It's taken years to get crews into a standardized mindset to practice incident command (IC) and mass casualty incident (MCI) management in a non-chaotic and coordinated manner.

Progressive systems now routinely set up MCI operations at incidents that tax their available resources, request pre-arranged MCI waves/levels of units or task forces, and refrain from scooping up the first patients that come to them.

The American Petroleum Institute released a new video designed to help first responders to accidents involving crude oil shipments by rail.

“The video gives first responders a look at specific tank car markings and other visual depictions of what to consider when responding to an incident, should one occur,” API Midstream Group Director Robin Rorick said on Aug. 25. “It is the latest in our industry’s efforts to promote safety and to achieve our goal of zero incidents by preventing and working to mitigate the impact of train derailments.”

The New Orleans Emergency Medical Services Foundation (The Foundation) donated six active shooter kits to New Orleans Emergency Medical Services (NOEMS) after receiving a grant from Hermes Beyond the Parade (Hermes BTP). The grant, which was awarded in January, combines donations from Krewe of Hermes members, as well as an anonymous donor.

The value of the grant was just over $24,000.

This donation will triple the number of sprint trucks within the NOEMS fleet that carry an active shooter kit at all times, better preparing employees to respond when needed.

It's 10,000 times more powerful than morphine and 100 times more powerful than Fentanyl. It's called W-18 and first responders believe it has made its way to our area.

"I think we've already seen in the Altoona area," said AMED Executive Director Gary Waters. "We've had some patients that have been somewhat resistant to the initial doses of narcan. The problem is, unless you actually have the heroin itself tested, that's kind of hard to determine."

W-18 is a psychoactive substance that comes in powder form, originally developed in a Canadian lab more than 30 years ago.

In work that aims to protect soldiers from biological and chemical threats, a team of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists has created a material that is highly breathable yet protective from biological agents.

This material is the first key component of futuristic smart uniforms that also will respond to and protect from environmental chemical hazards. The research appears in the July 27 edition of the journal, Advanced Materials (link is external).