The budget Austin City Council approved on Aug. 23 for the 2020-2021 Fiscal Year comes with a number of different investments in Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services. Much of the discussion around Austin’s new budget revolved around the ways the budget begins a process of transitioning around $150 million dollars from the Austin Police Department into other areas of public health and safety over the course of the next year.
- PUB DATE: 8/24/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KXAN-TV NBC 36 Austin

New York's first responders were given an unusual warning this week, a first since the Sept. 11 terror attacks: skip this year's in-person anniversary events. In a letter addressed to members of the FDNY, Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro cautioned against the department's members attending anniversary events this year as the coronavirus pandemic continues to threaten the safety of everyone, especially retired members and families of 9/11 victims that are at a greater risk due to health and age.
- PUB DATE: 8/24/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WNBC-TV NBC 4 New York

Residents at the Econolodge near the Indian Canyon Golf Course were evacuated due to a brush fire that quickly progressed to a second- and third-alarm fire. Firefighters from the Spokane Fire Department, Spokane Valley Fire Department, County Fire Districts and the Department of Natural Resources responded to the scene.
- PUB DATE: 8/23/2020 6:09:03 PM - SOURCE: KXLY-TV ABC 4 Spokane

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced people around the world to distance from their loved ones. For a South King Fire and Rescue lieutenant, the risk of an infectious disease reaching his family led to a difficult but necessary decision of living at a fire station for six weeks during the pandemic. Chris Mathis, a firefighter with South King since 2008, and his wife Justine Mathis, a registered nurse in the orthopedic unit of Providence St.
- PUB DATE: 8/22/2020 4:54:35 PM - SOURCE: Federal Way Mirror

A family who almost lost everything to the Badger Lake Fire wants to thank the firefighting crews who protected them. Peter and Terri Jo Christianson planned to spend their Sunday evening eating barbecue with friends at their home near Badger Lake. A cell phone alert about a nearby brush fire changed those plans.
- PUB DATE: 8/21/2020 9:07:49 PM - SOURCE: KHQ-TV NBC 6 Spokane