Ketchikan's Borough Assembly honored retiring fire chief Abner Hoage Tuesday night. Hoage led the community's response to COVID-19 until late July. The Assembly approved a joint resolution with the cities of Ketchikan and Saxman honoring Hoage for his work as the Emergency Operations Center Incident Commander and for his service as Ketchikan Fire Chief since 2014. Hoage is retiring October 15 and plans to move to the Lower 48 to travel and spend time with family. Borough Clerk Kacie Paxton served with Hoage as the public information officer for the EOC until the organization disbanded in July. "It was 16 months of very hard work. Very long days. But I can tell you that I was able to do my job and our team was able to do such a good job because of Abner. His leadership, his style, his encouragement, his hard work is really what kept us going on a daily basis."  

Most of us remember September 11, 2001 as a horrific day. For the Fire Department of New York (FDNY), however, the horror stretched on. Fires around the World Trade Center Plaza, including two of the biggest in New York's history, took three days to subdue. It took three months to extinguish the smoldering fires in the stories upon stories of rubble, rubble which included more than 90 vehicles and spewed out toxins and hampered the search for identifiable remains. All the while, the FDNY was grieving the loss of 343 colleagues, including many of its officers and several of its top leaders, preparing for the possibility of additional terrorist attacks, and tending to ongoing needs of its surviving firefighters — and of the massive and complex city it serves.  

VIDEO: On Thursday, WALB News 10 was given its first look at the Valdosta Fire Department's (VFD) new mobile medic unit, which residents will be seeing cruising around. A lot of the calls the department gets are medically related, making this addition crucial to VFD's services. The unit will help reach patients in medical emergencies, wherever they are, including on rough terrain or unreachable areas. Robert Mercer, VFD special operations captain, explained that they've had the utility terrain vehicle (UTV) for a while, but the plan has always been to add this box to transport patients. Recently, with a Georgia Search and Rescue, or GSAR grant, VFD was able to make it happen. "It will allow us to transport a patient from a remote location to waiting EMS services, or a situation where maybe an ambulance couldn't reach them, or it's just difficult terrain to cross," said Mercer. Mercer said it's a GSAR asset as well and they can also deploy with it.  

PHOTOS: Frank Siller had a message about heroism for the students at Blessed Sacrament School Thursday morning: It's all around us. "What do heroes do?" the CEO of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation asked the seventh- and eighth-graders gathered in the rain to greet him upon his return to Staten Island during his "Never Forget Walk." "They run toward danger, not away from it.'' Siller was referring not only to the 9/11 first responders — including his late brother Stephen — who gave their lives responding to the terrorist attacks on the United States, but to those the children encounter in their daily lives: police officers, firefighters, nurses, EMTs. "The greatest heroes of our country are the ones who serve us,'' he said. "You must thank them when you see them, because without them we don't have a society.''  

VIDEO: The 20th anniversary of 9/11 is now just one day away. The event changed the way crews across the country plan for and respond to emergencies, and that includes here in Wisconsin. There's one system more than 86% of fire departments use when disaster hits in Wisconsin, the Mutual Aid Box Alarm System, or MABAS. When most would run away from trouble, Fort Atkinson Fire Chief Daryl Rausch rushed to it. "I've been doing this for 41 years. This is the largest event I've ever managed," says Chief Rausch. Chief Rausch knew right away that he needed help fighting a large warehouse fire. "As soon as I turned onto Main Street, I called the county and requested the MABAS box alarm," says Chief Rausch. Forty-eight different departments spanning five counties and two states all came together thanks to one emergency response tool.  

VIDEO: Hundreds of volunteers from across the country are in South Louisiana easing some of the burdens from Hurricane Ida. Many of these volunteers are feeding neighborhoods, but now, one group is dealing with a disaster of their own. Over the last several days, Celebration Church in Terrytown has housed a group of volunteers from Oak Park Church in Mobile, Alabama. The group brought their mobile kitchen and other supplies to make sure those in the neighborhood had a hot meal and a cold drink. Wednesday night, a major fire totaled the church group's kitchen and halted all relief efforts. Cell phone video showed how aggressive the fire was and the moments when propane tanks began exploding. Oak Park Church Executive Pastor Shane Jones said, "It is heartbreaking, but there are people a lot worse off than we are. We can replace this."