Residents in Longview have the option of saving hundreds of dollars in ambulance fees for the price of $70 per month. "It's an annual membership, and it covers everybody that lives within the household," Longview Fire Marshall Kevin May said. "It keeps you from having to pay anywhere from an $800 to $1,100 ambulance bill for any medically necessary transport." Longview Councilman Steve Pirtle subscribed to the program three years ago. He says it helped him save money after a fall from a ladder. "I was about a mile, mile and a half from the hospital. I did not know the ride was there, but when I woke up, I was told I was transported there by ambulance," Councilman Pirtle said. "My bill was $762 and because of my subscription, I had to pay nothing." Even if you have a pre-existing condition, you are still able to sign up.  

The city of Carrollton in partnership with the North Texas Emergency Communications Center (NTECC) has launched PulsePoint Respond, a free mobile app that empowers citizens trained in CPR to help contribute to the safety and well-being of their fellow community members. Through the app, those trained in CPR as well as off-duty firefighters, police officers, and nurses will have the opportunity to provide potentially lifesaving assistance to nearby victims of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). "With PulsePoint we hope to increase bystander involvement in time-sensitive medical calls by increasing the use of CPR and AEDs, while also keeping the community informed, in real time, of all emergency activities," Carrollton Fire Chief Gregg Salmi said.  

Two students each received a $2,000 scholarship at the Dec. 7 Pancakes with Santa Breakfast thanks to the Katy Professional Fire Fighters Association Local 5192 to help them in their pursuit of careers as first responders. Harry Haynes, president of the local, thanked the community and sponsors for their support. The recipients are Courtney Hudson-Parker and Jared Pollack. Hudson-Parker is enrolled in the School of EMS online paramedic program while Pollack is enrolled in the paramedic program at Lone Star College-CyFair. "Both have plans to transfer to a four-year university to earn a bachelors degree," added Haynes. "This event, Pancakes with Santa, funds those scholarships," he said. "That's the sole purpose of this event is to fund those scholarships to Katy ISD students. We're working to give back to the community of Katy and that's our mission and focus."  

"We know how tough it is to keep fire trucks running," said Randy Harley of Texas Fire Apparatus (TFA). Harley addressed members of Fairfield City Council at the invitation of Fairfield Fire Department during a Workshop held Tuesday, November 26, 2019. "We've been working on this a few months," said Bradley Holland (left), Assistant Chief for the Fairfield Volunteer Fire Department. According to Holland, a committee of three firefighters had been working on a proposal to trade in the large ladder truck for a more economical vehicle that would meet the department's needs while saving the City money. According to Harley, the fire trucks his company provides bumper-to-bumper warranty and two years free maintenance, which would save the City an estimated $20,000 per year.  

The Harris County Fire Marshal's Office has completed its investigation of the devastating fire at the ITC plant in Deer Park in March. Investigators have ruled the fire accidental. The final report says the fire was caused by a mechanical failure within the "manifold power frame" at one of the storage tanks at the site. That piece of equipment contains a motor and set of pipes used to pump product in and out of the tank. Investigators could not determine how the equipment failed or the ignition source. The 203-page report did conclude about 9,000 gallons of the highly flammable chemical naphtha leaked before it caught fire. The fire raged for four days. A report from the U.S. Chemical and Safety Hazard Investigation Board in October claimed the facility was not equipped with gas detection alarms or emergency shutoff valves that could have isolated the fire.  

A Moody Elementary student, drowning survivor, reunites with Corpus Christi Medical Center's doctors, nurses and the EMS professionals who saved his life. The staff made the five hour trip to surprise Damien Chrisner for his eighth birthday Friday. Back in July, Chrisner's family and the medical professionals weren't sure if he'd live after he was pulled unconscious from the ocean during his families vacation to Corpus Christi. "We suctioned out a lot of water from him," first responder, Albert Villarreal said. "He was barely breathing he was purple he was blue I knew right away that we would have to start intubation that we were going to intubate him." Tabetha Ford, a nurse at Corpus Christi Medical Center remembers.  

Faced with an unprecedented string of wildfires across California, overtime costs for firefighters have surged by 65% in the last decade, pushing annual wages to nearly $5 billion, according to a Times analysis of state payroll records. The overtime spending is further evidence of a statewide toll: Wildfires have destroyed thousands of homes, killed scores of residents and disrupted power supplies across large swaths of the state — and, increasingly, they are chewing through government budgets. With overtime, firefighters are among the best-paid workers in California government, in some cases earning sums that rival their commanders. In the city and county fire departments in Los Angeles, for example, the number of firefighters earning more than $100,000 in overtime alone has surged from 41 in 2011 to 1,085 last year.  

Summit Fire & EMS firefighter Ken Jones, 46, died after falling about 60 feet from the roof of a Copper Mountain condo building early Saturday, when crews were working to battle a fire at that location, according to Summit Fire & EMS officials. The fire at Bridge End — 860 Copper Road, near the base of Copper Mountain Resort — was first reported by a call to 911 at 1:51 a.m. Saturday. Jones and a crew from the Copper fire station were the first on scene minutes later, according to Summit Fire spokesman Steve Lipsher. Jones headed to the roof of the five-story building to find a way to access the fire. He fell to his death shortly before 2 a.m., according to Lipsher. After the fall, emergency workers called to ask for help from another fire station outside of the Summit Fire department.  

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. Protocol requires law enforcement to go in first, but they've beaten them there. They're both anxious to go in—they chose this career to help people—but you never know what's on the other side of the door: someone high on drugs or having a psychotic breakdown or armed or maybe all three at the same time. A police cruiser pulls in, and Scott and Smith follow the officer into the home. A terrified young woman there thinks a serial killer has been stalking her and now knows her location.  

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.C. But Dabney Scott Hudson, president of the District of Columbia FireFighters Association, told The Times on Saturday those claims were incorrect. "Our case went to arbitration, and we prevailed in the arbitration case, keeping our 24-hour shift. In the arbitration, the city testified that the change would in fact increase costs to the city. Additionally, the health and safety, as well as cognitive function of the workers significantly, decrease working rotating shifts such as the ones they are proposing," Hudson said in a statement.  

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. She has been transported to the trauma center at Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center in San Luis Obispo, he said. Soon after the incident, the Fire Department — which serves Arroyo Grande, Grover Beach and Oceano — tweeted that thanks to the new Pulse Point app, which notifies the public of medical and emergency incidents in their vicinity, FCFA crews could respond immediately and begin life-saving measures before dispatch notified them of the crash.