Some local fire and rescue chiefs are pushing back against the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities closure of the Silvertip Maintenance Station, located at the junction of the Seward and Hope highways. DOT&PF says five staffers have been moved and the station will no longer be responsible for plowing and maintenance of the the 17-mile Hope Highway, as well as Turnagain Pass from mile markers 45 to 74. The department also says there will be no regular maintenance between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. "If the road isn't plowed, sanded and serviced then I can't imagine that we're going to be able to roll our equipment out to go help anybody," said Brendan Maguire, who is the chief of Hope Sunrise Emergency Services. It's something that has people who live there worried as well.  

President Donald Trump has signed a bill renaming the Sun Prairie post office after a firefighter killed in an explosion last year. U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin's office says Trump signed the bill Thursday renaming the post office after Cory Barr. He was killed in a natural gas explosion in downtown Sun Prairie in July 2018. Workers installing fiber-optic cable triggered the explosion when they mistakenly struck an underground gas line. Barr was among a group of firefighters who evacuated more than 100 people from the area ahead of the blast. Six buildings were destroyed but no one else was killed. Baldwin and Wisconsin's other U.S. senator, Ron Johnson, introduced the bill in April. The Senate passed it in July. The House passed it Oct. 16.  

Some local fire and rescue chiefs are pushing back against the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities closure of the Silvertip Maintenance Station, located at the junction of the Seward and Hope highways. DOT&PF says five staffers have been moved and the station will no longer be responsible for plowing and maintenance of the the 17-mile Hope Highway, as well as Turnagain Pass from mile markers 45 to 74. The department also says there will be no regular maintenance between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. "If the road isn't plowed, sanded and serviced then I can't imagine that we're going to be able to roll our equipment out to go help anybody," said Brendan Maguire, who is the chief of Hope Sunrise Emergency Services. It's something that has people who live there worried as well.  

A new study on the Lake Christine fire finds that wildfire mitigation, like using flame-resistant construction materials and clearing vegetation around homes, played a significant role in saving property. The study, by the Community Wildfire Planning Center, was presented to the Eagle County board of commissioners by wildfire mitigation coordinator Eric Lovgren on Tuesday. "The report was fabulous in highlighting what a difference mitigation does both for the work the firefighters need to do but also in terms of saving property," commissioner Jeanne McQueeney said. It found that homes threatened by the fire survived due to both mitigation and actions taken by firefighters. The report says that residential areas that hadn't mitigated were fortunate that adequate firefighter resources were available. But it cautions that may not always be the case.  

A proposed change in the way Cobb County's public safety officials are compensated has come under criticism from police and fire fighter representatives. Under the so-called "step and grade" table presented to county commissioners earlier this month, public safety employees would receive a 3-percent "step" increase each year. One sticking point is that the annual raises would not be automatic— they would only be paid if the commission approves them each year as part of the budget.The "grade" part of the plan would increase entry-level salaries by 9 percent, to $45,775 from $41,615, and double the salary increase for a promotion from lieutenant to captain — to 20 percent from 10 percent.  

Private firefighting continues to grow as an industry. With fires scorching the state of California, some homeowners and insurance companies contract out companies to protect homes and structures in wildfires. "We've been doing the private sector for three years," Ryan Bellanca, of Bella Wildfire & Forestry Inc., says. "And we've had one that was successful and another was cancelled and that happens, you get called and get dismissed all the time." Mark Winkelman is a battalion chief with the Reno Fire Department who says during wildfires it can be challenging to coordinate with private crews. "The problem we have with the private firefighting companies is actually knowing they're on the fire," Wingelman says. "It's important to us to have accountability on all the firefighters that are working and sometimes those folks get lost in the shuffle because they don't come through federal contracts so it makes it difficult to track what they're actually doing on the fire."