MEDIC EMS of Scott County is seeking a state grant to launch a rural mobile health program that would send paramedics and EMTs to homes for non-emergency care.

The post IA EMS Agency Applies for Grant to Form Preventative Rural Mobile Health Unit appeared first on Fire Apparatus: Fire trucks, fire engines, emergency vehicles, and firefighting equipment.

Sutter County Fire Department reopened all three stations after 16 days of rotating closures caused by critically low staffing.

The post Sutter County (CA) Fire Department Ends Rotating Closures; All Fire Stations Now Open appeared first on Fire Apparatus: Fire trucks, fire engines, emergency vehicles, and firefighting equipment.

With the procurement of new apparatus and specialty vehicles, the department sought out additional resources to boost its capabilities due to the possibility of a future terrorist attack on the city.

The post FDNY: Strengthening the Department, Fleet, and Operations appeared first on Fire Apparatus: Fire trucks, fire engines, emergency vehicles, and firefighting equipment.

A Beverly Hills apartment building caught fire Wednesday, displacing residents and forcing a partial roof collapse. The Beverly Hills Fire Department responded to a call in the 200 block of South Rexford Drive around 10:30 a.m. on Sept. 9.

Residents evacuated safely, but multiple firefighters were injured, with two taken to the hospital, including one treated for heat exhaustion. High heat and humidity created significant physical challenges for crews battling the flames in heavy gear.

The fire forced residents out of the garden-style, multi-unit building and onto the street as flames shot through the roof. Neighboring homes were also impacted by the emergency response. Scott Prisland, a 30-year resident of one of the four units, evacuated alongside his wife, Marnie. Firefighters managed to pull photo albums from their home, along with a Tony Award Prisland recently won for the Broadway musical “Schmigadoon!”

“The Beverly Hills Fire Department did get us out and rescued the Tony, which is very nice,” Prisland said. “We lost a lot of other stuff, which is terrible, and I feel horrible for our neighbors.”

KTTV FOX 11 Los Angeles

The post VIDEOS: Apartment fire in Beverly Hills displaces residents, injures firefighters appeared first on Daily Dispatch.

During the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, first responders faced a number of problems. One of the most significant was a communications system that did not allow emergency workers from different agencies to easily coordinate with one another.

They all had unique radio systems with their own frequencies. That slowed responses in many instances at the World Trade Center in New York City, at the Pentagon and at the crash site in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The federal 911 Commission, established to examine the attacks and the response, recommended the creation of an agency that would work on delivering a nationwide broadband network that would be dedicated to public safety. The network needed to be robust enough to provide interoperable communications between all responding agencies to a major disaster.

In 2012, Congress created the First Responder Network Authority, known as FirstNet, to oversee the buildout of the network. Through a public/private agreement, AT&T was selected to build, operate and maintain the network. Congress appropriated a $7 billion to start the buildout and purchase dedicated prime broadband spectrum capable of supporting public safety communications.

The initial buildout was completed in 2023. “It’s shocking that we went so long without it,” said Anne Arundel County Fire Chief and FirstNet Board member Trisha Wolford. “There’s two things that keep us safe: One is our SCBA (self-contained breathing apparatus) with our air, but the other thing is our communication,” she said.

WTOP News

The post ‘It’s shocking that we went so long without it’: The first responders’ network built on 9/11 communications failures appeared first on Daily Dispatch.