Final exams are always tough — but when was the last time a teacher asked you to extinguish a burning truck, or to navigate an obstacle course blindfolded? Cordova Volunteer Fire Department members undergoing a 280-hour class are required to master everything from fire science and building construction to knot-tying and department history. Saturday, Jan. 16, students went on a field trip to a site off the Copper River Highway where they trained their hoses on a pair of burning pickup trucks. The donated vehicles were set alight by Fire Marshal Paul Trumblee using "Trumblee's special blend," a potent accelerant whose formula is a department secret. "Fire is fun!" firefighter Chris Iannazzone remarked. "Seeing a fire and putting it out really gets the adrenaline going… There's a lot more to this training than I would have ever imagined." The department's close-knit teamwork helped turn a potentially trying ordeal into a fun and challenging afternoon learning to wield high-pressure hoses, said firefighter Jayleene Garrett.  

VIDEO: A massive fire at a potato plant in Walden brought fears of an exploding ammonia tank, forcing the evacuation of nearly a third of the town for several hours. The fire broke out at the Washington Potato Plant around 5:30 p.m. in one of the dehydrators, according to Kyle Foreman with the Grant County Sheriff's Office. Employees that were in the building made it out safely as the flames spread, eventually engulfing much of the plant. Among the items in the burning building was large 5,500 gallon ammonia tank that firefighters worried could explode and send a toxic cloud over the region, and officials issued an urgent immediate evacuation notice for the surrounding area. Officials went door to door urging nearby residents to leave as firefighters asked for help from all fire departments in Grant County to help contain the flames. By 8 p.m., more than two dozen firefighting crews were at the blaze, Foreman said.  

Andrea Hall, a career firefighter and union leader from Fulton County, Ga., led the Pledge of Allegiance during the inauguration of President-elect Biden. Hall recited the familiar words of the pledge out loud and in American Sign Language. According to The 19th, a nonprofit news organization, Hall was the first Black woman hired and assigned to a station at the City of Albany Fire Department, and then the first Black woman to serve as fire captain at Fulton County Fire Rescue. She was a rare woman in an industry dominated by men — just 1% of firefighters were women when she transferred in to Fulton County, The 19th reports. "I just am intending to represent, my family, the city of South Fulton, women, African-American women, firefighters, and everyone in the nation, well," Hall told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Hall presented the pledge in sign language, which is unusual for an inauguration.  

State of the art technology that can help save lives when seconds count is now in Southwest Florida. A patient's information can be sent directly to a doctor in real time. We learned how this will help evaluate medical emergencies before arriving at the ER. North Collier Fire Control and Rescue District recently bought new technology that helps paramedics get patient information to hospitals before they show up. "The 65 and overs that arrived by an ambulance, 45% of them didn't even need to be admitted into the hospital," Deputy Fire Chief Jorge Aguilera said. "So if you can imagine what they determine is there's potential savings of over $559 million each year to the health care cost." Instead, when doctors receive information before the patient arrives in front of them, they could start assessing vitals, looking at injury diagrams or even see video from inside the ambulance to make real-time assessments.  

UC Irvine scientists are working on developing a vaccine that would attack all strains of COVID-19 as well as a potential breakthrough that would solve many of the problems related to distributing the medicine, a UCI professor on the project said Thursday. Lbachir BenMohamed, a UCI School of Medicine professor, said his team is developing what they envision will be a vaccine that could work on all strains in the SARS-CoV-2 family. The UCI vaccine would be a "backup" to the vaccines used now and anticipated to be approved shortly, BenMohamed said. "Our vaccine is not only focused on spike protein," to provoke an immune response, like Pfizer's and Moderna's, the professor said. There are two dozen other proteins that can prompt an immune response, he said. "Right now we are doing clinical studies," he said as the scientists prepare to monitor how the vaccines work on lab mice with that work expected to be done by this summer.  

Young adults who turn 19 this year were born after 9/11, the day in 2001 when planes flew into the World Trade Center and Pentagon killing around 3,000 people. These teens know it as Patriot's Day. It has been 20 years this coming September since the U.S. was attacked by air and hundreds of first responders, some fallen heroes, answered the call of duty to help at Ground Zero. Now, a group of nonprofits that were organized to honor those fallen heroes and first responders are celebrating the anniversary with a large traveling exhibit that includes a 3D replica of the World Trade Center complex. Honor365, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, in coordination with "Hero 1," a 53-foot semi-truck trailer with HVMC Transportation LLC, Fallen Hero Network LLC, and The Honor Network (U.S. Honor Flag) have joined together in the national touring exhibit. The focus of the program and walk is to remember and honor the 9/11 fallen and local heroes of the state.