This may be a first — an auto mechanic that saves people money. A city-employed mechanic with the heart of an inventor is being hailed by the FDNY for doing more with less — and saving the city a bundle in the process. Jomar Pichardo, 31, who’s responsible for keeping the city’s fleet of EMS ambulances running 24 hours a day, has saved the department more than $700,000 by engineering ways to refurbish ambulance batteries and car parts that the city would normally toss away and repurchase.
- PUB DATE: 12/1/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Daily News

When an ambulance driver using her phone’s GPS got distracted and crashed through a guardrail, rolling off an embankment in north-central Ohio in August 2014, the consequences were dire: A 56-year-old patient was ejected and killed, and an EMS worker was injured. The emergency medical service worker was not strapped in, and the patient was only partially restrained, a situation that is all too common in ambulances across the nation.
- PUB DATE: 12/1/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Stateline.org

Researchers from the University of Arizona’s Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health will create the framework for a project to study cancer in firefighters. Cancer is the leading cause of death among firefighters who are exposed to toxic chemicals while on the job, according to a news release.
- PUB DATE: 12/1/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KVOA-TV NBC 4 Tucson

A Bloomingdale firefighter and his wife were killed overnight after a tornado hit the mobile home they were staying in in Ocoee, TN. According to Bloomingdale Fire Chief Ferman Tyler, Mark Faulk, Jr. and his wife Saundra were staying in a mobile home in Ocoee when a tornado passed through between 2:30 a.
- PUB DATE: 12/1/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WTVM-TV News 9 Columbus

The Clarkston City Council wants department heads to make more money than their subordinates. At a budget workshop Wednesday night, the group was leaning toward 5.5 percent pay raises for the fire and police chiefs, clerk/treasurer and public works director. If approved, the salaries of the four managers will go from $76,550 a year to $80,760 in 2017.
- PUB DATE: 12/1/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse