A bill introduced in the Tennessee legislature would allow emergency medical responders and firefighters to carry handguns for their safety, but some emergency response leaders aren’t sure that’s such a good idea. As written, the bill “authorizes any person employed as a firefighter or emergency medical technician (EMT), that has received a written directive from their supervisor and completed an annual eight-hour firearm training, to carry a handgun while engaged in the performance of the person’s official duties.
- PUB DATE: 3/12/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Johnson City Press

A statewide shortage of trained medical personnel has left many rural county ambulance services having to delay hospital transfers to ensure they have enough staff for emergencies. For example, in Norton County in northwest Kansas, the county's 5,400 residents are served by six full-time volunteers and nine volunteers, who respond to all 911 calls and taken patients from one hospital to another.
- PUB DATE: 3/12/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Kansas City Star

VIDEO: As firefighters from all over Maine and the nation gathered to honor the life of one of their own who died in a Berwick fire, another firefighter also lost his life. Oxford Fire Chief Gary Sacco died while he was in Portland attending the funeral of Capt. Joel Barnes on Sunday, March 10, according to multiple sources.
- PUB DATE: 3/11/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: News Center Maine

Working firefighters will earn less from their pensions than their retired peers because the city will spend less on those plans. Before city commissioners unanimously approved a new pension plan on Feb. 19, retired firefighters could have gotten payments comparable to $72,000 a year. But the new plan caps pension payments at $95,000 for lifetime for firefighters who have yet to retire.
- PUB DATE: 3/11/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Palm Beach Post

The city’s ambulance corps is so busy that an overtime cap applying to all other agencies has been lifted and medics are routinely putting in 60 and 70-hour weeks, union officials said. Normally, city workers can’t make more than 40 percent of their salary in overtime. However, with just 4,133 emergency medical technicians and paramedics to handle nearly 1.
- PUB DATE: 3/11/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Post