The Portland City Council took what might look like a baby step last week toward more efficient handling of non-emergency 911 calls. In a break from current practice, in which uniformed, armed police officers in squad cars or a truckload of firefighters respond, commissioners approved a pilot project in which a new "third branch" of the first-responder system, staffed by a specially trained firefighter and a contracted crisis worker, would respond to some non-emergency situations.
- PUB DATE: 11/27/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Willamette Week

Sarah Mackin runs a cotton swab around the inside of a tiny plastic baggie that appears to be empty. She spreads whatever residue the swab picked up onto a test strip that resembles a Band-Aid, then slides the strip into a buzzing machine about the size of a boxed, take-home pie. Then she waits, hoping for information that she can share with Boston's community of opioid users.
- PUB DATE: 11/27/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WBUR-FM 90.9

You rely on their rapid "first response" to an emergency medical call to 9-1-1. You rely on their training, knowledge, and experience in first aid and ability to stabilize a patient -- possibly a love one -- to rush them to a hospital for more precise care. But how much do paramedics make? Paramedics' salaries vary depending on their state, their training, employer, and a host of other factors.
- PUB DATE: 11/27/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Street Inc.

Even though Boston’s Cocoanut Grove fire happened long before she was born, Michele Shapiro learned all about the disaster when she was a girl. Her grandfather, Frank Shapiro, was at a nearby theater with his wife the night of Nov. 28, 1942, when a blaze tore through the swanky Cocoanut Grove nightclub, killing 492 people.
- PUB DATE: 11/27/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: U.S. News & World Report

PHOTOS: Around 6:30 a.m. this morning, crews with Valley Regional Fire Authority and Puget Sound Regional Fire Authority responded to reports of a house fire in the 11400 block of SE 286TH ST in Auburn. The first engine arrived to find smoke and fire showing from a single story structure. After determining everyone was out of the house, crews began an aggressive effort to save the house and extinguish the fire.
- PUB DATE: 11/26/2019 6:38:33 PM - SOURCE: News Maven