VIDEO: History has been made in League City! The city's volunteer fire department now has it's first-ever all-female day crew. A photo of the five women, seen posing in full gear, was posted on the department's Facebook page on Wednesday. "These ladies are proudly representing Stations 3, 4 and 6! Way to represent and make history ladies," read the post.
- PUB DATE: 12/18/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KTRK-TV ABC 13 Houston

A 15-year-old boy faces a murder charge in the fatal shooting of a retired Chicago firefighter earlier this month outside a Morgan Park popcorn shop. The teen, who is not being identified because he is charged as a juvenile, was unarmed at the time of the shooting. He was with two other people who had guns when they confronted 65-year-old Dwain Williams Dec.
- PUB DATE: 12/18/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Chicago Sun Times - Metered Site

VIDEO: Instead of Dasher, Dancer, and Prancer, a retired Redding firefighter has created his own handmade reindeer display in honor of first responders. Patrick Westrip created the eight not-so-tiny reindeer out of cardboard and paper-mâché and painted blankets on each one to honor different first responders such as firefighters, law enforcement, and medical workers.
- PUB DATE: 12/18/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KRCR-TV ABC 7 Redding

One person is dead, two paramedics injured after a shooting Thursday morning in Pine Bluff. Officers were dispatched to the 1400 block of West 23rd Avenue at 4:30 a.m. and discovered the two paramedics suffering from gunshot wounds. According to Pine Bluff investigators a third individual, 22-year-old Kevin Curl Jr.
- PUB DATE: 12/18/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KARK-TV NBC 4 Little Rock

VIDEO: Fire trucks made at Rosenbauer USA, just north of Sioux Falls, are now featured in a new video game– and the company is giving away 250 free downloads this holiday season. Firefighting simulator The Squad just launched on Steam in November. This new worldwide video game features fire trucks made right here in South Dakota.
- PUB DATE: 12/18/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KELO-TV CBS 11 Sioux Falls

Anew report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum lays out that more collaboration of fire and EMS services in the La Crosse area could cut costs while improving service quality. Commissioned by La Crosse County a little over a year ago, the report examines what the best solution to a growing number of challenges area emergency service providers are facing might be.
- PUB DATE: 12/17/2020 11:37:37 AM - SOURCE: Lacrosse Tribune

The building that was home to Rockheads Comics and Games was damaged by fire Wednesday afternoon. A former fire station at 2328 Roosevelt Road in Uptown was home to the decades-old shop, which closed earlier this year. Neighbors said the building had been vacant and, according to property records, there were no apartments on the second floor.
- PUB DATE: 12/17/2020 1:07:40 AM - SOURCE: Kenosha News

Crews extinguished a large fire that gutted a commercial building in Chatsworth Wednesday night. The flames were reported around 9:50 p.m. at a one-story building at 20150 Sunburst St., the Los Angeles Fire Department said in an alert. The structure houses Arizona Pipeline Co., fire officials said.
- PUB DATE: 12/17/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KTLA-TV 5 CW Los Angeles

PHOTOS: Floyd Guenther wanted cereal. It was early Dec. 21, 2019, about 4 a.m. Quiet. Many of his neighbors at the Alpine Motel Apartments were asleep. Nothing seemed unusual as he headed for the corner store, closing up his third-floor room and walking down a narrow hallway toward the building’s front stairwell.
- PUB DATE: 12/17/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Las Vegas Review Journal - Metered Site

Columbus police and fire divisions this week have welcomed their most diverse recruitment classes in recent years, the city Department of Public Safety reported. Forty-five new Columbus police recruits and 35 new city fire recruits began working toward careers as first responders this week. Nineteen members of the Division of Police recruitment class are female or non-white, representing about 42% of the entire class.
- PUB DATE: 12/17/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Columbus Dispatch

First responders are asking drivers to slow down after a crew in Allegheny County was almost hit by a truck sliding on snow covered roads. Collier Township EMS posted the video to Facebook Wednesday as a reminder for drivers to use caution if they need to be out and about. Officials say crews were on scene of a minor crash and were checking on the occupant for injuries when a truck came sliding into one of their emergency vehicles nearly hitting one of them.
- PUB DATE: 12/17/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WJAC-TV NBC/CW+ 6 Johnstown

