The state House has voted to exempt volunteer fire departments from Pennsylvania’s Right to Know Law, which journalists and the general public can use to request information from public entities.
Supporters of the bill say it is a needed correction to a burdensome system, but opponents say it just makes the departments needlessly opaque. - PUB DATE: 10/24/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Essential Public Radio 90.5 WESA
A free specialized plate proposed for firefighters and emergency responders was intended to be free for the duration of an individual’s volunteer service, not just for the first year, according to an opinion just issued by Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem.
The opinion was sought by Senate Transportation Committee Member David Rust, R-Tioga, and House Transportation Committee Chairman Dan Ruby after questions were raised during the 2019 biennium related to implementing Measure 4, approved by voters in 2018. - PUB DATE: 10/24/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Williston Herald
EMS structure in urban areas varies to fit the need of the community. It is often part of the Fire Department – but may be a third service separate from police and fire – or follow a public utility model privately contracted to provide EMS services. In more suburban and rural areas EMS often follows a fourth model, with volunteers providing part or all of the EMS care in that county. - PUB DATE: 10/24/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: JEMS.com
A new state law increases benefits for family members of first responders killed on the job.
The legislation, signed into law Tuesday by Gov. Cuomo, increases the cost of living benefits by 3% for spouses of fallen police and firefighters.
“Police and firefighters who lose their lives in the line of duty are mothers, fathers, husbands and wives – and the family members they leave behind must be properly cared for,” Cuomo said. - PUB DATE: 10/23/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Daily News
Newport Fire Chief William Darin says the department made nearly 5,000 runs in 2018; that includes fire and medical responses.
Darin says less than 1 percent of those are for big structural fires. Newport Fire Union President Jake Silvati says the department is understaffed.
"We feel that it's not a matter of if something bad happens, it's a matter of when something that happens and we're very concerned about that or concerned about the safety of the citizens and the firefighters," Silvati said. - PUB DATE: 10/23/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WKRC-TV 12
When a medical call came in on June 24, 2015, to assist an intoxicated man at a trolley station, San Diego firefighter Ben Vernon thought it would be a routine situation.
He had been on this type of call several times in the past, so he was not too worried.
Arriving on the scene, however, tensions started to rise between a bystander and several security guards, and a fight broke out. - PUB DATE: 10/23/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Bakersfield.com
An Atlanta firefighter who lost his leg after getting struck by a vehicle while responding to a call on I-85 said he wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for the quick-thinking actions of his colleagues.
Sgt. Darrow Harden was hit by a car in May while responding to a wreck near Cleveland Avenue in the interstate’s northbound lanes. - PUB DATE: 10/23/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Atlanta Journal Constitution
An East Tennessee landmark is now completely gone after a fire late Tuesday night.
Cumberland County Fire Rescue responded to a fire at Minister’s Treehouse in Crossville around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday. We’re told the entire building burned to the ground in about 15 minutes.
No injuries have been reported. - PUB DATE: 10/23/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WJHL-TV CBS/ABC 11 Johnson City
Mayor Bill de Blasio is being asked to do more to protect first responders in the wake of an attack on a 20-year-old emergency medical technician as he was transporting an emotional disturbed person to the hospital.
The ambulance EMT Nicholas Cody used to transport an emotionally disturbed person on Friday night sat parked outside the emergency room at Lincoln Hospital on Monday, the decal warning that it’s a felony to attack a first responder, apparently not much of a deterrent in a city where the number of of mental health 911 calls have nearly doubled in the last decade. - PUB DATE: 10/22/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WLNY-TV 55 Riverhead
Pennsylvania’s growing shortage of volunteer and career firefighters and EMS providers has reached a point where state lawmakers are calling for action to avert a crisis like the one Rep. Stephen Barrar described at a Monday news conference.
“How would you feel if you had a fire or an accident or a life-threatening emergency and when you dialed 911, no one responded? These type of doomsday scenarios are not far-fetched,” said Barrar, R-Delaware County, who chairs the House Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee. - PUB DATE: 10/22/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: PennLive
On the same day that a package of bills was introduced at the State Capitol to help Pennsylvania’s fire and EMS workers, one midstate community is applauding the decision.
