Top Fire Department officials told a City Council committee Jan. 28 that the department’s policy of “promoting” Emergency Medical Technicians to become Firefighters, who are paid tens of thousands of dollars more a year, had produced a major gap in Emergency Medical Service staffing. As a consequence, they conceded that even as the city continued to set records for EMS call volume, and response times for those calls were rising, there had been a decline in the number of ambulance crews available, a circumstance they said would take “a couple of years” to rectify.
- PUB DATE: 1/31/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Chief Leader - Metered Site

When Brian Kernohan complained to his doctor of merciless headaches two summers ago, he expected to get a prescription for a sinus infection, not a diagnosis of brain cancer. The 37-year-old firefighter’s eardrums were curved inward, so his doctor suggested a CT scan. It found a tumor the size of a golf ball sitting on his right cerebral artery, daring a stroke with every heartbeat.
- PUB DATE: 1/31/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WUFT-TV PBS 5 Gainesville

Residents displaced when flames tore through a 1960s-era Los Angeles apartment tower and injured 13 people this week are wondering why the management company didn't install sprinklers after another destructive blaze seven years ago. City officials said after the 2013 fire “that it shouldn’t take another tragedy” to get sprinklers into older buildings that are exempt from retrofitting rules, City Councilman Mike Bonin said Thursday.
- PUB DATE: 1/31/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KNBC-TV NBC 4 Los Angeles

Spokane Major Crimes detectives are investigating after a body was found inside a burning car on 27th Avenue near Fiske Street on Spokane's South Hill. According to Spokane Police, officers and firefighters arrived on scene around 9:30 p.m. Thursday night and found a car engulfed in flames. Firefighters noticed a person was inside the vehicle and were able to pull them out.
- PUB DATE: 1/30/2020 11:41:27 PM - SOURCE: KHQ-TV NBC 6

The Spokane Fire Department team participating in Seattle’s annual Firefighter Stairclimb has raised more than $23,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society so far, making them fourth among teams competing from around the world. But the Spokane firefighters aren’t stopping there – the team of 31 firefighters plans to raise money at Spokane-area grocery stores Friday through Sunday and spread the word about its silent auction fundraiser on Feb.
- PUB DATE: 1/30/2020 8:45:15 PM - SOURCE: Spokane Spokesman-Review - Metered Site