The City of Kenai accepted and appropriated the use of a $5,000 grant to be utilized by the Fire Department. The Kenai Fire Department applied for a $5,000 grant through the Marathon Petroleum Foundation to purchase a portable ground monitor, and the grant was awarded. The City Council decided to accept the money and utilize it. City Manager Paul Ostrander offered details on the apparatus that the grant is paying for: "I can tell you that this is an item that increases the flow [of water] significantly in the case of a fire. It is a portable unit and it's more versatile than the ones that actually hook-up to the engine itself. I don't believe it attaches to the engine itself, it is something that they take with them and it actually is placed next to the engine."  

VIDEO: A homeless man is facing murder charges in connection with an apartment fire that left two people dead and nine others injured on Sunday morning in Camden, New Jersey. Firefighters were called out to the 3400 block of Cramer Street around 3:15 a.m. for reports of people trapped inside a three-story apartment. According to the Camden County Prosecutor's Office, Brandon Adams, 34, who is homeless, is being charged with first-degree felony murder for intentionally setting the fire. Firefighters said when they arrived they saw flames shooting from the building and a person jumping from the third floor. Shortly after, firefighters said a second alarm was struck and crews from surrounding towns were called in to assist. Two men died in the blaze. Nine others were taken to area hospitals for unknown injuries.  

The Trump administration will finally pay back millions the federal government took from the FDNY's 9/11 treatment program over the last four years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notified Rep. Pete King (R-Long Island) late Friday that an alphabet soup of federal agencies — including the Treasury Department — will return $3.3 million that was docked from the program that cares for firefighters, paramedics and emergency medical technicians sickened by exposure to the toxic rubble of the Twin Towers. "It's a great victory for really deserving people," King told the Daily News Saturday. "I mean this just never should have happened, but we fought hard, we got it done." The slashing of the critical funding was reported exclusively by The News last month, on the eve of 19th anniversary of the terror attacks.  

The Boston Police Department is asking for the public's help in identifying a man in connection with a fire that was set inside a ballot drop box in the city. Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin contacted U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling's office after he was notified of the incident Sunday morning. He is also calling on the FBI to investigate what appears to be a deliberate attack. The Boston Elections Department notified Galvin's office that the fire was set at about 4 a.m. in the ballot drop box outside of the Boston Public Library's main branch in Copley Square. Boston police said officers responded at 4:11 a.m. to the area of 700 Boylston St., which is the location of the library's main branch. When they arrived at the scene, the officers saw Boston firefighters tending to smoke coming from the ballot box.  

The latest surge of COVID-19 infections has pushed the seven-day average of new daily cases to heights not seen since the pandemic began. The seven-day average of new cases hit 68,767 on Sunday, topping the previous peak of 67,293 reported on July 22. The two highest single days of new cases were Friday and Saturday, with more than 83,000 new cases added each day. Health experts say the resurgence of cases that they had warned would strike in the fall and winter is here, and that it could be the worst the US has seen so far. Surging numbers in the US -- where there have been a total of more than 8.6 million infections and 225,230 people have died -- show the nation is at a "dangerous tipping point," former US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb told CBS News on Sunday. "We're entering what's going to be the steep slope of the curve, of the epidemic curve," Gottlieb told CBS's Margaret Brennan on "Face the Nation."  

A San Pablo man was arrested on suspicion of striking an on-duty firefighter with his vehicle in Petaluma early Saturday, police said. Petaluma police responded at about 3:11 a.m. to a call from their city's fire department reporting that one of their firefighters "had just been intentionally stuck by a vehicle," police said. Police met with the firefighter who was not seriously injured. At the time, the firefighter was on the scene assisting a patient who was having a medical issue in a shopping center parking lot. The injured firefighter provided a description of the suspect, who was later identified by police as Everal Thompson, 30, of San Pablo. Thompson had reportedly approached fire personnel as they were tending to the patient and began to ask them questions, police said. After they asked Thompson to leave, he entered his vehicle, drove toward and struck the firefighter, then drove off, police said. Police later contacted Thompson and he was identified by the firefighter.