VIDEO: The fire believed to have been sparked by illegal fireworks that severely damaged a South Buffalo house Friday offered a pair of grim reminders.
One was of the danger of fireworks. The other was of a tragedy that still resonates within the Buffalo Fire Department.
“This fire was eerily similar to a fire that took the life of one of our firefighters, Michael Seguin, some 23 years ago,” Fire Commissioner William Renaldo said. - PUB DATE: 7/6/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Buffalo News
Cleanup was underway Thursday at a multistory health club shuttered by the coronavirus pandemic that collapsed into a heap of rubble in Brooklyn a day earlier.
Videos posted on Citizen app show FDNY trucks, an ambulance, and numerous police officers and other first responders near a pile of rubble and debris where the three-story building in Carroll Gardens used to stand at the corner of Court Street and Union Street. - PUB DATE: 7/2/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WNYW-TV FOX 5 New York
Three U.S. Department of Commerce agencies, the Economic Development Administration (EDA), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority), announced the awardee of the Accelerate R2 Network (R2 Network) Challenge. The R2 Network Challenge is an interagency program that connects stakeholders in the response and resilience (R2) industries, accelerating the speed at which startups and other organizations can bring innovations to the public safety market, create new businesses and jobs, and support community resilience. - PUB DATE: 7/2/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: U.S. Economic Development Administration
Students in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 have been attending parties in the city and surrounding area as part of a disturbing contest to see who can catch the virus first, a city council member told ABC News on Wednesday.
Tuscaloosa City Councilor Sonya McKinstry said students have been organizing "COVID parties" as a game to intentionally infect each other with the contagion that has killed more than 127,000 people in the United States. - PUB DATE: 7/2/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: ABC News
How severe is the spread of COVID-19 in your community? If you're confused, you're not alone. Though state and local dashboards provide lots of numbers, from case counts to deaths, it's often unclear how to interpret them — and hard to compare them to other places.
"There hasn't been a unified, national approach to communicating risk, says Danielle Allen, a professor and director of the Edmond J. - PUB DATE: 7/2/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: National Public Radio
VIDEO: Nearly 400,000 Nissan vehicles on the road right now could catch fire.
Nissan has issued multiple recalls about the problem, impacting some Muranos, Maximas, Infinitis and Pathfinders, but the company has no fix for the defect that has burned down vehicles, homes and even caught a car dealership on fire. - PUB DATE: 7/2/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KPRC-TV NBC 2 Houston
Virginia Beach Fire and EMS employees were “pushed and kicked” Monday night while trying to save the life of a motorcyclist, officials say.
When firefighters arrived in the 900 block of Atlantis Drive in the Seatack community shortly before 9 p.m. “an unruly crowd gathered and rapidly grew in size and out of control, surrounding the scene,” according to a Virginia Beach Fire Department daily briefing report obtained by WAVY-TV 10. - PUB DATE: 7/1/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WAVY-TV NBC 10 Portsmouth
VIDEO: The state's final report about the Farmington explosion, obtained by the CBS 13 I-Team, reveals what firefighters experienced in moments just before and after the blast. They’ve never spoken about it publicly, but their interviews with investigators detail the terrifying ordeal and their brave actions that day. - PUB DATE: 7/1/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WGME-TV CBS 13 Portland
The Kern County Board of Supervisors took a series of steps Tuesday to address a looming budget crisis brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
One of those steps included passing a $3 billion preliminary budget for fiscal year 2020-21, but the most prominent may have been the reduction of firefighter overtime benefits that the County Administrative Office said exceeds federal labor standards. - PUB DATE: 7/1/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Bakersfield Californian
EaseAlert is a pre-alert system designed to alert firefighters of an emergency before the alarm sounds in their station. It was created by young entrepreneurs Blake Richardson and Elezar Tonev with the goal to reduce stress and improve efficiency for firefighters.
“My dad has been a firefighter most of my life. - PUB DATE: 7/1/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WCJB-TV ABC/CW+ 20 Gainesville
For the first time in 73 years, the town’s fire and EMS departments will operate as one unified department beginning Wednesday.
The unified department, the result of merging the Coventry Volunteer Fire Association and the North Coventry Volunteer Fire Department, will be known as the Town of Coventry Fire/EMS Department. - PUB DATE: 7/1/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Journal Inquirer
It’s not just cops’ disciplinary records that should be shared with the public -- firefighters’ and correction officers’ histories should be posted online too, Mayor de Blasio said Monday.
Now that the state has repealed a part of the 1976 state civil rights law known as 50-a, there is no reason for any city agency to shield relevant records from the public, de Blasio added. - PUB DATE: 6/30/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Daily News
VIDEO: A fire at an asphalt processing plant resulted in a hazmat situation and evacuations in Camden County, New Jersey early Tuesday.
Officials said a large tank containing asphalt began to smolder around 12:45 a.m. at Blueknight Energy Partners on the 200 block of Water Street in Gloucester City. - PUB DATE: 6/30/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WPVI-TV ABC 6 Philadelphia
A total of $3.5 million was awarded to 154 fire departments, districts and EMS providers through the Small Equipment Grant Program.
The Office of the Illinois State Fire Marshal and Gov. Pritzker announced the OSFM received 540 applications, requesting around $12 million in funding during this grant period. - PUB DATE: 6/30/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WIFR-LD CBS 23 Rockford
The United States has long prided itself as the world's shining beacon. But its current status is a much darker one: the globe's leader in coronavirus cases.
More than 125,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the US, and more than 2.5 million Americans have been infected.
American life has been irrevocably altered by the worst pandemic in a century. - PUB DATE: 6/30/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: CNN
PHOTOS: City officials invite area residents to join them next week in a celebration of the Fort Walton Beach Fire Department’s new fire engine.
City officials used $530,000 in half-cent sales tax money to pay for the 2020 engine, which can pump 1,500 gallons of water per minute and carries a full complement of firefighting, rescue and emergency medical tools and equipment. - PUB DATE: 6/30/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Northwest Florida Daily News
Every JFRD firefighter will be tested for COVID-19. Testing started Saturday after 14 tested positive for the virus. The city said more than 200 firefighter are in self-quarantine.
COVID-19 tests are underway on everyone in the Jacksonville Fire Department after 14 firefighters tested positive for the virus. - PUB DATE: 6/29/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WJAX-TV CBS 47 Jacksonville
A car slammed into the living area of a Rialto fire station Friday night, June 26, almost striking a firefighter and leaving a stew of smashed furniture, broken glass and vehicle fluid behind as it reversed out of the building.
The firefighter, an engineer who is a veteran of 15 years, was sitting about 3 feet from where the front quarter of the car went into the building, Battalion Chief Cory Cisneros said Saturday. - PUB DATE: 6/29/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Sun
A conflict is brewing between the Oneida County Department of Emergency Services and a handful of local fire chiefs who do not want to give up their 3-digit identification numbers.
The county 9-1-1 Center is planning to switch from number identifications to plain language in order to better serve an impending upgrade to a digital radio system. - PUB DATE: 6/29/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Rome Sentinel
Startup Allerio announced that its easy-to-use Mobile Hub broadband platform designed for EMS use and the healthcare community has been certified for use by the FCC and multiple U.S. carriers—FirstNet/AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and U.S. Cellular.
“One of the unique things about this is that there’s one button on it—it turns the device on, and it turns the device off,” Allerio CEO TJ Kennedy said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications. - PUB DATE: 6/29/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: IWCE's Urgent Communications