SECTION 1. Section 177B of chapter 149 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2008 Official Edition, is hereby amended in the second paragraph by striking out the following:

“As used in this section, “responding to an emergency” shall mean responding to, working at the scene of, or returning from a fire or call of fire in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to prevent the imminent loss of life or property, where either such fire or such call of fire occurs during a period other than normal working hours of the employee”.

And inserting in place thereof the following new sentence:

“As used in this section, “responding to an emergency” shall mean responding to, working at the scene of or returning from a fire, rescue, emergency medical service call, hazardous materials incident, or a natural/man-made disaster or a call of a fire, rescue, emergency medical service call, hazardous materials incident or natural/man-made disaster in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to prevent the imminent loss of life or property, where such emergency occurs during a period other than normal working hours of the employee.”

               SECTION 2. Section 177B of chapter 149 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2008 Official Edition, is hereby amended in the first paragraph by adding the words “or ambulance department” after the words “fire department” each time such words appear.

               SECTION 3. Section 177B of chapter 149 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2008 Official Edition, is hereby amended in the second sentence of the second paragraph by adding the words “or Emergency Medical Technician” after the word “firefighter”.