Firefighters from the Alaska Division of Forestry and Central Mat-Su Fire Department quickly snuffed out a small brush fire started by fireworks on Friday night near Wasilla. The one-half acre fire, off Lucy Creek Circle, was reported at approximately 9 p.m. The fire was located in a grass field with a subdivision nearby. The initial report was that the fire was spreading toward structures in the area. Firefighters from Central Mat-Su were able to knock the flames down a short distance from a stand of trees by the time wildland firefighters arrived on scene at around 9:30 p.m. The fire was declared contained at 9:50 p.m. and firefighters spent another 1 ½ hours mopping up. The fire was controlled just after 11 p.m.  

Two people escaped serious injury Sunday after their floatplane crashed at Lake Hood Seaplane Base. Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport Police and Fire said a Cessna 180 flipped on the water around 11 a.m. in the Lake Spenard area, on the eastern part of the seaplane base. The crash happened during landing said Clint Johnson, the Alaska Chief of the National Transportation Safety Board. The two people on board evacuated, as airport police and firefighters used boats to rescue them. The NTSB is trying to find out what caused the crash.  

The Houston Fire Department said its firefighters are running on empty as they try to keep up with the city's pandemic surge. HFD Chief Sam Pena said about 300 firefighters are in quarantine. Pena said the ones not in quarantine are overworked and there is no end in sight. "Yes, they're being stretched thin, and yes, they're being overworked and it is stressful for them," Pena said. "There's no question Houston firefighters are working long hours, they're working extra shifts, and it's all a result of the impact of the staffing that we're having to deal with right now." Firefighters who are able to work are facing an increasing number of emergency calls and work shifts that can last multiple days. "We have firefighters who have been at the station for two and three days at a time and cannot get relief," said Houston Professional Firefighters Association President Marty Lancton.  

VIDEO: An Oakland fire crew was delayed on making an emergency medical call July 4th evening when an unruly mob near Lake Merritt blocked its path and climbed onto the engine. The incident was captured on a video released Sunday night on the Oakland Firefighters Facebook page. The video showed a crowd gathered around an Oakland fire truck at the intersection of Lakeshore and Brooklyn Avenues on the east side of Lake Merritt. The post said the crowd "was jumping, dancing and banging on the fire engine." Oakland Fire spokesman Michael Hunt said that engine was one of two assigned "roving patrols" stationed near the lake to respond to an expected barrage of calls on July 4. Hunt said the crew shown in the video had been called at 11:31 p.m. Saturday to a medical call near the lake.  

Four Beech Grove firefighters are recovering after a drunk driver drove a car into the fire engine and then hit the officers. Five firefighters were responding to a trash fire Saturday night in the 5900 block of East Troy Avenue near North 25th Avenue just after 10 p.m. As the firefighters were deploying the hose line, a car crashed into the fire engine and hit a light pole and four of the firefighters. Beech Grove Mayor Dennis Buckley said two of the firefighters were thrown between 10-15 feet away from the fire engine. All four firefighters were transported to IU Health Methodist Hospital and were released with minor injuries. Buckley said IMPD has arrested the driver for operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated.  

After consistently moving toward flattening the curve, positive cases of COVID-19 have been climbing in the last two weeks across several states. Florida had the most dramatic increase of cases, jumping from 3,235 daily new cases per 100,000 people on June 22 to 9,019 daily new cases June 27, according to the Johns Hopkins University & Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center. During a live-streamed press conference in Pensacola on Sunday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said that part of the reason for the rising case number was an increase in testing. "We've done more testing than we ever have by far," he said Sunday. "When you do that, you are going to find more cases because the detected cases are just a small fraction of the total amount of infections." DeSantis said that in March the state had seven testing sites, which were targeted for older and more vulnerable populations. Now, there are more than 40, he said.  

VIDEO: The fire believed to have been sparked by illegal fireworks that severely damaged a South Buffalo house Friday offered a pair of grim reminders. One was of the danger of fireworks. The other was of a tragedy that still resonates within the Buffalo Fire Department. "This fire was eerily similar to a fire that took the life of one of our firefighters, Michael Seguin, some 23 years ago," Fire Commissioner William Renaldo said. Seguin, 30, had been a firefighter for four years in 1997 when he and firefighter Harold Emerson, both of Engine 33, carried a hose to the attic of a Kehr Street house shortly before 11 p.m. Superheated gases had accumulated there and were ignited when the fumes were exposed to fresh air in a deadly phenomenon called flashover. Emerson was seriously injured. Firefighters tried to revive Seguin at the scene, but he was pronounced dead at Erie County Medical Center. The cause was smoke inhalation.