Halford

It's an emergency -- who ya gonna call?Well, it used to be the Anne Arundel County Fire Department.But not anymore.The department formerly known as Anne Arundel County Fire has a new moniker: Anne Arundel County EMS/Fire/Rescue.The new name reflects an essential shift in services, said Stephen D. Halford, county fire administrator."We used to be a fire department which occasionally handled emergency medical services calls. Our system has now evolved to the point where we are really an EMS department which occasionally handles fire calls," Halford said.

The Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association's A Conference lacrosse is widely viewed as having the nation's best high school talent, and many of this year's graduating seniors will have an immediate impact as Division I freshmen next season.Tonight at 8 at Johns Hopkins' Homewood Field, this year's two best teams -- No. 1 St. Mary's (16-0) and No. 2 St. Paul's (11-2) -- will do battle for the MIAA A Conference championship."This league's the country's most demanding. One day you can be up, the next, way down," said second-year St. Paul's coach Rick Brocato, 33. "Coaches and players are challenged daily to reach that passionate edge where you truly find out what you're made of."

A veteran county firefighter and emergency medical technician accused of punching an unruly 12-year-old patient in the face will be fired, Fire Department administrator Stephen D. Halford said yesterday.Mr. Halford approved a recommendation from the Fire Department's hearing board calling for the dismissal of Michael L. Swain.The hearing board earlier this week found the six-year veteran guilty of departmental charges of conduct unbecoming a Fire Department employee, using offensive language and behaving discourteously to the public.

Anne Arundel County could overhaul the way it provides and pays for emergency medical services, depending on the recommendations of a panel that convened yesterday to examine the system."

Fires are not what they used to be in Anne Arundel County. As a result, rank and file firefighters aren't getting on-the-job training they need to become officers as quickly as they used to, fire officials said."

County fire chief Stephen D. Halford acknowledged yesterday that there are "risks" inherent in a 2-week-old policy that takes paid firefighters off their fire engines and puts them into ambulances.The new policy recognizes that for more than a decade most of the calls received by the department have been for emergency medical services. In 1994, the percentage of medical calls was 71 percent.Chief Halford told the Anne Arundel County Council during a briefing on the new policy that it will guarantee 24-hour ambulance coverage throughout the county and free up the county's 13 specialized paramedic units to respond to more life-threatening emergencies, including heart attacks.

Stephen D. Halford, in his younger days, wanted to be a police officer, but he wasn't tall enough. Today, in rank at least, he towers over the rest of the Anne Arundel County Fire Department.Mr. Halford is the county's fire administrator. On May 31, County Executive John G. Gary named him to the job, putting him in charge of the department's $46 million budget, 29 fire companies, 500 career fire fighters and 800 volunteer firefighters. The appointment came after Mr. Halford had spent 18 months as acting fire administrator.

Responding to residents' complaints that their homes are inadequately protected, county fire officials have moved up the timetable for building a new station on the Annapolis Neck Peninsula.The station, to be built on Forest Drive near Quiet Waters Park, leapfrogged ahead of a proposed station on Telegraph Road in Severn on the fire department's priority list, Stephen D. Halford, the acting fire administrator told the County Planning Advisory Board yesterday.Chief Halford, who presented the fire department's request for $2 million in capital projects to the board, said the $3.9 million Annapolis Neck Station moved into second place on the department's priority list and construction should begin by 2001.

Before Rob Halford's new band, Fight, had released so much as a single, the lead singer's smoothly shaven head was plastered across the pages of nearly every American music magazine, usually under a banner headline proclaiming a rebirth of heavy metal.The ravenous U.S. pop press is like that; the anointing of a legend is a time-honored tradition. But so is the drowning of said legend in the critical backwash that normally follows.However, five months in on the umpteenth leg of Fight's current club tour, the flood of questions that surrounded Halford's departure into uncharted solo waters has turned into a tidal wave of adulation.

An Anne Arundel County deputy fire chief was appointed yesterday to serve as acting fire administrator, a job that turned his predecessor into a lightning rod for criticism.Stephen D. Halford, 40, of Severna Park, was named to the $72,000-a-year position by County Executive Robert R. Neall yesterday after a monthlong search.Mr. Halford, a firefighter for 23 years, will oversee a department with 593 career uniformed personnel, 24 civilians, 743 volunteer firefighters and a $40 million budget.