When the Skagit County commissioners organized a group of 24 to look at the future of emergency medical services, many thought it was an opportunity for candid talk about the county’s ambulance systems. Now, after a meeting in late December where the commissioners went against a recommendation to continue looking at how emergency medical services should be governed, some members of that group are feeling their eight months of work was all for nothing.
- PUB DATE: 1/9/2017 4:22:02 AM - SOURCE: Skagit Valley Herald (GoSkagit.com)

A firefighter with the Houston Fire Department could lose one of his eyes after he was stabbed by a man he was trying to rescue on Friday. Capt. Kenneth Willingham was responding to a fire at a business on Highway 6 when he found a man unresponsive inside. A Houston Police officer forced entry with a sledgehammer and when Willingham tried to pull the man out, the man stabbed him in the eye with a pocket knife.
- PUB DATE: 1/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KHOU-TV CBS 11 Houston

Ramsey Mueller dreamed of saving others, but he couldn’t save himself. A year ago, he took the first steps toward his lifelong dream of becoming a Tacoma firefighter. Seven months later, he died in his Tacoma home of a heroin overdose at the age of 27, a day after resigning from the department, two days after coming late to a morning shift, slurring his words and nearly hitting another vehicle while briefly taking the wheel of a firetruck.
- PUB DATE: 1/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The News Tribune

The victims of the deadly shooting rampage at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport came from all walks of life. No official list of the victims has been released, but loved ones have started to talk about them to media outlets. Virginia resident Terry Andres was identified Saturday by a volunteer fire department as a victim in the Fort Lauderdale airport shooting.
- PUB DATE: 1/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: USA Today

When Lackawanna hired Jason Szpara and eight others to be firefighters in 2014, the cash-strapped city issued them old used breathing masks that had been turned in by retirees. The safety equipment was tattered, Szpara recalled. Now, on occasion, when there's a large fire in Lackawanna, there aren't enough self contained breathing apparatus – the masks and related equipment – to equip every firefighter, Lackawanna Fire Chief Ralph Galanti admitted.
- PUB DATE: 1/9/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Buffalo News