Category: In The News

March 15, 2023 The City of Oswego Fire Department used a drone to spray water on a commercial building fire after firefighters were forced to exit the building.

By Rylee Kirk Source syracuse.com (TNS) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Oswego, N.Y. — A drone was used to spray water on a downtown Oswego building that was on fire for almost two hours Wednesday, firefighters said.

At 3:11 a.m. firefighters arrived at 39 West Bridge St. to find a fire at the back of the second-story apartment building, according to a news release from the City of Oswego Fire Department. The building has a bar called Raven in it, according to a Facebook post from Mayor Billy Barlow.

One person was home at the time of the fire but managed to get out, firefighters said. People in neighboring buildings were evacuated by the fire department.

The fire was heavy in the attic and cockloft, or area between the ceiling and roof, firefighters said. The firefighters were forced to exit the building and fight the fire from the outside, they said.

For 90 minutes firefighters fought the fire with a large quantity of water, firefighters said. A drone was used to spray the building with water from above, firefighters said. At 5 a.m. the fire was finally controlled, firefighters said.

The building had heavy damage to the second floor and roof. Nearby buildings had water damage, firefighters said.

March 15, 2023 After leaving her Madison apartment to run errands, the checked an app when she realized she may have left some food cooking on the stove.

By Jeff Richgels Source The Wisconsin State Journal Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Mar. 14—A woman used a phone app to see smoke in her Southwest Side apartment on Monday night and called 911 to get the Madison Fire Department there.

The woman left her apartment in the 1000 block of Gilbert Road to run a quick errand when she realized she may have left some food cooking on the stove. She used a phone app and cameras in her apartment to see smoke building in it and called 911, Fire Department spokesman Cynthia Schuster said in a statement.

While fire crews were heading to the apartment, the woman reported that she could see a pan on the stove with food burning in it. Firefighters found the apartment full of smoke, and they pulled a pan of burned hamburger off the stove before any fire ignited and put it in the sink, Schuster said.

Fire crews cleared smoke from the apartment and the woman returned as they were preparing to leave, Schuster said.

March 15, 2023 The EPA’s goal is to limit PFAS, the so-called forever chemicals, to less than four parts per trillion in drinking water.

By Matthew Medsger Source Boston Herald Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Faced with congressional inaction on the matter, the president has instructed the EPA to issue limits on the amount of so-called forever chemicals which can be measured in the nation’s drinking water.

“Today the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed the first-ever national standard to address PFAS contamination in drinking water. EPA will require public water systems to monitor for six PFAS chemicals, notify the public if the levels of these PFAS exceed the proposed regulatory standards, and take action to reduce the level of PFAS in the water supply,” the White House announced Tuesday.

The Biden-Harris Administration, through the EPA, is proposing a drinking water limit for two common PFAS chemicals, otherwise known as per- and polyfluorinated substances, according to the White House.

According to the proposed rules, levels of PFOA and PFOS — perfluorooctanoic acid and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid — in water will need to measure under four parts per trillion.

“EPA’s proposal to establish a national standard for PFAS in drinking water is informed by the best available science, and would help provide states with the guidance they need to make decisions that best protect their communities. This action has the potential to prevent tens of thousands of PFAS-related illnesses and marks a major step toward safeguarding all our communities from these dangerous contaminants,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said along with the announcement.

The class of chemicals, first developed by 3M in the late 40s, were used commonly in a number of household and industrial products until very recently; non-stick cookware, popcorn bags, fast food wrappers, firefighting foam and semiconductors were all manufactured using PFAS chemicals.

It wasn’t until decades later that consumers began to learn that so-called forever chemicals had a negative impact on human health.

According to a court-ordered study conducted following a class-action lawsuit settlement over PFAS contamination around the Ohio Valley, there is a link between PFAS exposure and diagnosed high cholesterol, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease, testicular and kidney cancer and pregnancy-induced hypertension.

Up until 2016 the EPA did not have an established safe limit for PFAS presence in drinking water, though their Office of Water had issued a recommendation to avoid short-term exposure — that’s 24 hours of exposure in 30 days — to water containing more than 400 parts per trillion.

In the summer of 2016, after elevated levels of PFOA were found in the water surrounding Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics plant in Merrimack, New Hampshire and elsewhere in the U.S., the EPA revised their guidelines and recommended a less than 70 parts per trillion limit for tested ground water.

Earlier in the month, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health warned residents against eating fish caught in several state parks due to elevated levels of PFAS in the animals’ bloodstreams.

The Biden Administration’s proposal will not become enforceable until after a public comment period and may change before enactment. EPA is requesting comment from the public, water system managers, and public health professionals on docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OW-2022-0114, at www.regulations.gov.

