PHOTOS: The heads of several firefighters poked out over the edge of the highest roof of Intermountain Health St. Mary’s Regional Hospital, above the 12-story patient tower, Tuesday morning looking down at the sheer brick wall below them.

Throughout the morning, those firefighters practiced anchoring ropes to the building, attaching safety systems and ultimately throwing their legs over the edge of the building and rappelling down it.

These were the first group of Grand Junction Fire Department firefighters to go through a specialized training this week to prepare local first responders for rescues on the side of a building.

“We’re doing rope rescue training called pickoff rescues,” Grand Junction Firefighter Paramedic Josiah Brown said. “We’ll be going off the top of St. Mary’s using rope systems to lower a rescuer part way down the building to access someone that is suspended from the side of the building either from ropes or on scaffolding — whether they’re doing window washing, maintenance work, installation, things like that.”

These types of rescues are considered “low-frequency, high-risk incidents,” Brown said, which makes training for them important. He said they often practice the necessary skills, but rarely at the height of the St. Mary’s building.

Grand Junction Sentinel

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PHOTOS: A fire that broke out late Tuesday night at a condominium complex in north east Bellevue forced firefighters to withdraw from the structure after part of the roof collapsed, a fire department official said. Fire crews responded just after 11 p.m. to reports of a condo fire in the 1700 block of 159th Avenue NE, according to Bellevue Fire.

When crews arrived, they found heavy fire coming from the roof of two units. About 30 minutes into the firefight, the roof collapsed, prompting firefighters to exit the building for safety. The fire was finally brought under control shortly after 12:30 a.m. Wednesday. All occupants evacuated safely, and no injuries were reported, the department said.

KOMO-TV ABC 4 Seattle

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Fire crews battled a house fire in Lynnwood Tuesday evening, extinguishing it in 15 minutes with no serious injuries. South County Fire Department firefighters responded to a fully involved fire on the 6900 block of 190th Street Southwest in Lynnwood around 7:48 p.m.

When they arrived, the blaze had fully engulfed the house, according to South County Fire officials. One resident of the home self-evacuated and was treated for minor smoke inhalation, but not transported to a hospital.

The house had “many items” that initially made the firefighting response challenging, but crews tackled it in about 15 minutes. However, the house was seriously damaged. The cause of the blaze is under investigation and Snohomish County Fire Marshals will investigate.

KING-TV NBC 5 Seattle

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Cleveland fire trucks have a new way to alert drivers before sirens are even heard, using new technology that alerts navigation apps when emergency vehicles are approaching.

The post Cleveland (OH) Deploys HAAS Safety Cloud Across Fleet appeared first on Fire Apparatus: Fire trucks, fire engines, emergency vehicles, and firefighting equipment.

A near-collision with a passenger car on Wednesday evening left a fire truck flipped upside down on the side of State Route 27, according to the Washington State Patrol (WSP). WSP officials reported that the small passenger car was traveling north on SR-27, between Oakesdale and Garfield, as a fire truck dispatched from Deary, Idaho was traveling south.

The small car reportedly veered over the center line, moving directly into oncoming traffic and causing the fire truck to have to swerve off of the roadway to avoid a collision. After evading the crash with the small car, the fire truck rolled over, before coming to rest on its top in a field next to the roadway. According to WSP officials, nobody was injured as a result of the incident.

KHQ-TV NBC 6 Spokane

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