Using a $27,950 grant from the Massachusetts Department of Emergency Management, the city of Chicopee (MA) is purchasing a high-tech underwater drone to assist in search and rescue operations on the Connecticut and Chicopee rivers, reports masslive.com.

The plan is to purchase the drone and a trailer that will be used to house and transport a utility terrain vehicle the city already owns (garaged at Fire Station 3), according to the report.

The drone has a camera and is operated via remote control.

Three boys have died in the past three years after falling through ice on the rivers.

A Rocky Mount city councilor, who is also a pastor, left his home for church Sunday and came across a man in a stopped car who had been shot. He called first responders to the 600 block of Lincoln Drive, where the car sat idling.

Inside, police said 32-year-old Jonathon Nixon sat with a head injury. When officers tried to aid him, the victim, apparently incoherent, accelerate

The Sunrise Beach (MO) Fire Protection District recently took delivery of a 2017 Pierce Enforcer, purchased used from Brindlee Mountain Fire Apparatus.

Previously serving the Sapulpa (OK) Fire Department, the apparatus has a 500-gallon water tank; a 30-gallon Class A foam tank with a Compressed Air Foam System; a 107-foot ladder; a 10-kilowatt hydraulic generator; and a 450-horsepower Cummins diesel engine.

New, the apparatus would have cost between $1.1 million and 1.4 million dollars; this unit was $749,000. The district put down $200,000 and traded in its 2008 Rosenbauer truck; the remaining balance was funded through a lease/purchase agreement of $475,000 with Central Bank of Lake of the Ozarks.

The district will pay $37,769.24 annually with no penalty for early payoff, which the district plans to do.

Alexis—Refinery Terminal Fire Company, Corpus Christie, TX, 4,000-gallon foam tender. Freightliner 114SD cab and chassis; Detroit Diesel DD13 505-hp engine; heavy-duty stainless steel body and subframe; Pro Poly polypropylene foam tank; FoamPro AccuMax foam proportioning system; 8-inch deck gun piping; Williams Ambassador ll wireless remote control monitor package. Dealer: Mike Johnson, SMJ Equipment, Spring, TX.

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