In response to the growing need for volunteer firefighters and EMTs, South Whidbey Fire/EMS launched a new program last year to recruit volunteers from outside of the district. So far this year, six EMT out-of-district volunteers have joined the department. They are Seattle residents Sage Cowles, Aron Nolte and Kiel Rasp, Oak Harbor resident Elizabeth Ratterman, Mukilteo resident Kristi Doody and Jesse Jennings, of Edmonds.
- PUB DATE: 8/15/2018 1:43:25 AM - SOURCE: South Whidbey Record

Amid a relentless onslaught of horrific wildfires, state lawmakers found it easy Tuesday to pinpoint the most important response: Reduce the fuel feeding the conflagrations that have scorched more than 750,000 acres this year. But making that happen, on a meaningful scale, is fraught with problems, they found.
- PUB DATE: 8/15/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Press Democrat

Alexander Ponton thought it was a bomb. Debris smashed into Ponton’s car as he drove east on West 4th Avenue near Santa Fe Drive. The 24-year-old Thornton man got out and heard screams for help coming from a six-unit residence complex. It had exploded. Ponton jumped into action, assisting a man and woman out of the rubble who had cuts and scrapes on them.
- PUB DATE: 8/15/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Denver Post

First Response ambulance response times failed to meet Decatur City Code requirements, but the EMS committee on Tuesday did not recommended City Council action or make a finding that the ambulance service had good cause for its failure. Decatur Fire Chief Tony Grande said he’s frustrated at First Response’s failure to meet the requirements of the city code, but noted that some of the failure could have been the result of overly conservative classification of calls as emergencies by Morgan County 911 and by delays at Decatur Morgan Hospital in preparing patients for non-emergency transport from the hospital.
- PUB DATE: 8/15/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Decatur Daily

A driver had to be pulled from his vehicle early Wednesday after he crashed it into a fire truck, according to an official with the Houston Fire Department. The crash happened about 3 a.m. in northeast Houston, near Little York and Maple Leaf. The black Chevrolet Impala drove up under the truck, he said.
- PUB DATE: 8/15/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Houston Chronicle