California Wildfires

The California fires have been in our minds, hearts and prayers. An incredible number of acres burns, houses lost, etc. This site has what’s still happening.
Click on Read the Latest Activity to see the status of all the fires.

CDF Firefighters has info on how to donate to those firefighters burned in the fire, plus stories of the fire.

The California State Firefighters' Association has info on How To Help California's Firefighters and links to news pages.

California Professional Firefighters talks about a fund raiser for critically injured firefighters in San Diego. At this site you can also view pictures of the wildfires

International Association of Firefighters also has a Disaster Relief Fund.

The California fires fire pushed other firefighting events out of the news, but Firehouse Magazine’s website, lists other fire news as well.

Our company’s sympathy to those injured, displaced, and who lost property and possessions.

Support the troops

My son-in-law is a Marine currently stationed in Iraq. One of the things he has been asking family and friends to send is reminders of the seasons at home (fall leaves, upcoming Christmas). Whether you believe we should be in this war or not, the guys and gals over there deserve our support.

This site, ourmilitary.org has information and news related to all branches of service. One page, provides a way for ebay searches to contribute to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund for free.

The following is what the site says about itself:
The internet portal and support site for our military service members, military families, veterans, and those who support them.
• Communicate with other service members, parents, spouses, and families using our forums.
• Stay up to date on the latest military news and events.
• Find the information you need with our military resources.

Here’s another news site: Defend America. It also has a page so you can send an email message of support to our troops.

Obviously, if you know someone personally in the military you can send mail and packages directly to them. The post office has guidelines on sending mail and packages.

Wired Kids even has an option for kids to send email to support our military overseas.

Call Home – You can help our military members call home by buying a phone card at Operation Uplink.

You can also support troops overseas by donating mileage, money, time at network for good. Lots of specific options here.

Another option is donating books (or money to ship books) to go to our troops. Check out this site.

The Cookie Lady loves to bake cookies for the military men and women serving our country. Read more at Treat the Troops.

BrigadeQM has a Gear for a Warrior program.

Marine Parents offers opportunities to support Marines.

AmericanSnipers.org is structured to help those that are on the front lines of safeguarding our freedoms. This organization was started by policemen. There’s a video that shows their purpose.

The mission of Operation First Response, Inc. (OFR) is to support our nation's wounded Heroes and their families.

I’m sure I’ve not covered every support organization out there, so if you’d like to share a link to more, feel free to comment.

A self-defense option

The International Krav-Maga Federation has info for civilians, police, military. Krav-Maga which means “Contact Combat” is the Israeli system of self defense, fighting skills, and defensive tactics. Course and seminars are being offered worldwide. Another resource is the Krav Maga Association of America, Inc. An online newspaper about Krav Maga has sprung up, too. There’s even a training center in my area of Kansas.

Some interesting chase scenes

I’m sure many of you get tired of the all the videos on police brutality and dishonest police, etc. Here are a couple videos of police chases without hint of either. This first one happened in the southern part of my state.



This one of a chase in Ohio shows amazing precision driving. I found it so fascinating I watched it a number of times.



Yea, team!

Emergency organizations & blogs

I missed it, but last week was the first ever "National First Responder Appreciation Day" on Tuesday, September 25th. You can read about it on this blog. The following is info about the organization.
First Response Coalition – a non-profit organization promoting the needs of America's first responders in the areas of communications interoperability and data/information preparedness. FRC is devoted to advocating for the needs of first responders and the public they protect.

Here’s another organization – this time in the UK. First Response – Volunteers Saving Lives. People are serving in these roles: Ambulance Responder, Life Bike Responder, Community First Responder, Control Room Assistant and Support Staff.

Emergency.Blog features news in a multitude of areas: Military, Emergency Service, Crisis, Terrorism OSINT. More of a news report, than a commentary, articles are posted from other sources, or articles refer to resources. This is evidently a service of the Emergency Response & Research Institute, who has another page that has archives in these categories: EMS, Fire, Police, Terrorism, Military, Haz-Mat, Infectious Disease and Disaster Ops. Though it appears they aren’t keeping these archives current.