Even to veteran paramedics like Mike Barokas, who has been on the job 33 years, the scene on the Aurora Bridge was so overwhelming, it seemed unreal. "It was somewhat eerie," said Medic One Lt. Mike Barokas. "It was so surreal it almost felt like a drill." Barokas, along with dozens more firefighters and medics from across the area converged on the carnage September 24 after a Ride The Ducks tour boat crashed into a bus packed with exchange students.
- PUB DATE: 11/13/2015 9:15:24 AM - SOURCE: KREM-TV CBS 2

The family of firefighter Kevin Bell, who died while fighting a house fire last year, will sue the city, claiming among other things that the lieutenant who entered the burning house with him may have left Bell behind to die because of "personal animus" between the two men. At a press conference Thursday in the office of their attorney, Paul Levin, Bell's widow and his brother said they hope the lawsuit will provide answers to why Bell was left behind last October and why no one searched for him for eight minutes even though a "mayday call had been made.
- PUB DATE: 11/13/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: hartford courant

An influential advisory committee backed a proposal Wednesday to streamline Sonoma County’s tangled mix of 40-plus fire agencies and request about $9.5 million in annual funding, ending a 14-month study that explored ways to reshape the county’s complex fire services network. About three dozen fire officials from throughout the county hammered out the final decisions at an almost four-hour meeting that touched on the most sensitive issue — the identity of local fire agencies.
- PUB DATE: 11/13/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Lights flashing and siren blaring, the ambulance stopped at a red light, checking for traffic. The firefighter at the wheel eased forward. Halfway through the intersection, his partner saw the truck. “I said, ‘This is going to hurt,’ ” Montgomery County firefighter Robert Sito, 27, told accident investigators later that day at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda.
- PUB DATE: 11/13/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: the washington post

The U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) is partnering on a project with the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) and Drexel University in Philadelphia to research the occurrences and effects of violence against firefighters and EMS responders. The study will examine the circumstances surrounding these acts and determine ways to mitigate workplace/on-duty incidents of violence against responders.
- PUB DATE: 11/13/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: firehouse