All three of Haines' emergency dispatchers have tested positive for COVID-19, but officials say they've elected to stay on the job anyway to field 911 calls from the public safety building. Haines borough manager Annette Kreitzer says the dispatch office's three-person staff tested positive for COVID-19 last week. She was alerted last Tuesday, Jan. 11 of the situation. "Of course, our first inclination is to protect employee's health and to protect the public's health," Kreitzer said. The office fields 911 calls for police and emergency services throughout the Haines borough and coordinates via phone and radio between personnel during service calls. They also manage the Haines jail, maintain call logs and department reports and handle public records requests.  

VIDEO: DeKalb County fire crews have been working to put out a massive fire at an abandoned condominium building in Clarkston Monday morning. At around 7 a.m., 11Alive SkyTracker showed flames shooting through the roof with the entire building engulfed. Within 40 minutes, most of the larger flames were out and all that was left was an exterior wall. The building, known as Brannon Hill Condominiums, are located off Old Hampton Drive. They have long been considered an eyesore and a danger to the people living in it, sometimes described as the "worst community in America." DeKalb County has worked for years to demolish the blighted property. Some buildings have been torn down, but others are still occupied and some are abandoned.  

New York City's fire commissioner said Friday that he will retire next month after more than seven years in the job and a career that spanned more than five decades and included stints in every rank in the department. Daniel Nigro led the nation's largest municipal fire department through the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic and recently oversaw its response to the city's deadliest fire in three decades. With the FDNY's ranks decimated by the deaths of 343 firefighters and fire officials in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Nigro received a battlefield promotion to chief of department. He led rescue and recovery operations at ground zero and helped the department rebuild. Nigro, one of the few holdovers from former Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration, will leave Feb. 16.  

VIDEO/PHOTOS: A Mount Pleasant firefighter had his own cheering section while undergoing training! According to the department, Firefighter Dawson McNeill was training on connecting to a hydrant to have a continuous water supply during a fire. While he was honing his skills, a group of curious kids from Carolina Park Academy watched and rooted him on. The daycare is close to Fire Station 6. Great work by this firefighter and the children!  

In 2005, the film "Animal" starring Ving Rhames as Animal and Terrence Howard as his son Darius was released. Darius fell into gang life while his father was incarcerated as if to carry on the family tradition. This movie displayed how without proper guidance from the parent, or willingness to obtain an education, the cycle of poverty and social disenfranchisement will continue. The Black community is especially vulnerable to this generational cycle of dysfunction. "You only do what you see," said Darick Rhodes, a prominent 20-year veteran firefighter, chief and captain for the Bloomington Fire Department who recently retired. The Minneapolis native, raised on Chicago and Franklin avenues, actually had another career in mind before becoming a firefighter. His first career choice was to join law enforcement like other members of his family.  

At least one in five Americans have now been infected with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, but the number is likely higher, including secondary to unreported asymptomatic cases, according to The Hill. The United States had its first confirmed case of COVID-19 reported 731 days ago on Jan. 21, 2020, but now has had over 70 million confirmed COVID-19 cases with over 866,000 deaths as of this Friday, according to The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, which is a continuously updated source of COVID-19 data. The center reported approximately 210 million Americans are fully vaccinated for COVID-19, which is 64% of the United States population, but the percentage varies significantly depending on locality, from as low as 49 % in both Alabama and Wyoming to 87% in Washington, D.C.