As the flames roared from ridgetop to ridgetop Monday night, a crew of Oak Ridge and Maryville firefighters battled blocked roads and downed power lines in a late-night rescue of a dozen visitors staying in rental cabins behind Dollywood. Huddled in three cars with their four dogs for at least two hours on Mitchell Road, one of the victims told firefighters they were trapped by fires roaring on both sides of the road and debris blocking the road.
- PUB DATE: 12/1/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Knoxville News Sentinel

A Redmond smokejumper is fighting for his life after being critically injured in a fall while fighting a wildfire in Alabama. Ray Rubio, a smokejumper with the Deschutes National Forest, was one of many from the area who were sent to an assignment in Birmingham, Alabama, as more than 30 wildfires are burning in the South.
- PUB DATE: 12/1/2016 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KTVZ.com

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