More than two dozen hospital intensive care units (ICUs) and emergency rooms were full on Monday, according to the Georgia Coordinating Center (GCC). The online database shows bed capacity at medical facilities across the state and allows users to find the closest hospital to them with the most resources.
- PUB DATE: 12/29/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WXIA-TV NBC 11 Atlanta

In a typical school year, students often look forward to visits from their local fire departments — or perhaps they're lucky to visit a nearby station in-person. But this year, those visits and field trips have been put on hold due to the pandemic. So the Overland Park Fire Department is hoping to bring that experience to you and your student.
- PUB DATE: 12/29/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KSHB-TV NBC 41 Kansas City

The innovative new station of Rescue Company 2 in Brooklyn is a welcome upgrade from their former station house, which was built in 1893 when the FDNY still used horses. Designed through a partnership with the New York City Department of Design and Construction and the illustrious architecture firm Studio Gang, the multifaceted new building serves as a training space where the specially-trained unit can practice responding to fires, building collapses, water rescues, and other dangerous scenarios.
- PUB DATE: 12/29/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Untapped New York

As of Sunday, about 39,500 Wisconsinites had already received the coronavirus vaccine, but state emergency medical responders are concerned they've been left out. Firefighters and ambulances respond to virtually every medical emergency, and they want to make sure they're included as the Moderna vaccine rolls out this week.
- PUB DATE: 12/28/2020 7:04:57 PM - SOURCE: WISN-TV ABC 12 Milwaukee

This holiday season, the Merrill Fire Department is seeing calls they’d never seen before 2020. They have to be just as quick to respond to calls without letting COVID-19 slow them down. Usually at this time of year, Merrill firefighters might be suiting up for calls for holiday fires or kitchen fires, but this year, they’re having to suit up in PPE for EMS calls to protect themselves from COVID-19.
- PUB DATE: 12/28/2020 5:57:54 PM - SOURCE: WSAW-TV CBS 7 Wausau

No one was injured after a house fire occurred in Shawano County on Monday afternoon. The Shawano Fire Department told Local 5 that at around 1:30 p.m., fire crews responded to a home located on the 100 block of S. Lafayette Street for reports of a residential fire. Upon arrival, firefighters say they saw heavy smoke coming from the eaves and later determined the fire was located in the attic of the home.
- PUB DATE: 12/28/2020 3:14:49 PM - SOURCE: WFRV-TV and WJMN-TV CBS 5 Green Bay

VIDEO: It's considered one of the toughest firefighter training programs in the country, with a waitlist stretching three years and filled with the names of firefighters from as far away as California and Washington State. The North Carolina Breathing Equipment School, which is held twice a year at Gaston College's Dallas campus, even held the distinction of being named the "Top Gun" of firefighter schools.
- PUB DATE: 12/28/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WCNC-TV NBC 36 Charlotte

Nashville residents were jolted awake by a loud explosion in the city’s historic downtown district on Christmas morning. The bomb, hidden inside a recreational vehicle, devastated businesses in the area and disrupted AT&T communication networks throughout the state. Officials described the event as an “intentional act” and a “deliberate bomb.
- PUB DATE: 12/28/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Washington Post - Metered Site

VIDEO: A homeowner said she is glad to be alive after her house exploded into a fireball that damaged multiple homes in southeast Houston. The explosion happened around 11 a.m. Sunday at a home in the 6000 block of Doulton Drive near Bellfort Avenue. Mildred Whitfield captured the fire on her phone across the street.
- PUB DATE: 12/28/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KPRC-TV NBC 2 Houston

A Muhlenberg boy is finishing up a year-long journey. Seven-year-old Ayden Robbins does good deeds year-round, but he’s most proud of the thousands of cards he’s written to first responders. In all, he’s written cards to 68 departments across the country, from California to Alaska to Florida to Maine.
- PUB DATE: 12/28/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WYMT-TV CBS 15 Hazard