The state's first Safe Haven Baby Box was unveiled in front scores of residents, law enforcement and fire officials, as well as politicians and well-wishers at the southeast corner of the newly built fire and police building in Ocala. The occasion, attended by Monica Kelsey, founder and CEO of the Safe Haven Baby Box and Linda Znachko, founder of He Knows Your Name, was to let people know that a parent can leave a child in a safe environment.
- PUB DATE: 12/17/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Ocala StarBanner

Aplan delivered Wednesday to Gov. Tony Evers outlines dozens of actions to address hazardous “forever chemicals,” including testing of all municipal water systems, phasing out fluorinated firefighting foam and creating a strategy for communicating the risks. Developed over the past year in response to an executive order, the PFAS Action Plan builds on work already begun by the DNR and other agencies to track, contain and clean up existing contamination and limit future exposures.
- PUB DATE: 12/16/2020 3:27:49 PM - SOURCE: WISC News - Metered Site

Ashes are all that is left of a Rock County home after it was ravaged by fire Tuesday afternoon. The Orfordville Fire Department and 11 other departments responded to 1430 S Murphy Road in the Plymouth township at 12:05 p.m. The homeowners, Mike and Teri Havercroft, tell NBC15 they smelled smoke and immediately ran outside with their dogs.
- PUB DATE: 12/16/2020 11:49:44 AM - SOURCE: WMTV-TV NBC 15 Madison

The Canton Fire Department shared a video on Facebook of their crews responding to a fire at a warehouse Tuesday. The fire broke out at 2206 12th St. NE around 4:30 p.m. A plume of smoke could be seen hundreds of feet in the air. According to the Canton Fire Department, people could see the smoke from miles away.
- PUB DATE: 12/16/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WJW-TV FOX 8 Cleveland

As the COVID-19 vaccine begins to be available in the United States, the federal government largely has left distribution up to the states. One of the biggest challenges facing states is to decide who should receive the vaccine first. The IAFC has developed a chart which lists the priority tier to which firefighters and EMS personnel have been assigned in each state.
- PUB DATE: 12/16/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: IAFC.org

An 18-year effort to get Flagler County to recognize former county firefighter John R. Keppler’s line-of-duty death in 2002 finally ended Monday evening with the county commission’s decision to rename the fire rescue training facility on Justice Lane after Keppler. Until then, Keppler had been honored on two state memorials, including the the Florida Fallen Firefighter Memorial in Ocala, the Florida’s Fallen Firefighters Memorial on the grounds of the state Capitol, and the national firefighters’ memorial in Emmitsburg, Md.
- PUB DATE: 12/16/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Flagler Live

The Muskegon County "Yellow Dot" program started small in 2019 with money from Mercy Health and took a big step forward in 2020 with additional funding from the Muskegon County Senior Millage. But due to COVID-19, police and fire departments around Muskegon County weren't able to hold open houses and community safety events to introduce community members to Yellow Dot.
- PUB DATE: 12/16/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WZZM-TV ABC 13 Grand Rapids

VIDEO: A mother and her two young daughters rescued two weeks ago from a two-alarm fire at their home in Boston's South End were reunited with their heroes Tuesday. "Thank you so much Boston fire for your help and bringing my family to safety," Alicia Soto told her rescuers. On the morning of Dec. 2, thirty-one-year Soto and her two children, Annabelle and Amelia, were trapped in their third-floor apartment on West Newton Street when a fire broke out.
- PUB DATE: 12/16/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NECN-TV NBC 10 Boston

The Madison Fire Department will stand alongside other healthcare workers as one of the first groups to receive Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, according to officials. Che Stedman, the assistant chief of medical affairs, said its department of nearly 400 members qualifies as an EMT or paramedic, putting the group in Phase 1A of vaccine distribution.
- PUB DATE: 12/15/2020 11:55:37 PM - SOURCE: WMTV-TV NBC 15 Madison