NYSAFC has announced the lineup of fire and EMS education programs at FIRE 2021 in Syracuse! Classes are open to Conference Full Term Registrants only from June 16-19. Many of the lecturers who planned to participate in this year’s conference will be joining NYSAFC at FIRE 2021. Speakers include Robert Burns, Butch Cobb, Jay Dixon, Jim Duffy, Mike Gagliano, Tim Klett, Sandy Lasa, John Lewis & Robert Moran, David Norman, John Norman, Tony Perez, Tom Richardson, Dennis Rubin, Mike Scotto, and more!

Students can earn in-service codes hours by completing one or two days of training available on June 16 and 17 at The Oncenter in Syracuse. Registration is $95 per day OR $190 for both days of this program, coordinated by the NYSAFC Codes Committee.

Please consider participating in or supporting the NYSAFC FIRE 2020 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb to benefit the FDNY Counseling Services Unit and the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. Although we couldn't be together this June in Syracuse for our physical climb, you can still honor those lost on 9/11 through a virtual climb. Climb on your own on September 11 or 12, or anytime through December 31, 2020. The NFFF has created a Virtual Stair Climb Toolkit for participants.

Congratulations to Hannah Cousins (endorsed by the Syracuse Fire Department) and McKenna Larrison (endorsed by the Scarsdale Fire Department), NYSAFC's 2020 scholarship award recipients, on their academic achievement. The NYSAFC Scholarship Program is open to association Individual Members or the spouses and children of those members who are pursuing academic advancement at the college level. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 and the cancellation of the association's Annual Conference, no formal award presentations were made this year.

The new law doesn't require families of firefighters, EMTs, and police officers to prove that a first responder was infected on the job as long as the diagnosis is within 45 days of his or her last shift.

Alec Tannenbaum, 29, was an active volunteer member of the Vails Gate Fire Department and worked as a federal firefighter for the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Hundreds of EMS personnel could lose their jobs if the city doesn’t get some help.

A crew of 10 wildland firefighters from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation are traveling to the Rocky Mountains to assist in efforts to contain wildfires.

Governor Andrew Cuomo said state health personnel will be on hand to ensure coronavirus precautions are taken during the ceremony.

The 9/11 Memorial Museum will open its doors exclusively to victims’ families on September 11, ending a nearly six-month shutdown due to coronavirus.

Police charged a 40-year-old New Windsor man with cutting down a flagpole at a 9/11 memorial in Washingtonville and severing two other flagpoles in New Windsor in a three-day spree last month.

Most of the damage was contained to the second floor of the two-story home. Ray and her husband had been using their home as a makeshift studio during the coronavirus pandemic, creating segments for the "Rachael Ray Show."

DOH Interim Educational Policy; EMS fatigue project.

NYSAFC has announced an updated schedule for the free workshop series “Fire/EMS Behavioral Health: The Price We Pay” presented by Past Chief Mike Healy (Central Nyack Fire Department) and Chief Jared Meeker (Lake Shore Fire District), sponsored by PERMA. The series was to begin in the spring, but programs were postponed due to COVID-19. Three-hour workshops will be held in Clinton (September 14), Monroe (September 15), Nassau (September 21), Chautauqua (September 30), Westchester (November 5 - rescheduled date), Fulton (November 10 - rescheduled date), and Herkimer (December 1 - rescheduled date) Counties, as well as a newly announced site in Ulster County (December 2). Regretfully, the Schenectady County workshop has been canceled for 2020 due to local restrictions on gatherings. Please note a change of venue for the Clinton and Fulton County workshops.

Please note a change of venue for Company Officers Leadership Training (COLT) in Nassau County. The final COLT program of the year will be held on October 24-25 at the Locust Valley Fire Department. Pre-registration is required for this two-day leadership development program for current and aspiring officers, featuring lectures by Michael Ciampo, Michael Lombardo, and Robert Pressler.

“Hoarder House Fires: Our Worst Nightmare" with Lieutenant Tim Klett (FDNY) will be held in Chautauqua (October 12 - rescheduled date), Chemung (October 15), Clinton (September 29 - rescheduled date), Erie (October 6), Fulton (October 1 – rescheduled date), Nassau (September 24), Oneida (September 28), Onondaga (October 20), Otsego (September 23), Rensselaer (November 30 - rescheduled date), Rockland (October 19), and Wyoming (October 7 - rescheduled date) Counties. Regretfully, the St. Lawrence County/Franklin County seminar has been canceled due to COVID-19 and local restrictions on gatherings. It will not be rescheduled. Please note a change of venue for the Chautauqua and Clinton County seminars.

Retired Albany Fire Department Lieutenant Mike Lee is fighting a blood cancer called Myelodysplastic Syndrome. Fellow firefighters are hoping someone might be the match for a transfusion Lee needs.

Past Chief Kenneth Palmer of the Mohawk Fire Department is a longtime member of NYSAFC.

Lyn Hutton was the department’s first female chief and one of just a few in the nation when she was named to the post in 1980.

First responder research at Skidmore College recently earned Professor Denise Smith a prestigious national award for improving firefighter health and safety.

 View the NYSAFC calendar of events.