Five minutes ago, Kassie Scott was driving the ambulance down Main Street with lights on and siren blaring, but now she and paramedic Steve Smith are parked in front of the response address, sitting in silence, waiting for the police to arrive. The caller said the person was violent. Scott and Smith are trained and equipped to save lives, not defend their own.
- PUB DATE: 12/9/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse

The firefighter and EMT union president in Washington D.C. is disputing recent claims by the East Chicago city administration as it justified controversial new shifts for city firefighters. Mayor Anthony Copeland and Fire Chief Anthony Serna recently told The Times the firefighters shifts were being changed to save taxpayer dollars, a move they claimed was successful in Washington, D.
- PUB DATE: 12/9/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Northwest Times

One person was hit and injured by a vehicle in Arroyo Grande on Friday morning — and the incident happened right in front of a Five Cities Fire Authority station. Five Cities Fire Authority Chief Steve Lieberman told The Tribune a woman was crossing the street where there was no marked crosswalk in Arroyo Grande outside of the Village when she appears to have been hit by a car.
- PUB DATE: 12/9/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Tribune

Eight people were displaced by a fire that broke out in a home near 31st Street and Rogers Street in Milwaukee Saturday afternoon, Dec. 7. It happened around 1:45 p.m. Responding firefighters found fire on the first and second floor of the two-story home. Five children and three adults were displaced.
- PUB DATE: 12/7/2019 4:33:27 PM - SOURCE: WITI Fox Channel 6

A mother and her three daughters lost everything after a fire at their Saratoga home Friday night. The fire was reported at the house on 59th Street South in Saratoga shortly before 11:30 p.m., Grand Rapids Fire Chief Robert Piatt said. When firefighters arrived at the house, "flames were coming out of the windows," Piatt said.
- PUB DATE: 12/7/2019 7:46:04 AM - SOURCE: Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune

For Jeramie Mielke, fighting fires is a family duty - and admittedly a good feeling. The new Town of Beloit deputy fire chief said when firefighters respond to emergencies, it might be the worst day of someone's life. But it makes him feel good to know he's saving lives while using skills that he's learned through more than two decades of experience.
- PUB DATE: 12/6/2019 8:44:06 AM - SOURCE: Beloit Daily News

Firefighters on Friday morning, Dec. 6 responded to the scene of a two-alarm fire near MLK Drive and Clarke. The call came in around 4:34 a.m. Clara Mohammed School on Wright Street canceled classes for Friday due to the fire. Upon arrival, fire officials found fire o the first floor, extending vertically to the second floor and eventually the third floor.
- PUB DATE: 12/6/2019 3:37:54 AM - SOURCE: WITI Fox Channel 6

Two hundred fire fighters have now reportedly died from illnesses related to the September 11th attacks, according to a charitable organization that assists 9/11 first responders with medical needs not covered by insurance. The Ray Pfeifer Foundation confirmed on Twitter Wednesday that two more New York City fire fighters have died due to "9/11 illness," marking the 199th, and 200th FDNY deaths related to the World Trade Center attacks.
- PUB DATE: 12/6/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: CBS News

After voters rejected a city charter amendment Nov. 5 that would have allowed 2 additional mills for public safety, the council is considering options as funds in the annual public safety budget are exhausted halfway into the second quarter of the fiscal year. The rising number of medical runs the Davison-Richfield Fire Department is being dispatched for is considered to blame for the city’s public safety budget being $80,000 in the red last year.
- PUB DATE: 12/6/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Davison Index

Belgrade residents will face the question of whether they want to create their own fire department in the spring. City officials say it'll be costly -- roughly $3.3 million -- so they have another option on the table. If residents vote to create their own department, taxes will have to be raised, but if they vote to annex themselves to the Central Valley Fire District, city officials say there won't be much of a fiscal change.
- PUB DATE: 12/6/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KECI-TV NBC 13 Missoula