VIDEO: On Sunday 37 years ago, five Buffalo firefighters and two civilians died in one of the worst disasters the city has ever seen. A propane explosion leveled a portion of North Division Street downtown. Every year, the Buffalo Fire Department marks the exact time of the blast, 8:23 p.m., with a moment of silence.
- PUB DATE: 12/28/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WGRZ-TV ABC 2 Buffalo

Four house cats were saved and no injuries were reported after a house fire took place in the City of Oconto on Saturday night. According to the Oconto Fire and Rescue, just before 10:30 p.m., firefighters responded to a residence located on the 200 block Erie Avenue for a report of a house fire. Upon arrival, crews found flames and smoke coming from an enclosed front porch and report having quickly performed a knockdown of the flames and contained the fire to the area of the porch.
- PUB DATE: 12/27/2020 11:39:24 AM - SOURCE: WFRV-TV CBS 5 Green Bay

Multiple law enforcement agencies are investigating what police describe as a suspicious fire that took the lives of several victims Christmas morning. According to a press release from the Omro Police Department, an officer on patrol saw flames and heavy smoke near a house in the 200 block of McKinley Avenue around 4:30 a.
- PUB DATE: 12/26/2020 3:39:20 PM - SOURCE: WGBA-TV NBC 26 Green Bay

One Madison resident is displaced after an apartment fire in downtown Madison. MFD says they responded to Bassett Warehouse Apartments on North Bedford Street around 7:30 a.m Saturday. Residents of the 27-unit apartment complex reported smoke in the hallway. Responding firefighters found heavy smoke and flames in an apartment on the first floor.
- PUB DATE: 12/26/2020 1:50:01 PM - SOURCE: WMTV-TV NBC 15 Madison

The Madison Fire Department helped put out an illegal backyard bonfire early Sunday morning that reached 10 feet in diameter with flames up to six-feet high. According to a daily report, the Madison Fire Department responded to the bonfire around 12:15 a.m. on Lathrop Street that had a “notable glow” coming from the backyard.
- PUB DATE: 12/24/2020 5:35:17 PM - SOURCE: WMTV-TV NBC 15 Madison

VIDEO: A De Soto recycling plant was destroyed in a fire Tuesday night. A view from Sky5 around 6:30 p.m. showed massive flames at the Proud Veteran Resources and Recycling. Several fire trucks could be seen spraying water on the flames. By about 7:45 p.m., it appeared firefighters were able to extinguish most of the heavy flames.
- PUB DATE: 12/23/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KSDK-TV NBC 5 St. Louis

Everyone remembers the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, but the blaze that left over 300 dead and thousands homeless was not the last disaster to scorch the city — not by a long shot. On Dec. 22, 1910, a fire broke out at the Morris and Co. meatpacking plant at the Union Stockyards, burning out of control despite the efforts of many heroic firefighters.
- PUB DATE: 12/23/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Chicago Sun Times - Metered Site

New Orleans residents and visitors having emergencies can now talk to first responders by video when they call or text 911, thanks to a program city officials say will be a big help for people in crisis. The Orleans Parish Communications District, which handles the city's emergency dispatches and 911 calls, will also be able to better determine a person's location using upgraded software from its private partner, Carbyne, a call handling platform.
- PUB DATE: 12/23/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Nola.com

Steve Buscemi hosted a virtual fireside chat on Tuesday in support of Friends of Firefighters, which offers essential programs and services to help active and retired firefighters and their families support, prioritize and clearly communicate their physical and mental health needs during stressful times.
- PUB DATE: 12/23/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Hollywood Reporter

A certain fellow in a red coat has the City of Laurinburg Fire Department to thank after he was stuck in a chimney. Or, at least, that’s what the department said. The department posted a video on Sunday to its Facebook page paying tribute to first responders, detailing a firefighter’s version of the classic “The Night Before Christmas.
- PUB DATE: 12/23/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WBTW-TV CBS 13 Florence