The Senate approved more than $163 billion designated to assist local fire and EMS departments as part of an economic stimulus package to safeguard the U.S. economy and help the nation respond effectively to the 2019 novel coronavirus and its resulting illness, COVID-19. The House is expected to pass the $2 trillion stimulus bill on Friday.
- PUB DATE: 3/27/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: IAFC.org

Calls to New York City’s 911 medical services hit their highest levels since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to emergency workers’ unions, stretching staffs that have already seen their own ranks thinned by coronavirus infections. Medical emergency calls are up 40% to about 6,500 a day, according to Oren Barzilay, president of Local 2507, a union that represents emergency medical technicians, paramedics, fire inspectors and dispatchers.
- PUB DATE: 3/27/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Bloomberg

Firefighters in East Pierce County are working Thursday afternoon to rescue a woman who plunged at Victor Falls. Authorities said a 19-year-old girl was climbing down to the embankment at the bottom of Victor Falls. She was using a rope, fell about 50 feet and injured her leg, but she did not go over the falls.
- PUB DATE: 3/27/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KOMO-TV ABC 4 Seattle

The Yakima Fire Department says they responded to three fires in less than seven hours overnight. YFD says the fires began Wednesday night through March 26, Thursday morning. For the first case, the fire district says they were called to the 700 block of South 6th Street at 9:00 p.m for a propane explosion in a recreational vehicle.
- PUB DATE: 3/27/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KIMA-TV CBS/CW 29 Yakima

Clark County Fire District 6’s Board of Fire Commissioners unanimously passed a resolution asking voters to consider a fire levy lid lift as part of the Aug. 4 primary election. If approved, the lid lift would fund additional personnel to respond to higher call volumes for fire and emergency medical service, improve firefighter training, make the district’s busiest fire station more resistant to earthquake damage, and add or replace aging apparatus, according to a news release.
- PUB DATE: 3/27/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Vancouver Columbian - Metered Site