On May 18, 5 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

VIDEO: Fargo police officer and president of the city's police organization Mike Clower "absolutely" thinks action taken Monday night, May 20, to raise salaries for most police officers and firefighters in the city will help attract and retain employees. Clower, interviewed after a 4-1 favorable Fargo City Commission meeting vote, said he believes officers will be "quite pleased" with the decision to increase step pay for workers in the two departments with increases starting in the second year and continuing until they reach a maximum salary after about eight years.
- PUB DATE: 5/21/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: INFORUM

Jacksonville Beach city leaders met Monday night and voted in favor of a plan to merge the city’s fire department with the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department. The City of Jacksonville still has to vote. If the merger happens, JFRD would provide services to people living in Jacksonville Beach. The proposal has been faced with opposition.
- PUB DATE: 5/21/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: News 4 JAX

A Minnesota woman has given a kidney to a firefighter who once answered her call for help. Becca Bundy spotted Bill Cox tending bar last fall. The Bearville volunteer firefighter was wearing a T-shirt on which he wrote a plea for a donor. “I couldn't get it out of my head,” Becca said. “I just said, ‘I'm the one and I know it.
- PUB DATE: 5/21/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KARE 11

VIDEO: A bill in the New York State legislature aims to help volunteer first responders out with their bills. EMTs and firefighters often put themselves in dangerous situations to keep others safe. “I love comforting people. I love being there for people, saving people. I feel like it's what I'm meant to do,” Emily Evans, volunteer firefighter & EMT, said.
- PUB DATE: 5/21/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: ABC News 10

Residents of a Wisconsin city have paid their final respects to a firefighter killed in the line of duty. Hundreds lined a procession route for Mitch Lundgaard, 36, that wound through Appleton on Monday, starting at a funeral home and ending at Appleton Alliance Church, where a visitation was held. Lundgaard will be taken back to the funeral home following an evening service, which is not open to the public.
- PUB DATE: 5/20/2019 9:44:26 PM - SOURCE: US News

Cancer is responsible for more than 60 percent of job related deaths among firefighters in the United States according to NBC news. Now, a station in the Chippewa Valley is hoping to eliminate that risk or at least reduce the high rate of cancer diagnosis. While being a firefighter is no doubt a dangerous job, the threat of cancer from being exposed to toxins can be deadly.
- PUB DATE: 5/20/2019 5:28:52 PM - SOURCE: WEAU-TV 13 News

The streets of downtown will be lined today with those who've turned out to pay their respects to a fallen firefighter, and large crowds are guaranteed at Appleton Alliance Church, where a public visitation is planned. Mitchell Lundgaard, who was fatally shot Wednesday after responding to a medical emergency in downtown Appleton, will be laid to rest later today after a series of events — some public, some private.
- PUB DATE: 5/20/2019 12:48:42 PM - SOURCE: Sheboygan Press

The Town of Lincoln Fire Department released a statement saying they were dispatched to a fire at 3:19 a.m. Monday for a report of a house fire in the Village of Warrens. The unoccupied building, which was on the corner of Main St. and Market St., was fully engulfed when firefighter arrived, according to the statement.
- PUB DATE: 5/20/2019 11:27:57 AM - SOURCE: WKBT-TV CBS 8 La Crosse

On May 17, 1 residential fire fatality was reported by the Nation's news media.

First responders are encouraging the public to line the streets this afternoon for the funeral of Appleton firefighter Mitchell Lundgaard. The 14-year veteran of the Appleton Fire Department was fatally shot Wednesday while responding to a medical emergency at the downtown Valley Transit Center. He has since been posthumously promoted to driver/engineer.
- PUB DATE: 5/20/2019 6:52:42 AM - SOURCE: Fond du Lac Reporter

A house fire turned deadly Friday in rural Polk County, according to authorities. The Polk County Sheriff’s Office said firefighters extinguishing a blaze in the 2400 block of 90th Street in the town of Bone Lake discovered a body inside the home. Crews responded to the scene -- located near Luck -- after receiving a report at 8:54 a.
- PUB DATE: 5/20/2019 1:57:47 AM - SOURCE: RiverTowns

Manpower and resources are at a premium inside the Tucson Fire Department. The city is looking to minimize the high call volume firefighters face. “We are doing this for firefighter safety,” interim Tucson Fire Chief Joe Gulotta said. “It’s having an impact on their health. We’re seeing higher levels of sick leave, we’re seeing increase response times because crews are out of service in different areas all over town.
- PUB DATE: 5/20/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KVOA-TV 4 Tucson

Officials in California are crying foul over a Trump administration plan to slash firefighting assistance payments to the state, which could amount to millions of dollars in lost income for fire departments. The U.S. Forest Service, in turn, is accusing the local fire departments in the state of over-billing the federal government as part of a federal-state partnership, the California Fire Assistance Agreement (CFAA), that was inked in 2015 and expires in 2020.
- PUB DATE: 5/20/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Tribune

There’s controversy over a bill that restores worker’s compensation for post-traumatic stress disorder for police and firefighters. The bill, as it stands now, does not include the state’s EMTs, and they’d like that to change. They say they want to be included in the PTSD legislation. When tragedies occur in any community, whether it be a mass casualty incident, a deadly fire, or a vehicle wreck, many see police and fire fighters as first responders.
- PUB DATE: 5/20/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WFSB-TV CBS 3

The job of paramedic conjures up the image of a someone rushing to an emergency in an ambulance, lights flashing and siren blaring — not Shelly Brown. She's a certified community paramedic with Regions Hospital in St. Paul who drives a Volkswagen Beetle, stops at red lights and leisurely enters clients' homes for check-ins.
- PUB DATE: 5/20/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: MPR News

Pueblo Fire Departments crews will soon be getting new technology to help them navigate through situations where fires create limited or no visibility at all. The city has set aside $30,000 from a public safety grant match fund to purchase thermal imaging cameras that will attach to firefighters’ self-contained breathing apparatuses.
- PUB DATE: 5/20/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Pueblo Chieftain

The McFarland Fire Department kicked off National EMS Week with its annual pancake breakfast Sunday. People had the chance to meet their local fire and EMS volunteers as they cooked up a hardy meal. The week-long event works to honor the hundreds of thousands of EMS workers across country. "For us the biggest thing I think is wanting to make sure that the people in our community are safe,” said MCFarland EMT Andrea Singletari.
- PUB DATE: 5/19/2019 7:57:50 PM - SOURCE: WMTV-TV NBC 15 Madison

Police provided additional details Friday about the gunfire that killed two people and injured two others Wednesday at the Valley Transit Center, but many questions remain unanswered. Police, firefighters and paramedics responded to the transit center to provide aid to Ruben Houston III, a 47-year-old Wausau man who was arriving on a bus from outside the area and reportedly was having a seizure.
- PUB DATE: 5/18/2019 5:49:59 AM - SOURCE: Oshkosh Northwestern

Liz Bourdeau says she feels nervous every time her husband, Endeavor/Moundville Fire Chief Mike Bourdeau, responds to an emergency call on a state highway. “There’s nothing more dangerous than that,” Liz Bourdeau said of the dangers firefighters face. “This is our home. This is our family.” Several state legislators, Department of Transportation officials and various authorities from Marquette and Sauk counties gathered at the Endeavor/Moundville fire station Wednesday night to discuss the issue of highway dangers.
- PUB DATE: 5/17/2019 3:37:02 PM - SOURCE: WISC News