March 15, 2023 Boston firefighters and police superior officers will no longer be required to have the COVID-19 vaccine.

By Sean Philip Cotter Source Boston Herald Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The Wu administration has agreed to formally drop its vaccine mandate for firefighters and police superior officers, and it’s evaluating what to do next with its vax policy.

The city inked the agreement with the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 718 on Feb. 15, and the one with the Boston Police Superior Officers Federation on Monday, according to documents provided by the city following a records request. The city says it’s also in conversation with the Boston Police Detectives Benevolent Society for a similar agreement.

“The City agrees it will not enforce the existing December 20, 2021, Vax Mandate Policy against Local 718 members,” the agreement with the firefighters reads. The pact with the federation has the same language but with “BPSOF” swapped in as the union name.

In exchange, the unions will drop their state Department of Labor Relations complaints.

The text reads that they penned these accords because “the parties desire to resolve this matter without the expense and uncertainty of further litigation, and in promotion of harmonious labor relations between them.”

This issue goes back to the December 2021 date mentioned in the agreement. That’s when Mayor Michelle Wu, just a month into her tenure, implemented a slate of vaccine requirements as the omicron variant of COVID-19 caused cases in the city to spike. Employees would be required to get the jab or face punishment up to suspension and firing.

This drew vociferous opposition, both formal and informal, including a lawsuit from the firefighters, the superior officers and the detectives seeking to enjoin the city from implementing it.

The Wu administration at first prevailed in superior court, but didn’t enforce the requirements while the case remained under appeal. Then last spring, an appellate judge sided with the unions, saying the city had violated their labor rights. The city appealed to the Supreme Judicial Court, which is mulling the arguments currently.

The vax policy still remains on the books for everyone besides these two unions that have the agreements, but no one has faced punishment under it and it’s never been enforced. City officials told the Herald that the administration is “reviewing the covid policy and seeing what should be applied across the board.”

City officials speaking to the Herald about these agreements said they “followed the science” at the time, but, “I don’t think he city’s in the same position as it was” in the scheme of the pandemic. Officials said, “We’ve established the rights of the city to do this.”

Local 718 President Sam Dillon said in a statement, “I’m confident that this resolution creates a roadmap from which other Unions and elected officials should draw direction. I’m encouraged to have this matter behind us and I look forward to addressing the pressing issues facing our Members and our Profession with the same conviction.”

Patrick Bryant, the attorney for the superior officers federation, said the union “feels vindicated and heartened” by the agreement, “and for the parties to be able to put this episode behind them” and negotiate a contract.

Each agreement is only about a page and a half, with most of the first page designated to throat-clearing about what the mandate was and why the two sides are signing this. The two agreements basically identical, just with the union names and the specific numbers of the labor-relations complaints changes.

Under the agreements, the city won’t enforce this policy, and in exchange the unions will withdraw their Labor Relations complaints. The previous memorandum of agreement from the Janey administration involving people being able to opt out from testing remains in effect.

The SJC case about this matter remains ongoing, and the agreement says this agreement shouldn’t be entered as evidence for either side’s points, and that it’s not an acknowledgement that anyone did anything wrong.

Further, it shouldn’t limit “whatever rights the City has to address or respond to future COVID-19 variants or other pandemic issues” in the future.

“This Agreement fully and finally resolves any issue that was raised or could have been raised in this matter,” the agreements read.

These agreements amount to something of turn of the page for the unions and the Wu administration, who were at odds for much of last year. The firefighters protested Wu in force, including bringing in international firefighters union boss Edzo Kelly, a Boston firefighter, to rail against the policies.

On a somewhat separate track, a group of protesters who separated themselves from the unions began showing up at Wu’s house and other events around the city at various points throughout the year. Just this week, the police sergeant who led that group and a police officer who was involved in the push — Shana Cottone and Joe Abasciano, respectively — were fired by the department.

According to officials, the city now is in negotiations with all of the sworn public-safety unions, which are the only large unions left without a contract.

Parallel arguments happened around the same time with state vaccine policy, with multiple unions including the State Police Association of Massachusetts filing challenges to the policies of then-Gov. Charlie Baker. Current Gov.

Maura Healey’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, but SPAM President Patrick McNamara said his union “is actively engaged with Governor Healey’s Administration on Executive Order 595. I am confident we will resolve this issue in the near future.”

March 15, 2023 Facing a potential $1.5 million budget deficit, Signal Mountain officials are considering drastic cuts to the town’s fire department.

By Ellen Gerst Source Chattanooga Times Free Press, Tenn. (TNS) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Mar. 13—Facing a potential $1.5 million budget deficit, Signal Mountain officials are considering cuts to the town’s Fire Department.

