The formal retirement of Gloucester’s assistant fire chief on Sunday and the retirement of five other senior Fire Department members over the last 2 1/2 weeks have created a six-person void in the city’s firefighting force, Fire Chief Eric Smith said Monday. Aiello’s official departure on Sunday came just two weeks after the retirements of Deputy Chief Miles Schlichte and firefighter Joseph Misuraca, both of whom also served with the department for more than 30 years.
- PUB DATE: 7/12/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Gloucester Times

When writing about the management of emergency incidents, I find myself – as well as other writers – including this verbiage, “Develop an incident action plan.” Why? Because developing this plan, successful communicating their part to fire officers and monitoring progress towards its completion are three of the key responsibilities for the incident commander.
- PUB DATE: 7/12/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1

Governor McAuliffe today signed a letter of intent declaring that the Commonwealth of Virginia will allow the First Responder Network Authority and AT&T to proceed with the deployment of the of the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network in Virginia. Following today’s letter signing, Governor McAuliffe will hold a ceremonial letter signing tomorrow at FirstNet Headquarters, 12201 Sunrise Valley Drive Reston, Va.
- PUB DATE: 7/11/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: AlexandriaNews.org

An overwhelming percentage of calls to St. Paul firefighters are for medical emergencies, and the fire department needs “a paradigm shift” to best handle the workload, according to an outside study of the fire department. Fires account for less than 5 percent of the emergency calls in St. Paul, and about half of 1 percent are structure fires.
- PUB DATE: 7/11/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Pioneer Press

A US Marine Corps transport plane crashed in rural western Mississippi on Monday afternoon, killing all 16 service members who were on board, officials said. The KC-130, an aircraft that the Marines can use to refuel planes in the air as well as carry cargo, crashed in Leflore County at about 4 p.m.
- PUB DATE: 7/11/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: CNN