VIDEO: The Salt Lake City Fire Department is one of only about 1% of fire departments in the country running a program that embeds social workers directly with paramedics and firefighters to respond to 911 calls involving a wide variety of issues, including mental health crises and drug overdoses.

The program, called the Community Health Access Team — or CHAT — has been operating for 4 years. The goal is to meet people at their most vulnerable moments and connect them to services that can provide lasting help — not just immediate medical care.

“It’s about sending the right people to the right call at the right time and changing their life,” Salt Lake City Fire Division Chief Kyle Lavender said. CHAT team members are stationed at Salt Lake City fire stations, including Fire Station 5, located near 900 South and 900 East.

Social workers respond alongside paramedics and firefighters to calls involving issues that may require more than immediate medical attention.

“Salt Lake City probably has the lion’s share of the homeless population in the state of Utah, and with that population comes a lot of substance abuse, mental illness — and for our firefighters, that’s not really their training,” Lavender said.

KSTU-TV FOX 13 Salt Lake City

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VIDEOS: First responders say they were in the right place at the right time Monday when they rescued a 28-year-old man from an overturned pickup truck submerged in Nimishillen Creek.

The driver of the truck drove passed the median on Interstate 77 in Canton when he crashed into the creek. The dramatic rescue unfolded when firefighters from the Bolivar Fire Department happened to be driving back from Aultman Hospital and were flagged down by motorists who had witnessed the crash. “They said, ‘There’s a truck that just crossed the median and went into the river,'” Bolivar Fire Lt. Kent Thompson said. “You don’t hear that that often.”

Firefighters found the pickup upside down and completely submerged, with the driver trapped inside. Bolivar firefighters Sarah Valentine and Ashley Curtner, along with Canton firefighter Kyle Gallagher, climbed over a fence, descended into the creek and worked together to free the driver through the passenger-side door.

According to the Canton Fire Department, only about six minutes elapsed from the time the department was dispatched until crews removed the man from the water. However, when crews rescued the man, he had no pulse.

WKYC-TV NBC 3 Cleveland

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VIDEO: As flames from the Little Giant Fire move closer to communities in Chelan County, people living in evacuation zones are deciding what to take, what to leave behind and how long they are willing to stay. “This is as bad as it gets,” resident Phil Roddy said.

The lightning-caused fire grew by more than 8,000 acres in 24 hours, reaching 59,345 acres Tuesday morning. It remained 0% contained. Evacuation orders are in place in parts of Chelan and Okanogan counties. No residents were reported evacuated in Tuesday morning’s official incident update, though people living in Level 3 zones were preparing to leave or had recently evacuated.

Susan Maas lives in a Level 3 evacuation zone near the south shore of Lake Chelan. She was preparing to leave while her husband planned to stay behind. “It’s really, really scary,” Maas said. “I mean, everything we worked for is here, and we retired, and this is our happy place. And for this to happen has just been such a sad thing.”

KING-TV NBC 5 Seattle

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Seattle Fire crews responded to a docked boat on fire in a Magnolia marina Tuesday night, according to the department. The incident is taking place in the 2600 block of West Marina Place and involved an approximately 30-foot power boat. A nearby boat was scorched, but the fire did not spread.

Flotation booms were placed around the impacted boat to prevent debris from spreading in the water, the department said. No injuries have been reported. Crews have extinguished the flames and also prevented the fire from spreading to several other boats. It’s not clear how the fire started. Seattle Fire is investigating.

KING-TV NBC 5 Seattle

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Pierce County prosecutors have charged a woman with first-degree arson and second-degree malicious mischief, alleging she set her former boyfriend’s car on fire in Tacoma and damaged a nearby home where four people were inside. Stephanie Marie Rideout was charged Tuesday in Pierce County Superior Court. The state requested $150,000 bail.

The fire began around 11:39 p.m. on Saturday in a 1980 Oldsmobile Cutlass Sierra parked along South 53rd Street, according to court documents. The vehicle’s owner told police Rideout was his former girlfriend, that they have children together and that they were breaking up.

A witness said she stepped outside and saw Rideout near the burning car as flames reached a second-story window of the neighboring home. The witness told police a man grabbed a hose and tried to put out the fire, but Rideout attempted to stop him and yelled, “Let it burn.” The man eventually pulled Rideout away because he feared the car could explode, according to the court documents.

Another neighbor warned the people inside the house about the fire. Four residents evacuated before Tacoma firefighters arrived and extinguished the flames. Police said heat from the fire melted vinyl siding and a plastic electrical box on the house.

KING-TV NBC 5 Seattle

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