VIDEO: If you’re swimming in the Gulf in Panama City Beach this summer, you may notice a small boat-like device bobbing through the water. The City’s Beach Safety Department is officially adding remote-controlled rescue boats to its fleet.
E.M.I.L.Y stands for Emergency Integrated Lifesaving Lanyard and Panama City Beach now owns two of them.
“E.M.I.L.Y’s a rescue device that can be used to help get out to a victim quickly,” said Wil Spivey, Panama City Beach Fire Rescue’s Beach Safety Director.
The rescue boat can travel up to 35 miles per hour and is controlled remotely by people onshore. Swimmers in distress can grab ahold of the lanyard and get brought to safety.
“These are tools that can be used by a non-rescue or somebody that’s not going into the Gulf, like a fireman. We can pull somebody off duty and put them on this device,” Spivey said.
The Beach Safety department has purchased two E.M.I.L.Y’s from Gulf County.
WMBB-TV ABC 13 Panama City
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North Fort Myers Fire Control & Rescue Service District responded to a fire that destroyed a double-wide mobile home in the Suncoast Estates community of North Fort Myers Wednesday night.
Crews were at the scene of the fire in the 7900 block of Hart Drive, south of Gish Lane.
The fire was put out, but the home was a complete loss.
Everyone in the home was able to get out; however, there is a missing pet whose status and whereabouts are unknown at this time.
Six people lived at the home. Joseph Davis told us the fire began in the landlord’s room, and she uses oxygen tanks in her daily life. Davis told us he lost everything.
“I was telling them to kick the door open because she was inside. The fire was in her room,” Davis said.
Davis says if he didn’t act quickly, he fears his landlord wouldn’t be alive.
WINK-TV CBS 11 Fort Myers
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PHOTO: A house fire in Lake County has prompted officials to close a road in the area.
The fire broke out Thursday morning at a home in Sorrento on Droty Springs Lane, which is closed. “Expect delays on (nearby) County Road 46A,” the Lake County Sheriff’s Office tweeted.
No one was injured in the fire, officials said.
“Deputies are conducting traffic control while the fire department extinguishes the fire,” the tweet read. No other details, including the cause of fire, have been released.
WKMG-TV CBS 6 Orlando
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For Tony Chin, October 30th, 2020, started off as a pretty normal day.
The Tamarac Fire Rescue captain was teaching at the Coral Springs Fire Academy that day. However, he felt tired and weak, but didn’t think too much of it until a friend, a fellow firefighter, noticed something was off. “I’ve known him for many many years and he said you know something just didn’t look right. He said let’s go to the hospital and get you checked out. He then pulled my line, which I always tell my patients, ‘hey, if it’s nothing, you’ll be home in an hour,'” said Chin.
It turns out it wasn’t ‘nothing’. He had 100 percent blockages in parts of his heart.
The 47-year-old dad found himself at Broward Health Medical Center and then in the Cardiac ICU with a coronary artery disease that could’ve led to a heart attack.
Dr. Mohamed Osman performed the emergency life-saving surgery to remove the blockages in Chin’s heart.
WFOR-TV CBS 4 Miami
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North Collier Fire Control and Rescue District has launched the first in a series of animated educational videos targeted at teaching children about fire safety. The video introduces to the public the animated characters of Firefighter Frank and his canine partner Tank.
The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically impacted the ability for District Firefighters/EMTs/Paramedics to interact with the public, specifically children in the classroom setting. For retention and social interaction, the District has found that in-person learning is a very effective way to reach and teach children about fire safety. Pandemic concerns have prompted the District to rethink how it interacts with its younger population.
Fire Chief Eloy Ricardo called for his team to address the issue. “A large part of the mission of North Collier Fire is educating children about fire safety. COVID-19 has greatly restricted our ability to perform that function, so I challenged our Public Education division to find an alternative way to reach children in an effective manner.”
Florida Weekly
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While hospitalizations due to COVID-19 continue declining statewide, the number of new cases reported Wednesday was up slightly from a day earlier.
Hospitalizations with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19 continue declining statewide.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the state reported 4,077 people were being treated at hospitals in Florida with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19. That's down by 33 percent since the start of the month.
The Florida Department of Health also reported 7,128 people tested positive for the coronavirus since Tuesday, bringing the total to 1,885,661 cases.
It's also up from the 5,610 cases reported Tuesday.
The state also recorded the deaths of 129 people due to complications from COVID-19 since Tuesday's report, bringing the overall death toll to 30,878 people.
Thirty of those deaths were recorded in the greater Tampa Bay region, with 17 in Polk County.
WUSF Public Media
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