first responders

Following a week of uncertainty, Tulsa’s Community Outreach Psychiatric Emergency Services, or COPES, will continue to receive funding — at least temporarily.

More than 80 percent of Oklahoma fire departments are staffed by volunteers. Rural firefighters are putting their lives on the line for no pay after a ton of training, and that makes it hard to find enough people to do the job.

There’s a nationwide shortage of paramedics, and there’s no exception to that in Tulsa.According to the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration,…