A new ambulance is on the frontlines of Orcas Island Fire and Rescue’s emergency response fleet. Originally slated to roll out early this year, getting the ambulance outfitted and ready for service was delayed due to COVID-19. After battling issues with aging vehicles, repeated mechanical failures and increasingly costly repairs, the agency was in desperate need of a new and reliable ambulance.
- PUB DATE: 6/16/2020 9:44:50 AM - SOURCE: Orcas Issues News & Views

The Newton Firefighters Association said on Monday it is taking legal action against the city for taking down a remembrance flag last week that had been hanging inside Station 4 for the last 2½ years. Marc Rizza, Local 863 president, said in a statement that hanging the Thin Red Line flag “is a protected activity under the collective bargaining laws of the Commonwealth.
- PUB DATE: 6/16/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Wicked Local Newton

New numbers released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offer a comprehensive picture of who in the United States has been diagnosed with COVID-19 and how they fared. The latest figures confirm that older people, minorities and those with preexisting health conditions are at the highest risk of death.
- PUB DATE: 6/16/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: CNN

Had the parlor game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon instead been designed with Lisa Camp in mind, everyone in Friendswood and La Porte would have been directly or indirectly touched by the longtime emergency medical services leader. The Friendswood native is the EMS chief for the volunteer fire departments in both Friendswood and La Porte.
- PUB DATE: 6/16/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Houston Chronicle

Within a few months, teams of mental health workers and EMTs will be dispatched in some Alameda County cities to help people having a mental crisis or substance abuse problems. The pilot program, called the “Community Assessment Treatment and Transport Team,” or CATT, will roll out in Oakland, San Leandro, Hayward and Alameda sometime this summer.
- PUB DATE: 6/16/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: East Bay Times - Metered Site