firefighters

New York fire departments recently received more than $140,000 in stipend payments for their volunteer responders to help offset the cost of required training. The funds come from a $10 million state program meant to help volunteer departments recruit new firefighters.

Fire departments across Broome County received nearly 1,000 gallons of a new type of firefighting foam Wednesday. The county purchased the new foam because the old kind contains PFAS, a group of harmful chemicals linked to cancer.

Heating equipment is the second-largest cause of home fires nationally. They tend to occur in winter as people try to get the chill out of their homes.

For weeks, paramedics and EMTs in New York City have been struggling to respond to a high number of 911 calls during the coronavirus pandemic. More first responders are getting sick themselves.

Paramedic David Goroff works in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania.

“The thousands of hours that these families put into these fire companies. To lose that is so tragic.”

Supporters of the bill say it is a needed correction to a burdensome system, but opponents say it just makes the departments needlessly opaque.

"If Daryl were here, she would tell you, just as I and others have been doing for years now. Don’t mess with cancer. It is insidious and relentless."

"They are on the front lines of not only dangerous fires, but also situations involving crime, drug overdoses, and other perilous situations."

According to the Fireman’s Association of the State of New York, or FASNY, over 70 percent of all the fire and emergency response nationwide is done by volunteers.