A recently released CalFire report reveals how one fire captain narrowly escaped death and banded together with two civilians to save themselves by using a fire shelter — a last resort meant to protect from a blaze burning all around — during the Kincade Fire in Sonoma County. Around 3:45 p.m. on Oct.
- PUB DATE: 12/6/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Red Bluff Daily News - Metered Site

In the aftermath of several public sexual harassment cases, Austin EMS and the police and fire departments are updating their sexual harassment policies to create consistency across city emergency services. The action comes in the wake of Austin Fire Department Lt. James Baker’s guilty plea to hiding a camera and filming firefighter Kelly Gall in the fire station restroom.
- PUB DATE: 12/6/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Austin Monitor

With Thanksgiving behind us and Christmas and New Year's right around the corner, the Beloit Fire Department wants residents to have a safe and festive holiday season. The department hung up its annual holiday fire safety wreath with green lights the day after Thanksgiving. Any time a fire is reported in the city, a red light will be added to the wreath, and when a fatal fire occurs, a blue light will be added.
- PUB DATE: 12/5/2019 8:41:22 AM - SOURCE: Beloit Daily News

Village trustees passed a resolution on Monday night urging the Racine County Communications Center to adopt a practice of dispatching the nearest available emergency medical unit, and requesting that all county communities west of Interstate 94 pass similar resolutions. The move to closest-unit dispatch would mean when an emergency call comes in, dispatchers would send the closest available first responders, regardless of municipal borders.
- PUB DATE: 12/5/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Journal Times

Dave Rowell’s shirt says it all: “Euclid Fire: Nobody Fights Alone.” When I meet Rowell, a captain in the Euclid Fire Department, we pull beat-up chairs across from each other in the duty office of Station 1, a functional-looking brick building on a strip of East 222nd Street. Outside the office, the bay doors are open.
- PUB DATE: 12/5/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Cleveland Magazine

VIDEO: Crews worked to clean up an oil spill Wednesday morning in Elliott Bay near the Seattle Waterfront. At about 8 a.m., crews at Fire Station 5 found a small leak of waste oil from Fireboat Leschi, Seattle fire officials said. According to the U.S. Coast Guard, several gallons were spilled. Crews immediately secured the leak and several agencies responded.
- PUB DATE: 12/5/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KIRO-TV CBS 7 Seattle

The city’s Department of Buildings will begin enforcing a commercial sprinkler law passed in 2004 requiring all New York City landlords to install the fire prevention equipment. Despite the 15-year window for property owners to get up to code, it was revealed at a November City Council committee hearing that about 1,100 buildings were still not in compliance with the Local Law 26 — and 86 building owners have completely ignored city notifications.
- PUB DATE: 12/5/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: AM New York

On Oct. 23, firefighters from multiple Norwich departments were called to a massive house fire on Bentley Avenue, a scene of controlled chaos with mutual aid back-up staged just down the road from the blaze as city trucks sprayed the multi-family residence with streams of water. Norwich Fire Department Acting Chief Keith Wucik, as incident commander, had a lot of balls in the air that afternoon between directing the main firefighting effort to keeping track of how many members had arrived on scene from the city’s volunteer departments.
- PUB DATE: 12/5/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Norwich Bulletin

Village trustees passed a resolution on Monday night urging the Racine County Communications Center to adopt a practice of dispatching the nearest available emergency medical unit, and requesting that all county communities west of Interstate 94 pass similar resolutions. The move to closest-unit dispatch would mean when an emergency call comes in, dispatchers would send the closest available first responders, regardless of municipal borders.
- PUB DATE: 12/5/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Journal Times - Metered Site

A new bill could expand housing assistance for volunteer emergency responders. The Volunteer First Responder Housing Act was introduced by a number of lawmakers including Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) on Wednesday. The bill makes it possible for volunteer firefighters and other responders to be a part of government programs that make housing options more affordable.
- PUB DATE: 12/4/2019 9:45:36 PM - SOURCE: WKBT-TV CBS 8 La Crosse