Alaska on Thursday logged the highest combined count of active coronavirus infections in residents and nonresident workers and visitors since the pandemic began. Nearly all the new nonresident cases reported Thursday involved seafood industry workers, who are required to get tested under safety plans filed by processing companies. Nine of the new seafood industry cases were in the Bristol Bay region, where workers are arriving for the lucrative salmon season amid local concerns about the spread of the coronavirus given their limited health-care capacity. But local officials say none of the Bristol Bay seafood workers who tested positive were showing any symptoms as of Thursday, so they weren't stressing the system.  

PHOTOS: A garden style apartment building on Spa Road partially collapsed on firefighters Thursday afternoon in Annapolis as they were battling a blaze that had enveloped all three floors, city fire officials said. One Anne Arundel County firefighter was injured in the fire, Capt. Aaron Edwards, fire department spokesperson, told The Capital. He sustained injuries that weren't life-threatening and was taken to Anne Arundel Medical Center for further treatment. When firefighters arrived on scene in the 1000 block of Spa Road "heavy dark brown smoke" was billowing from the 12-apartment building, Edwards said. "Within a minute of us getting there, fire was blowing out the third floor," he said. "And by the time we got in (the building), fire was blowing through the roof."  

A McDowell County volunteer firefighter was arrested for murder and arson Thursday after authorities say he set a blaze that led to the death of a fellow firefighter. Robert Lee Beckner, 36, of Iaeger, is charged with first-degree murder and three counts of first-degree arson, according to a criminal complaint filed in McDowell County Magistrate Court. According to the complaint, Beckner confessed to setting fire to his own home in Iaeger. Beckner was a member of the Iaeger Volunteer Fire Department. Russell Roberson, 42, also a member of the Iaeger department, died as a result of injuries sustained while responding to a second fire in two days at Beckner's home. The Iaeger fire department first responded to the fire at 908 West Virginia Avenue on the morning of Saturday, June 20, according to court documents filed by Justin England, an investigator with the West Virginia State Fire Marshal's Office.  

Every year on June 30, the mountain community of Yarnell remembers the 19 Granite Mountain Hotshots who perished in 2013's Yarnell Hill Fire. Last year, the annual service drew nearly 150 people to a memorial park in the center of town. But this year's 7th anniversary remembrance is taking place virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic. A 15-minute service, filmed in advance at various locations, begins at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. One aspect that remains the same will be the signature reading of the 19 hotshots' names by Lew and Marcie Theokas, grandparents of 27-year-old Garret Zuppiger, who died in the fire. The service's late-afternoon timing coincides with when the fast-moving blaze overran the hotshots at 4:42 p.m. in a nearby box canyon. All but one crew member died in the fire, which at the time was the deadliest U.S. wildfire in 80 years. Nearly 130 homes were destroyed.  

A senior citizen held at gunpoint an Orange County firefighter who'd entered her home to check on her well-being Thursday morning, before releasing him unharmed, according to Fire Rescue spokeswoman Carrie Proudfit. Though shots were fired at first responders during the incident, no one was injured, Proudfit said, adding that the Orange County Sheriff's Office is not currently planning to pursue criminal charges. The Sentinel requested the OCSO report on the shooting as well as additional details from their investigation, but an agency spokesperson declined to comment and the report was not immediately provided. Firefighters responded to the home off Observatory Drive in west Orange County about 10 a.m. Friday because the senior's daughter was concerned about her, after not having been able to get in touch with her for several days, Proudfit said. The daughter told firefighters her mother has a serious medical condition. The home was locked.  

A handful of Nashville Firefighters and Emergency Medical Services employees have tested positive for COVID-19. The president of the International Association of Firefighters has some concerns. "The ideal situation wouldn't be to close a station, if you need to quarantine all personnel from that station, then do it," said Mark Young. Young thinks it would be great to do rapid-result testing for the entire fire department and "and stop the spread." While waiting for test results, he believes firefighters and paramedics who were in contact with the people who are positive should quarantine. "If staffing is going to get in the way of that, overtime has got to be used," Young said. The department has transported nearly 290 COVID-19 patients.