PUB DATE: 7/31/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WNYW-TV FOX 5 New York