The Middletown Fire Department is 100% volunteer, so for about two years now, they’ve been offering a live-in program for young firefighters. - PUB DATE: 10/22/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WHTM-TV ABC 27 Harrisburg
Gov. Kate Brown has appointed a financial oversight team and will hire an independent contractor to address a cash flow crisis caused by the Oregon Department of Forestry’s failure to promptly bill and collect money it is owed for wildfire costs.
The 13-member team, chaired by the governor’s chief of staff, is tasked with identifying the structural changes needed to expedite and standardize how the agency processes financial transactions related to wildfires. - PUB DATE: 10/22/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Portland Oregonian, Hillsboro Argus, Oregon Live.com
Officials are urging residents throughout the San Diego region’s most fire-prone areas to prepare for this year’s peak wildfire season.
The county is slated to mail out its “personal disaster plan” to roughly 200,000 homes and businesses starting next week. The recently updated 16-page document will be sent to those living in areas designated by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection as “very-high fire severity zones. - PUB DATE: 10/22/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The San Diego Union Tribune - Metered Site
A firefighter with the Homer Fire Department died Saturday after falling ill at a training, according to the fire chief.
Firefighter Robert Bush was feeling ill during a training, and his fellow firefighters offered him medical help immediately, chief Mahlon Irish Jr. said in a Facebook post.
“Bush was transported to the local hospital where revival efforts continued. - PUB DATE: 10/21/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Syracuse.com
Over the last few years, national firefighter organizations have put an emphasis on cancer preventions. Firefighters face higher rates of cancer diagnosis and cancer-related deaths than the general population.
Innovative work by the Xenia Fire Department will help them be more diligent about keeping gear clean to prevent the inhalation of carcinogens as suggested by many national firefighter organizations. - PUB DATE: 10/21/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WDTN-TV NBC 2 Dayton
Two national experts on firefighter safety were at the Vermont Fire Academy Saturday sharing what they know with leaders in the state’s firefighting and emergency services community.
“The entire class today is focused on firefighter health and safety,” Chief Craig Haigh, a 36-year veteran of the Hanover Park, Illinois, Fire Department, and a field staff instructor at the University of Illinois Fire Service Institute. - PUB DATE: 10/21/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Rutland Herald - Metered Site
San Francisco’s Marina was ravaged by fire during the Loma Prieta earthquake, centered 60 miles away.
Thirty years later, experts say, as much as a third of the city is still largely unprotected against the massive fires they fear will be sparked by the Big One.
“The way the situation is now, we are going to have some major conflagrations in the city,” said Charles Scawthorn, an engineer and earthquake fire modeling expert, who predicts as many as 100 separate fires across the city, fueled by broken natural gas lines. - PUB DATE: 10/21/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KNTV NBC 11 San Jose
VIDEOS: Firefighters are battling a three-alarm fire at an auto body shop in Philadelphia’s Cobbs Creek neighborhood. Crews were called to the the area of 59th and Irving Streets for a fire around 10:10 a.m. Monday.
Arriving crews found heavy fire conditions coming from a second-story building.
The fire caused parts of the building to collapse. - PUB DATE: 10/21/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KYW-TV CBS 3 Philadelphia
Two city EMS veterans were in critical condition Thursday after a bizarre episode where one suffered a stroke behind the wheel — and the other an aortic aneurysm while headed to assist his colleague, authorities said.
The double dose of tragedy began when Liam Glinane, a 28-year FDNY veteran, was stricken while driving around 1 p. - PUB DATE: 10/18/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Daily News
VIDEO: One year ago, a man shot himself after setting a fire that destroyed several homes in Springfield, and today the first responders are looking back.
“We started getting ready to fight fire. As we were pulling up on scene, glass exploded through the cab and something hard hit me in the left chest," said Captain Craig Degarlais with Eugene Springfield Fire. - PUB DATE: 10/18/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KEZI-TV ABC 9
