Muscatine Assistant Fire Chief Mike Hartman remembers the shock on his crew’s faces the day more than 16 years ago they lost a longtime member of their team. “It was a bad situation all around,” he said. “We did everything we could to get to him, but unfortunately there was nothing we could do.” After the crew had extinguished the fatal blaze, Hartman said, the loss really settled in.
- PUB DATE: 8/5/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Muscatine Journal

It’s commonplace around firehouses to see firefighters transition to new career paths after two decades of service. But usually, first-responder crews watch people walk out their doors when they hit about 50. Very few walk through the door fresh to firefighting. At age 53, however, D.C. fire department paramedic Carmen Hackett is doing that: She graduated Friday as the most senior member and the only paramedic in Firefighter Recruit Class 388.
- PUB DATE: 8/5/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Washington Post - Metered Site

Growing up in the mountains of northern New Mexico, Vidalia Vigil learned all about “roughing it” and hard work at an early age. The 24-year-old recalled going out for her own wood, learning how to use power tools in her early teens and camping regularly throughout her upbringing around Pecos. This background came in handy when, right out of high school, she became an on-call wildland firefighter in the Pecos/Las Vegas district with the Santa Fe National Forest.
- PUB DATE: 8/5/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Albuquerque Journal

Southwest Nampa has been in need of a fire station for eight years, according to the fire chief, and the mayor says it could be 2024 or later before funding is available. The city of over 100,000 people has five fire stations and, given the call volume, needs three more, Fire Chief Kirk Carpenter said.
- PUB DATE: 8/5/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Idaho Press

The Kern County Fire Department is losing firefighters to other agencies because of low pay, according to the Kern County Firefighters Association. A tweet sent out earlier this week announced that two firefighters had resigned to go to other fire departments, and that a total of 41 firefighters were lost for a similar reason since 2014.
- PUB DATE: 8/5/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KERO-TV ABC 23 Bakersfield