Dallas police say a woman has been charged with driving while intoxicated after crashing into a Dallas fire truck, IrvingWeekly.com reported.

At around 2:30 a.m. Sunday, Dallas firefighters were working a crash on I35E near Storey Lane when a woman collided into the back of a blocker unit, the report said. Blocker units are retired fire apparatus used to block highway scenes for personnel safety.

Dallas paramedics transported the woman to a local hospital in critical condition, the report said.

No firefighters were injured.

The city of Lexington is the county seat of Fayette County and the second largest city in Kentucky. Perhaps it’s best known as the “Horse Capital of the World” due to its location in the Bluegrass region of the state. The Bluegrass region is known for its highly fertile soil and makes for prime pastures for breeding thoroughbred race horses.

In 1775 the Lexington Fire Department was formed and in 1864 they became a career department. In 1973 the city and Fayette County governments merged combining the city and county fire departments. Today the department provides fire protection and prevention, emergency medical service, technical rescue, hazardous-materials, aircraft and dive rescue services to an area roughly 286 square miles.

The department has five Battalions running out of 24 stations. There are 23 engine companies, seven truck companies, a heavy rescue unit, a hazardous materials unit, two air and light units, two wild fire units and one tender. All firefighters are trained to either Emergency Medical Technicians or Paramedics status. Many of the department’s companies around the city are trained in hazardous materials and technical rescue. The technical rescue teams often go outside the city limits to assist in large animal rescues, often involving horses due to their heavy presence in the area. The department can run everything from a high-rise fire to a grass fire in the rolling hills due to the overall diversity of their response area.

Tower 2 is currently assigned a 2019 Seagrave 95’ Aerialscope tower ladder stationed with Engine Company 5. It’s a beautiful old two bay firehouse built in 1905. Due to their proximity to the University of Kentucky, whose mascot is the Wildcats, the stationed earned the nickname of the “Fire Cats”.  Tower 2 is built on a Capitol chassis with a tilt-cab and stainles

Zareen Syed
Chicago Tribune
(TNS)

On Wednesday’s episode of NBC’s “Chicago Fire,” a storyline involving an infant safe surrender box sounded the alarm for both the Chicago Fire Department and an advocate for abandoned children, who called the plot “misleading.”

In a scene from the most recent Season 11 episode, the character Sylvie Brett, a paramedic, opens up a delivery containing a large temperature-controlled device, and explains it as “a place for people to safely and anonymously drop their newborns under the state safe haven statute.”

Although Illinois has had a Safe Haven Law for newborns since 2001, it does not have a baby box system like other states such as Indiana. Illinois requires that babies who are surrendered are handed over to a person.

“The scene concerns us because it’s not realistic. We just don’t do that here. The law is not written that way,” Larry Langford, spokesman for the Fire Department said Friday. “And we understand that a lot of the TV show is fictionalized and it’s loosely based on us. But we prefer they not do something that may cause someone to misunderstand, misinterpret and do something that might be detrimental to an infant.”

The Abandoned Newborn Infant Protection Act, also referred to as the Safe Haven Law, gives the families of newborns legal protection from prosecution if they bring a child to a police station, firehouse or hospital. And the law states that an unharmed baby up to 30 days old can be turned over to a staff member at a safe haven location. Mothers or family members handing over a baby to someone aren’t required to answer any questions and can remain anonymous.

Dawn Geras, an executive chairperson for the Save Abandoned Babies Foundation, a Chicago nonprofit instrumental in getting the Safe Haven Law passed in Illinois, said the law works as it’s written, but the “Chicago Fire” episode might mistakenly lead a mother to a firehouse looking for a baby box.

“It’s wrong and misleading, and I don’t know what kind of consequences that will bring,” Geras said. “There are a lot of people that watch the show. What are they going to do when they don’t find a box?”

There are several reasons why baby boxes are “vehemently opposed” by the Save Abandoned Babies Foundation, Geras said. For one, the interaction between a mother and another human at a safe haven location could lead to a number of support services, she said.

“Typically a fireman or a nurse will see a woman in distress and they’re going to say, ‘Would you like help?’ And in almost 30% of the cases, the moms accept help, be it medical help or counseling,” Geras said. “Given that supportive service, they can also choose to make a parenting plan or make a traditional adoption plan.”

Langford said all firehouses in Chicago have safe haven signs, with additional signage to indicate that personnel should be present when a person hands over a baby.

Citing a case from 2022 when a baby was found dead in a duffel bag on Orleans Street near a firehouse door, Langford said some firehouses are not staffed 24 hours a day. And in the Orleans Street case, they don’t know whether someone tried to ring the doorbell first.

He said someone recently tried to leave a child at the back door of a firehouse on the Southwest Side and slip away, but one of the firefighters saw the incident through the window.

Most of the time, the back doors are unattended or seldom used for entry, Langford said. “It’s