The department has more funding and staff than any other of a similar population size in the area, according to data shared at a Monday night Town Council meeting.

Before next year’s budget is finalized in June, department heads have been asked to make cuts, Councilman Andrew Gardner said at Monday’s meeting. High rates of inflation, increased pay for town staff and catching up on investments and infrastructure have all contributed to the deficit, Gardner said.

On Friday, the town’s fire chief gave notice he plans to retire at the end of the month, and its parks director also resigned the same day.

Around 90 people packed the meeting room Monday, many there to speak in support of the Fire Department.

Several said they were willing to pay higher taxes to keep the department staffed at current levels. High-quality public services like the Fire Department draw residents to Signal Mountain, some said.

“If there’s anything I’d rather pay more for, it’s that,” said mountain resident Sandy Bayless, to applause from the standing-room-only crowd.

Word of the potential cuts circulated on social media over the weekend, after the Signal Mountain firefighters’ union posted on Facebook on Friday saying department staff were told their budget may be cut in half.

“A lot of what you’re seeing and a lot of what you’re reading about on social media posts are overreactions by people who don’t know anything,” Signal Mountain Mayor Charlie Poss said by phone Monday, “because they weren’t at the meeting. There were only three people there.”

Poss emphasized Monday that no decisions have been made on next year’s budget, which has not been drafted yet.

Fire Chief Eric Mitchell, who joined the department in 2013, handed in his official notice of retirement Monday, after notifying the town manager Friday he planned to retire. His last day will be April 1, he said.

“I had not planned on it (retiring), I’ll put it that way,” Mitchell said by phone Monday. “It’s just time.”

Parks Director Jarred Thompson also gave notice of resignation, effective immediately, on Friday, according to Town Manager Elaine Brunelle. Thompson could not be reached for comment on Monday.

Mitchell said he was given a dollar amount by which he is expected to cut the department’s budget. He declined to specify the amount Monday.

“I haven’t put pen to paper yet, but it would be a significant number of people,” he said.

Mitchell said the suggested budget cuts would hurt not only the Fire Department, but also the residents it serves.

“Reducing staffing reduces the department’s ability to respond to calls,” Mitchell said. “I can’t say for sure, but it could result in the closing of a station. That’s a significant impact for the folks that live out there, wherever that station closes.”

Residents speaking Monday said they worried that cutting fire staff would increase response times and said they were particularly concerned about medical calls for severe allergic reactions or cardiac arrests during which every minute counts.

Poss, the mayor, said he recently met with Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp about possibly expanding county ambulance service to the mountain.

Most other similarly sized fire departments in the region rely at least partly on part-time or volunteer firefighters, data from the town shows.

Signal Mountain is also an outlier when it comes to the size of its budget — about 30% of its roughly $9 million annual spending goes to the Fire Department. That amounts to $281 for each of its approximately 8,800 residents, according to town data, the highest in the area. Chattanooga is second, with 19% of its budget going to fire, or around $259 per city resident.

Signal Mountain added its second fire station in 2018, a roughly $2.8 million project aimed at improving fire response in the northern part of town. At the same time, with the help of a federal staffing grant, the department hired nine new firefighters to staff the station.

Losing staff — and potentially a station — could lower the department’s insurance rating, which would raise yearly rates for homeowners in the area.

The department has already had a hard time keeping staff thanks to relatively low pay for the area, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported in 2021. The town raised taxes at the time to fund raises for firefighters and other city employees, Vice Mayor Elizabeth Baker said, but some employees were still left underpaid while others were overpaid.

The department, which has 29 full-time employees, answered 1,125 calls in 2022, according to Signal Mountain’s annual State of the Town report. That’s about three per day. Just 3% of those were fire-related, the report says, and 64% were medical or rescue calls.

A September 2022 study found that while adding Station 2 helped improve response times, there are still areas of Signal Mountain outside the “optimal response zone … resulting in long response times.”

Signal Mountain’s firefighters are the only round-the-clock department on the mountain, while Walden and Lone Oak in Sequatchie County also have volunteer crews. A growing population in unincorporated parts of the county surrounding Signal Mountain also adds to the department’s load, since it’s obligated to lend mutual aid assistance to nearby areas, officials said.

March 15, 2023 Cal Fire and various other agencies are inspecting structures after record snowfall in South Lake Tahoe has damaged at least 86 buildings.

Source officer.com News Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Unrelenting winter storms have damaged dozens of homes and businesses in the greater South Lake Tahoe area since late last week, fire officials said Tuesday morning, as more rain and snow are forecast to fall through midweek in the mountains.

