Stanislaus County will seek competitive proposals from ambulance providers for the county’s exclusive response zones, and that could change the landscape of emergency medical response for years. The ambulance company with the winning bid will be expected to partner with city and rural fire departments, which often arrive at the scenes of medical emergencies and start treatment for patients before an ambulance arrives.
- PUB DATE: 2/13/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Modesto Bee

Once in a blue moon, the little guys get a break. Like what happened last week when a Lake County judge sided with the family of a deceased Buffalo Grove firefighter, upholding his full pension benefits. The downside to Judge Diane Winter’s ruling is that Buffalo Grove officials may appeal her decision under the guise of their “fiduciary responsibilities” to residents whose taxes help fund the village’s public employee pension fund.
- PUB DATE: 2/13/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Chicago Tribune - Metered Site

The Coon Creek Fire Commission has provided rescue services to the towns of Coon, Washington and Hamburg, and village Chaseburg, since 1947, with Coon Valley joining in 1989. Originally it was known as the Coon Creek Fire Fighting Association before changing the name in 2015. “In 1971, the four municipalities signed an agreement to officially become the Coon Creek Fire Fighting Association,” Orlan Bakkum, president of the Coon Creek Fire Commission, said.
- PUB DATE: 2/12/2019 1:34:19 PM - SOURCE: Westby Times

Crews have been battling a fire at a restaurant on Lake Wissota for hours. The fire at The View was called in around 6 a.m. by the owner’s dad, who was plowing the parking lot and noticed flames. Chippewa County Fire Chief Scott Bernette told WEAU 13 News, just before noon that the weather has been making fighting the fire difficult.
- PUB DATE: 2/12/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WEAU-TV 13 News

Authorities have identified the man killed in a house fire in east-central Wisconsin. Green Lake County sheriff's officials say crews were called to the fire at W2081 Tuleta Road north of Markesan near the south shore of Green Lake around 1:30 a.m. Sunday and found the house engulfed in flames. A search team found 29-year-old Justin Lewis in the home.
- PUB DATE: 2/12/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WiscNews

Legislators in Texas are mulling a bill that would make illegal to “impair or degrade” mobile data in any declared disaster zone, in an apparent response to telecom giant Verizon’s decision last year to tell California firefighters busy tackling the deadly Mendocino Complex fire they needed to upgrade their plan or continue to suffer slow speeds.
- PUB DATE: 2/12/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Gizmodo.com

During his early days as a firefighter, Stan Morse sometimes battled flames without a breathing apparatus, choking down the smoke. Over his 40-year career, he also cleaned the underside of firetrucks with a toxic chemical that has since been taken off the market. Morse also breathed in diesel engine fumes powerful enough to blacken the fire station walls.
- PUB DATE: 2/12/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Virginian-Pilot

VIDEO: When first responders arrive at a scene, sometimes what they encounter is so horrific the incident has lasting psychological impacts. Other states are taking action to address mental health issues these heroes sustain on the job and there is a push in Idaho to follow suit. On Sunday, a town hall was held in Meridian to discuss why the Gem State needs to act now.
- PUB DATE: 2/12/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KTVB.com

VIDEO: More than a decade of neglect put thousands of San Diego firefighters at risk for a serious, and sometimes deadly disease. Those firefighters were repeatedly exposed to asbestos and lead in the floors, walls, and ceilings of buildings used to train San Diego firefighters. Documents obtained by NBC 7 Investigates reveal in past years, the city minimized the danger and failed to act quickly to protect first responders training at San Diego’s Fire Academy.
- PUB DATE: 2/12/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KNSD-TV NBC San Diego

A Clark County fire chief who warned lawmakers months before a 2017 mass shooting at a music festival that Nevada should bolster its emergency management planning says he wants to bypass state lawmakers to get changes made. Six months before the Oct. 1, 2017, shooting on the Las Vegas Strip that killed 58 and left hundreds injured, Clark County Fire Department Chief Greg Cassell testified before state legislators in favor of a bill that would have required more coordination of emergency medical resources ahead of such a large event.
- PUB DATE: 2/12/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: News3LV.com

On February 11, 2 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

Madison firefighters are on scene to put out a structure fire on Monday afternoon. Dane County Dispatch said the call came in just after 2:30 p.m. for a report of structure fire in the 2100 block of Luann Lane. Madison fire spokesperson Cynthia Schuster confirmed that 13 people and their pets have been displaced by the fire.
- PUB DATE: 2/11/2019 2:01:05 PM - SOURCE: WMTV-TV NBC 15 Madison

On February 8, 13 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

On February 6, 4 residential fire fatalities were reported by the Nation's news media.

Four people were taken to the hospital, including one person whose injuries were believed life-threatening, following a three-vehicle crash that occurred at the intersection of 54th Street and Sheridan Road Sunday night. The accident, which was reported around 5:50 p.m., forced a smaller vehicle to crash into the Kenosha County parking garage structure west of the scene and east of the nearby Metra train station.
- PUB DATE: 2/11/2019 2:01:46 AM - SOURCE: Kenosha News

Young cadets Queen Anunay and Kishia Clemencia stood out in their class at the D.C. fire academy as being among the few women in a male-dominated field. Of the department’s 1,550 members at the time, 35 were women. Fast forward nearly three decades, and Anunay and Clemencia are the ones in charge. The two women were appointed in recent months to battalion chief posts at the department — promotions that made them the third and fourth women to hold the positions in the 135-year-old department’s history.
- PUB DATE: 2/11/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Washington Post - Metered Site

Convinced that Buffalo's hiring practices discriminated against minorities and women, U.S. District Judge John T. Curtin ordered the city to desegregate its fire department. Forty years later, Curtin's landmark order is coming to an end. In a decision earlier this week, the federal judge now handling the civil rights case found the city in compliance and dissolved Curtin's 1979 order.
- PUB DATE: 2/11/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Buffalo News

The health study on people exposed to PFAS chemicals at the former Pease Air Force Base is still scheduled to start no later than August. Dr. Frank Bove, the senior epidemiologist for the Agency For Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, said the study may even start sooner. “I don’t see why it would be any later than August,” Bove said in response to a question from Portsmouth activist Andrea Amico.
- PUB DATE: 2/11/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Seacoastonline.com

Detroit has seen a dramatic decline in the number of fires over the last five years, which fire department officials credit to the city's aggressive blight elimination, bolstered arson investigations and community education efforts. According to the Detroit Fire Department's data, the average number of structure fires annually in the city has dropped by 42 percent since 2014, the Detroit News reported.
- PUB DATE: 2/11/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WXYZ-TV ABC Detroit

VIDEO: A special event was held on Saturday to provide free wills for firefighters, police and all other first responders. The Pro Bono Committee of the Cincinnati Paralegal Association held “Remember: Wills For First Responders," an event where volunteer lawyers and paralegals came together to provide wills, living wills, and health care proxies to first responders and their spouses free of charge.
- PUB DATE: 2/11/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WXIX-TV FOX 19 Cincinnati