The Alaska Division of Forestry and Matanuska-Susitna Borough are partnering to help protect homes and reduce human-caused wildfires in the Mat-Su Valley by offering free brush and slash disposal sites. State forestry is providing funding as part of an existing cooperative agreement with the borough to ensure residents can drop off spruce-beetle-infested wood and winter windstorm damaged trees at designated sites free of charge. The debris will be safely burned or chipped by borough staff. Providing designated drop-off sites will reduce debris burning and the potential for escaped fires, which is the leading cause of wildfires in the Valley, said Division of Forestry, Wildland Fire & Aviation Program Chief Norm McDonald.  

PHOTOS: Arson is looking into what started a fire at another abandoned building. The latest fire started around 3:30 a.m. Monday at a vacant home on W. Travis Street and NW 24th Street on the West Side. When firefighters arrived, they found the home fully engulfed in flames. They immediately put their focus on preventing the fire from spreading the neighboring homes. The home was a total loss. No injuries were reported. In the past week on the East Side, there have been five suspicious structure fires that are under investigation for arson.  

The Durham Fire Department joined the hijinks on April Fools Day with a Friday morning post that drew strong reactions from basketball fans. The department took to social media to share seemingly real designs of a new fire engine with an unmistakable paint color – Duke blue. The post said: One of our Fire Trucks is going to look a lot different! As many of you know, we recently got seven new engines that will soon be in service. We also have four more Sutphens on order, and one of them is Engine Company 2 which protects Duke. Considering Duke is playing in the Final Four tomorrow, we decided today was a good day to announce that the new Engine 2 will be coming in a "Duke Blue" color scheme! We're so excited to see it out in Durham soon!" As of 1:50 p.m. Friday, the joke has seen over 400 reactions on Facebook. The Chapel Hill Fire Department was quick to react on Twitter with two tweets. The first read, "What is that saying? Oh, yes, ‘Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.'"  

Hoosiers needing emergency assistance can now text 911 in their native language and have their plea for help immediately translated for a police, fire or ambulance dispatcher. The Indiana Statewide 911 Board recently announced it has partnered with INdigital to translate text-to-911 messages into English from 108 different languages. "We've already seen the benefits of texting to 911. It allows people in sensitive situations to communicate with law enforcement, and now we are removing the language barriers to those services," said State Treasurer Kelly Mitchell, chairwoman of the Statewide 911 Board. Indiana in 2014 was one of the first states to launch text-to-911 services. All 92 counties were connected to the system by 2016.  

VIDEO/PHOTOS: The Hawks on Friday unveiled a new mural at Atlanta Fire Rescue Station 16, where 16 Black firefighters first integrated the city's department in 1963. Several of those history-making firefighters were on hand for the occasion, as was Hawks legend Dominique Wilkins and current players John Collins and Skylar Mays. The station, on Joseph E. Boone Blvd. in the Washington Park neighborhood, also will feature a new basketball hoop that the Hawks installed. Part of the effort, the team said, was to encourage neighborhood youths to stay active and feel connected to their community through the fire station. "It's meaningful to connect the youth to the fire department because it's more than just a station, it really is a hub of a community," Hawks Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility Andrea Carter said.  

Just days after the BA.2 strain of coronavirus achieved world dominance, international health officials are already turning their attention to a new, mutant variant believed to be even more transmissible – XE. XE is a combination of the first form of omicron to spread across the globe, BA.1, and so-called "stealth omicron," the subvariant BA.2, that is now dominant. The highly transmissible XE strain was first detected in the United Kingdom on Jan. 19, according to the WHO document, and there have been more than 600 documented cases in the UK since. Preliminary findings suggest that XE may be about 10% more transmissible than BA.2, which is considered 50-60% more transmissible than its omicron predecessor, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert. How deadly XE turns out to be is still a question mark when it comes to XE as health experts continue to monitor the subvariant's spread.