Cal Fire’s Amador-El Dorado unit in an incident report Tuesday morning said 230 personnel across more than a dozen cooperating agencies are working to inspect buildings for damage and provide assistance amid “extreme” winter storms, which have dumped feet of snow across the central Sierra Nevada range since late February.

Crews have inspected at least 129 structures since last Thursday and found damage in 86 of them, exactly two-thirds, Cal Fire said.

Of the 86 with damage, nine structures were red-tagged, meaning they were deemed unsafe to occupy until substantial repair work can be completed.

No civilian or firefighter injuries had been reported in the past week’s storms as of Tuesday morning, according to Cal Fire.

South Lake Tahoe city officials in social media posts beginning late last week said both Raley’s supermarket locations are temporarily closed. Part of the roof collapsed Saturday morning at the Raley’s store in the Crescent V shopping center; and the store near the “Y” intersection connecting Highway 50 with Highway 89 was closed Sunday as a precaution.

The city’s T.J. Maxx store, on Lake Tahoe Boulevard, was forced to close “due to structural issues,” the city wrote Monday evening.

At the area’s ski resorts, the storm forced ski resorts to put wind holds on chair lifts, close trails and in some cases shut down.

Palisades Tahoe closed Tuesday with over 100 mph winds projected along ridge lines. The ski resort shared video with The Sacramento Bee showing the windy and snowy conditions at the top of the mountain.

South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue in Facebook posts also reported roof collapses, including at a gas station, an apartment building and mobile homes.

All Lake Tahoe Unified School District campuses were open Tuesday. In an email Monday morning, district officials assured families that crews are inspecting and “continually assessing” building safety.

“We would not put our students in buildings that are unsafe,” district administrators wrote.

The city of South Lake Tahoe proclaimed a local emergency last Wednesday in response to the severe winter weather.

National Weather Service forecasts showed up to three-quarters of an inch of rain during the day could be followed by 2 to 4 inches of snow Tuesday evening near the city, with gusts from 40 mph to 50 mph possible all day.

Officials on Tuesday morning warned residents of localized flooding throughout South Lake Tahoe.

Gas leak forces evacuation at Incline High School

On the north side of Lake Tahoe, the North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District said it responded along with Washoe County sheriff’s deputies to Incline High School in Incline Village, Nevada, around 7:45 a.m. Tuesday after students reportedly smelled natural gas.

No gas was located inside the school, but “high levels of gas were detected in multiple locations in the snow on the roof,” the fire district wrote in a news release.

The high school was evacuated as firefighters responded. Because crews were not able to determine the origin of the leak due to heavy snow, the school was deemed unsafe to occupy and remained closed, authorities wrote.

The North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District in a statement last week said it has recorded an “alarming” increase in gas leaks and carbon monoxide-related emergencies.

“Many of these incidents are the result of heavy snow build-up on combustion-appliance venting, buried foundation vents and improper or snow-obstructed home generator ventilation systems,” the district wrote.

Gas leaks can also result from snow removal efforts that inadvertently break gas lines, officials wrote.

March 15, 2023 The Anderson Board of Public Safety ruled that the firefighter who left before his five year obligation was up has to repay the city for paramedic school.

By Ken de la Bastide Source The Herald Bulletin, Anderson, Ind. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Mar. 13—ANDERSON — The Anderson Board of Public Safety has ruled that a paramedic with the Anderson Fire Department must reimburse the city for the cost of training.

The Safety Board Monday ruled that Chance Hensley has to repay the city $5,400 for the cost of paramedic training under the terms of the contract in 2020, when he received certification for the training.

Attorney Donald Smith, representing the Anderson Fire Department, said Hensley was hired by the department in 2017 and signed up for training the next year.

Smith said the contract with Local 1262 included a provision requiring paramedics who left the department before five years of service to reimburse the city for the cost of their training.

Hensley took a position with the South Madison Fire Territory in January.

Firefighters Local 1262 filed a grievance that also involves language in the 2022 agreement, which states that if paramedic training is provided the firefighter has to spend the rest of his career in Anderson.

Cody Leever, president of Local 1262, said the union needs an interpretation of the new contract. He maintains the language requiring that a paramedic remain with the department throughout their career was a mistake.

Leever said other area departments are paying more for paramedics than Anderson is for less work. The union offered a compromise to prorate the amount that Hensley would be required to repay based on his actual years of service, according to Leever.

Tim Lanane, attorney for the safety board, said Hensley should be covered under the contract in force when he received the certification as a paramedic.

“The new language in the contract is problematic,” he said of the career requirement, “but the union agreed to the language.”

Mike McKinley, chairman of the safety board, made the motion that Hensley should repay the city the $5,400 for the training.

He also urged both the union and the administration of Mayor Thomas Broderick Jr. to amend the language in the 2022 contract.