Page 2 - Robert Weech News Today

To make Polk County a more attractive, competitive place to work, the plan includes an $8,000 sign-on bonus for newly hired paramedics.

A new firefighter training center, in the works for more than three years, appears to be getting closer to becoming reality.

Polk County officials say a new training home is long-overdue as progress moves forward to open a $14.5 million facility by 2024.

Two of the trucks will replace aging vehicles. The other three will be added to the fleet.

Despite first responders being among the first to gain access to COVID-19 vaccines, they still lag in vaccination rates.

As COVID-19 continues to strain emergency response systems, fire chiefs are asking you to only call 911 for serious emergencies.

The increased number of EMS calls has led to additional wait times for ambulances waiting to transfer people to the hospital.

If you need an ambulance, you want one to arrive as quickly as possible. In Polk County, COVID-19 is causing "significant delays," according to the fire chief, who is asking residents to only call 911 for serious emergencies.

“People will need to be careful with how they handle barbecues and how they dispose of cigarettes.”

Emergency calls related to drownings have been on the rise of late in Polk County, with nearly 80% of the incidents over the past year involving children ages 1 through 9, according to data provided by Polk County Fire Rescue. But despite the county’s largest city wearing a name like Lakeland, it’s not natural bodies of water where the majority of these 911 drowning calls are coming from. “It’s (swimming) pools,” said the county’s Fire Chief Robert Weech.  Between Jan. 1 and April...