A mixture of salt and water with a splash of vinegar and a jolt of electrochemical activation is supplying Waco firefighters with a safe but powerful disinfectant as they work to keep their equipment and quarters free of COVID-19. Crews at Waco Fire Station No. 11, where the department’s hazardous materials unit is housed, have also developed a new spray system for the disinfectant using their air tanks and other common firehouse equipment.
- PUB DATE: 5/4/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Waco Tribune-Herald

The first wave of emergency medical technicians who contracted COVID-19 and survived are now returning to the job, armed with a first-hand understanding of the disease and a new empathy for the patients. "I was able to be more in touch with my patients who called, because I knew exactly how they were feeling," said firefighter/EMT Shantice Samuels, who has just returned to work in Washington, DC, after recovering from a case herself.
- PUB DATE: 5/4/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: CNN

A fire captain who died in the line of duty in 1953 is no longer forgotten, thanks to some fellow firefighters who became a team of detectives, solving the nearly 70-year-old mystery of his death. Being a firefighter is about a lot more than just hooking up hoses and spraying water. They’re also the ones who show up in ambulances, help out at car crashes, and wear a number of other hats many of us never even think of.
- PUB DATE: 5/4/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KSL-TV NBC 5 Salt Lake City

The state Department of Natural Resources and National Weather Service have issued a red flag warning for 12 central Wisconsin counties out of concern for brewing wildfire conditions. The warning includes Jackson, La Crosse, Trempealeau, Monroe, Juneau, Adams, Marquette, Waushara, Wood, Portage, Waupaca and Green Lake counties.
- PUB DATE: 5/3/2020 2:15:44 PM - SOURCE: Oshkosh Northwestern

One person was taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation following a fire at a Sun Prairie apartment building. Firefighters responded to reports of smoke and an active fire alarm Thursday at an apartment along the 1000 block of O’Keefe Avenue. Crews found a fire inside one unit had been extinguished by a single fire sprinkler, according to a release by the Sun Prairie Fire Department.
- PUB DATE: 5/1/2020 7:39:27 AM - SOURCE: WISC-TV CBS 3 Madison

The COVID-19 pandemic is an untraveled road, even for those trained in emergencies. While getting potential coronavirus patients where they need to go, ambulance services are making changes. Paratech Ambulance, which covers the Milwaukee area through Madison to the Illinois border, has transported more than 700 possible COVID-19 patients, with 150 being confirmed, since early March.
- PUB DATE: 5/1/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WISC-TV CBS 3 Madison

First responders have now been added to a list of those eligible for high priority COVID-19 testing. This means first responders who are showing symptoms of the virus are now eligible for high-priority testing, joining hospitalized patients, healthcare workers, and residents and employees in congregated or long-term care facilities.
- PUB DATE: 5/1/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KUSA-TV NBC 9 Denver

Over the last few months, Massachusetts has received and purchased tens of thousands of masks for first responders and health care professionals amid the coronavirus pandemic. According to a test performed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, some of those masks, like the KN95s from China, have proven to be defective.
- PUB DATE: 5/1/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WHDH-TV 7 Boston

Medical providers were recently abuzz about a new treatment for respiratory distress that includes a high flow of oxygen entering through a patient’s nose, said Braden Frame, a seven-year firefighter and paramedic with Lake Travis Fire Rescue. The action stems from COVID-19 complications encountered in the field by first responders.
- PUB DATE: 5/1/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Austin American-Statesman

It's a mission to get 5,000 Valley first responders coronavirus antibody tests. The United Phoenix Firefighters Association and the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association are helping their members get those tests. This week, the focus was on testing firefighters. Next week, they'll transition to testing police officers.
- PUB DATE: 5/1/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KNXV-TV ABC 15 Phoenix

For those of us who are stuck at home, the least we can do is show our appreciation for the people keeping us safe right now. And that's why so many of us have taken up clapping or singing to give thanks to healthcare workers, first responders and others. Some American cities, too, have found really creative ways to let their appreciation be known.
- PUB DATE: 5/1/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Time Out

The Town of Sheboygan Volunteer Fire Department responded just after 5 p.m. Thursday to Aurora’s Sheboygan Memorial Medical Center. The call? To say hello to former chief Ken Gumm. Gumm, who had spent nearly six decades with the department, is battling cancer. And because of coronavirus restrictions, friends and family aren’t allowed to visit.
- PUB DATE: 4/30/2020 8:45:56 PM - SOURCE: WISN-TV ABC 12 Milwaukee

One day he was a mechanic, another day a psychologist. In between it all, he ran into burning buildings. That described the almost 29 years Fire Department Deputy Chief Glen Hennig spent with the Town of Beloit Fire Department, which was big enough to be stimulating, but small enough to let firefighters wear many different hats.
- PUB DATE: 4/30/2020 8:09:41 PM - SOURCE: Beloit Daily News

The Racine Fire Department responded to a call of an active fire in a second-floor apartment near 6th Street and Wisconsin Ave around 3:15 p.m. on Friday, April 30. Upon arrival, heavy fire was seen coming from an apartment on the second floor. According to officials, it took firefighters over an hour to extinguish the fire.
- PUB DATE: 4/30/2020 7:42:34 PM - SOURCE: WITI-TV FOX 6 Milwaukee

The Wisconsin Face Mask Warriors are doing exactly what their name sounds like they should be doing. Fighting against COVID-19 by donating masks. The group is a state wide coalition of volunteers that have joined together to hand make cloth masks for those on the front lines battling against the COVID-19 pandemic.
- PUB DATE: 4/30/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WAOW-TV ABC 9 Wausau

The Clark County Fire Department is parking a dozen trucks because of a drastic reduction in emergency calls on the Strip, which was closed last month in response to the coronavirus pandemic, officials said. The crews of those units are being reassigned to other areas, and nobody is being laid off, officials said.
- PUB DATE: 4/30/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Las Vegas Sun

Nearly 20 percent of FDNY/EMS members and over 10 percent of NYPD cops screened for coronavirus antibodies tested positive, Gov. Andrew Cuomo revealed Wednesday, as the state death toll crept towards 18,000. The results came in days after Cuomo announced that 1,000 members from each department would be tested for antibodies, which would indicate that their immune systems battled the bug at some point.
- PUB DATE: 4/30/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Post

Gov. Jay Inslee has called for a “rapid-response” contact tracing effort as part of his plan for the gradual reopening of Washington state, likening it to “something like a fire brigade.” Contact tracing is a method by which public health officials identify individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19 and track down anyone they may have been in contact with.
- PUB DATE: 4/30/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Daily

VIDEO: Working as an engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, David Van Buren usually spends his time designing and building instruments for space telescopes or robots that will explore other worlds in our Solar System. But for the last month, Van Buren and a group of his colleagues at JPL have been working on a project that is truly unexplored terrain for them: making a ventilator to help patients sick with COVID-19.
- PUB DATE: 4/30/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Verge

Stunning footage shows a fleet of around 150 drones near Franklin Field in University City creating incredible displays in support of healthcare workers and first responders on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company behind it is called Verge Aero, which is based out of the University of Pennsylvania.
- PUB DATE: 4/30/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WTXF-TV FOX 29 Philadelphia